Belief Systems
This post might meander a bit. I have a lot of disjointed thoughts in my head, most of them tangentially related to each other, but haven’t yet figured out how to make them into one cohesive post. Hopefully, it happens as I write. We’ll see.
Don Wakamatsu says the words belief system so often that it’s become a punchline, but he doesn’t care. He keeps repeating the phrase, using it as an explanation for why he does things the way he does, even those things that appear quite curious on their face. But while this Wakism might not be the verbiage that most people use, he’s really just describing a trait that most good leaders have – confidence.
The man has the courage of his own convictions. When he believes in a player, he goes out of his way to let everyone know that he has confidence in him in an effort to transfer some of his own confidence to the player himself. He carefully protects the minds of the core players on the team, creating an atmosphere where they believe they can fail without being punished. By allowing room for failure, he believes that he is actually cultivating success, and he has a lot of successes he can point to where his belief system in a player has paid off.
This steady brand of leadership is a really good trait to have in a manager. While some react to every perceived problem, tinkering with roles or jerking players around, Wak holds true to what he believes, even if the present results aren’t necessarily a match for what he expected. We’re big process people around here, and constantly talk about not judging players on small sample sizes or results they can’t control. Wak might not use the same words, but his belief system is essentially the same philosophy.
It’s one of the main reasons why I believe he’s one of the better managers in baseball. Steady decision making and the ability to instill confidence in a player can create an environment where players can develop into more than what they’ve been before. We saw that last year with Branyan, Gutierrez, and Aardsma, and may be seeing that now with Kotchman. A manager who can help players improve their talent levels is far more valuable than one who makes the right strategic decisions or uses his bullpen perfectly. Wak’s belief system, as cliche as it may be at this point, is a boon to this franchise.
However, it’s not just enough for a manager to believe in a player – there has to be underlying truth in the belief to begin with. Believing in Gutierrez’s defense, Branyan’s power, or Aardsma’s fastball is one thing, as they all have plus plus tools that are among the best in the game in a particular area. The things that Wak believed in were real, and his beliefs were vindicated by their natural abilities when he gave them a chance to shine.
It’s when he starts believing in things that are not real that the belief system becomes something of a problem. A leader with the courage of his convictions is a double-edged sword, because while he has the ability to stand his ground when the results are not matching the process, so too can he rely too heavily, and for too long, on something that is not able to justify the faith.
His belief system in the ability of Ken Griffey Jr and Mike Sweeney have led to the team placing two bad hitters in the middle of a line-up that is struggling to score runs, while his lack of belief system (to date) in Milton Bradley and Casey Kotchman have left the team with two of their best hitters setting up RBI opportunities for the catchers and Jack Wilson. His belief system in Sean White has led him to put an inferior reliever into high leverage situations while better pitchers sit as leads disappear. And it can be highly frustrating to watch. Believe me, I feel it too.
But if I had to choose between a manager who showed too little patience with good players or too much patience with bad ones, I’d go with the latter every time. And so, while the batting orders can be frustrating and we all sit around and wonder how much longer the team will put up with a DH platoon that can’t hit, keep in mind that this is the downside to a philosophy that brings with it more good than bad.
We can get caught up in the minutia of the day day to aspects of line-up construction, bullpen usage, and things of the like that we miss the big picture. This is why almost every single fan base has a problem with their manager. It’s much easier to focus on the things they do wrong, that we’re confronted with everyday, than those things that they do right, which only get born out over longer periods of time.
Wak does some things that frustrate all of us, but he’s an excellent manager. I have a belief system in the man, and I hope that we don’t take him for granted.
Prospect Performance of the Year (to date), Part II
23-year-old manchild Carlos Peguero’s line tonight at West Tennessee: 4-5, 3HR.
Peguero’s now hitting .378/.452/.797 so far this year, with 9 home runs. He’s also striking out at a far lower rate than he did last year (21.6% of his ABs this year v. 35% last year). The past few years, Peguero’s been a lefthanded version of Greg Halman without the athleticism. So far this year, he’s done everything you could possibly hope for out of a young slugger.
Credit to Jay for never fully giving up on Peguero. For my part, I’ll admit I had more or less written him off before the start of this year. It’s early, but he’s back on my radar in a big way.
Game Twenty-Two Recap
Yay, 11-11.
Pretty interesting game today. I’ll see if I can cram it all in without being too wordy.
The most encouraging sign of the day had to be the way Kotchman and Figgins were stinging the baseball. The triple by Figgins was as hard as he can hit a ball, and Kotchman was hitter lasers the entire day. Toss in Bradley’s double to the opposite field, and the new guy bats were providing some needed power. Now, if we can just get Wak to hit them closer together, so there aren’t some lousy hitters coming in between those three, that’d be nice.
Ryan Rowland-Smith didn’t pitch great, but he was better than the final line indicates. He used his breaking ball a lot more, and with success, and got a decent amount of swinging strikes by burying the change-up down and away from right-handers. The 6th inning rally was made possible by a high sun that gave outfielders fits the entire game – Kendall’s bases loaded pop fly is an easy out on most days, and without that ball dropping in, Hyphen probably goes six innings and only allows one run. There were encouraging signs today, even if he still wasn’t as sharp as we’ve seen him before.
Nice to see Brandon League be the first guy out of the bullpen and just slam the door on the Royals to keep the game winnable. That’s the guy the Mariners traded for right there.
Jose Lopez saw 13 pitches in five trips to the plate. It is way beyond time to move him down in the order. He’s not swinging the bat well, having good at-bats, or generally doing anything to help the team score runs. He should hit no higher than 6th or 7th in this line-up.
In the 8th inning, Jason Kendall hit a groundball into the hole between SS and 3B. Jack Wilson did his best Derek Jeter impression, only he added actual range to the formula as well. It was, quite simply, an incredible play, and the kind of play that is easy to point to and say “yeah, that’s why he’s on the team.” You will see hundreds of replays of Wilson’s play, and deservedly so.
Yuniesky Betancourt ended the game by swinging at a pitch that was nowhere close to the strike zone. While we’ve all seen this 100 times, it was nice to be the beneficiary of his ridiculous approach, rather than the victim. I can’t tell you how glad I am that I don’t have to watch him anymore.
Another walk today for Rob Johnson. This deserves its own post, but the drastic change in approach that he’s taken on so far this year is nothing short of shocking.
The next time the Mariners play, Cliff Lee will be on the mound. With a .500 record, Friday night will feel like Opening Day 2.0. The first 22 games didn’t really change too many things, as the Mariners survived a depleted roster and head into the next five months with a pretty decent shot at the playoffs.
Game 22, Mariners at Royals
Rowland-Smith vs Meche, 11:10 am.
Hyphen takes the hill trying to get the team back to .500. He could use a good performance, as this hasn’t been his finest month. At least he won’t be seeing an all RHB line-up for a change. Also, the Royals double play combo today: Bloomquist and Betancourt. Yep.
For the M’s line-up, Sweeney is the DH and hitting 6th. At least he’s behind Milton, but ahead of Kotchman against an RHP? I sense at least one soul crushing double play.
Ichiro, RF
Figgins, 2B
Gutierrez, CF
Lopez, 3B
Bradley, LF
Mascot, DH
Kotchman, 1B
Johnson, C
Wilson, SS