It's official, the Mariners organization is on the up and up.  This afternoon the Seattle Mariners announced that former Brewers executive Jack Zduriencik will be taking over as the new general manager for the organization.  This is a huge pick up for the Mariners who really haven't been the same organization since A-Rod and Ken Griffey Jr. left the team.  Considering Jack's track record over the last few years in developing the Brewers talent that led to the end of a 26 year drought, you can't doubt the choice.

But this is probably a bigger loss for the Brewers organization than it is a gain for the Mariners.  There's no doubt that Jack Z will be taking some of his scouts along, as well as appoint some of them to positions just under him.  With the Brewers potentially getting up to five compensatory picks this year from the losses of Mike Cameron, Ben Sheets and CC Sabathia, it would have been nice to get one more year out of Jack Z before watching him ship out to another organization.   Instead, Doug Melvin and the rest of the administration are going to have more on their plate this off season, including replacing Jack with a new scouting director and all of those those scouts that he'll bring with him.

This is turning out to be the most pivotal off season of recent memory.  The player signings and now administrative signings will determine if this team has any longevity in its legs.

With all that being said, we would like to wish Jack Z the best of luck in Seattle.  They used to be a tremendous organization, but the clubhouse exploded this year and GM just lost control of what was going on there.  We have no doubt that Jack will be able to turn that organization around just as quickly, if not more quickly, than he and Doug did with the Milwaukee Brewers.  Best of wishes Jack!