Seattle Marinerds
thanks Deanna--
I'm not surprised about MacLaren-- he'd be the first to remind folks the he is 'a people person' :)
oh, and Putz has an evil sense of humor, with a very deliberate deadpan presentation which (big surprise) Rizzs sometimes misses. Dreyer enjoys him, and likes to ask him set-up questions when chatting with him. There were some fine exchanges after the twins were born last year.
I was the guy that asked him the last question about fan reaction and critism that he receives. I just wanted to clarify that I was talking about the Beltre signing, the Garcia trade and not going after Zito & Schimdt, NOT the Snelling trade. That trade sucked and I complained about it more than anyone else.
People tend to forget that Bavasi isn't trying to intentionally trash the team, and it seems like Howard and Chuck have a lot more impact then they should on the daily happenings. Whenever I have meet Bavasi in the past he has been, nothing but respectful and I wanted to extend the same kindness back to him.
The DS station was pretty freaking awesome until somebody told me the price: $8 a game, $80 a season. And I should mention that not only do I bring my DS to the game, I've had it stolen. Two days after I bought it.
Great work Deanna. I've read for a while but I just had to post so people didn't think I was a traitor to the cause.
great pics...the comments about WFB, I hope to blazes those are just some sort of happy fan talk and that they don't really believe he's the best anything in the major leagues.
Hate to break it to you, Geoff, but I truly believe Armstrong DOES think Bloomquist is the best utility man in all of baseball. FWIW -- I wouldn't put him in the bottom, certainly, but I also wouldn't put him up to the plate, either.
Great writeup Deanna. I skipped the FanFest for a variety of reasons, including my disgust with the offseason, but I still wish I had gone, because I am a fan, afterall.
As for the hating on management, I agree. It's real easy to second-guess and do it all on paper, but we don't have to deal with people and their careers. I hope Bavasi and this team proves us all wrong in the end.
Hmmm. Yes, it's more difficult to call for the heads of management when you meet them. However, I work on a daily basis with a few people that I know pretty well and I'd have no trouble calling for their heads. Nice? Yes. Good people? Sure. Well-intentioned? Yup. Good at what they do? Hell no.
I don't think Bavasi is good at what he's been hired to do and I think it's ok to point that out despite his friendly disposition at highly orchestrated fan events.
Re: your "to know management is to love them" comment, I think you're suffering from Stockholm Syndrome...
Thanks for your write-up. This has been a bewildering offseason, and I really appreciate your taking time to relay some of the responses to the questions we all have.
Argh. Robert -- I'll try to get a chance to edit it to make it clearer what your role in that Q&A was. This weekend's been pretty crazy. And man, you had your DS stolen at the park? That sucks. The $8 per game is pretty hefty, anyway, and even $80 per season is only worth it if you're at least a 16-game plan season ticket holder, I think. I guess it's marketed towards the people who spend tons of money on baseball already, though.
Geoff -- I think the guys really do think Bloomquist is super-awesome. To be fair, Willie is a pretty good utility guy, and if anything, we should be glad that they are very specifically casting him as utility guy and not even remotely suggesting he become a starter.
jtopps -- no biggie, I seriously almost skipped it as well, then realized it'd be a really great opportunity to play with my camera at Safeco Field. Getting to see Skinny Felix (tm) and some of the blogosphere was really a bonus.
Y'know, Bavasi actually said something like "there's definitely some things fans don't know when they're looking at the situations on paper, like how many options a guy has left, or how much payroll I have to work with, and so on". Which to some extent is true. And of course, it's not like any of US have gone and talked to Scott Boras...
I have a strange attitude towards baseball, I guess. I don't mind the Mariners losing as much as a lot of other people seem to. Hell, I was practically cheering for Oakland during the entire streak this year, just because it was too funny not to. Maybe I'm just more in tune to the fact that baseball's a zero-sum game, or maybe it's just that I grew up in Philadelphia. Everyone can't win all the time. GMs can't control everything that goes on out there, and baseball players aren't random number generators.
I might be bewildered by the moves Bavasi makes from time to time, but you know, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Moves that we wish he made might simply not have been available to him. A lot of players don't WANT to come play in Seattle, too, don't forget.
So I'd rather concentrate on things like "Dude! Skinny Felix!" than "Bah, we hate Bavasi".
Thanks for the write-up Deanna. I have never been to a Fanfest, so your write up was perfect for us "out-of-towners". Great pics!
Thanks Deanna - good stuff. But, couldn't you have managed a few tears and sniffles when you asked about Doyle? Make ol' Bill squirm a little - nothing worse than a crying woman.
Excellent work Deanna (as usual). All of the pics are great - but the two of Felix are really outstanding. I don't really feel like I missed much by not attending Fan Fest after reading your reports.
Did Rizzs get new hair?
Laurie -- I think that Brett's mom yelling at Howard Lincoln for the $220 she spent on a Snelling jersey probably made up for any tears I could have tried to fake.
Terrence -- I took like ninety billion pictures of Felix, I almost felt like a stalker. (I could post a few more sometime.) But I knew that the other bloggers there weren't able to actually be at the Q&A, so I had to make up for that. I'm a little sad that the M's fan fest doesn't seem as cool as other teams -- from what I've seen of my friends' A's Fan Fest pictures, they practically had the entire damn team there (The autograph schedule has 16 players on it counting Eckersley), but the Mariners had what, 6 players?
Exile -- he grew a goatee, but I think his hair's the same as last year, just slightly more gray...
maybe I'm just thrown by the middle part style rather than the side part. I had assumed a middle part wasn't possible with the helmet I am used to seeing. As you know, there are some rumors about whether the hair is authentic, and whether that suspicion will keep him out of the broadcaster's hall of fame. If you ask me he just doesn't have the numbers to get in, hair aside. :)
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