Friday Foolishness: Jack Z can't understand why you don't want this car, I mean these tickets
Written by Bill   
Friday, 19 February 2010 09:00
There seems to have been, as I've noted before, a kind of backlash against Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik. And I can understand that, I suppose. He's made some great moves and everything, but you look at a guy who has had the job for one year -- a successful year, but one with a lot of luck, too, if Pythagoras is to be believed -- and it's hard to hear people anoint him the Best GM in Baseball. Especially when the heart of his team's lineup seems likely to end up looking about as fearsome as the Pirates' 7-8-9 punch (yeah, including the pitcher). Now, again, I happen to believe that Z is the best GM in baseball -- or in a fight for the title with BillyB and Theo, anyway -- but I get where the backlash is coming from.
 
Trouble is, there hasn't been much to pick apart in his record, setting aside what he hasn't done (i.e. get a power hitter). Everything he's done so far has been pretty brilliant. So thank the Mariners for this e-mail that made its way to my inbox yesterday:
 

That image on the bottom is this page, the Season Ticket Save-O-Meter. You pick the number of seats, location and the package you're interested in buying, and up on what I guess is supposed to be the Safeco manual scoreboard pops what it'll cost you, what it would cost you if you bought single-game tickets in the same location to that exact same number of games for some reason, and how much money you're "saving" by getting the season package.
 
The interesting thing, of course, is that picture of Jack Z along the right side. All along, he's been looking at you (er, out of the screen, sort of in your general direction) kind of incredulously, like he can't believe it's really taking you this long to make this kind of obvious decision. And then you click "Calculate" to make the awesome savings pop up, and a speech bubble immediately appears over his head that says one of at least six things that are equally viewable as GM-y or used-car-salesman-y, things like "I say make the deal." "Now that's a valuable pickup." "Talk about a blockbuster deal." "It's like a signing bonus." Et cetera.
 
Nothing particularly noteworthy about this, I suppose; it just made me laugh. Let's be honest, it's not as though Z's the most photogenic GM in baseball anyway, and it's just funny to see him with the silly little cartoon bubble over his head uttering trite contract-related sayings to try to sell you tickets. We couldn't have equally cartoonish representations of Ichiro or Griffey or Felix telling us what an unsurpassable deal we're getting? 
 
Anyway, so Zduriencik finally looks kind of dumb, in a way. Enjoy! 


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Comments (6)Add Comment
...
written by Z. Sanders, February 19, 2010
My favorite is when he says "The numbers don't lie".
Beane?
written by True Grich, February 22, 2010
Bill,

Come on! Billy Beane is old news. He hasn't been relevant in a while now! No need to put him in any "best GM" categories any more.
...
written by Bill@TDS, February 22, 2010
Your Angels bias is showing! smilies/smiley.gif I'm as convinced as ever that Beane is an absolute genius. With the Red Sox' payroll, I think he'd win 100 games a year. You just can't do that with the A's payroll. The league finally caught on to his OBP strategy (so much so that OBP is overpriced now), and he's kind of rooting around trying to find the new thing to exploit (I think he might be onto something with this sign-a-star-at-a-bargain-price-and-then-flip-him-in-July-for-prospects thing, a la Holliday and now Sheets).

He IS just three seasons removed from winning 93 games with a team whose best hitter was 38 year old DH Frank Thomas. He's got a lot farther to fall before I even consider taking him out of the discussion.
Well...
written by True Grich, February 22, 2010
I would never deny having a bias; especially against the A's. That being said, let's look at some of the FA's he picked up when he did have some money to spend. Jason Giambi... Orlando Cabrerea... Nomar... bleh...

This notion that Beane would win with more payroll is a myth, IMO. As for the sign-a-star-at-bargain... It has yet to lead to anything. Sure, we need some time to pass before judging his last moves, but overall - it hasn't really panned out, has it?

If there is a small market team that should be applauded, it's actually the Twins.

Instead of rooting around to find the next "new thing" - he should be trying to find ways to overtake the Angels.

And yes, bashing Beane is one of my favorite pastimes.
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