It seems that the Coaching staff and the front office of the Seattle Mariners are in an all out war with one another. The mess started before the season did, but the latest incident is actually pretty troubling. Chone Figgins outright defied Manger Don Wakamatsu the other day and the entire coaching staff expected the front office to doll out a little punishment. The Front Office apparently think Figgins actions were fine as no punishment has come fourth. Dude even the worse MLB owner, Jeff Loria of the Florida Marlins, knows that one cannot allow a player to directly contradict the coaching staff.
These issues have been brewing under the service, and since I am not on the ground in Seattle I am only speculating but it seems that the coaching staff was begging for some offensive help for this club, and management declined. They were happy enough to land Figgins and the coaches looked at the Mike Sweeney trade as an act of desperation.
Once the team got off to a bad start management fired Pitching Coach Alan Cockrell. The coaches felt that the roster was not very good, and that their pitching coach paid the price for them not finding better talent in the off season. There is also a feeling that the front office knew that Ken Griffey Jr. was finished as far back as Thanksgiving and that he was brought back for some other unknown reason.
During the off season that Mariners got a lot of positive press for the moves they made, as it turns out those were all pretty bad moves and they have created a lot of friction between the management and the coaches. I fell pretty confident that we will see a clean sweep of the coaching ranks come the off season and someone knew can tow the line for the front office staff.
Related Links:
•Seattle Mariners news and notes •The Business of Major League Baseball •MTR Baseball.com
