At our sister website SportSpot, our good amigos have decided that Lopez will start anyway … that the M’s are just "motivating" Lopez … and we are all therefore just wasting our breath.

That’s only 180 degrees off, amigos.  Juuuuuuuust a bit outside.  :-)

The Mariners are "motivating" Jose Lopez in precisely the same way that they "motivated" Miguel Olivo and Carlos Guillen and Freddy Garcia.   … as though it were their own BAC’s that are always at around .20, that is.

Some M’s fans felt totally vindicated by Guillen’s injury in 2005.  But Carlos Guillen has hit .318 and .320 in the two seasons since he left the Mariners — with a .375 OBP and a SLG near .500 — in a tough hitter’s park.  The Seattle Mariners swapped a .320/.375/.480 shortstop out for Rich Aurilia.

They dumped a good player who didn’t practice well for a terrible player who did practice well.  Guillen for Aurilia.

They are TALKING, anyway, about doing the same thing now (Lopez for Bloomquist) – why?  Because they had precisely the same kind of problem with Carlos Guillen that they have right now with Jose Lopez:  Carlos didn’t show a Willie Bloomquist attitude about practicing.

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Would you rather be operated on by a drunk doctor, or would you rather be a Latin hitter coached by the white-bread Seattle Mariners?  Riddle me that, Bat-man.

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There is an issue here that far transcends the question of whether Lopez will start.

That is the issue of whether Jose Lopez is playing confidently when the 2006 season begins!

The Mariners have many coaches who are paid to help players improve. With most Latin players (Guillen, Olivo, Freddy, Lopez) the best thing you can do to help them is to …. tell them they are great, that they have a home with you forever, that they’re going to tear the world apart.

As soon as Sweet Lou was gone, Freddy suddenly wasn’t tough enough for the Seattle Mariners. But Lou didn’t care about frosted hair or late nights or anything … except Strike One, which he happened to notice that Freddy Garcia was giving him.

Lou Piniella loved Freddy Garcia, whereas all of the other (far less-talented) M’s talent evaluators hated Garcia. They did the same to Guillen and Olivo — alienate them and make them feel unloved — and the danger is in their doing something similar to Lopez.

The issue isn’t whether Lopez starts. The issue is whether they ruin his state-of-mind with their constant nagging.

Sports psychology is all about optimism, all about hope, all about positive visualization, all about being relaxed, alert, and in a good mood.  You get ticked at a player like Lopez, because you have a bug up your nose about old-timey practice habits, and you ruin the player.  Lopez has enough problems with Rich Harden, without YOU being part of his problem as a coach.  Grow up already!  (We mean that in a good way.)

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Trenchtown noted earlier about Earl Weaver and Eddie Murray:

[there was] a player who a lot of scout are down on because although he can hit like a champ, he hot dogs it and strikes them as the typical lazy negro baseball player as they put it. The player? Eddie Murray.

PERFECT case in point. STANDING O.

Nobody in the history of baseball was more intense than Earl Weaver. But Earl wanted to win so badly that … Earl looked way past Eddie Murray’s lousy practice habits — even before Eddie was proven – all the way to Murray’s potential 100 RBI per season.

Earl wasn’t about traditions and rituals and routines.  Earl wanted to win.  As Reggie Jackson marvelled, "there just wasn’t an ounce of baloney in the man."

In “Weaver On Strategy,” Earl had nothing but nice things to say about Murray. “He won’t show you anything in practice, but look out for him once the game starts,” Earl said.

You don’t have to be a genius to realize that some players are 5 o’clock stars, and some players are 7 o’clock stars. Lou Piniella loved Freddy Garcia and Earl Weaver loved Eddie Murray. You just have to care more about winning than about your 30-year baseball routines!