12/22/24
September 30, 2003
Mariner Fans, the team has made a move.: After 4 years of refusing to bring in someone, anyone at the trade deadline to push the Mariners into the post-season Mr. Gillick has resigned. Post-mortems are welcome. Personally I'd like to see a "Whos who of deals that should have been, but never were"...
God knows there were enough...
Pat Gillick deserves some respect - he did build a team of perennial winners despite facing superstars leaving year in and year out.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 10:40 AM on October 01, 2003
...and a team that won the most games in the American League in modern history in one season. It's not his fault that the team kept choking in the playoffs. On paper, Seattle was a fantastic team every year and that's all the control Gillick had.
posted by therev at 01:52 PM on October 01, 2003
Show me a minor league pitcher who is a "sure thing" and I'll show you a team in love with the future but never reconciling the present. So, if I understand you, you suggest that teams should be trading their blue chip futures just because they can get a few "now" players? Show me a team that does that and I'll show you the success the Toronto Maple Leafs have had with that philosophy.
posted by therev at 01:56 PM on October 01, 2003
hockey, baseball; apples, oranges. So, if I understand you, you suggest that teams should be trading their blue chip futures just because they can get a few "now" players? some teams do it well.....some don't. you've got know the true value of what you have.....and don't believe the hype.
posted by oliver_crunk at 02:36 PM on October 01, 2003
therev, what I'm saying, with no evidence to back this up other than anecdotal, is that young/minor league/amateur pitchers are overrated more often than any other position player, and if I had a young guy who I knew, under the best of circumstances, was still two years away from the big show, and other teams were offering proven MLB players for him, I would listen very closely to the offers instead of labelling said pitcher "untouchable" which is precisely what the organization did right up until the kid pitched his way out of competitive baseball...
posted by vito90 at 06:17 PM on October 01, 2003
I would have to say the biggest non-move is the decision to never deal Ryan "little unit" Anderson, the 6' 10" pheeeenom who never rose above, what, double AA ball? After seasons of arm problems I'm not sure he's even in the M's system anymore. There were teams back in the day willing to hand over two or three players of the Mariner's choosing for him, and they never ever pulled the trigger. Show me a minor league pitcher who is a "sure thing" and I'll show you a team in love with the future but never reconciling the present.