Let’s remember former Mariners General Manager Jack Zduriencik, who was born on this day in 1951 (January 11)
In 2007, the Milwaukee Brewers’ Special Assistant to the General Manager and Director of Amateur Scouting became the first person to win Major League Baseball’s Executive of the Year award without having been a GM. Jack Zduriencik definitely had the upward trajectory and GM was the next obvious step for him.
In 2008, the Mariners happened to be in the market for a new GM after firing Bill Bavasi, who had the dubious distinction of putting together a team that lost 100 games with a payroll over $100 million. Zduriencik got the job, to much fanfare. He said the right things (like “talent wins”) and fans were hopeful he’d be the one who turns the Mariners into playoff contenders.
The problem, though, was that Zduriencik bluffed his way into the job. Take this hilarious ax-grinding story in the Seattle Times in 2013:
One of those speaking out is (Tony) Blengino, the former №2 in Zduriencik’s front office. Blengino, who was working for the Milwaukee Brewers with Zduriencik at the time, said he authored virtually the entire job application package Zduriencik gave the Mariners in 2008, depicting a dual-threat candidate melding traditional scouting with advanced statistical analysis.
Blengino said he prepared the package because he was versed in the hot trend of using advanced stats for team decisions.
“Jack portrayed himself as a scouting/stats hybrid because that’s what he needed to get the job,” Blengino said. “But Jack never has understood one iota about statistical analysis. To this day, he evaluates hitters by homers, RBI and batting average and pitchers by wins and ERA. Statistical analysis was foreign to him. But he knew he needed it to get in the door.”
Zduriencik orchestrated several trades that failed to pan out the way he hoped, which is the nature of professional sports, of course, but one that stands out is trading star pitcher Cliff Lee to the Texas Rangers for an assortment of players. One he was happy to acquire was Josh Lueke, a hard-throwing pitcher who Texas was glad to wash their hands of because he is a rapist.
For acquiring Lueke, though, Zduriencik accepted no real responsibility and pleaded ignorance while others who insisted they warned him about Lueke’s history, as a rapist, were marginalized and fired.
For some inexplicable reason, the Mariners gave Zduriencik a contract extension in 2014 (they had a better win loss record and barely missed the playoffs in 2014, but dysfunction hardly settled down), only to finally fire him before the end of the 2015 season.
Zduriencik peaked as general manager of the Mariners, providing an instructive lesson about the upper limits a bullshit artist can achieve when their bluster and ass-covering greatly exceeds their talent. He just couldn’t fail any further forward.
Further reading:
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