what everyone else saw Wednesday and Friday nights. Zunino looks like he's been catching at the MLB level for years. He just settled down and took ownership of the position. His talent, obvious. His confidence defensively, doubtless. The catching position? Check THAT one off, it's taken care of, even if it might take some more AAA time to get the hitting squared away, though I don't think that will be necessary.
Franklin, ditto for second base. Of course I remind myself how I felt about Ackley after about six weeks of his first season, so nothing's set in stone.
But Zunino behind the plate? We all saw it. Just like a young Johnny Bench or Gary Carter.

Henry Blanco is widely considered to be one of the great back-up catchers in the game. He is a fabulous receiver and defensive catcher. He is a TERRIBLE hitter. Those things are facts. But he's going to play one game a week and Zunino is going to get to talk to him all about what he may or may not be doing wrong in key situations. He's Crash Davis. The Mariners made that clear.

Yeah, that's what really strikes me about Zunino. He just owns it back there. The pitchers have to love throwing to him. With he and Sucre, they should be set at C.

Laughed out loud twice. Good stuff. This youth movement feels...different from the last one. And better. I think the presence of good veterans, as unhip as that sounds, is a big part of
it. I'm talking about quality players who can show the kids how you beat the oponent, not so much how you "go about your business" as important as that is.
I remember a scene in Citizen Soldiers describing the early days of the Normandy Invasion, when a grizzled old officer had to show a young soldier how to clear a house. He approaches it, throws a grenade in, then enters it, and kills the German soldiers with his rifle and bayonet. "And that's how you clear a house" he says to the kid, expecting him to do so going forward. He won't be around to keep doing it for him, after all (and he wasn't. Ambrose reported the old guy dies weeks later).
Raul has been showing these kids how you clear a house.

Wonder if all the bloggers who said that the sky would fall because Zunino was rushed up will admit how good he looks, or if they will wait until he inevitably struggles and then say "I told you he wasn't ready." A pox on their arrogance. Let's let more Wookies Play - say Erasmo next.

Erasmo will be up either his next start or the one after...as soon as they can figure out who to sack.
They're spotlighting him every start now in the "Now That's Better" segment. That means they are prepping the fans.
So E-Ram will be next...then probably Miller...then probably Maurer returning after a trade is made to clear Saunders.

When Zunino arrived last year at AA Jackson, which, by the way, was already playoff-bound when he got there:
"Zunino is already the leader of this team.  That seems to have taken place about four seconds after he got here."
Love that, and I moved Zunino to Talk40 #1 about four seconds after reading it.
"Zunino is already the leader of this team. That seems to have taken place about four seconds after he got here." - See more at: http://marinerstalk.com/article/marinerstalk40-1-mike-zunino-c#sthash.Cp...
"Zunino is already the leader of this team. That seems to have taken place about four seconds after he got here." - See more at: http://marinerstalk.com/article/marinerstalk40-1-mike-zunino-c#sthash.Cp...
"Zunino is already the leader of this team. That seems to have taken place about four seconds after he got here." - See more at: http://marinerstalk.com/article/marinerstalk40-1-mike-zunino-c#sthash.Cp...

"Zunino is already the leader of this team. That seems to have taken place about four seconds after he got here." - See more at: http://marinerstalk.com/article/marinerstalk40-1-mike-zunino-c#sthash.Cp...
"Zunino is already the leader of this team. That seems to have taken place about four seconds after he got here." - See more at: http://marinerstalk.com/article/marinerstalk40-1-mike-zunino-c#sthash.Cp...

"Zunino is already the leader of this team. That seems to have taken place about four seconds after he got here." - See more at: http://marinerstalk.com/article/marinerstalk40-1-mike-zunino-c#sthash.Cp...
"Zunino is already the leader of this team. That seems to have taken place about four seconds after he got here." - See more at: http://marinerstalk.com/article/marinerstalk40-1-mike-zunino-c#sthash.Cp...

If it is to be saved.
Bavasi Era = No pipeline
Z traded Putz for seven guys (or whatever) just to give himself a semblance of a pipeline (Vargas, Carp).
Now there's a pipeline.
Ackley struggling?  Meet Nick Franklin.
Montero meltdown? Well, there's this Zunino kid ...
And so it goes ... start getting familiar with Ji-Man Choi ...
Old days: Chris Snelling hurt again?  Ummmmm ...

If Franklin had flopped...let's check out Miller. Michael Saunders suddenly forgets how to hit again? Ackley time? That doesn't work...well we have Morban, maybe? Or Tenbrink? Or we could give this Gutierrez guy another shot......
Point is...Zduriencik can actually ENGAGE that beast mode of his and start ripping through players like a drunk rips through bud lights because he's got a number of interesting guys that it's actually worth taking a look at.

If Z's job can be saved, it will be the pipeline ++++ a good second half of the season like last year. IMO, it's critical that 2 of 5 pitchers do reasonably well in the bigs: Maurer, E-Ram, Hultzen, Beavan, and/or Paxton. It would help GMZ if Walker is torching AAA also.

transferred from the shouts, as it's totally a part of this -
Another week of Zunino buzz, then we'll get the Erasmo buzz, then the Dustin returning buzz, then the Brad Miller buzz, and the Maurer returns buzz, and the Romero buzz, and pretty soon Jack "Hannibal" Zduriencik is twirling a cigar saying "I love it when a plan comes together!"

I wonder how the bottom three feel knowing whoever has the next implosion will lose his job. Put a bullet in the chambers, Saunders, you're up. *click* Alright, now you Aaron.

I've come to wonder, since my tergiversation concerning Rauuul, whether his signing was actually an incredibly gifted finesse behind the screen of the other signings and trades -"You want to spend WHAT on an old broken-down DH?". But with the number of dirt-dogs the org had drafted and were almost ready, why not have the old dirt-dog around to show the little dirt-dogs how to dig. And given the apparent questions on Montero's work habits, why not bring in the toughest, hardest working ex-Yankee to try to continuously convince the rook that not all Yankees do it A-Rod's way. If the org's culture on the position-player side is 13+ Rauuuls with differing position skills, but a common attitude, then I think I'm going to enjoy the rest of the year, regardless of how the record turns out (but I think it's going to get substantially better). But this building group of dogs looks like its going to have its day pretty soon. And guys like Bay and Morse have apparently completely bought in.
What did Buhner say when they were like 10 games back in '95, but were finally starting to gel -- "To (heck) with the wild card, let's take the division!" -- Who plays Jay in the remake? - I'd guess Franklin or Zunino.

That first double play, when he stood in there like Mazerowski and FIRED that ball to first, that was SO impressive for the first time on a MLB(tm) field. Ackley had played well, and I admired his graceful play, but from that DP, Franklin has OWNED the infield.

I suspect the Mariners said "we think Zunino is ready and needs to be trained by a game-calling wizard (Blanco is this...Shoppach is not)...we think Shoppach can get more PT elsewhere anyway...so we'll talk to him and ask if he would like to be released to find work elsewhere." Point is...they didn't run him out of town on a rail...and what Wedge said is also true.

And don't forget Roenis Elias, Carraway, Chance Ruffin, and AFernandez., if they get to AAA as the others move up (well, Carraway is already there and doing fine, thank you, but needs to take that next step and go Brian Moran on them -- I mean 52 Ks in 33.2 innings? When are we calling him up?). They may be trade bait at this point, but having some fresh, grade-A quality bait can really help the fishing!

If Miller keeps hitting and keeps his errors down for a bit, and Ryan keeps clanking plays and slumps, I think we see Miller on the next round with Erasmo, with Triunfel getting packaged with the departing starter. Miller can play 2B and 3B as well as SS, after all, and if they put him in at SS and he does a Franklin/Zunino, then he stays there, at least 'til something better comes along. Otherwise, if he hits even a bit, he's Andino/Triunfel Mk III. If Romero keeps it up, and depending on how Smoak does, I think Liddi will be the next to go down, but I think Thames or Peguero is DFAd if Liddi or one of them can't be traded. Romero will become the backup IF/OF on the 40-man, even if he gets bonus miles on I-5. If Ackley succeeds at LF/CF (and I think he will), then maybe Romero stays down 'til September, but I still think he gets a 40-man spot sooner than later.
In any case, I stand by my earlier prediction that the Ms will play this both for performance AND marketing - a new (or returning) face every couple of weeks (Erasmo, Hultzen, Maurer, in this, too) until in September they're either competitive or playing a team of exciting young players with no one over 33 - Morse, Morales, 'Kuma, and Perez as the grizzled vets, which leads to their marketing plan for 2014.
I can see the Copacino+Fujikado commercial now - Morse comes into the on deck circle using a walker, then steps to the plate and hits the ball 500'; Then Perez comes in from the bullpen on a HoverRound, gets up and starts cross-firing at 96mph. The kids stand around and go WOW!

the Berlin Philharmonik performing on a SeaTac runway. What mixed metaphor??!!

I was saying I concur completely with what you posted, and was trying to make sure I didn't sound like some cocky kid by acknowledging that what I saw is no doubt what everybody else saw. No need for "Baaaaa" !!

bsr, for the "Lord of the Flies" reference. In addition to smart, balanced, respectful, add "literarily conversant" as a description of the merry SSI band.

Is that experience will teach. If a division on a Navy ship is having problems with motivation or execution, you find the best CPO you can, put him in charge, and watch things change. Why? Because for hundreds of years, those who have studied organizational behavior AND those who have been responsible for getting things done have understood that leadership and character are more than words, they are concepts people respond to. Leadership by the CPO, since he has gone through the same things the rest are going through, is FAR more valuable than the leadership of the division officer, who is typically an engineer three to five years out of college and is viewed as one of "them" - the forces that make the job so crummy.
Now the Hawthorne experiment also showed that a type of improvement in productivity can be made from change alone, regardless of the effectiveness of management. But what the Japanese, using the wisdom of Deming, proved is that the productivity and quality improvements can be made permanent if you can get the members of the production team to buy in AND to feel valuable in participating in continual change and improvement. And Toyota ate GM alive.
How does this apply to baseball? Well, think back to a pair of heralded prospects of the Ms in times past - Yuniesky Betancourt and Jose Lopez. Now, I'm not sure about all of what went on with those two, but the result screams of lack of leadership/mentorship. From talented, capable prospects to selfish, out-of-shape prima donnas in about three years. A tragic waste. But it is always a risk with talented people who begin to feel entitled.
You may not be able to measure leadership, but it is definitely a major component in both individual and team performance. And it can't always come from the "officers", the managers in charge, which, regardless of the "Sarge" nickname, is exactly what Wedge is. There has to be a CPO component. Is Morse ready to be that guy? I thought early on yes, he was. But it is now obvious to me (my tergiversation) that Raul has been essential to this team, and remains so as more young players come up.
Leadership and clubhouse chemistry. No, you can't provide numerical values for them. But do you think ANY Red Sox fan doubts their importance? Do you think the change in John Lester's performance is random noise. Bullbleep! They have leadership that has meshed with the clubhouse in ways that Bobby Valentine, for all his talents, could not - most especially because he couldn't get what I call the CPO component to follow and help him. Is that solely Valentine's fault? His previous success speaks for itself; in the right situation he has been a brilliant leader. But in that clubhouse it was not to be. And pace Bronx Zoo, that's no way to run a ball club.
After having been on ships chosen as the best in the fleet by competitive analysis several times in my career, and having been an enlisted technician, a CPO, a junior officer project engineer, and an officer with major responsibility aboard an aircraft carrier, I can say I KNOW what leadership is, even if I can't tell you what percentage it played in our exercise grades or retention results (100% most likely). And it is the essential "IT" in TEAM performance, which is NEVER simply the summation of the WAR (or performance evals) of a group of men/women.
In April, I thought Raul would be more valuable to the team as the second hitting coach. I was wrong. The Ms have been better, and more importantly, WILL be better, for him being on this team. I, too, hope he won't be needed next year, that others will pick up the role and be the leader. I suspect that Seager, for all his youth, is getting close. But if JackZ signs another high-character broken-down DH that runs lousy routes in LF, don't be surprised if he make a positive difference.

You do realize that every nucleus has to form around SOMETHING - it is not a spontaneous action as physics or biology understands things. In human affairs as well, a team becomes a TEAM by forming around something to BECOME a nucleus. And the energy to do so comes from a common ethic - another incommensurable. Whose ethic do you want - Carl Everett or Raul Ibanez -- Yuniesky Betancourt or Kyle Seager?

Someone on here did comment that he got a CF start a few nights back I think. Correct me if I'm wrong, Spec?

You just can't underestimate leadership.
I have had the fortunate opportunity to work for a tremendous leader (coincidentally a Naval academy grad) twice, separated by three years. The first stint, she was my boss and I was her front-line project manager. I was already pretty good before I worked for her but under her leadership, I became a really, really good project manager. And it wasn't because she herself taught me anything about project management, per se. She just has this command presence to her that has a way of bringing out the best in people. She side-lined her own career for a while to have a couple of children and my career advanced into management. I KNOW that I've been a better manager because of the example she set for me. Now, I'm back to working for her again. This time, I've got a department of project managers under me and while my job hasn't changed a bit from the previous manager - same basic set of responsibilities - I am once again performing at a higher level.
It's a strange thing to experience. I'm a very self-motivated individual and I've had professional success without her. I like to think that I have pretty good skills in my own right. But under her, I'm just better.
Baseball is different, of course. The players aren't working for Ibanez. But I would not question the value of leadership. It's an intangible thing but anyone that has experienced it, knows the value.

Leadership works at all levels - whether you're a manager working for a higher manager that has IT, or a poor swabbie on the deckplates, leadership is almost tangible, even though it isn't. The first C.O. I had on NIMITZ, CAPT (later ADM) R.C. Williamson was one of those guys. So were several other CPOs and officers I worked for on my way up.
As a guy on the deckplates, though, it was harder for me to relate to the officers - they had little or no idea what it was like to clean the bilges or paint a compartment or align a pressure instrument. So I understand why the manager and coaching staff are necessary, but in no case sufficient. And the more confident you become in your own abilities, the more important it is to have someone continue to challenge you.
When, as a CPO, I was selected to work for ADM Rickover's staff (to be precise, I worked for a guy who answered directly to the Admiral), I thought I was hot stuff. The guy I worked for helped me, but a guy in the office who had started just as I did, and knew the drill, was the guy that showed me (and not taught me) how to do the job right. I hope everybody at least once gets the opportunity to work alongside a guy like him (or Edgar, or Raul).

I think my take on Seattle veterans is a bit different than those mentioned above. May not be correct, but for me it fits the data.
1) From the day AROD was traded away until Z arrived, the veteran entitlement mentality was that vets were reliable and prospects not. Therefore, the preference was for as many veterans (and as few prospects) as possible. Minor leaguers were for use as trading chips for "reliability".
2) The club had actually ALREADY brought enough young talent together that this model could (and did) work for awhile - but only while ignoring that the key people in the successful year were either developed internally (like Edgar), or were acquired by trading away prospects that had ALREADY succeeded at the MLB level, (Griffey, Unit).
3) When Z arrived, the clear "intent" was to move toward a player development model. BUT ... the cupboard was bare when he arrived, so he was forced to fill in with veterans and wheel and deal as much as possible (from an empty house) to do what he could to accelerate the developmental arm of the org.
4) During the entire Bavasi era, the focus was on bringing in veterans to serve as full time regulars, (bench was an afterthought - and it was regular policy to fill in the RESERVES with minor league callus.
5) Last year, 2012, was the first season where the developmental arm of the club actually started providing numbers.
6) THIS season - for the first time since the Griffey/AROD era ... the BENCH is filled with veterans, while the starting lineup is filled with youth. Ibanez and Bay were intended to be Amaral and Blowers and Ducey and Roberto Kelley.
7) Injuries have "forced" the veterans into more active roles - but that was clearly not the intent with the initial roster build. They had a CHOICE to keep Casper Wells or Carp around and opted to go with Bay and Ibanez. At the time, the starting OF was Guti, Saunders and Morse. The DH was Morales.
Conclusion: While I was a huge Carp fan (still am), and hated to see him go specifically, I fully supported the morphing of player deployment which is actually a DRAMATIC change from the decade prior to 2013. IMO, there is a MASSIVE difference between bringing in Jose Vidro or Griffey to BE your DH ... compared to bringing in Ibanez and Bay to back up your OF and DH.
That said --- I definitely don't see ANY evidence of value in Ibanez (specifically) in regards to any positive mentoring impact.
In all of his years with Seattle, (pre-Philly), I don't recall ANY prospect improving. Nor during his stay in Philly.
Nor during his return to Seattle. In fact, the prospects either regressed (Ackley and Montero and Saunders), or at best ... roughly continued previous production (Smoak). I would say it's a reach to attribute Seager's nominal 2013 improvement to Ibanez.
So, while I support the "concept" of the veteran BENCH ... I would say it has worked well in terms of direct productivity and pretty poorly in terms of aiding player development.
I definitely think veterans can be VERY helpful in prospect development - offering advice and relating experience about what they did in response to slumps or struggles against a particular pitch, etc. But, I would expect such benefit would be VERY spotty and player-combo specific. (I would not expect ANY player to be helpful to "every" prospect). At the same time, I see the majority of the talk of "protection" or needing a "true MOTO hitter" as being largely overstated.

Also, I don't think it's typical in this situation to talk about how much BETTER your new guy is than the old guy. Wedge's comments about Blanco bringing more to the table in “all areas” is the closest thing I've ever heard to a manager saying "F* that guy" in one of these. I don't think they treated Milton Bradley this badly.

Our system is much tighter. That said, in our system, GROUPS of young men may have the ability to fire a weapon or start a reactor without authorization, but given the training and indoctrination, plus the culture of life in this country, the chance of getting a group to do something that heinous (referring to firing a weapon or unauthorized startup, not to acting as did Petrov) is infinitely small. I have far more worries about the Dr. Strangelove/FailSafe type of scenarios where the small group of people at the TOP of one side or the other convince themselves that an attack is imminent (as almost happened in Able Archer 83) or should be launched.
If you read Fiasco by Thomas Ricks or War In a Time of Peace by David Halberstam you are struck by how important the interface between civilian and military leadership can become. Of course, Halberstam covered similar ground in The Best and The Brightest. The most dangerous guys are the ones like the senior Soviet generals who wouldn't reward Petrov, or during the loss of the Kursk, the Admirals and Generals who kept insisting that the U.S. had sunk her (which, of course, would have been an act of war). But those guys had been selected primarily for conformity, not ability, character, and honor.
It does come down to somebody's call at the end. We all better hope that military promotion systems can remain depoliticized as much as possible, so that when the generals and admirals chosen by those systems are selected by the president to positions to make those calls, that they are men of ability and honor who will do the right thing, and that they, in turn, will continue to select the right men to constitute the groups which actually control the process.

He did play CF the other night and then moved to LF when Almonte came in late in the game. Based on Miller's comments on Ackley's throws, it sounds like his arm has built back up.
I wonder if this is like Iwakuma - when Ackley signed and played OF in the AFL his arm was not yet strong enough, but while playing 2B he has steadily built it back up, so now it is sufficient and he could go back to CF, just as Iwakuma built his back up in the first half last year and since mid-last-year has been laying waste to the league (and hopefully will continue with the As tomorrow). Any orthopedists or physical therapists out there? Plausible?

It's been more than by the exuding of "presence". It's been weight bearing. Taking games and winning them. If the kids are going to win tough games, they need to be under the tutelage of players who are currently winning big games. They need to see it being done, and then they step in and do likewise. It has been noticeably lacking the last two seasons. I can't believe Blanco stepped in on day one and made a statement to young Zunino: you aren't in this alone. WOW! Smoak and Ackley did not have this when they came up and were immediately thrust into weight bearing positions. They looked around, and saw: Milton Bradley, Chone Figgins, a slumping Ichiro, hobbling Franklin Gutierrez, fading Adam Kennedy and Jack Cust. Remember Wifftastic Miguel Olivo (God bless him) was the power on the team. Who shows them how to "clear a house" ? Not by taking extra batting lractice, not by showing up early, not by taking notes. By CLEARING THE HOUSE - by taking the fight to Yankee stadium, so much so that when the great Rivera comes to your house, he pitches around the grizzled vet to get to YOU. That's a lesson in itself that will command respect.
The kids of the last two seasons learned, rather, how to be cleared by a house aiming weapons their way. They were replacement soldiers, without on field leadership that is effective and thus commands respect. This leadership is best offered when the player is at a high confidence level, not when he's filled with self doubt. That's why I don't think it was helpful to Ackley when it arrived too late. Worn down by his inability to carry the team in 2011 (we were a winning ballclub when he arrived, yet ended up with a mere 67 wins in the end) it only magnified his feelings of self doubt.
Morse is going to have to rebound, along with continued excellence from Morales, to keep the pressure from breaking these kids should Ibanez and Bay break down like Kennedy and Cust did in 2011. Ackley will hopefully return to provide the spark from Tacoma that Carp did in 2011, but it will be a wiser and better prepared Dustin Ackley, and he'll be adding to a good mix of kids and veterans, not saving the day (I hope).