Why our Front Office is awesome: Tony Blengino

Really everyone needs to listen to the actual words they are saying. True they are not going to say “We want a left handed sock”, unless they have googly eyes already glued on, but they do say a ton of stuff with what they avoid saying and small hints in throw away sentances.

Yeah they do form a nice team in taking a different side and giving a little bit to everyone listening.

Every time you say it. Maybe give them one free one each day, but after that — wham!

I’d be rich! In front-office terms, anyway.

The Mets were buying all the purple eight-track tape players.

… he was cleaning up after The Process®.

Zduriencik came up through the scouts, and he still employs very good “old” ones like McNamara and Fusco. They’re not just “using the lingo” when they talk about “make-up” when they’re evaluating players. But they’re not going to let that blind them to the other aspects that Blengino is ferreting out. The reason Zduriencik has been so successful (at least in the limited sample so far) is that he really is bridging both worlds. He really does believe in getting as many points of view as he can to make the best possible decisions. So when he introduces a new signing it’s not just optics or window dressing or “lingo” if he mentions “leadership” — that may not be why they signing the guy, but on a day when you’re supposed to talk up all the positive traits of your new acquisition, that definitely is one they can talk about. And they really do believe in it — they’re just smart enough to realize that a declining player’s “veteranship” can not somehow make up for his bad numbers.

They’re pretty astute about that aspect, too. I was against the Griffey signing from the start, but based on comments that people like Bradley and Figgins have made, there may be more to it than good PR for the ownership and nostalgia and jersey sales among the fans. It really seems like Griffey’s presence may be paying off in subtle ways when signing other players — players who are excited to share a clubhouse with him, players who might be swayed to take an offer from the M’s a little more seriously, and possibly in players who might be a little less of a risk with Griffey as a teammate (we’ll see on that last point, I guess, and it’ll be hard to tell compared to what Bradley might have done elsewhere). Note that I’m not saying we’ll see a difference in on-field performance, just that having Griffey in their pocket might make the performance of the front office a little better, or at least their jobs a little easier, since it’s one more non-monetary perk they can dangle.

But I agree with the larger point: the FO is trying to bring the fans along in everything they’re doing. And that I think is part of their whole effort to make the Mariners a team players want to play for. Having Griffey in the clubhouse is part of that. Building a foundation by locking up young, high-performing players like Gutierrez and Felix is part of that. Doing right by past players (by, for example, inviting The Big Unit to throw out the first pitch) is part of that. And having smart, educated fans is part of that too.