Add new comment

That the Mariners were not developing many players, and the ones that did develop they did not keep.  I said as much in my original (and yes, terse) response to Sandy.
But when Sandy posts things like "the question for me is...did guys who have been following the Ms for decades suddenly get loads smarter..." then yes, I view that as an attack on those aformentioned followers of the system.  "Either you were stupid for so long it's incredible you're still breathing...or the Ms just never developed anybody so there was nothing to talk about."
Assuming that everyone who ever watched the Mariners and talked about prospects - for "decades" as Sandy says, so basically back to the dawn of the franchise - is a bunch of imbeciles and labeling that as Option A might not be the best way to start a conversation on a subject.
It offended me because Doc and Jay Yencich and Cameron and Churchill and Jon and the rest, me included, have put in a lot of time and effort to get the word out to the Seattle community on who might play for them in future years and what we get back or give up in trades.  And we also tried to have the very conversations Sandy claims we've never had, or that were completely unhelpful and were missing the boat if we did have them.
Jason Churchill is not my favorite minor league voice.  That doesn't mean I think he's an idiot who's been wasting my time until the current year as Sandy indicates was one of the two possibilities he was weighing.
I happen to find that offensive, but I do understand that mileage does vary.  I'd rather just talk baseball, I just still can't figure out what Sandy wants to talk about. 
If it's just that "wow, it's nice that the Mariners finally have started developing prospects, instead of 5-tool batters who can't hit and 6'7 pitchers who can throw 95 but can't find the zone with a GPS device and a team of bloodhounds" then I'd have been happy to cosign that notion right off the bat.
I still do.  The Mariners have sucked at player development for as long as I've been following it.  Their track record on ditching all useful players and keeping only the flops borders on intentional at this point. 
It's why I'm hoping Zduriencik is around for a while - the remodeling job he's done on our entire minor league process in just 2 years is remarkable.  I still don't know if he can put together a major league squad that can win, but with enough internal success stories he might be able to do it by default.
I'd like to find out for sure.
~G