Best And Worst

With the joyous news that Bill Bavasi had been fired, I began my research to compile a list of the best and worst trades made during his tenure.

I'll start out with the best because it shouldn't take too long.

Freddy Garcia and Ben Davis for Jeremy Reed, Mike Morse, and Miguel Olivo. For my money this is hands down the best for one reason and one reason alone. Garcia had one mediocre year after leaving Seattle and then quickly began fading into unemployment while Reed and Morse are still in the organization. Plus it allowed us to rid ourselves of Ben Davis.

Next is the much maligned Chris Snelling and Emiliano Fruto for Jose Vidro move. I hated it at the time, but since Snelling has remained healthy enough to have 73 at bats in the last 2 years, culminating in his unceremonious release by the Phillies last week, and Fruto hasn't set foot in the majors since leaving town, this one works out in our favor, although every day that Vidro stays on the roster with his outrageous salary this year and takes playing time away from better prospects, the worse this deal gets. With any luck the first move that the new GM makes will be to designate him and Sexson for assignment.

That's it for the good, now onto the bad.

Rafeal Soriano for Horacio Ramirez has to be the worst for obvious reasons. I can't even discuss it without getting angry.

Carlos Guillen for Ramon Santiago and Juan Gonzales. Guillen has hit .312 with 71 HR and 339 RBI since the trade. Enough said.

Randy Wynn for Yorvit Torrealba and Jesse Foppert. Who?

Jamie Moyer for Andy Baldwin and Andrew Barb. See above.

George Sherrill, Adam Jones, Chris Tillman, Tony Butler, and Kam Mickolio to the Orioles for Erik Bedard. Bedard has been really inconsistent while Sherrill has turned into one of the best closers in the league. Bedard could turn out to be a good player for the M's, but the price to get him was way way way too high. Way.

Now he has made some decent free agent signings since all we had to give up for them was cash, although many cost us much more cash than they were worth. And don't forget that among those free agents were Scott Spiezio, Rich Aurilia, Jarrod Washburn, Carl Everett, Pokie Reese, Jeff Weaver, and Brad Wilkerson.

Let's just hope for a better GM in the future, not to mention a manager who will let young prospects play enough to develop before trading them for overpriced underperforming veterans. And since the Mariners just are now trailing the Marlins 6-1 with the bases loaded, I have to stop now and perform an emergency channel change.