Within the Handsome Mr. O'Keefe's thread was a subthread by myself, the presumed Irishman, and a user by the name of rtang. We had a discussion about whether this extension is truly irrelevant. It is my belief that this extension is a bad thing and not as harmless as it was portrayed. You can read the substhread here, but the two most relevant comments:

CapSea: the same logic you're using to justify this is the same logic that proves he will likely still feel pressured to win now so it accomplishes not very much while risking more.

I would say it increases the likelihood of him staying beyond 2014. You would disagree?

rtang: Actually, I would.

• Team does well, he stays. Extension irrelevant.
• Team does poorly, he goes. Extension irrelevant.
• Team treads water, he goes. Extension irrelevant.

It's a theory that is discussed throughout the thread, but it's not necessarily the right one. And the key term in that comment is "extension irrelevant."

What value does an irrelevant extension have on anything? That idea represents a different reality about what the two options really were. Here are the actual options as presented. It assumes he could not be fired, which of course would be my preference.

Options:

- Team doesn't extend bad GM before offseason, GM makes desperation moves to try to keep his job.

- Team extends bad GM but everyone knows he can and will still be fired after a bad season. He STILL makes desperation moves to avoid getting fired, and now ownership has more incentive to keep him longer.

That's what this does. If we know he can still be fired, then he knows he can still be fired. This doesn't change the idea that he'll make bad moves. It doesn't move goalposts. He knows his job is at risk, so he is still likely to make the exact same moves he would have made pre-extension.

All an extension does is give ownership less incentive to fire him after this year since he's already under contract. And the only thing this changes for Zduriencik is that now he'll still make desperation moves and now he knows that if he does he has job security if they pay off.

Desperation moves don't make your team worse. They make your team worse in the long term.

I don't want him around after this year because he made desperation moves. That's what this extension does. There isn't a scenario in which extending him helps this team unless he himself is deluded into believing that the reason he was extended was because he did such a good job and deserves it. If anything it incentivizes him to make stupid moves for short term gains because he knows they'll keep him on staff if he does.

Extending Jack Zdureincik, even symbolically, is a bad move.