Andy Boyer

Month: August 2013

  • If the Mariners Had Kept Everyone They Drafted…

    Hat tip to the Snohomish bureau of AndyBoyer.com for digging up this little article from Dominic Lanza at http://itsaboutthemoney.net. The premise  is simple, even though the work was grueling and tedious. Lanza answers the question, “What would every MLB team look like if it was only made up of players it drafted?”

    Of course, what you hope is that the team you have today is better than the team on this list. That would indicate you were able to sell the talent you had in your system for more than it was worth, and buy bargains along the way.  Unfortunately, in the Mariners case it looks like we are pretty good at drafting talent, and then selling it at bargain prices.

    I added a (*) next to everyone no longer on the roster, meaning they were let go and contributing for someone else now.

    Seattle Mariners

    Starting Pitchers
    • Doug Fister (*)
    • Felix Hernandez
    • Hisashi Iwakuma
    • Brandon Morrow (*)
    • Chris Tillman (*)

    Bullpen
    • Carter Capps
    • Shawn Kelley (*)
    • Yoervis Medina
    • Eric O’Flaherty (*)
    • J.J. Putz (*)
    • Rafael Soriano (*)
    • Matt Thornton (*)

    Catchers
    • Rene Rivera (*)
    • Mike Zunino

    Infielders
    • Dustin Ackley
    • Willie Bloomquist (*)
    • Asdrubal Cabrera (*)
    • Nick Franklin
    • Brad Miller
    • Kyle Seager

    Outfielders
    • Shin-Soo Choo (*)
    • Raul Ibanez
    • Adam Jones (*)
    • Ichiro Suzuki (*)

    Designated Hitter
    • David Ortiz (*) (though this barely counts.)

    More analysis on this report is here on Deadspin.

     

  • The Joy of Trophies

    I think kids today get robbed. By getting a trophy for just competing, they lose the chance to enjoy the novelty of WINNING a trophy. And don’t we all love winning?

    Maybe winning is just a 1980’s concept that should be put to bed. But doesn’t it just FEEL good to win? Do you care about the actual trophy? No. But you care about how it FEELS to win that trophy.

    Nowadays we cater to the kids and make sure we don’t let anyone feel bad for not getting a trophy. We tell the winners that it’s not that important to win, what’s more important is that no one actually lost. No matter what the score was, everyone gets a trophy just for trying.

    But a trophy for trying doesn’t make you FEEL great. It doesn’t make you celebrate. Winning is a form of accomplishment, and when you accomplish something with a group, you develop a bond, a shared story, a memory that will last longer than the trophy itself. The trophy is simply a representation of what you earned, and what you felt when you achieved your shared goal.

    When professionals win, reporters ask what it feels like. Winning doesn’t feel like anything else. It feels like winning. We all wish we had more moments in our life that felt like winning, not vice versa.

    Winning is an emotion we have to earn. Every time we are deprived of a trophy that we see someone else get we say, “I can’t get that trophy unless I win, so I will try harder to win.” Consider that vs “I get a trophy no matter what, so who cares if I win.”

    When the joy of having something is deprived from us, we try harder, we want it more, we feel more strongly about it.

    Sure, losing stings. Losing hurts. Losing makes you mad and when you lose you think perhaps a trophy for participating would make that loss feel better. But all the hurt from losing is magnified 10 fold when you win.

    And you will win. You will persevere and gut it out and battle until you get that win.

    And that feeling is worth it.

    Let’s not rob our kids of the joy of winning to spare them the pain of losing. The winning is worth it. No matter how young or old you are.

    Trophy 13

    Trophy 10

  • September 7 Will Be Chaos Downtown

    I’m not sure how this is even possible, but my Google Calendar says it’s true, so it must be right.

    Saturday Sept 7…

    The Mariners are at home for a game that starts at 6:10 (See proof here.)
    The Sounders play across the street at 7:05 (See proof here.)

    Mariners games usually take 2:45 – 3:00 hours. Sounders games by definition take 1:45 (90 minutes plus 15 minutes for halftime).

    That means 2 stadiums full of people, across the street from each other, will empty out at EXACTLY the same time, on a Saturday Night. I guess the total will still be slightly less than a Seahawks game, but it still seems like an invitation for chaos.