Only Greene wasn’t released because of nagging injuries, age, or terribly declining performance – but rather because his head’s just not in the right place.

Rangers General Manager Jon Daniels justified Greene’s release by saying the decision was made due to a “recurrence of issues he’s dealt with in the past.”  The “issues” Daniels alluded to is social anxiety disorder – a malady that landed the 30 year-old utility infielder on the DL twice last season.

Greene, a former Padres prospect with tons of promise, was only two seasons removed from a career year in which he hit .254 with 27 HR and 97 RBI for San Diego.  He would see a sharp decline in 2008, his final season with the Padres, and again in 2009 with St. Louis, as he struggled to keep his average above the Mendoza line.  He finished with just nine home runs in 239 at bats.

With his anxiety issues now public, the pressure on Greene to overcome the stigma that all of a sudden accompanied him must’ve been unbearable.

Greene would ink a one-year deal for a mere $750,000 with the Rangers this past off-season, but Daniels must have felt Greene posed too much of a risk to be paid when he seemingly could hit the DL at any time.  Thus, Greene’s career in Texas was over before it ever began.  MLB.com reported that Greene had been in Phoenix and was preparing to report to the Rangers’ training camp but later learned Greene was not going to.

Can Greene recover?  It’s hard to say.  At 30 years old, his window is closing, and the torment he must feel to have lost his job in the Majors due to insurmountable mental pressure – as opposed to eroding physical skills – is mind boggling.

Greene’s certainly not the only Major Leaguer to see his performance suffer due to mental illness, and it certainly doesn’t discriminate based on skill level either.

Depression recently contributed to Oakland A’s ace Justin Duchscherer’s lost 2009 season. The two-time All-Star sported a 10-8 record and sparkling 2.54 ERA in 2008 but shoulder and back injuries sidelined him and a bout with clinical depression prolonged his recovery.

Dontrelle Willis, also a two-time All-Star, has seen a tragic fall from grace since his glory days with the Marlins, and was placed on the DL multiple times for anxiety disorder in 2009. At the ripe age of 28, when most players are entering their prime, “D-Train’s” career seems to be derailed.

Even Oakland A’s GM and Moneyball guru Billy Beane failed as a Major Leaguer because of anxiety issues dealing with being in the spotlight.  It’s worth noting that during the 2002 MLB Draft which the Moneyball story was based, Beane compiled a list of twenty players he’d draft in a “perfect world” if he had his pick of the litter, and guess who made it onto his list – Khalil Greene.

What’s even more frustrating about Greene’s situation is that his issue isn’t cut-and-dry.  He didn’t strain his hamstring or pull a muscle in his arm.  There’s no timetable for anxiety.  There’s no amount of ice, cortisone, or Vicodin that can help ease the pain that Greene’s most likely feeling.  The uncertain nature of when an anxiety issue has actually run its course puts a strain not only on the player to ignore symptoms and get back on the playing field as soon as possible, but on the owner as well, since mental illness is viewed as a touchy subject, and many owners must walk on eggshells to avoid accusations of unjust treatment.  A level of compassion must be shown for these players, but as always, baseball is a business, and if you’re stagnant for too long and no longer helping the team, you’re expendable.

Skill-wise, Greene still has a lot left in the tank, and I certainly wouldn’t put a nail in his MLB coffin just yet.

Now, if only he could get out of his own head.

A quick Google search of “Boston Red Sox Blogs” brought back over 5.3 million hits, as the internet has exploded into a one stop shop where the games are dissected among its most passionate fans.

With this increased banter comes increased criticism, as today’s decision makers face naysayers both in person and on the web. Follow any game thread at a particular team’s blog, and you’ll find plenty of vitriol and attacks on the people in control of the team they love. There are even websites created hoping for the ouster of a General Manager or particular coach. Times are changing.

Not that we watch the games any differently, as nearly all of us have spent many a night yelling at the television over a call we felt was wrong. Second guessing is part of baseball, and always has been, but has the anonymity of the web made it too easy to criticize?

First off, it is important to realize that all the additional voices brought about by the web have been hugely beneficial in how we watch and analyze what’s happening on the field. Only because of this wave of creative minds do we have new statistical evaluations and more knowledgeable fanbases.

Social media makes any fan one step removed from the “experts” that cover the game, and the rapid speed at which “breaking news” becomes common sense is staggering. The world of baseball is expanding in numbers, but getting smaller as a community. It’s quite amazing to witness.

But, with all this excitement comes into question whether all the added negativity makes the environment worse off. I shouldn’t say worse, more so, is it easier to criticize now because it is all done without a face?

Blogs aren’t just a sideshow item anymore, with many of the best now taking center stage in the pantheon of baseball coverage. Sites such as Baseball Prospects and The Hardball Times are mainstream companies, and Rob Neyer (ESPN), Christina Kahrl (BP) and Keith Law (ESPN/Scout) are now members of the BBWAA, the body of writers that vote for the Hall of Fame.

Law probably shouldn’t be grouped with the rest, because his current job as a talent evaluator (scout) gets him out to the ballpark more than most beat writers. However, the names listed above and the million others who don’t get out to see games in person still have just as big a voice. Of course they deserve it, but does that make their job easier?

Sometimes we often forget we are dealing with people, flesh and blood that comes with emotions that often can cloud one’s judgment. I have found that despite of what I think of someone’s professional capability, that prism isn’t the sole way to determine their worth.

Their background, interests and rationale behind their decisions often matter as much as the outcome of their choice, and give you a better idea why they may succeed or fail at any particular endeavor. If you just look at the outcome, you may be missing out on truly understanding the value of what happened.

This applies to baseball because tough decisions are being made everyday. We aren’t privy to the complete thought process, just the final verdict after an entire organization tries a certain method to improve their club.

Yet, without taking anything else into account, we pass judgment on said move, labeling it a great idea or colossal bust without the proper time to even digest the reasons for what happened. Does that happen because a majority of us ready to criticize are so far removed from what’s taking place? I tend to think so.

When Raul Ibanez was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies this off-season, it didn’t take 10 minutes for Ruben Amaro Jr. (Philadelphia’s GM) to be hammered, called an “idiot” for making such a bad personnel decision. Amaro, a Stanford graduate and former major leaguer with 10 years of front office experience, learned first hand how quickly public perception can change.

Despite his best efforts to explain, many had already decided, and Ibanez was labeled as an overpaid liability that wasn’t a good bet to produce anywhere near was his contract said he should. Three months later, have opinions changed because Ibanez leads the league in home runs? Yes, but should they? Should the move have been panned before the Phillies new left fielder even had an official at bat with his new team?

No, it’s a three-year deal, so you can’t know the answer two months in, good or bad. But read many blogs who cover the team and they knew with absolute certainty it was an abject failure immediately. The question arises, how many of these people have even met Ruben Amaro, or spent time with him talking about baseball? Would that change their opinion?

Again, being critical is not a bad thing. It’s valuable and extremely important so that the wrong ideas aren’t credited with success. I just don’t think it’s fair to view players or administrators under a magnifying glass while those tossing the insults get away without being under the same high-powered lens. Maybe that’s just the nature of the business, but does that make it right? Should accountability run both ways?

I’m guilty of this more times than I care to admit, so when evaluating any move I find it valuable to go back and review what I wrote in the past to learn from the many instances I made a mistake. I even love rehashing those comments publicly, just to remind myself and my readers that what I write isn’t gospel, and that in the end we must all individually decide what’s best based on the information and opinion available.

The question I pose in this piece doesn’t have answer, but doesn’t mean it should be discussed. Again, politics and many other forms of business fall under this same umbrella, but we deal in baseball, so that’s how we explain it.

Robots don’t make personnel decisions, people do. Not matter how much the blogosphere tries to demonize or salute it, in the end we just don’t know all the factors involved. What worries me is that we don’t seem to care about that fact. Is it because we won’t ever have to justify the comment we write to that person face to face? Our anonymity hides us from facing the music, and I don’t know if that’s entirely a good thing. We’ll see.

Last week, Bill Bavasi was relieved of his duties, and so the obvious question was:

If you were offered the Mariners' GM job, what specific steps would you attempt to take between now and the trading deadline?

Things have been moving pretty quickly in Seattle since Bavasi's departure, and it appears things will continue to be shaken up.  Here's what some Baseball Digest Daily writers have to say:

Geoff Young:

First thing I would do is invent a time machine, get in it, and tell my predecessor not to sign Richie Sexson, Carlos Silva, Miguel Batista, and Jarrod Washburn, and not to trade for Erik Bedard. Of course, I would then create a paradox and probably wipe our planet out of existence. Then again, that might actually be an improvement for the Mariners.

On a less facetious note, I'm not sure there's a lot I could do right now. The most marketable guy who isn't The Franchise is probably a 36-year-old left fielder, and I don't see teams tripping all over themselves to get Raul Ibanez. Getting Jeff Clement into games would seem to be a priority. Maybe run Jeremy Reed out there a little more often, see if he's finally figured out what to do with big-league pitching. I would jettison Vidro — a DH who can't slug .350 serves no purpose. I would come up with a plan for Brandon Morrow and stick with it.

I would… actually, you said “offered.” On second thought, I'd respectfully decline and wait for a better opportunity.

Gordon Berger:

I guess I just got hired, since they just fired their GM.  I would play for next season.  We have the worst record in the majors, so it's time to look to the future.  This season's a loss, so now let's try to mitigate, trim the fat and build for the future.

I'd dump high-priced, underperforming veterans, like Richie Sexon.  I would seek to acquire a package of prospects for the veterans (much in the same way that the Orioles did in trading Erik Bedard to the M's).  Adam was the M's top-rated prospect.  According to Baseball America, the best M's prospect is Jeff Clement, who they ranked at number 42. However, the next best ranked prospect is Carlos Triunfel at number 62.

I'd fire the manager if I felt that he was not motivating or getting the most out of the players, but the M's already did that, so I had the hindsight with that one.

Rob McQuown:

I've thought about this a lot, since Bavasi was canned.  I'd always been somewhat more supportive of him than many in the blogosphere, which probably meant that his moves didn't make me puke, and I wouldn't call him all sorts of insulting names.  As I posted as a follow-up comment on the news blurb about Bavasi's firing, I would view the GM job has having two “stages”: the “horse trading” stage, and the “stability and growth” stage.

Regardless of whether I was in “horse trading” or “stability and growth” mode, I would do some obvious things immediately: Get Clement back into the lineup (done), get Wladimir Balentin back in the lineup (moving Ibanez to 1b), keep Ichiro in CF, but get him some rest days (1/wk), reduce Felix's workload.

For the “horse trading” stage stage, I would do the following:

A. Start at a spot most people wouldn't – Yuniesky Betancourt.  I'd have a scout and (statistical) analyst go over every single ball hit anywhere near him the past two years, and determine to the best of my ability whether he is really a good defensive shortstop or not.  To date, he's been much like Jeter – people who see him play consider him to be not just a “good” defensive shortstop, but a “GREAT” defensive shortstop.  Yet, every defensive metric paints him as being ineffective, allowing more balls to go past him than an average defender at the position.  Since Bedard and Felix both have good BABIP's, it's possible that the perceived defensive woes of the M's (and YuBet) are due largely to the ineffectiveness of the other SP.

B. “Bribe” other teams to take Sexson, Vidro, Silva, Bautista, and Washburn off my hands.  These players all have done things which can be spun properly by a good “salesman”, and other teams could certainly be convinced that they could use them – the amounts that they are overpaid would have to be considered an asset the M's would be receiving in return for them, and maybe even prospects and/or money would need to be sent along with these players to get them off the roster, but off they must go.

C. Ichiro has been vocal about wanting to play for a winner.  Investigate options to trade him, though it's certain to be all but impossible.

D. Shop Putz and Ibanez aggressively. These are two team roles that a bad team entering a rebuilding phase doesn't need to invest in.

E. See what some of the mediocre pitchers in AAA can do as starting pitchers – R.A. Dickey (done), Ryan Feierabend, Jake Woods, etc.  

F. Bedard has a career ERA of 3.84.  Work with his agent to get an extension in place that pays him for that level of performance.  If it's not possible (I'm sure his agent will start out by insisting on something closer to the value of a 3.16-ERA pitcher, as Bedard was in 2007), shop him aggressively.  An arm of that quality could really help a playoff team, and all the borderline playoff teams are at least talking about acquiring another arm.

G. Unless the team is sure that he cannot handle starting, get Morrow back into the role of a starting pitcher, ala Joba Chamberlain.

“Stability and Growth”

Making the moves above leaves the team with a core of:

C: Johjima and Clement
1b: (void)
2b: Lopez
3b: Beltre
ss: Betancourt (assuming he passes the scrutiny described above)
lf: Reed (probably needs a RH platoon-mate)
cf: Ichiro
rf: Balentien
dh: Clement and (void)

For those two “voids”, the M's really need some offensive firepower.  Ibanez wasn't too bad, but the M's need someone with more of their value in the future, not the past.  Fortunately, their talent pipeline isn't empty, and star prospect Michael Saunders looks almost ready.  From a financial perspective, leaving him in AAA until September callups probably makes sense, but it would be surprising if he's not able to take a side OF spot (or even CF, bumping Ichiro?) out of spring training next year.  LaHair isn't much of a prospect, but has always oozed power… he should be given a full-time MLB job the rest of 2008, to see if there's anything there.  Vic Diaz and Charlton Jimerson can fill in the rest of the “voids”, along with any advanced talent the M's get in trades.

There's a deep problem with the offense, though.  Starting with Ichiro, there are at least 5 key players who don't walk nearly as much as you'd like.  That means that when Johjima is hitting .229 like this year, or when Lopez hit .252 in 2007, they are incredible burdens to an offense.  For this team to really have a chance to compete, that “void” at 1b is going to need to be filled with an upper-echelon offensive player.  Such guys are – obviously – almost impossible to find.  Mark Teixeira wouldn't be a bad fit at all, and he's a free agent after this season.

SP: Felix, Bedard, Morrow

This trio has a chance to be among the best in the game.  Finding two more almost-league-average SP really isn't as hard (or expensive) as most teams make it out to be.  Maybe Feierabend can be one of these?  Maybe even Jake Woods?  The M's need to add at least one very-high-quality young arm in their trades.

RP: Ryan Rowland-Smith, Sean Green, Mark Lowe, etc.

Rebuilding teams shouldn't be worried about who's in their bullpen, and if Putz is traded, and Morrow moved to SP role, the pen can be used for auditions.