Peabody: Life, Friends Baseball

It all started with the trip to Japan to play games that counted halfway through spring training, only to return again for more spring training. Upon return all of the team was horribly screwed up the travel, jet lagged or sick or both, that by the time the season re-started there was no continuity.

Then there was all the ugliness from Howard and Chuck during and after the trip. Howard virtually spitting at anyone who asked if the mysterious Mr. Yaumachi would come to a game or talk to reporters, as if both were somehow below his apparently royal status. Then at the end of the trip where two real games were played and then a couple of zombie expedition games as well, Chuck was heard to exclaim, “Well it’s good we did this, it was about time.

From Elise and Gas to Art Thiel and Larry Stone and Geoff Baker, it seems they got together and proclaimed that the plan was not working. The plan being the rebuild.

Collectively if we put them all in a room and asked them to power the light bulbs in the room, you could hear Gas singing, “Darkness, darkness, my old friend…”

Zuriencik has been here for a few years. When he arrived the Major League Roster was junk and the minor league system had all been denuded of its useful foliage with disastrous trades by Bill Bavasi. He cobbles together a few pieces of drek and does a deal with Philadelphia to get rent a player Cliff Lee, the net haul from that is Justin Smoak and indirectly John Jaso.

I believe Smoak is done, but to suggest that Smoak is a product of the rebuild and draft is wrong. The mistake I believe has been to keep running him out there, when it was clear it was broke two months ago.

Viable players that I think you could count in the rebuild include the following:

Dustin Ackley
Jesus Montero
Mike Carp
Mike Saunders
Kyle Seager
Nick Franklin
Michael Saunders
Casper Wells
Vinnie Catricala
Alex Liddi
Denny Almonte
Brad Miller

Erasmo Ramirez
Tom Wilhelmsen
Charlie Furbush
Danny Hultzen
James Paxton
Taijuan Walker
Andrew Carraway
Stephen Pryor

The whole Ichiro and Figgins thing and no commitment from the ownership seemingly has run its course. Thiel today suggested that Ichiro will be here for years trying to get his 3,000th hit. One word for that, bleak…

The movie for those that have not watched is about a team bonding together to win a pennant despite a mendacious owner that finds ways to put a hitch in their get along. These owners want to make a profit and the executives want their bonus. That is the deal. It would seem that if the ownership sold the team to other people, that there would be a better chance to win. It is not for certain, despite rumors, that the team is for sale. Just don’t sell it Howard Schultz or Bud Selig.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 9th, 2012 at 7:43 pm by terrybenish and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.