Jack Z on the hot seat in Seattle?

[milwaukeesportsfan]

I haven't seen this discussed anywhere, but I thought I would mention that I heard Ken Rosenthal mention on MLB Network that Jack Z was on his list of GM's on the hot seat going into this season. A few years ago people were calling for Jack Z to replace Melvin, and now it looks like all of that talk was just talk. After seeing how Seattle fared last year, I think we can be grateful things turned out the way they did.

[RyDogg66]

I love how GM's get 2 years to turn a franchise around these days.

[CheezWizHed]

I always thought Jack Z got a little too much praise for the Brewers draft successes (and DM seemed to get all the blame for draft failures), but two years is a little ridiculous, unless you REALLY screw something up...

[TooLiveBrew]

He got Hernandez extended, and like you guys have mentioned has only had 2 seasons. I'd be really surprised if he's actually on the hot seat (as opposed to just talking head speculation).

[logan82]

I think peope are way to quick to make changes in the sports world. Outside of players, you really need 5 years to make any kind of determination on how good somebody is unless a guy is completely incompetent. Jack Z. is not.

[RockCoCougars]

I love the guy for what he did for the Brewers. However, it'd be tough not to admit that he's looked a little Taylor-esque running a team where he inherited probably the best pitcher in baseball and a stack of money. Some of his trades and free agent signings have been brutal.

[crewcrazy]

Most of the hot seat talk stems from the team being a sexy pick in the AL West last year after they acquired Cliff Lee, only to fail (nevermind those that were picking them chose to overlook the poor lineup the team still had, which was ultimately their undoing). Things got worse when he traded Lee to Texas and got Josh Lueke back in the deal...Lueke was charged with rape and sodomy in the summer of 2009 and plead no contest on a lesser charge, spending 40 days in jail. Mariners ownership was apparently clueless about it, Jack Z plead ignorance, but it later came out that he may have known more about the situation than he let on to ownership. That almost got him fired last summer.

 

It seems like that's mostly blown over, though, but if the M's are as putrid as they were last season, it wouldn't surprise me to see it happen. Selfishly, I wonder if Melvin would welcome him back to the scouting department, but I don't know how realistic that is.

[monty57]

I hope the best for Jack, and I have no idea if this rumor is true, but every day people who are really good at something see their business fail because they weren't good at all aspects of running the business. While I agree that two years isn't long enough to turn around a failing franchise, I'd guess that the owners have a great deal of insight into how a GM runs the business. If a GM truly is bad at some aspects of his job, he could run the franchise completely into the dirt if left on the job too long. Look at Sal Bando for the Brewers and Matt Millen with the Lions.

 

I have little doubt that if Jack Z were let go, he would quickly find a job as a scouting director.

[dadofandrew]

One look at the offense he has put together tells you why is in trouble. Fans hate losing 3-1 and 2-0 a great deal, and he does not seem to want to add any bats at all.

[BREWCREW5]

Funny, he was a genius and way smarter than Melvin last offseason around here.

[Invader3K]

I wonder how much Nintendo's ownership limits Zduriencik's ability to do certain things. For instance, he'll never be able to trade Ichiro (assuming he even wanted to) due to the Japanese connection.

[RobertR]

Zduriencik wasn't helped at all by the utter chaos in the clubhouse. Much of it centering around Griffey and Wakamatsu's very public spat. It's one thing to be bad on the field. Sometimes you can't control that. But there's really no excuse for the rest of that stuff that afflicted the Mariners last year.

 

And, it's worth remembering that other than the Cliff Lee deal, pretty much everything blew up in Zduriencik's face. The Milton Bradley deal flopped with Bradley putting up a .643 OPS. Kotchman was terrible. Jack Wilson was terrible. Griffey wasn't just a clubhouse problem but was terrible at the plate. Branyan had one of his injury plagued years. Ichiro and his .754 OPS was the only regular with an OPS above .700. They were historically awful offensively last year. Historically awful. When you put an offense together that terrible, it's very legitimate to ask how good you can possibly be assembling a roster.

 

I don't know how 2010 can't be seen as a setback for that organization.

 

Robert

[joepepsi]

The big mistake for the organization was believing 2009's 85-77 record was a true indication of the team's talent. That team gave up 52 more runs than it scored, leaving it with a Pythagorean record 10 games worse, 75-87. Whether Jack didn't see the issue or if he was directed from above to act like this team would compete in 2010, is anybody's guess.

 

He should have warned his people the team was due for a big setback last year. Regardless of the 2009 record, the Mariners should have made last winter a rebuilding year, not a "we're going for it-let's get Lee and Figgins" type of offseason.

[kramnoj]

The whole Josh Lueke incident may have more to do with this than one awful season.

[RobertR]

The whole Josh Lueke incident may have more to do with this than one awful season.

I think there's something to that idea. At least combined with the clubhouse turmoil of last year. It's one thing to have a bad year in terms of team performance. Piling a bad team performance on top of absolutely embarrassing off the field stuff is a tough combination for any organization worried about their public image.

 

Robert

 

[JoeHova]

I was very impressed with Jack when he was with Milwaukee and during his first year in Seattle. He seemed to make nice moves more often than not, which can't be said about many sports executives. However, he started to lose me this past season. Not so much because they had a horrible record or because of the specific stupid moves he made (number one being signing Griffey again for no reason) but because of how he reacted to them. There was a continual atmosphere of scapegoating in Seattle last summer. The front office did not handle adversity well at all and seemed to basically just thrash around randomly looking for people to blame. Perhaps it was not all Jack as the two executives above him in Seattle are notorious meddlers but it seemed as though blame was deflected at every opportunity. First Eric Byrnes was cut after making a stupid play. Then the hitting coach was fired a month into the season. A month after that Griffey was forced into retirement. A few weeks later, they fired their manager, pitching coach and bench coach, along with their sports psychologist. Keep in mind, this is all less than a year after these guys were all the toast of the town. A month after that, after the Lueke scandal broke, they fired their director of scouting, who was one of Jack's oldest friends.

 

I just find it kind of inexcusable that the team attempted to blame at least 8 different people in very public ways for their disappointing season. It just cast a lot of doubt on Jack's long-term planning ability. A well run organization should be able to weather a storm or two with minimal scapegoating, especially when management should have been aware that the 2009 team played above their heads to some extent and that more improvement was not guaranteed.

[flosses like fossas]

Zduriencik wasn't helped at all by the utter chaos in the clubhouse. Much of it centering around Griffey and Wakamatsu's very public spat. It's one thing to be bad on the field. Sometimes you can't control that. But there's really no excuse for the rest of that stuff that afflicted the Mariners last year.

 

And, it's worth remembering that other than the Cliff Lee deal, pretty much everything blew up in Zduriencik's face. The Milton Bradley deal flopped with Bradley putting up a .643 OPS. Kotchman was terrible. Jack Wilson was terrible. Griffey wasn't just a clubhouse problem but was terrible at the plate. Branyan had one of his injury plagued years. Ichiro and his .754 OPS was the only regular with an OPS above .700. They were historically awful offensively last year. Historically awful. When you put an offense together that terrible, it's very legitimate to ask how good you can possibly be assembling a roster.

 

I don't know how 2010 can't be seen as a setback for that organization.

 

Robert

have to agree here. when you consider even the most surface elements - figgins' off year (or at least his horrific start) and the likely maturation of smoak - the mariners' offense won't be worse than last year. then again, there's no real guarantee that it will improve all that much.

[jackalope02ca]

Unless Seattle starts out hot I would guess he'll be the first GM casualty of the year. I'm not actually sure how he survived the Josh Lueke incident to begin with. Given what I've heard and read about Seattle ownership they don't tolerate that kind of activity at all. I'm sure Jack Z was aware of that and made maybe the bone headed move of the year in having Lueke included in the deal. Any team would be glad to be rid of the guy and headaches that come with him. My guess is they are just looking for a reason to dump him and start fresh.