Mariners to fire scouting director over Lueke debacle.

[clarknova]

This is just dumb. Such a blatant scapegoat move. From all I've heard Carmen Fusco was good at his job and was open and honest with media and bloggers. I'd like to be able to fire someone else every time I make a mistake. How convenient. The average fan won't bat an eye or even understand the impact that good scouting can have. How does this help us? I ask the M's AGAIN. This bothers me more than the Wakamatsu deal.

Link:

http://www.king5.com/sports/Source-Ms-will-fire-scouting-director-at-the-end-of-the-season-102741109.html#comments

[JosephC]

For me it is the same feeling as the Wakamatsu deal actually. Pretty much the exact same moves will continue happening until C and/or H are fired. Everyone below them gets tossed EXCEPT them. Maybe it's their turn? What do you think Clarknova, do they really deserve their jobs? I see no problem with the scouting director, the problem happens to be a lot higher than that. After all, wasn't Lueke a good find? Last thing I remember, he has had pretty good numbers in AAA. So go ahead, fire the guy when C and H's own **** a** could have done a google search.

[clarknova]

I think for me, the reason it bothers me so much more than the Wakamatsu firing, is that where as they're similar in the "Hey! It was THIS GUY'S fault! Not mine." department, they're different to me in the "actual impact on the talent and on field performance" department. I really don't think a field manager has much of an effect on the team winning. I think he can inspire, and actually to a greater extent- cause more harm than good by taking away player's ability to use their talent effectively via unnecessary bunting etc. I think some of the best managers are the ones that stand back and let the players play (Cox and Maddon are two of my favorites). That said, I didn't like the Wakamatsu firing because I thought it was cheap, and I didn't see how it improved our team. Apparently it didn't, so yeah.

Fusco is by all accounts a great scouting director. Scouting, as we have seen, is terribly important. Bad scouting leads to bad drafts and international player money pits. Bad scouting can set a franchise back years. I guess what I mean is, I believe that talent wins. Luck plays a factor, but the teams with the best talent are usually the ones in the playoffs. It's like NFL Coach Bill Parcells said, "You are what your record says you are". Talent can overcome poor field management, but an inability to effectively evaluate talent is impossible to overcome. We've been drafting well (finally!), and our minor league system has been a bright spot in a dark, dark season. This is just so lame. Maybe there's more to this story and the Lueke deal is speculation? If it is the reason he was fired, this move will actually be the first to really piss me off. I didn't agree with a lot of the other moves, but this is just out and out blatant scapegoating. Again.

To answer your question about ownership and upper management Joseph, for the longest time I sort of laughed off all the people who blamed "Howie and Chuck". I thought of THAT as scapegoating. I thought of it as the same type of "blame the guy at the top" reactionary crap that gets perfectly good managers fired all the time in baseball. I thought, ok, they hired Bavasi... That was dumb. They took too long to fire him. Also dumb. But, beyond that, what specifically have they done that can be corroborated with actual evidence, that has led to the sub-mediocre bottom feeding this team has done? I hear and read a lot of "Lincoln forced this and Armstrong demanded that", but little of it is backed up with factual data. I remember the veto of the Washburn trade to Minnesota. I remember reading that it was declared by upper management (Chuck and Howie) that Griffey wouldn't be a Mariner when he decided not to be. There is so much back and forth and conjecture, that if the only thing that can be said is that they're ultimately to blame because they're in charge... I just needed more than that to buy into this whole Lord of the Rings Two Towers of evil conspiracy stuff. Would replacing them make us a better team? I never knew enough facts to know the answer to that, and believe me, I read a LOT of M's coverage and have since their management was in it's infancy. Almost all of the information I received was from forum posters and blog commenters who claimed to "know for a fact" they pulled the trigger on this thing. They don't. Now, I will say that after the Lincoln letter, my tune has changed a bit. Knowing that Howard Lincoln is that jaded and juvenile about bad press is disturbing. Reading Larry Stone's follow up blog post about the list of nasty things said about him that he keeps, that didn't help. The guy is delusional. If you aren't man enough to realize that with great power not only comes great responsibility, but also great scrutiny, then you don't deserve the power. So, in a very long winded way, my answer is no. I don't believe they deserve their jobs and I would like to see an ownership change. I think the GM has more baseball knowledge in his little finger than the two of them combined, and he just ran a borderline (if not completely) 100 loss team that WILL break multiple records for the worst offense in the history of baseball. A sport that has been organized since just after the Civil War ended. I want the ownership change not because I think they need to pay the price for a crappy team and they're at the top of the food chain, but because it has been brought to my attention (with facts) that they are inept and possess an ability to deal with reality that is paled by my children's.

End rant.

[clarknova]

A couple good follow up/interprative articles about the Fusco fiasco:

http://www.lookoutlanding.com/2010/9/13/1686462/interpreting-the-firing-of-carmen

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thehotstoneleague/2012888025_jack_zduriencik_loses_one_of_c.html

Also important to note, I think: I didn't mean to imply that Carmen Fusco is in charge of international and amateur scouting, he was the pro scouting director. Just wanted to clarify that. Tom McNamara is still running the drafts and in charge of amateur scouting.

Also, the team (Jack Z) coming out and saying that they're going to "keep this in house" is inviting speculation. I hope they understand that if they don't tell us what's going on, then we're going to postulate. It's only natural.

[JosephC]

Fusco is a longtime friend of Seattle general manager Jack Zduriencik. The pair grew up in New Castle, Pa., and worked together in the Mets and Brewers organizations.

I think Jack better take this as a huge warning sign that his time is getting near if he can't put together a better team.

[TellItToTheDA]

I think Jack better take this as a huge warning sign that his time is getting near if he can't put together a better team.

Took the words right out of my mouth. This is the front office (wrongly) telling Z that things had better be turned around fast, or heads will roll (well, just his, but still).

[TellItToTheDA]

You know, I hate this organization. I really do. It's a total clusterf*** with no sense of direction.

http://prospectinsider.com/view/gbu----september-12,-2010/


Not two minutes after I posted above that Jack was safe unless the ownership changed I got word that the M's are trying to delay the D-backs' candidates from interviewing with Arizona because they might want to interview them, too.

Which "SUGGESTS," that Jack could be next.

Was it a warning shot? At the very least.

[clarknova]

Not two minutes after I posted above that Jack was safe unless the ownership changed I got word that the M's are trying to delay the D-backs' candidates from interviewing with Arizona because they might want to interview them, too.

Which "SUGGESTS," that Jack could be next.

Was it a warning shot? At the very least.

Great. Prepare for a 10 year rebuild. You finally did it Mariners. You finally made me a full fledged sardonic twit. Now maybe I can pop back over to the times forum and wallow around in the failure with the rest of the apathetic masses.
Absolutely pathetic.

I'm reticent to post this link due to well known opinions on this forum about it's author, but it's a well written article that really sums up not only my feelings about the Lueke mishandling, but parallels my feelings in the post above regarding what we know, and what we think we know.

http://www.ussmariner.com/2010/09/13/the-lueke-situation/

(sorry joseph!)

Everyone is just sitting around waiting for someone to put out the fire in the big top. I've been waiting for 8 years.
Jack Z would be a huge loss. Mark my words. He'll go make a champion somewhere if we let him go. Torches and Pitchforks. If they fire him for this... I'll not be pleased.

[Nateyb24]

To bad Z can't fire Howie and Chuck. Hes not going to win now were 2-3 years away from winning.