Not defending him but if we are going to tear him down on that, let’s lay the blame at the feet of the guy who begged for Willie II.

I am not as sour on Bavasi as others. He does seem to have an eye for scrapheap finds and that gives him points. His FA signings reek of Chuck & Howie. A GM should defer to his field manager up to a point. Problem with Bill is he seems to give his field managers too much rope.

Correct me if I am wrong but Sean Green was a Bavasi find, right? Norton wasn’t a bad low risk signing (if Mac would just use him). Burke and Dickey qualify as well.

The pros seem to be that Bavasi CAN evaluate talent it’s just that there seems to be a cast of characters he defers to when making his decisions (I could be wrong). He seems to be a consensus guy as well. Bob Fontaine qualifies as a pro as well. Bavasi’s drafts have been good. Too bad he traded most of them away.

The cons seem to be his love of all things gritty and then overpaying for them. I’d also say his loyalty to his field managers (Hargrove & Mac) counts too.

It will be recalled, btw, that Texeira was projected to go first, but fell to Texas based on signability, but he was a third baseman, not a first baseman before he was blocked by Hank Blalock.

and have caught a few bad breaks so far (injuries to Bedard and Putz, playing the O’s when they’re hot, etc

Baltimore is not hot. They’re just beating the Ms like a drum. The O’s are 7-8 against the rest of the league.

If Miguel Cairo is supposed to be mentoring Jose Lopez, give him a coaching job.

I thought Cairo was on the team so they could pinch run Willie and still have someone on the bench who was willing to could play any position. But I’m not sure which reason would be a bigger waste of a roster spot.

I have a lot of respect for Bill Bavasi as a man, and from everything I hear, I’d respect him as a boss, but his roster moves are, on balance, not good.

Anyway, there’s always an aging/slowing/hurting somebody who can be slotted into 1B/DH. Paying big bucks for those positions is just a waste of money unless you’re already loaded at every other spot.

So that makes Clement, what — trade bait?

I think we’re about to see Clement at DH in the majors, actually. There’s just no way they’re going to let Vidro’s option vest, or let him continue to “hit.” The Johjima extension seems like a pretty strong indicator of the M’s thinking on the matter.

Unless Joh falls off the proverbial cliff (which let’s acknowledge has a non-zero probability of happening, he’s getting old for a catcher), he’s an above-average hitter at the position for a below market price. If it’s two years and a club option, I’d do that in a second.

Well, actually, when it comes to the ever-important first round picks, CHowArmLinStrong actually control the pick (see Miller, Andrew).

I don’t want to discredit Fontaine — he’s an excellent and important part of this organization, but in Churchill’s 2008 Handbook, there’s an interesting little section on who Churchill sees as the top-10 most important people in the organization (including players, coaches, scouts, front office folks, etc). I won’t spoil the beans, but I agree 100% with Churchill that Bob Engle has been more important to this organization than Bob Fontaine.

As guys like Clement and Morrow (and Tillman and Butler, oh, wait, dammit!) matriculate, the debate becomes less one-sided, perhaps — but most of the players that have currently matriculated from within the system (or are close to doing so) have come from Engle, not Fontaine. Fontaine has definitely helped the system — I won’t deny that. But Engle’s still likely to be around and pulling superstars out of his you-know-what (Felix, Triunfel, etc…).

I would love to see Texiera or Ryan Howard in Mariner blue even at the 24 mill that Vidro and Richie take up.

I guess if the M’s are out of it near the trade deadline maybe someone will be interested in Ibanez or Washburn. Our only problem is our solution to our outfield woes is wearing #10 for Baltimore .

I’m thinking Wlad will probably play right and maybe, just maybe, they could get a usable part for Ibanez if we’re out of the running by then.

Asked afterwards how disappointing it was to lose a game they led by five runs, Ichiro said, “Disappointing isn’t the right word. Painful is the word. We had to win that game. We must win that game. That is how I felt.”

I feel you Ichi