Game 23, Mariners at Astros
Saunders vs Harrell, 11:05 am.
Big news of the day – Brendan Ryan is being displaced by Robert Andino as the starting shortstop. Eric Wedge has had enough of Ryan’s offensive ineptitude, so instead of having a great defender who can’t hit, the Mariners are going to lean on a mediocre defender who can’t hit. That should solve all of their problems.
On the one hand, it’s dumb, because Brendan Ryan is clearly better than Robert Andino. On the other hand, none of this matters. Ryan wasn’t part of the long term future here, and I figured he’d hold the job until the summer, when the team promoted Brad Miller to take his spot after trading him to a contender who wanted a defensive replacement on the bench. The gap between Ryan and Andino isn’t going to change things drastically over the next couple of months, and this swap might even hasten Miller’s call to the big leagues. The end product of this decision will be a marginal loss of value in a season that is headed down the tubes.
But, like pretty much every other move the organization and this manager have made in the last few years, it shows a continuing lack of ability to actually analyze or accumulate talent. The fact that Robert Andino — a replacement level player — is now the starting shortstop on a team that had aspirations to win is hilarious. The Mariners tried to sell the idea of an improved roster based on false hope, and now they’re starting Andino, Kelly Shoppach, Endy Chavez, and Raul Ibanez more often than not.
This roster was poorly put together, and every crack has been exposed early. This is the kind of roster that gets people fired. This is the kind of roster that a GM deserves to get fired for. It won’t happen until the end of the season, because you can’t lure good GM candidates from other organizations in the middle of the year, but this is the kind of disaster that the front office had to avoid in order to keep their jobs.
Starting Robert Andino is a disaster. Just like starting Endy Chavez and Raul Ibanez is a disaster. Yeah, they’ve had injuries and under-performances, but these are the alternatives that this organization chose to have around. The Mariners are reaping what they’ve sowed.
1. Chavez, CF
2. Seager, 3B
3. Morales, DH
4. Morse, RF
5. Smoak, 1B
6. Ibanez, LF
7. Shoppach, C
8. Ackley, 2B
9. Andino, SS
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Whoops. Well, I quote, just incorrectly.
Highlights, Pittsburgh represents the NE…
How about you put a little more thought into your posts and try to avoid contradicting yourself in the same post?
Quality over quantity.