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I/O:  The Mariners let leak that Montero "did himself no favors" with his attitude and actions during his last 5-game visit to Seattle.  

I/O:  Presumably the "actions" in reference were not Montero's .500 SLG and 120 OPS+ during this trip, which caused Corey Hart and others acute embarrassment.

I/O:  Montero's hitting lately, in the PCL, is beyond insane.  Here's the 1334 OPS+ the last two weeks.

I/O:  Sometimes the Mariners have a little trouble scoring runs.

I/O:  Some amigos point out this is occurring in the Rocky Mountains.  (Does this mean we adjust it, or just ignore it?)

I/O:  Mojo had a great line in the Shout Box.  FKey7 (auto-insert daily).  One might presume that Mojo does not freak out over antisocial attitudes.

I/O:  A teammate also threw Montero under the bus, saying for public consumption "he just doesn't get it."

.......

Bill James wages a war, off-and-on, with the saberdogs who have run BJOL like crickets.  Every team, he tries to tell them, factors personality into the clubhouse.  Aren't there people at your workplace who cause you to perform your job better, or worse?

(It's just the last year, or two, that BJOL has followed-on SSI by alerting to the question, "What CAUSES players to have up or down years?"  Recently Bill did a simply magnificent first-triangulation as to how this could be measured.)

........

There comes some point at which "Manny being Manny" costs him his job:  usually when his SLG drops much below .600.  :- )   Has Jesus Montero's attitude warranted this resentment by his teammates, even at cost of runs and wins?

I'm not there.  I don't know.

I know what the media will tell us, which they would also tell us about Erik Bedard or any other player they don't personally care for.  What we would need here would be :: cough :: a Geoff Baker type, somebody who will simply tell us what's going on without respect to his own personal feelings.

My guess is that we are talking about laziness and entitlement -- factors which were, after all, institutions for most historical Mariner teams.  My guess is that about 15-20 other teams would happily work around Montero's laziness and entitlement, if they thought he made them better.

But I ain't there.  Maybe the guy ruins the whole clubhouse.  :: shrug :: could be.

.........

One thing we can tell you:  Jack Zduriencik is well-and-truly ticked off at Jesus Montero.  He thought he was getting Albert Pujols, but apparently Brian Cashman was four steps ahead of us and everybody else.

SO much of player projection is in makeup.  Like Pat Gillick said:  I won't sign a man until I've looked in his eye and shaken his hand.  I think my own question here is, why wasn't the makeup assessed more carefully, prior to yielding Michael Pineda in trade.

..........

I know for a fact what would have been Bill James' question, in the 1995 Handbook.  If a guy is going to hit 1334 in the PCL and then not be promoted, what is he doing there?  Are you just providing him the chance to fail, or what?

You'd be surprised how often MLB(tm) teams do this:  they put a player out there, and when he succeeds, they're stuck.  It hits them, that subconsciously, they were trying to prove the player wrong.  Remember when the M's brought Roberto Petagine into Arizona from Japan, and he hit .420 with a .700 SLG ... and then Hargrove gave him 1 AB the first 10 days?

The M's don't want Montero to fail, but they sure as shootin' are at a loss what to do with the kid. 

Somebody else won't be,

Dr D