58.9-In Which My Motives Are Questioned

[chicoruiz]

I like to say that my door is always open to any of my players. I like to say that; in reality, my door is always open because due to some ventilation issues, if I close my door I find myself sweating like a whore in church within five minutes. But at any rate, my door was indeed open when pitcher Anthony Jones walked in and sat down.

I was not displeased to see Anthony. We go way back to El Paso days, when I made him a high draft pick. He’s perhaps a bit more intelligent than the run-of-the-mill ballplayer, and I always enjoy our talks. I could tell this time, however, that he had some sort of problem on his mind.

“Chico, we’ve been pals for a while, and I’ll always appreciate you bringing me back to the big leagues last year… so I thought it was only right that I should tell you about some of the talk that’s been going around the clubhouse.”

“Sure, A.J… I appreciate you coming to me. What’s going on?”

“Well, to be honest… Some of the players are kind of questioning how much you really want to win.”

“WHAT??? Nobody wants us to succeed more than I do. I lay awake at night trying to figure out ways to make this team better. Why would anyone even say that?”

“Mostly it’s been since you waived and DFAed Ty Ober. I mean, he’s one of our best players, and you had him out there, available to be grabbed by anyone without us getting anything back. Players notice that kind of thing.”

“Well shit… they shouldn’t take it personally; that’s just how the baseball business works. With Manuel hitting well, and us getting Arroyo in trade, I felt like I could use Ty’s salary to improve us in other areas. And I thought I could use the time he was on waivers to give Arroyo a shot. He’s such a great guy, you know.”

“Yeah, but Chico… Saint Francis of Assisi was a great guy, but I don’t think he could hit a breaking ball. You need to focus on actual good players.”

“A.J., I think better days are ahead. Did the players read that recent article about our top ten prospects? They’re a pretty impressive bunch.:

“Chico, you have to remember that most of your players read at about the third grade level. They’re more interested in the here and now anyway. Right now, they’re about evenly divided between those who think you’re getting paid off by another organization, and those who think you’re betting money on us to lose. I try to defend you by saying that you’re GMing to the best of your ability, but they say that anyone with your record has to be doing bad on purpose.”

So that’s it… the crowning indignity. I’m being defended, and the defense is that I really am that stupid. Something has to change around here. Maybe the trade deadline will bring something to make these morons happy. Maybe I can trade them all for a splintered fungo bat and just call up the whole Wilmington team. Or maybe I should just walk out into the ocean until my hat floats...

[Trebro]

Send em to Yellow Springs and I'll show them how to suck spectacularly!

[lordtoffee]

Could be worse, you could be me.