Engle, Pelekoudas stay

by JY on Oct 28, 2008 3:50 PM PDT

I just saw the press release go up as I hit refresh.

SEATTLE -- Seattle Mariners Executive Vice President & General Manager of Baseball Operations Jack Zduriencik announced today that Tony Blengino and Tom McNamara will be joining the Mariners Baseball Operations department. Zduriencik also announced that current baseball operations staff members Lee Pelekoudas and Bob Engle will remain with the club.
"The process of reorganizing the Mariners baseball operations staff is on-going," Zduriencik said, "and will probably take at least another three weeks. As a part of that process, I am excited to be able to add individuals the caliber of Tony and Tom to our staff, and pleased that Lee and Bob will continue with us. Exact titles for Tony and Tom will be determined once the structure of our department is finalized."

So, there we have it. Smart money is on one of McNamara or Blengino taking over Fontaine's old job.

The retention of Engle is a good sign. The Brewers don't have a strong history of international scouting and it looks as though Zduriencik acknowledges a need for it and wants to utilize the existing resources within the Mariners organization. Pelekoudas is part of the old guard, but he's handled administrative stuff in the organization for years and years and probable wouldn't be a bad resource to fall back on. As far as his involvement in player acquisition, I can't really say I know him for it, but maybe someone else can chime in.

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Yyyyyeeeeeeaaahhhhh!

OK, there we go. I’m fine with how the day’s played out now.
Pelekoudas staying isn’t great, but a team of Engle/Zoinks/Blengino/McNamara sounds pretty good to me.

by marc w on Oct 28, 2008 3:53 PM PDT 0 recs

Yeah, that's not horrible.

VERRRRRY glad to know Engle will still be around…

LeeP, though, I just don’t get it. Might be HowChuck’s influence, might not…

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by PositivePaul on Oct 28, 2008 4:05 PM PDT up 0 recs

I'm okay with him staying around, but only if it's in a different capacity.

J.K.L.

by acblue on Oct 28, 2008 4:10 PM PDT up 0 recs

He's the AGM again, I think.

I’m starting to think Pelekoudas is Howard The Chuck’s watchdog.

Lee: /Lasse Bark Impersonation

Lincoln: “What’s that, boy?”

Lee: /Like a collie, y’know

Lincoln: “Willie’s stuck in a well?”

Lee: /Didn’t you ever watch Lassie?

Lincoln: “Jack said something about ‘cybermetrics’?!”

Armstrong: “Oh Cripes, Pa!”

Lincoln: “Now there there, Ma. You stay put. I’m gonna go get my scattergun and put a stop to this!”

Fans are typically idiots.

by The Typical Idiot Fan on Oct 28, 2008 4:28 PM PDT up 0 recs

I'm assuming he won't be a policy maker.

"Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." - Samuel Beckett http://mvn.com/marinersminors/

by JY on Oct 28, 2008 4:27 PM PDT up 0 recs

Bobby Ayala gave that envelope of incriminating photos to Lee when he retired

by Gomez on Oct 28, 2008 6:40 PM PDT up 0 recs

He probably wasn't allowed to ditch Pelekoudas

but whatever- I’m sure Pelekoudas isn’t a bad guy to have around

Determined, Jonesing Commentor | Proud proprietor of Washingtonhighways.org

by I'm NOT Corco on Oct 28, 2008 4:53 PM PDT 0 recs

Pelekoudas...

…is institutional memory. You don’t necessarily follow everything he says, but you listen to him and take it for what it is.

I’d be more concerned about getting Frank Mattox out of the picture…

by rtang on Oct 28, 2008 5:11 PM PDT up 0 recs

Isn't Mattox gone already?

If not then holy cow!

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by PositivePaul on Oct 28, 2008 7:06 PM PDT up 0 recs

Well...

…hadn’t heard if Mattox is gone or not…

But this pretty much points out the lack of info even informed fans have about the inside workings of a front office, who’s there, what they do and how good they are at what they do…

by rtang on Oct 28, 2008 8:46 PM PDT up 0 recs

I thought Mattox had been gone for years

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A blog-thingy about the Mariners and stuff.

by BrettJMiller on Oct 28, 2008 8:59 PM PDT up 0 recs

I thought Fontaine replaced Mattox

Determined, Jonesing Commentor | Proud proprietor of Washingtonhighways.org

by I'm NOT Corco on Oct 28, 2008 9:02 PM PDT up 0 recs

He was kicked upstairs

when Fontaine took over. VP of player development or some such nonsense. Not sure if he still holds that position.

It’s like the Peter principle in reverse. Suck at something but be a nice guy, and they’ll promote you hoping to find a job you’re good at further up the organizational ladder.

by slamcactus on Oct 29, 2008 8:31 AM PDT up 0 recs

Director of Player Development

It was more of a lateral move, since his previous title was Director of Scouting. He never made it to VP, thankfully.

Last year, they gave Greg Hunter the Director of Player Development job and re-assigned Mattox to an unspecified role in the organization. I’m not sure if they’re still paying him or not, but for all intents and purposes, he’s gone.

by davidcameron on Oct 29, 2008 9:30 AM PDT up 0 recs

That explains a lot...

Why our player development has been terrible for awhile, specifically.

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by PositivePaul on Oct 29, 2008 10:47 AM PDT up 0 recs

Not really

The director of PD is more of an administrative position than anything else. They don’t really make decisions as much as carry out the philosophies from above. Bill says “hey, let’s push these kids through the system really fast”, and so Mattox (and now Hunter) make sure the guys get promoted as soon as they get hot for a bit.

The position deals with a ton of stuff that has very little to do with any kind of baseball skill, such as finding homes for the players, making sure everyone has a starting pitcher every day, coordinating the roaming instructors, and dealing with the various minor league clubs.

It’s not a role with a significant amount of influence.

by davidcameron on Oct 29, 2008 11:04 AM PDT up 0 recs