John Mclaren
2 July 2008
Posted by Jordon Schultz | No comments yet
20 June 2008
The dominoes continue to fall in Seattle, as John McLaren was handed his walking papers yesterday, three days after GM Bavasi tried on his own pink slip. In some ways, this was handled better than the Mets’ embarrassing and insulting firing of Willie Randolph. At least McLaren wasn’t dangled for weeks before a midnight assassination, and there were suitably kind words for McLaren upon his dismissal, with new GM Lee Pelekoudas obviously distressed about having to fire his longtime friend and colleague.
Posted by Street Reporter | No comments yet
18 June 2008
Beginning in the East and the earlier time zone is appropriate to the biggest story: the firing of Willie Randolph. Say what you will about Willie, he’s been a classy guy in both New York teams (he earlier served as a Yankees’ bench coach) and deserved better. That Minaya reportedly declined to fire him on Father’s Day, only to axe Randolph in the middle of the night on Monday, replaces a reprehensible act with a cowardly one.
Posted by Street Reporter | 2 comments
17 June 2008
Along with the rest of the Mariner community on this site (and Seattle fans across the NW) I've been howling for the head of Bill Bavasi, and that chorus of angry villagers only became more raucous as the Ms have stumbled to the worst record in baseball this season, and the siege on Castle Frankenstein had begun. Miraculously, Mariner management saw the light (or perhaps the flickering torches) and fired Bavasi yesterday, a move that began joyous celebrations across the tri-state area.
Posted by Street Reporter | No comments yet
5 June 2008
Well, it was all over ESPN last night, and the Seattle bloggers and sportswriters are buzzing about it: the normally cool-headed John McLaren lost his temper in yesterday's news conference. His Mariners are 18 games below .500 in spite of a $120M payroll, and they play like a team of Little Leaguers, or at least overpaid Little Leaguers who are just waiting for their candy bar and Gatorade at the end of the game. McLaren railed about how tired he was of losing, how tired his players are of playing hard but getting nothing for their efforts, and of how something was going to have to change--and soon.
Posted by Street Reporter | 3 comments
31 May 2008
With the strangehold that FOX has on Saturday afternoon baseball (see my earlier rant on this), I get the distinct pleasure today of watching the 23-31 Tigers muddle around the diamond with the 20-35 Mariners, a matchup with all the excitement of watching two toddlers tussle in the sandbox over a broken Tonka truck. I'm sure this looked like a good game during the preseason FOX schedule-making, but now it's barely enough to hold my interest.
Continue reading "Weak Saturday Baseball: Mariners vs. Tigers"
Posted by Street Reporter | 1 comment
29 May 2008
It's been difficult to blog about the Ms this season, as I hate to add my voice (and bad-fan juju) to all the naysayers out there bemoaning Seattle's poor start (if one can call nearly two months of 14-games-under-.500, 11.5-games-out-of-first baseball a "start"). I'm not ready to write their season off just yet, nor am I calling for the head of John McLaren, but they have had me worried, scouring the dank bottomland of the weak AL East like a scrawny catfish on his last . . . er, fins.
Posted by Street Reporter | No comments yet
26 May 2008
Big Fat Bartolo Colon. Masterful. Two words you do not usually hear in the same sentence as of late. But alas, Big Fat Bartolo pitched 7 strong innings of 5 hit, 4 strikeout baseball on only 84 pitches to ultimately send Mariners fans home with a 7th straight loss. Colon had his best stuff against the Ms. His fastball was always around 93-95 MPH, and occasionally hit 97. His change-up was moving well and located with pristine accuracy. His slider was left up in the zone at times, but ultimately did not get punished like it should have. If you are a fantasy baseball player, take a chance on Colon. His velocity is higher than it has been since 2004.
Continue reading "Colon, Pedroia hand Mariners 7th straight loss"
Posted by Z.V. Sanders | 2 comments
25 May 2008
In this morning's Seattle Times, Mariners beat writer Geoff Baker talked to Carlos Silva about clubhouse accountability. As I have expected, no one in the clubhouse feels accountable or at fault for this losing season. And face it, if people don't feel bad about their play as well as their team's, nothing will ever be fixed. This team needs a leader. I don't see anyone on this team that can fill that role. The one player that could change things is J.J. Putz. He is somewhat of a leader in the locker room, but is seen as more as a prankster than a leader. Without someone in the locker room to light a fire under the players (McLaren sure can't do it), this team will never be able to succeed.
Posted by Z.V. Sanders | No comments yet
