Tinkerers Take A Chance
Your choice. One vote and one vote only.
A) Preventive maintenance.
B) If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Not the easiest call if you’re Woody Woodward and Lou Piniella, the Click and Clack of the Seattle Mariners - who, as winners of 90 games a year ago, could very well be the poster children for B).
If, of course, they hadn’t been drummed out of last October’s playoffs in about 5 minutes by the Baltimore Mussinas.
So A) is for the M’s, even though it only seems to be an ounce of prevention.
Someone asked Ken Griffey Jr. the other day just how much management had done to improve the club in the off-season. His eyes rolled all the way to the backstop.
He looked around the clubhouse and saw Glenallen Hill lockering where Roberto Kelly should be. He saw a 40-year-old left-hander named Tony Fossas who will not pitch 60 innings this year.
“Any other questions?” Griffey asked, obviously skeptical of their impact.
Yeah.
What about David Segui?
The response was a shrug, which pretty much mirrored the reaction among the Hot Stovers of Mariner Nation when the team bid ciao to first baseman Paul Sorrento and splurged on Segui to replace him for the next two seasons at $2.25 million per.
This is a very minor drama, but when you’ve got Randy Johnson sucking his thumb and a bullpen just - well, leave out the thumb - who needs any more major dramas?
Still, when Piniella came out of hibernation some time after the Baltimore debacle and declared that the M’s needed more speed and ways to manufacture runs, it was hard to conceive that this was all he had in mind in the way of change.
Because that’s still Joey Cora batting leadoff, that’s another plodder in the Kevin Mitchell-Eric Anthony mold back in left field and that’s two more faceless utility infielders replacing the other two faceless guys Lou dreaded using last year.
Change? It’s David Segui.
In a lineup of wallopers like Griffey, Jay Buhner, Alex Rodriguez and Edgar Martinez, it’s a subtle change, though this may be the only instance the word is used to describe Segui.
“I’m an emotional guy,” Segui admitted.
Sometimes a little too emotional, perhaps?
“I wouldn’t say that,” he said.
The emotional side of David Segui was laid bare last summer, when he accused his employers - the Montreal Expos - of not trying to win. Too much talent had carried too big a price tag for Expos management, and so most of it has been allowed to skeedaddle - including, now, Segui.
“Sure I was frustrated,” he said. “Everybody was. Some guys vent it and some guys don’t. I chose to vent it. (Mike) Lansing chose to vent it. Pedro (Martinez) chose to vent it. Funny, the only guy who didn’t was (Darrin) Fletcher. He’s the nice guy out of all of us.
“It’s just very frustrating to see an organization that had so many quality players go through there have no desire to win. And they don’t. If they tell you otherwise, they’re lying. It’s frustrating to have to compete against the league when you’re competing against your management, too. I don’t know how (manager) Felipe (Alou) has done it. Every year they give him another crappy hand and he has to make do with what they give him.
“It’s just not right. Nor is it right what they’ve done to the fans.”
While the fans of Seattle will certainly welcome another voice to stick up for them, they’d settle for a base hit or two with runners on.
That was Sorrento’s primary - maybe his only - failing as a Mariner. With men in scoring position last year, Paulie hit a woeful .198, easily the worst among Seattle regulars and an obvious reason why he managed just 80 RBIs hitting behind Mariners Row.
There was also the small matter of his inability to hit left-handers - or Piniella’s reluctance to let him try, a slight the otherwise pleasant Sorrento has spent much of the spring bemoaning with expansion Tampa Bay. The Devil Rays have apparently guaranteed him a chance to hit lefties, having the luxury to fail.
Segui, on the other hand, struck out half as much as Sorrento and hit 40 points higher. He still hits the occasional home run, too - 21 a year ago.
And he hits them from both sides of the plate.
“Sorrento was a good player for us,” said Piniella, “but we couldn’t use him against left-handers and that meant we had to get him out of there after the sixth inning or so. We’re much more flexible with Segui.”
Especially if he hits fifth in the order between Martinez and Buhner.
Change, of course, is relative. In this case, what’s gone around for the M’s has come around.
Diego Segui was the starting pitcher for the M’s on the franchise’s Opening Night in 1977. Now the Ancient Mariner’s son becomes the first second-generation Mariner - Ken Griffey Sr. being ineligible, since his son preceded him on the roster.
“He was happy to see me sign here,” David reported, “because of all the organizations he played for, this is the one that pretty much kept in contact with him and kept bringing him back for different functions.”
You don’t suppose all that goodwill could have just been preventive maintenance, do you?
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 3 photos (2 color)
The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Blanchette The Spokesman-Review