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As Mr. Watson told you yesterday, the Seattle Mariners finally went ahead and did what we'd all been waiting for them to do for a few weeks now: they fired general manager Bill Bavasi. In other words, Monday was probably the best day that Seattle sports fans have had in a while, and a cause for celebration.With the pending move of the Sonics, and the Mariners struggles this season, there hasn't been much to cheer about in the Emerald City lately. Still, while there's some debate in New York about the Mets firing Willie Randolph (was it deserved? did they go about it the right way? etc.), I don't think there's much debate amongst Mariners fans about how they feel for this move. If they're upset about anything, it's probably that Bavasi was the only one to go and that the team can't fire Richie Sexson.
As Watson mentioned in his post yesterday, Bavasi's tenure in Seattle is not one littered with success. He gave questionable contracts to Sexson, Carlos Silva, and Adrian Beltre (though I think Beltre has been a good addition to the club), actually gave Jeff Weaver $8 million to suck for a season, and made trades like sending Carlos Guillen to Detroit for Ramon Santiago. Those are some devastating moves, and yet, that's only part of what Bavasi did to help bring this organization down.
Ever since Bavasi took over for Pat Gillick in 2003, everything he's touched has turned to crap in Seattle. It all started when Lou Piniella left Seattle in what was essentially a trade to Tampa because without Gillick running things, Lou didn't really want to stick around any longer. It's as though Lou knew what to expect (Mariners fans may want to turn away now).
Bavasi then fired Lou's replacement, Bob Melvin, in favor of Mike Hargrove. Hargrove did nothing to improve the Mariners during his time there, and then quit halfway through the 2007 season. Melvin went on to Arizona and won Manager of the Year.
While most of free-agent signings Bavasi is criticized for are the big money deals I talked about earlier, there were also the great acquisitions of Scott Spiezio, and Brad Wilkerson. Then there were the trades for Jose Vidro, and the one that sent Rafael Soriano to Atlanta for Horacio Ramirez.
Finally, there was the fact that he signed Kenji Johjima to a three-year contract extension despite the fact that Seattle's top prospect (after the trade for Erik Bedard which is still too early to really make a judgment on, but since Bavasi made it, there's a 95% chance it will end up as a horrible move) is Jeff Clement. A catcher.
So as you can see, Bavasi's time in Seattle is one that's marked with failure, and though I don't think his dismissal is going to turn the Mariners season around or anything, it was the best move the team could make to give itself a chance to be competitive next season.
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