FanHouse Scott Spiezio

As Mr. Watson told you yesterday, the Seattle Mariners finally went ahead and did what we'd all been waiting for them to do for a few weeks now: they fired general manager Bill Bavasi. In other words, Monday was probably the best day that Seattle sports fans have had in a while, and a cause for celebration.

With the pending move of the Sonics, and the Mariners struggles this season, there hasn't been much to cheer about in the Emerald City lately. Still, while there's some debate in New York about the Mets firing Willie Randolph (was it deserved? did they go about it the right way? etc.), I don't think there's much debate amongst Mariners fans about how they feel for this move. If they're upset about anything, it's probably that Bavasi was the only one to go and that the team can't fire Richie Sexson.

As Watson mentioned in his post yesterday, Bavasi's tenure in Seattle is not one littered with success. He gave questionable contracts to Sexson, Carlos Silva, and Adrian Beltre (though I think Beltre has been a good addition to the club), actually gave Jeff Weaver $8 million to suck for a season, and made trades like sending Carlos Guillen to Detroit for Ramon Santiago. Those are some devastating moves, and yet, that's only part of what Bavasi did to help bring this organization down.

The story of Scott Spiezio took another sad turn today when the Braves released him from their AAA affiliate for unspecified reasons. That makes two teams that Spezio's been released from this spring because of his personal problems.

Braves general manager Frank Wren said the team and Spiezio had agreed that he would submit to testing, continue his rehabilitation and report to the ballpark each day prepared to play.

"Yesterday, he was not ready to play," Wren said.

[...]

"He was appreciative of the opportunity," Wren said. "He and we realized he needed more time to continue his rehabilitation. He just needs more time and needs to be in an environment where he can get the care he needs."

There's no specification by Wren as to what "not ready to play" means, but the implication is pretty strong that Spezio needs more time to get his life back in order. He was just sentenced this past week for his booze-feuled off-season transgressions and while he won't serve jail time, he's got three years of probation and a lot of AA meetings to attend. Hopefully he can get his life back together and maybe then someone will give him another shot, but it sounds like he's still got a ways to go.

It wasn't very long ago that Marcus Giles was one of the top hitting second basemen in the game -- when he made the All-Star team in 2003, I never thought that he'd be out of the game by the time he turned 30. But now, it seems that he might be done for good, even though if the Dodgers had their way he'd be manning the hot corner until Nomar Garciaparra returned. From Tony Jackson's blog for the LA Daily News (via MLBTR):

According to two sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the Dodgers agreed in principle earlier today on a minor-league contract for free-agent infielder Marcus Giles, who had a really good spring for Colorado but ultimately was released last week because the Rockies didn't have a spot for him. The plan was for Giles to go to Las Vegas, reacquaint himself with 3B, where he has just nine career appearances and none since 2005, prove that he could play there for about 10 days, then get called up and share time with Blake DeWitt until Nomar or Abreu comes back. ... And then, as Giles was in his car driving to Las Vegas from his home near San Diego, HE CHANGED HIS MIND. Just decided he wasn't coming. Turned the car around and went home.

The decision screwed the Dodgers in more ways than one: Jackson reports the team passed on Alex Cintron and another unnamed infielder (Scott Spiezio?) thinking that they had Giles in the bag. Giles hasn't given an official reason for his decision, though one of Jackson's sources thinks he just lost the passion for the game. That's one theory. Another theory might involve the fact that his career fell off the table once MLB adopted more stringent drug testing, which may or may not indicate that already knows an inspirational comeback story is never going to happen. We'll probably never know.

We're a little late on the Spring Dugz tonight (consider it "Autumn Dugz") and the topic isn't technically the St. Louis Cardinals, but we can never resist these baseball noir, or any chance to give a guest appearance to our most successful and longest-running NPC the Lady Cop. Not since the woman ran out a grits have we needed her so badly.

Scott Spiezio. What else can be said? The guy is a grade-A douchebag and deserves every bad thing that comes to him. I hope he gets the help he needs in real life as much as anybody else, but moreso I hope he gets all the kicks to the ass he needs in real life. I wish there was some sort of futuristic cyborg LadyCop who could choke back.

After the jump: not a heck of a lot about training during Spring. But hey.

We already knew the basic details about Scott Spezio's crazy December night that got him cut from the Cardinals. There was drunken driving, vomiting, and fisticuffs, which is generally enough to make any story lively. Of course it's not the whole story, as the recently filed police report tells us. There are a ton of details in this story (including Spezio's Luis Vuitton wallet!), but here's the key:

The records gave this account: Jennifer Spiezio answered the door and said police couldn't speak to her husband because he was asleep, sick with pneumonia. She told them she would check on him but came back a minute later and said she didn't want to wake him.

After police told her they believed her husband had been injured in a crash, she said they could come in but that she wanted to wake him first. She returned crying, said he wasn't in the room and that she didn't know where he'd gone but that they could look for him.

Three officers went inside and couldn't find him. "However," one report reads, "there was what appeared to be a storage closet that we were unable to gain entry into. ... It seemed that the door was being held shut from the inside, or was locked from the inside."

That kind of sounds like the type of weekend you could expect to have in college (minus the wife part). Of course, Spezio's a grown man and that kind of behavior is frowned upon from grownups, especially when said grownup took several weeks off during last season for personal reasons. And since even his own teammates are behind the Cards' decision to release the guy, it's safe to say that Spezio has a pretty serious alcohol problem. Here's hoping he gets some help.

Just a couple hours ago, Matt Watson told you all about Scott Spezio's legal troubles that suddenly surfaced today. To recap, on December 30th, Spezio got drunk, wrecked his car, fled the scene, went to a friend's house, vomited all over said friend's house, then beat the crap out of his friend for not cleaning up his mess. The police issued a warrant for him today, which apparently surprised the Cards as they said they knew nothing about the incident. They didn't need long to think over their reaction, though, because they just released a statement to announce their release of Spezio.

"We decided this afternoon that we are releasing Scott Spiezio," said Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak in the statement. "We hope Scott will continue to seek appropriate help and wish him the best in baseball, but more importantly in life."

This is the third ugly, alcohol related story for baseball in the past year after Josh Hancock's death and Jim Leyritz's drunk driving that resulted in the death of a woman. Of course, that's not counting Bret Boone's recent admission of alcoholism, and Tony La Russa's DUI last year. But yeah, steroids are totally the biggest problem in baseball. Let's focus on those.

Scott Spiezio spent about a month on the restricted last year dealing with a substance abuse problem. As the oldest member of the Cardinals, he suggested he turned a new leaf this spring, telling reporters he wanted to be more of a team leader and "an example-setter" As he said, "I know I'm going to have to change my ways. I think I can do that, I think I need to do that."

Yeah, he wasn't kidding -- after the offseason that he had, he does need to change his ways. What Spiezio didn't tell reporters during his whole "I've turned a new leaf" routine was that several weeks earlier on December 30th he not only fell off the wagon but also into a heap of legal trouble. Word of that trouble finally surfaced today when the Orange County District Attorney's office announced that Spiezio is being charged with driving under the influence, hit-and-run and aggravated assault. From the OC's D.A.'s official press release (link via Halos Heaven):

Spiezio is accused of speeding, cutting across several lanes, crossing through the oncoming traffic lanes, driving over a curb, and crashing into a fence. The crash knocked down a fence pole and blew out the front two tires of the car. Spiezio is accused of getting out of the car and fleeing the scene on foot.

The defendant is accused of running to his Irvine condominium complex and going to a friend's condo, who lived in the same complex. While his friend attempted to clean up the defendant, Spiezio is accused of vomiting in his friend's room. When the friend made a comment about the vomit, Spiezio is accused of becoming angry and attacking his friend, punching him repeatedly and throwing him against a wall.

Ugh. And the Cardinals thought they got off on the wrong foot last year. An arrest warrant in Orange County has been issued for Spiezio, who is attending spring training with the Cards in Florida. The team was not aware of the warrant when asked about it by reporters today.

Scott Rolen has only been an ex-Cardinal for 10 days, but don't worry folks, Tony LaRussa has found at least one new player on his team to be mad at. Apparently Adam Kennedy skipped the Cardinals' annual Winter Warmup fan festival.

LaRussa was not amused, and he even hinted to Kennedy that he may see his playing time shrink this season.

"I'm disappointed he's not here," La Russa said. "This is a statement we make to our fans: 'Thanks for coming out,' and he's not here.

"In the first three months of the season, his playing time was extensive when he really wasn't productive. I really gave him the benefit of the doubt a lot, to the detriment of a guy like Aaron Miles.

"This year, I don't think we have that margin. Adam is a key guy in that mix so I expect him to return to his winning-player form."

If he doesn't, he'll be publicly executed by LaRussa himself. Okay, probably not, but he may get traded. Luckily for Adam he's not the only focus of Tony's anger right now. Scott Spiezio was late to an autograph session at the same fan festival on Monday, and LaRussa is none to pleased with him about it either.

"That's one dot off his resume," La Russa said. "I don't care what the excuse was, that's not a good way to get started."

Wow, pitchers and catchers haven't even reported yet, and Tony's already getting fired up. At the rate he's going, and with the amount of losses his team is probably going to suffer this season, he'll have been angry with everybody on his team by mid-April.

UPDATE: Read Pat Lackey's post on this subject. I'm still right, technically. But he frames it much better than me and leads one to believe the opposite.

In a word: no. In two words: certainly not. The mathematics tell us otherwise. And this is the NL Central we are talking about here, a league no one snatched a hold of all season -- a league still entirely up for grabs. It's a division wrought with teams that seemingly should be better, but are just plodding along near the .500 mark.

There was Tony La Russa's DUI before the season, then Josh Hancock's death, followed by Scott Spiezio's substance abuse problems and then perhaps the biggest bomb of them all ... Rick Ankiel was linked to HGH. Not to mention all the injuries they've had. And here still, even with being losers of their last seven games, (they haven't won since the Ankiel news broke) St. Louis still sits within striking distance of a division title.

Sure five games may be a bit much to surmount this late in the season, but the Cardinals and Cubs -- the current division leaders -- square off in a four-game set at home starting tomorrow. I certainly don't expect to Cardinals to be losers of 11 straight after this weekend. Do you?

It was almost a month ago that the Cardinals placed Scott Spiezio on the restricted list so that he could seek treatment for a substance abuse problem. That doesn't mean that his season is over, though, as Tony La Russa hinted at yesterday. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Nearly a month after utility infielder Scott Spiezio entered a rehabilitation program for substance abuse, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said "it's still possible we'll see him before this season is over."

The Cardinals have been reluctant to offer details of Spiezio's progress because of privacy rules related to employee assistance programs. La Russa said Wednesday that general manager Walt Jocketty has been keeping "track of the situation" and offers optimistic reports.

First and foremost, it's nice to see that Spiezio is showing progress, and if he is able to play this year he can be added to the mix of players trying to replace the injured Scott Rolen. But even if the Cardinals fall out of the race for the NL Central (which will never happen, since no team is ever really out of it in that division), it'll be nice for Spiezio to return this year. If he doesn't, it'll be just one more thing weighing on him this winter, and his "comeback" will inevitably become a story every bored spring training reporter will try to stretch into a feature. Get it out of the way this year and it'll be old news in a few weeks.