The Stuff that Dreams are Made of: Part II

It has been quite a month and a half for fans of the Seattle Mariners. Jack Zduriencik has taken over as general manager, and immediately gone about righting all the wrongs of the last administration. Deadwood is being cleared out of the front office. A department of statistical research is being set up (woo hoo!). 'Grit' is no longer the deciding factor in whether this team decides to offer you a long term contract (thank Christ). On a very basic level, the new administration is talking a lot of sense these days, and Zduriencik seems not only to have a detailed plan of what he wants to do with the team, but to be bloodyminded in implementing it.

Baseball's winter meetings begin today in Las Vegas. This is the week where, traditionally, the Big Deals Get Done. Free agent contracts are signed, trades are hammered out, and stories break. Superagent Scott Boras takes centre stage and hype is through the roof. In short, it is probably more eventful than the average week of the baseball season (well, perhaps in May). For the discerning Mariners fan, it figures to be a very eventful week. With the exception of Ichiro, Zduriencik has essentially made everyone on the roster available for trade. Well, anyone with half a brain (nevermind a terrifying buzzcut) would do the same if they inherited a 101 loss team with a $117 million payroll. Perhaps not Bill Bavasi, the author of this disaster, but that's another story.

Mariners blogs have been rather preoccupied with how Zduriencik will tackle the M's problems this week, and in a larger sense, whether this will mean the team enters a phase of rebuilding (ie, trade big names for young players and endure a few seasons of losing before reaping the rewards) or whether a few tweaks will do the trick. What seems to be beyond debate is that one of the most pressing areas requiring attention is the team's infield defense, specifically at second base and shortstop.

Shortstop is currently manned by onetime Cuban defector Yuniesky Betancourt. When he came to the United States, he was known as a defensive wiz. He backed this up in his first couple of years with the M's but recently has gotten a little pudgy and rather complacent. By most defensive metrics, he is one of the worst defensive shortstops in the game, and routinely costs the team with his lack of range, in addition to his infuriating lack of drive. The latter point begs the question of how he ever got out of Cuba in the first place. Presumably, there were no pies to distract him.

Oddly enough, while to fans of Seattle baseball Betancourt was possibly the most infuriating player on a bad team last year, there still is a conception around baseball that he is actually any good. This is symptomatic of two things. First of all, so many baseball people are ignorant of more advanced statistical analysis and think that because they saw Betancourt or Derek Jeter or someone else make a flashy play on ESPN one time, he must be good. Secondly, nobody pays much attention to the Mariners and thus they don't read too much into these things (There is a third point to mention which is that Betancourt has one of the better nicknames going - the Yunibomber). However, the upshot is that there is the potential that Zduriencik might, just might, be able to trade one of his worst performing players and actually get something of value in return. Imagine!

It seems that the more fantastical ideas really take hold of me when I am sleeping. So to follow up my meeting with Steven Strasburg a few months back where I tried to talk him into opting for the (then) hopeless Mariners over other competitors, the other night I had a more vexing dream where I was trying desperately to trade Betancourt to anyone who would take him. It was not easy. It took time. And it got nowhere. I woke up, exasperated. Last I recall, I was in talks with the Detroit Tigers about a possible deal. The trouble is that one needs a poker face of steel to pull something like that off. Even in dreamland.

I think we're stuck with him.