Mariners plan department devoted to statistical analysis

Geoff Baker provides some juicy new info.

The department will fall under the auspices of Tony Blengino, a longtime baseball stats analyst and a special assistant to new Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik. Details of the department's mandate and size are still to be worked out, but the move could vault the Mariners from their perceived Stone Age approach to stats to one in which they're seen as one of the game's more progressive franchises.

"We want to take all the information at our disposal and combine it with our scouting," Blengino said Friday.

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"I'm not going to say it's a bad approach ... " Blengino said of the current consultant route. "But the idea is to have as much in-house information as you can get."

Blengino said the team has yet to contact (Mat) Olkin about reviewing his mandate for next year.

"I've always had that statistical information in addition to scouting," said Blengino, a former baseball stats writer for RotoWire, whose first job out of college was as a CPA. "It's an aspect I brought to Jack when we were in Milwaukee together. That's where my core is. That's where I started."

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"I can't imagine there are any teams that don't pay heed to some form of statistical analysis," Blengino said. "We have to take great care to make sure we do it right."

So basically,

Jack Zduriencik = Mr. Scouting and Tony Blengino = Mr. Stathead.

How's that for a 1-2 punch?