Putting On the Foil
Billy Martin did not add +20 wins to every team that he took over, by importing five superstars. He added +20 wins to every team that he took over, by changing its attitude.
And he did that, by installing a fear of failure. Playing badly, under Martin, cost you and cost you dearly. He was willing to pay the price to put his players on eggshells -- that price being that he wasn't their pal.
It has been controversial whether sports psychology matters, or even exists. But for a $100M payroll that loses 102 games, attitude is simply the #1 area of attention.
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Geoff Baker hot on our heels with an article that sees the connection between Arizona competition and a willingness to focus during the games.
There is a school of thought that sees nothing in this "Spaghetti Against The Wall" approach other than math. I couldn't disagree more. Aardsma and Corcoran, or Feierabend and Walker, won't come north (only) because of results in games. Zduriencik will be selecting the athletes who care less about clubhouse protocol than they do about bases gained and bases lost.
That's great news for the Mariner fan. The chemistry will change because Zduriencik will simply select those players who bring focus with them.
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=== At Catcher ===
Geoffy sez,
... This year, neither Burke nor Johjima is guaranteed to still be in their same spots by spring's end. Clement will get a real chance to land the everyday job this spring. ... Or, perhaps Clement gets traded and Johnson makes the team as a backup .... This is going to be interesting. Especially if Johjima can't bounce back and the team is ready to eat lots of money to make him go away.
IMHO, Johjima's problem was never a willingness to focus and play hard. His problem was that everybody with the Mariners told him he was lousy, until he started playing like it.
There is no fix for that syndrome, other than to change teams. Competition won't cure Johjima. The ideal outcome for M's fans (assuming Johjima is not traded) is for Clement to start, and Johjima to quietly melt into a #11-hitter role. Johjima is mature and professional enough to do so.
If I were the Red Sox, or some other team with an easy LF fence, I'd be very interested in Johjima. And I know I'm alone here, but the fact is that ML GM's are plenty smart enough to understand everything we just wrote -- that Johjima's problems are MOSTLY the Mariners', and Safeco's, fault.
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=== CLOSER ===
Baker:
... the M's have a number of guys who could close. ... Mark Lowe will get a shot at the job, as will Tyler Walker, David Aardsma, Roy Corcoran and maybe even Miguel Batista.
And then, there's Josh Fields. How foolish is he going to feel, knowing he could have come into camp as the odds-on favorite for the role, had he signed last June? If Fields does join the M's in the next week, he'd be unlikely to make the team straight out of camp. But he could -- with a good showing -- establish himself as someone to take over in the bullpen come mid-season.
Josh Fields is in the right. He's worth three times what he's asking.
The M's want to pay $1.5M instead of $2.0M for no reason other than slot structure. If they'd drafted him with the #12 instead of the #20, they'd cheerfully pay. This is about next year, and the Mariners telling their next draft pick "We have never gone above slot and we never will. So don't bother holding out."
I am not afraid to call ballplayers greedy, but that doesn't apply to ammy players being cheated out of their fair-market value. I'm on Boras' side on this one.
The Mariners aren't doing a lot to make themselves better this offseason. It's not like they've signed Dunn and Sabathia and so they don't owe their season-ticket holders anything. They're picking up crates full of ML fringe players and watching blogs go wild with joy at moves they would have panned (e.g. Tyler Walker and Chris Shelton) had it been Bavasi making them.
Branyan was a good move, and Tyler Walker a decent one. Signing Josh Fields would actually be an impactful one. I'd say that after 102 losses, they might want to think about at least one.
Cheers,
Dr D