http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3712791

 Interesting.

I wonder what Jack Z. means when he says that they want to define what Mariners baseball is? It'll be interesting to see what moves he makes and judge what he does and doesn't value in a player.

Einsteinhood:

 Interesting.

I wonder what Jack Z. means when he says that they want to define what Mariners baseball is? It'll be interesting to see what moves he makes and judge what he does and doesn't value in a player.

We already knows what he values.

Defense....not important.

Power...vitally important

OBP....if you have a high average, ok, if not, don't worry about it.

Pitching....you don't need pitching to win

brewguru:

We already knows what he values.

Defense....not important.

Power...vitally important

OBP....if you have a high average, ok, if not, don't worry about it.

Pitching....you don't need pitching to win

I would agree with the first assumption but his first and second round picks kind of debunk your OBP and Pitching assessment.  Just because his pitching didn't pan out doesn't mean that he didn't find it important.  After the first 2 rounds of the baseball draft I think they just take fliers on guys that they believe could one day make it to the bigs and those guys usually have power bats.

He did draft Gwynn and scout/sign Escobar.  It's only 2 guys but still...

 My friend grew up in Spokane and is a big Mariners fan.  He said there's a lot of Japanese fans in Seattle, and that the Mariners make a ton of money on Ichiro merchandising because he's the #1 selling jersey in Japan which is a HUGE market for baseball swag.  In other words, from a marketing perspective at least, there's good synergy in hiring a manage of Japanese descent.  That's not to say the team actually thought of it that way, but it certainly won't hurt them in that department.