In yet another unsurprising move, the Mariners put the axe to manager John McLaren's LensCrafters tinted glasses today.
McLaren couldn't even make it to the one-year mark with the M's. His 65-88 record probably will prevent him from ever getting a head managing job again. But McLaren was thrown into a hopeless situation, and to his credit, tried everything possible to squeeze some wins out of a roster filled with malcontents and no talent.
When McLaren inherited the M's from Mike Hargrove last July, the team, through sheer luck and the fact that the Angels kept trotting out Ervin Santana every fifth day, somehow found itself 11 games over .500. No team with Horacio Ramirez and Jeff Weaver in its starting rotation should ever find itself in such a position. The M's were bound to crash land back to the AL West cellar.
McLaren's replacement is the guaranteed to be canned in November Jim Riggleman. There's little reason to analyze this because a) Riggleman is a terrible manager and b) he won't be around long.
My pick to succeed McLaren would surely have been Billy Haywood. Back in 1994, Haywood took over an underachieving Twins team in mid season and came within a Ken Griffey Jr. wall climbing catch of making the playoffs. If anyone could reinvigorate Mariners fans on a managerial level, it would be Haywood.
Looking ahead to 2009, the Mariners would be smart to hearken back to their glory days and bring in a former player to spike these players in the throat when they got out of hand. Joey Cora, Norm Charlton and Jay Buhner come to mind.
So the house cleaning that should have taken place years ago is finally underway. Let's hope Rick the peanut guy isn't collateral damage.
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