Confidence!

Well, why not? Armstrong’s the idiot who brought them aboard in the first place. (Normally, a “vote of confidence” would be a good sign, but I have the sinking suspicion it’s serious.)

One more thing: if you think (inexplicably) that you have a championship quality roster and it has the worst record in the league, how can this be a defense of the manager? Aren’t managers aren’t, you know, supposed to get teams to achieve what, or ideally more, than they’re capable of? This really is Bavasi in a nutshell.

UPDATE BY ROB:

“In my 23 years, I have never ever seen anything like this,” Armstrong told MLB.com. “We saw it the other way in 2001. I mean, you have to ask yourself, ‘How did the Mariners win 116 games that season with that roster, compared to this roster?’ This is just as inexplicable the other way.”

Ahem. And ahem. And this doesn’t take into account the fact, of course, that the 2001 Mariners were one of the finest defensive teams in the history of baseball.