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M’s ready to play Beaneball?

Photo courtesy mlb.com

Pat Gillick is stepping down. During his four years as general manager, the Mariners won more games than any other team. He will remain in his position until a successor is found.

Sometimes baseball teams have to make changes. Those changes can involve trading a few players or signing a couple of free agents. But for the Mariners, the change that needs to be made is much more significant.

The Mariners must find a replacement for departed General Manager Pat Gillick.

While Gillick ran the Mariners (2000-2003), they won more games than anybody else in baseball.

Gillick had unparalleled success with the Mariners; however, it may not be a bad thing that he’s gone. Gillick comes from an era in baseball that has all but disappeared, an era in which drafting high school players worked, an era in which just looking at a player was good enough judgment of his abilities. But, just like Gillick, that time is gone.

Baseball is a changing game, although at times it seems as if it doesn’t want to change. Even into the 2000s Gillick represented the “Olde Tyme” game, but the game just isn’t run that way anymore.

Gillick came here and brought much-needed respectability to the Mariners, but he was never able to get the Mariners over the hump and into the World Series. Now is the Mariners’ opportunity to hire the general manager who can bring them to the promised land, a bright, young general manager who has caught on to the wave and has decided to make the change along with baseball.

Somebody like Billy Beane, perhaps?

Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, is perhaps the most influential of the new generation of general managers. “Moneyball,” the best-selling book, was written entirely about Beane and how he dared to be different. He decided not to waste draft picks on high school players. He turned to statistics, rather than the human eye, as the best measurement of a players’ future talent.

The Athletics, by the way, have won the second-most number of games in baseball since Gillick’s run began. Beane is looked at as the reason for that. The Athletics have already told the Mariners that they probably won’t let them talk to Beane. He’s too valuable. But Beane has an assistant, who some say is the real brains behind the Athletics’ success. The Athletics will let the Mariners speak to him; his name is Paul DePodesta.

Now is the time to change with the game.