| 07 August 2009
Anthony La Pira manages a baseball blog called Passed Ball. I thught it might be fun to mix things up a bit here, so Anthony will be talking baseball here on weekends. His first post is a look at Jack Zduriencik's plan to turn the Mariners into contenders again... enjoy.
Jack Zduriencik (pronounced zur-EN-sik) is not a household name.
But Zduriencik is well-known and respected throughout baseball.
Zduriencik is currently the Seattle Mariners General Manager ("GM"). He has been since October 22, 2008.
Before becoming GM, Zduriencik cut his teeth in the Milwaukee Brewers organization. He was responsible for drafting Prince Fielder, J.J. Hardy, Ryan Braun, Cory Hart, Rickie Weeks, and Matt LaPorta.
In fact, Zduriencik became the first non-GM ever to win the Baseball of America Executive of the Year award in 2007.
When Zduriencik accepted the GM position in October 2008, he was taking over the baseball operations of a disappointing, underachieving, 101-loss team that nose-dived 27 games in the win-column from the previous promising year.
The Mariners had hit rock bottom.
They desperately needed to contend with the Angels (the Braves of the 2000s), the rising Rangers, and the pesky A's.
Zduriencik's first order of business was to find a Manager that would implement his philosophy of speed, defense, and situational hitting.
He found that man in Don Wakamatsu, the first Asian-American Manager in baseball history.
Zduriencik's second order of business was to sign a player he had always admired for his power and perseverance.
That player was Russell Branyan, a 33-year old journeyman who had skipped around 8 teams in 11 seasons.
Zduriencik assured Branyan that he would be the Mariners's starting first-baseman from day one. Branyan was surprised. The most at-bats he had in one-season were 378 for Cleveland back in 2002.
He had been a platoon-player his entire career and he was finally, at the age of 33, getting a chance to start.
Thus far, Branyan has hit 24 home-runs, driven in 61 RBI, and has an OPS of .889.
Zduriencik's Plan Z began to slowly materialize as he pulled off a bevy of trades and low-risk/high-reward free-agent signings.
He traded J.J. Putz, Sean Green, and Jeremy Reed to the New York Mets for Aaron Heilman, Endy Chavez, Jason Vargas, Mike Carp, Maikel Cato, and Ezequiel Carrera.
On the same day, he traded Luis Valbuena to Cleveland for Franklin Gutierrez.
J.J. Putz has had an injury-riddled up-and-down season for the Mets. Sean Green has been inconsistent in the bullpen and Jeremy Reed is a pinch-hitter.
Zduriencik swung Heilman to the Cubs for Ronny Cedeno and Garret Olson.
Chavez and Gutierrez gave the Mariners speed and defense in the outfield to go along with gold-glover Ichiro Suzuki.
Mike Carp is tearing-up AAA and has been recently called-up to the Big Show. Jason Vargas has given the Mariners some much-needed spot starts and Ezequiel Carrera is batting .339 in AA.
Zduriencik signed low-risk/high-reward players like Chris Jakubauskas, David Aardsma, and Mike Sweeney.
Aardsma has been a revelation. He has 26 saves and an ERA of 1.61.
He also snagged Ken Griffey Jr. away from the Braves in order to give Junior his homecoming farewell.
Zduriencik jettisoned Yusnieky Betancourt (who was a loafer) to Kansas City for Derek Saito and Daniel Cortes.
He then swung two deals at the trading deadline.
#1: Traded Jeff Clement (former #3 pick), Ronny Cedeno, and 3 A-Class Arms, to Pittsburgh for Ian Snell and Jack Wilson.
#2: Traded Jarrod Washburn to Detroit for Luke French and Manuel Robles.
He also called up promising prospect OF Michael Saunders.
The Mariners are 56-52 and are on pace to win 84 games.
That's a 23 game improvement from last season.
Plan Z still has a lot of work to do.
The Mariners still have albatross contracts: Carlos Silva, 12.25 million and his 8.48 ERA; Kenji Johjima, 7.66 million, and a .646 OPS; Adrian Beltre, 12.4 million, and a .667 OPS.
All thanks to former-GM Bill Bavasi's reckless spending habits.
They have a gaping hole at the catcher position (Johjima and Rob Johnson) and at third-base (Beltre) that Zduriencik needs to address in the offseason.
The current depth chart of the team stands as:
C Johjima
1B Branyan
2B Jose Lopez
SS Wilson
3B Beltre
LF Saunders
CF Ichiro
RF Gutierrez
DH Griffey
The starting pitching:
SP Felix Hernandez
SP Erik Bedard (L)
SP Ian Snell
SP Jason Vargas (L)
SP Luke French (L)
Plus promising arms Rich-Rowland Smith (L) and Brandon Morrow.
Jack Zduriencik's Plan Z is currently in Phase 1.
He has identified the players he'd like to build the team around (Branyan, Gutierrez, Lopez), he has jettisoned players that have not fit his philosophy (Betancourt, Clement, Cedeno), and he has solidified a Starting Rotation that can go 7-strong heading into next season.
The Mariners are ahead of schedule. They are on pace for 84 wins.
Phase 2 of Plan Z begins this offseason.
And the Mariners, with Jack Zduriencik, plan on creating a model franchise that can annually contend with the Angels in the AL West.
Remember, it's pronounced zur-EN-sik.
But you can call him Jack.
Photo: http://www.tiricosuave.com/images/msgmz.jpg
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