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Once, I thought, for a brief bit, that, just perhaps, Jack Z was pushing playing time for Olivo and Figgins (and now Guti in CF) just because it could "showcase" their talents for the ususpecting....er....needy MLB teams.
But it keeps coming back to me that who in the baseball world doesn't know the skill-set (or lack of) that those guys bring to the park? There are little kids in Bolivia who know Olivo is a "grizzled vet" who brings a lousy bat, a passed ball glove, a decent arm and a dirt dog attitude....and another lousy bat. Little old ladies in Latvia know that Figgy is a Punch and Judy player with an anemic bat who, if he doesn't walk 90 pts is an offensive blackhole. He is somewhat versatile on defense, however, when he doesn't sulk after rolling balls. Sherpas living in the Himalayas know that Guti has a reputation (us initiates suspect it is way overblown by Safeco) for being the best flycatcher in the universe, but a bat that has become hollow, or worse.
All in baseball know all of that. Jack Z is not stupid enough to assume he can inflate their value much by rolling them out there day after day. He risks reducing their value, in fact, by doing such. Makes it harder to fool folks.
Ryan? He was a 40 game experiment worth doing. No longer.
Figgins still had value when he threw his Wak induced snit fit. That's when we should have ridded ourself of him.
So if Jack isn't making a front-office decision to try to bring a little trade luster to these guys, who, then, is responsible for rolling them out every day?
Easy peezy lemon squeezy: That would be The Sarge.
Wedge is making these playing-time decisions and The Sarge seems to be all about accountability, well he's accountable, too.
If you're going to credit Wedge for "developing" guys like Seager tehn you should also consider if his approach is regressing guys like Ackley.
We have a ton of young talent in the pipeline, all of us agree. Raise your hand if you think Wedge is the right guy to develop and deploy that talent.
Not many hands up.
Z gave Figgins too long of contract, obviously. He's in a similar boat with Wedge. He's going to have to bite a $4M bullet (IIRC) to let him go by the All-Star game. I said a month ago that that was the Over/Under date. I may miss it by a bit, but Wedge will go.
10 days ago, when we were riding the high of a successful road trip, I said the M's were a six game winning streak from being in the hunt, but a six game losing streak from major collapse.
One of those happened.
We all love the image of John Wayne as Sgt. Stryker in "Sands of Iwo Jima" or Clint Eastwood as the Gunny Sarge in "Heartbreak Ridge," but that isn't MLB baseball. Wedge's job is to put guys in the right place at the right time. It isn't happening. I don't see it doing so.
Give it to Chambliss.
moe