Posts tagged John mclaren at FanHouse

Seeing as how the Mariners really suck this season, I've kind of stopped paying attention to them. Of course, because of that, I forgot just how bad the team really is. Thankfully the three games I just saw them play against the White Sox in Chicago this week reaffirmed everything I previously knew.

One of the reasons the Mariners are so horrible this season can be attributed to the Erik Bedard trade. The Mariners sent Adam Jones, George Sherrill, the Space Needle, and majority ownership in Starbucks to Baltimore for the southpaw. While a lot of people thought the addition of Bedard would help the Mariners win the AL West (I only had them as the wild card, so I guess that makes me slightly less stupid), thanks to his injuries and ineffectiveness, they're fighting just to avoid 100 losses this season.

Bedard cost the Mariners their season, and the jobs of John McLaren and Bill Bavasi. Fortunately for all involved, the odds of Erik returning this season to claim the livelihoods of others are slim at best.

Pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre and [Jim] Riggleman both say that Bedard did not come out of his last throwing session feeling well, as he had in previous outings.

We're only halfway through the 2008 season, and already the Seattle Mariners have undergone quite a few changes. First and foremost this year, they went from being a team that was supposed to contend for a divisional title or playoff appearance to being the worst team in baseball.

As is often the case when your horrible, people start to lose their jobs, and that's exactly what happened to general manager Bill Bavasi and manager John McLaren. Still, there's another change on the horizon in Seattle, as controlling owner Hiroshi Yamauchi (the former president of Nintendo) is rumored to be trying to sell off his stake in the team.

It's being said that minority owner Chris Larson is interested in buying Yamauchi's share in the team, and he'll be bringing in a familiar face as one of his partners.

One fascinating rumor making the industry rounds has an investment group led by Microsoft executive and current Mariners minority owner Chris Larson and former Seattle GM Pat Gillick taking control of the Mariners sometime in the near future, with Gillick running the baseball operation and naming the new GM.

Gillick is currently the general manager in Philadelphia, but he's gone on record as saying that he plans to retire at the end of the season, so it would seem the timing is right. It should also be noted that Gillick (who is Canadian) has sold his home in Toronto, and that his wife has sold the Toronto art gallery that she owned.

So if you've got a mansion in the Seattle area you'd like to part ways with, maybe you should give Mr. Gillick a call.

"It's your fault. It's all your fault."

Later, Willie, John, John, and not Ozzie. You were all bums.

It wasn't exactly a "Ball Four" type expose of a major league clubhouse, but the recently deposed John McLaren had some interesting things to say regarding the problems in the Mariners clubhouse which may have resulted in their bad record (and perhaps his own firing along the way).

"There is tension, friction and a little jealousy," McLaren said in the course of a 30-minute interview via conference call. "We (the staff) tried to deal with it, but they got to do it on their own."

McLaren said he wasn't trying to be critical but rather constructive.

"The tension and jealousy has been there, and crystal clear," he said. "The only reason I mention that, not to deter any criticism from myself, but to make this team better.

"If they can get in that room and work some issues out, they'll be better off. Sometimes we get caught up in own world (...) I am not calling anybody out. I'm not bashing them. Its hard to come to the park when you lose for gosh's sake. But we've had a divide, hitters vs. pitchers. On a good team, those things are overlooked. But (not when) you're losing."

Maybe that yellow strip of tape in the clubhouse that separates the hitters from the pitchers was the first clue that there was a divide. (I heard Felix Hernandez crossed it to get his shoulder taped and it wasn't a good scene.) Or perhaps it was that sign that reads "He-Man Pitcher Haters Club" over Richie Sexson's locker. Could all of those "how many hitters does it take to screw in a light bulb" jokes that J.J. Putz was telling lately have been a sign?*

*Hopefully you've figured out by now that none of this is actually true.

John McLaren finally has a real reason to throw a temper tantrum. Expected by some to play for the AL West title, the Mariners have been the worst team in baseball and McLaren paid for that failing with his job today. His firing comes on the heels of GM Bill Bavasi's ouster on Monday and a little more than a week after hitting coach Jeff Pentland was sent packing. The bloodletting is now complete and the Mariners can fully turn their focus to 2009 and beyond.

McLaren is certainly taking the fall for the sins of Bavasi but he didn't do much to help himself stay in the job. The easiest case to cite is that of Jose Vidro. With no power and little else of offensive use, Vidro found himself batting fifth or better in 44 of his 54 starts this season. Note to Omar Minaya: At least the team had the decency to do it on an off-day before a road trip.

He'll be replaced by his bench coach Jim Riggleman. Riggleman had a 486-598 record as the manager of the Padres and Cubs in the 90's. He's almost certainly an interim choice who will keep the spot warm until the team's new general manager, whoever that may end up being, hires the man he wants in charge. Whoever that man turns out to be, they'll have to hope that they are handed a better roster than McLaren. The cupboard is bare in Seattle.

While Monday was already a great day of change in Seattle with the deserved firing of general manager Bill Bavasi, it wasn't the only thing that changed with the Mariners yesterday. For the first time since August 19th, 2006, Ichiro Suzuki started a game in right field.

Right field was where Ichiro spent his first five years in Seattle, and after the team sent Wladimir Balentien back down to Tacoma in favor of Jeff Clement, there was an opening in right and John McLaren says he'd been thinking about making the move for a month or so. Still, this may not be the last move that Ichiro makes this season, as McLaren also said he's toying with the idea of dropping him out of the lead-off spot in the Mariners lineup.

McLaren said he's also spoken to Ichiro about a move out of the leadoff spot in hopes of jump-starting an offense that ranks last in the American League in runs scored and second-to-last in team batting average.

Such a move does not appear imminent, however, because McLaren said there is currently no other obvious candidate to hit leadoff.

"Ichiro is on board with anything we want to do to help the club, and I think most of these guys are from the same school in that clubhouse," McLaren said.

Mariners CEO Howard Lincoln announced that GM Bill Bavasi has been officially relieved of duties, naming Vice President/Associate GM Lee Pelekoudas as the team's interim GM. From the team's press release:

"Change is in order." Lincoln said. "We have determined new leadership is needed in the GM position. With a new leader will come a new plan and a new approach. A search will begin immediately for a permanent GM, and Lee will be a candidate for the position."

Bavasi served as the Mariners' general manager since 2003, during which time the team has posted two winning seasons while going through three managers. He's responsible for the monster contracts given to Richie Sexson, Adrian Beltre, and Carlos Silva, not to mention trading Carlos Guillen for Ramon Santiao, one of the most lopsided trades in recent memory. Adding insult to injury, he's also the last GM to sign Jeff Weaver to a big league contract.

In the last few weeks rumors have been swirling in Seattle that general manager Bill Bavasi and manager John McLaren weren't long for their jobs. Then team president Chuck Armstrong gave them the dreaded votes of confidence, and it appears he actually meant it, because they haven't been fired...yet.

So since the Mariners still suck, and Bavasi and McLaren don't look like they'll get fired during the season, somebody has to pay the price. That somebody is hitting coach Jeff Pentland.

The slumping Seattle Mariners fired hitting coach Jeff Pentland on Monday and replaced him with special assistant Lee Elia.

Mariners general manager Bill Bavasi said he hoped a "different voice" would help the team with the worst record in the majors. Elia, who turns 71 next month, was Seattle's batting coach from 1993-97 and is perhaps best known for a tirade he once unleashed as manager of the Chicago Cubs.

I have no idea if Elia is going to be able to get the Mariners bats turned around, but my first reaction to this was that it's still a great move by Seattle. With Lee around, at the very least he'll be able to help teach McLaren how to throw a real post game tantrum. Not one of those forced, transparent ones.

By now you've surely seen the above blowup, John McLaren's Ozzie Guillen moment following last yet another Mariners loss. McLaren is "pissed off," if you couldn't tell, and wanted a total team effort, or something. It was essentially manager speak for "I'm angry, or at least I have to pretend I am." And pretend he did.

Now everybody knows that reading profanity-laced tirades can be a lot of fun, as we were reminded of earlier when Mullet shared with us the story of Seattle manager John McLaren's latest meltdown after the Mariners loss last night. Personally, when reading a quote in the paper filled with (bleep)s and (bleeping)s, I do my own version of Mad Libs using words that make absolutely no sense in their current context.

I'm just a rebel that way.

Still, as fun as that is, it's always better to see the video of the rant as it helps you get a better idea of what was going down. They say a picture is worth a thousand (bleep)s, well, moving pictures are worth a billion.



Seriously, I was expecting John to start crying any second during that video, and I have to give him credit for not breaking down in tears. I know I'd cry if I had to watch the Mariners everyday.