Pelekoudas merits fair audition as Mariners GM

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Good morning, Lee Pelekoudas, and welcome to the first day of the rest of your career. When the Seattle Mariners on Monday announced they were firing general manager Bill Bavasi -- architect of a $117 million roster now on pace to lose 106 games -- Pelekoudas was identified as the interim replacement.This is how it works in baseball. One man's trap door is another man's elevator to the top.Pelekoudas has spent 29 years with the Mariners in a variety of roles, some trying (he first worked as a traveling secretary, during those days pro sports teams often booked seats on commercial flights) and some complex (the front office's resident waiver-wire wonk, he's familiar with rules the rest of us don't even know exist.)But until Monday, Pelekoudas has remained behind the scenes. Now he gets 3-1/2 months on the hot seat, though given the challenge of ascribing direction to an organization that's lost its way, the hot seat might as well be an electric chair.Pelekoudas' task: Convincing ownership that his jack-of-all-trades background qualifies him as the last word on all trades, Jack. The payoff: Securing one of the 30 most coveted jobs in baseball. The parameters: Pelekoudas has been given the keys for a trial run, while CEO Howard Lincoln and team president Chuck Armstrong draw up a list of candidates that also will compete for the position."No stone will be unturned," promised Armstrong, who helped oversee the 2004 talent search that found Bavasi beating out more than 80 candidates.Armstrong added that if Pelekoudas' role as temporary GM is converted into an official title, it shouldn't be seen as evidence "that all stones weren't unturned."(In the improbable event the Mariners produce a souvenir video of the 2008 season, my suggested title would be: "As The Stones Turn.")In any event, Lincoln and Armstrong have awarded Pelekoudas with what amounts to an audition. If he can accomplish what Bavasi couldn't -- if he can relieve Richie Sexson of the misery of calling Safeco Field home, and find a team desperate enough for a part-time hitter to covet Jose Vidro, and decide where catcher Jeff Clement and pitcher Brandon Morrow belong in the equation -- the audition establishes Pelekoudas as a viable candidate to succeed Bavasi.And if he can swing a deal that nets the Mariners at least three quality prospects for starting pitcher Erik Bedard, the turning-of-the-stones search could well be reduced to a done-deal formality.Not that the announcement of Pelekoudas' promotion will inspire any impromptu street dances. Employed by the Mariners since 1979, he's seen as bastion of the old school -- which is to say, inherently clueless to the computer-assisted statistics that have changed the way players are both scouted as amateurs and analyzed as big leaguers.Some of the bloggers belonging to the Mariners Nation -- well, OK, the Mariners Region ---want the organization to embrace the new wave of alternative-stat analysis associated with those whose portfolio includes an education at an elite school, and a philosophy that defies the status-quo benchmarks of batting average for hitters and ERA for pitchers. There's Chris Antonetti, a Georgetown grad with a master's degree from UMass. The assistant general manager in Cleveland, Antonetti's credentials are so impressive, he was offered the Cardinals GM position last winter. (He turned it down.)There's David Forst, an acolyte of Oakland's Billy Beane. Forst graduated with honors from Harvard, as did another candidate, Padres assistant GM Paul DePodesta. (The former Beane assistant ran the Dodgers operation to mixed reviews.) Pelekoudas, son of a longtime National League umpire, the late Chris Pelekoudas, doesn't pretend to exude the glamour of an Ivy League whiz kid. He went to school at Arizona State, where he pitched for a powerhouse Sun Devils team that advanced to the 1972 College World Series, and graduated with a journalism degree. Pelekoudas doesn't merit a promotion because of three decades spent with the Mariners. But the tenure he's built up as a reliably efficient organization man shouldn't be reason to deny him a promotion, either.A close friend of Bavasi, Pelekoudas acknowledged the "awkward situation" of his interim appointment, then said: "I'll make the most of it."Should Lee Pelekoudas make the most of the audition, it'd be a travesty if his 28-year history with the Mariners turns into the red flag that eliminates him.(Contact John McGrath at john.mcgrath@thenewstribune.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)