Bavasi Fired
The M’s have fired General Manager Bill Bavasi. News conference shortly.
Lee Pelekoudas will take over as the interim GM and “a search for the new General Manager will begin immediately”. With as bad as this season has gone, it’s unlikely that they’ll promote anyone from within and try to call it change, so expect an outside hire. If Chris Antonetti isn’t on the potential interview list, we’ll burn Safeco to the ground.
And yes, with the new GM will come a new manager. McLaren’s being left in charge in order to not make the new GM feel obligated to keep around an interim GM in case the team starts winning immediately after Mac gets fired. The new guy will almost certainly bring in his own field staff.
Obviously, we’ve had our disagreements with Bill on roster construction and how to build a team, but as we’ve said repeatedly, he’s a really good person and it was our pleasure to host him at several USSM events in the past few years. I enjoyed all my conversations with him, and in the sense of having a good person to talk baseball with, I will miss him. But this is the right move for the organization.
I’d think the phrase ‘Boston Parking Lot Attendant’ should have a prominent place in your thoughts. Ie, it wasn’t just about DePodesta.
bout time.
Probably the prime reason that Bavasi got fired was the poor performance for the dollars spent. In my opinion, a critical flaw in Bavasi’s thinking was that you could build a contender with free agents. Since free agents are generally the worst value in baseball, we ended up with what we have currently….a highly paid losing team.
I would expect that the team payroll will decrease rather dramatically in the next year or two. Hopefully, the new GM will continue to build through the farm system and pick up some cheap talent a la Beane. Only when a good foundation is built should the team’s strong finances be leveraged, in my opinion. I am sick of the M’s overspending for mediocrities.
So what obvious transaction does Pelekoudas make to illustrate his soon-to-be-uttered statement that “changes will be made”? Recall Clement? DFA Sexson? Vidro?
I’m not happy about this nor am I dancing. This is a sad day for BB and my condolences go out to him. However, I do applaud the Mariners for making the right move for the organization and I’m hopeful the leadership can right the USS Mariner ship and get it moving in the right direction quickly. I’m sure most of us would have preferred that BB was wildly successful with the M’s and that we were all praising his name…but it didn’t work out that way.
Let’s all take a moment and raise our drinks to wish BB well as he walks away and to say a prayer for the M’s leadership to make the right decisions on who they bring in next.
If we bring in an Antonetti type, the draw would be a getting a guy who understands how to run a team cheaply in an environment where he is free to spend some money. Antonetti’s philosophy is to not spend more than about 20 percent of a team’s payroll on one player, but that doesn’t mean the team’s payroll would necessarily take a dive.
I think it would, but the selling point for the front office to Antonetti would be: “Aren’t you tired of rocking in Cleveland only to find out you can’t afford to keep your studs around as long as they’re valuable? Here, you can make moves, stay young and still spend when you need to.” Billy Beane has always maintained that he runs his team the way he does because of efficiency — meaning he would spend more money efficiently if he had more money to spend.
The issue isn’t total dollars. It’s how you spend those dollars.
I think we’ll see Clement back pretty quickly.
Beyond that, who knows. Literally anything, or nothing, could happen.
Now for phases 2 (Lincoln) and 3 (Armstrong) . . . which are to be followed immediately by phase 4 (McLaren) and its subsequent phases 5 (Vidro) through 19 (Washburn).
Also, congrats to the server for not melting amidst our onslaught of unbridled joy.
Can I suggest the return of the Antonetti campaign button? I miss it.
If you think about it, Bavasi’s entire tenure is summed up in the Carlos Guillen trade. We trade a productive, but at that point fragile, player to Detroit for a bag of balls not in order to improve the club, but to get rid of the player. Then we sign a bag of balls in Rich Aurilia to replace him, when the exact player we needed was in fact the Carlos Guillen who became an All-Star in Detroit. Carlos was at his peak; we paid Aurilia like he was at his peak when he was far, far past it. So dollars go out the door, performance diminishes and the M’s start sucking. That is Bavasi’s legacy.
The Guillen trade was pretty much done when Bavasi was hired. Or else he had to do it at gunpoint due to “chemistry issues.” Either way, the Guillen trade is NOT any way to sum up Bavasi’s tenure.
No, it’s the Soriano-for-Ramirez trade that is the signature event for me. He traded away an awesome live arm for a huge gamble on a starter that had never proved himself. And since that trade, the M’s have lacked a consistent setup guy and a #4 starter, the former dooming the M’s down the stretch last year and the latter dooming them this year.
If he’d held onto Soriano, Morrow would likely be the #4 starter this year, taking his lumps but probably pitching better than Ramirez and pushing Batista into the pen. Or maybe the Silva signing wouldn’t have happened. But with Soriano you probably wouldn’t have had Rick White blowing games in August last year, and just maybe they could have snuck into the wild card.
Here are my choices in order of preference:
Chris Antonetti
Paul DePodesta
David Forst
Kim Ng
Jed Hoyer
I’m guessing that the team goes after someone like Rob Antony though. My worst fear is that Cashman gets fired before the end of the year.
Wow…but in a good way. This is one of those things that absolutely had to happen for the sake of the organization, but it is only half the job. I was a little surprised as others have said that Bavasi would go before McLaren. But this kind of all begins to make a little sense now…
…Bavasi is gone with an interim GM in place now. Wouldn’t expect to see anything happen to McLaren until the new full time GM arrives, at which time it will be their decision about manager and coaching staff.
It may be the remainder of the year before any wholesale changes get made but it seems they’re closer than they’ve been. As for the players I think they’re now playing for their future with the Mariners.
Of course if the wrong person gets picked for the GM spot then all this is academic…
Or, is Bavasi’s tenure epitomized by the Carlos Silva deal? He signed a starting pitcher that no one wanted, to a deal that no one else would have given him just to shore up the rotation on a team that was not close to contending. Plus, he did this while ignoring that every possible sign pointed to Silva as being a disaster waiting to happen. Really, I think there are too many ill-fated moves to point out just one.
Nah, it’s epitomized by the Washburn deal. Same thing as the Silva deal, but worse and earlier.
Or, is Bavasi’s tenure epitomized by the Carlos Silva deal? He signed a starting pitcher that no one wanted, to a deal that no one else would have given him just to shore up the rotation on a team that was not close to contending. Plus, he did this while ignoring that every possible sign pointed to Silva as being a disaster waiting to happen. Really, I think there are too many ill-fated moves to point out just one.
Seriously, you could replace “Carlos Silva” with Jarrod Washburn, Miguel Batista, Bad Weaver, etc.
Richie Sexson is the epitome;
He took hometown guys, and when they didn’t do well, he’d refuse to sit them/trade them/replace them in order to preserve “clubhouse chemistry” and the interests of passing fans.
I like that Rob Neyer’s blog over at espn.com is quoting Dave’s comments on this thread. Good to see some more national coverage about ussm.
Either Armstrong or Lincoln I think said something about looking under all of their rocks…I think that they are confused. Do you know what you find under rocks? Crabs, worms, insects, maggots…envision Bavasi: (overturns rock) “Hey guys, I found a left-handed pitcher with no out pitch and an 87 mph fastball. This must be a jarrodsuckitus maximus! I think I’ll catch it and pay it 9.8 million dollars!”
I’ll second a lot of the previous commenters, in that I’m not celebrating until I see who the replacement is. I sure hope McL is gone soon too.
Check out Dave Pinto at BB Musings. He links to his post from when Bavasi was hired as the M’s GM, and like the USSM (whose objections he mentions), he didn’t like the hire. He also points out that Bavasi’s record over his tenure here is the 3rd worst in the AL. Given the M’s enormous resources, that’s pretty damning.
I thought this was funny, but true…
I feel that my dreams have finally come true today, but I am very worried for the days and weeks to come. The organization is a mess, but it is a mess because of those above Bavasi. Before they can successfully rebuild this franchise they need a change in philosophy. Their “make more money now” attitude isn’t working anymore. For example, I think Johjima was signed to please the Japanese market rather than his play on the baseball field. The recent idea to give away our entire farm system for Griffey puts butts in the seats this year instead of winning for the next 3 or 4 years. Unless they change their game plan, our next GM is gonna have the same problems.
Well, I guess you can take the “Pepe Vidro” commercial out of rotation.
Well that happened when Pentland was fired. Now we just have to fire Vidro and that commercial will be done for good.
Why? You just recut it, Poochie-style.
“Hey Pepe, I didn’t know you had a twin brother. That’s nice. I HAVE TO GO NOW.” (Bavasi ascends through top of frame)
And then a handwritten title card appears on the screen informing viewers that Bavasi died while returning to his home planet.
Bavasi will always only be Destro. Destro doesn’t run Cobra.
Armstrong is Cobra Commander and Lincoln is Serpentor.
If Cobra is ever to rule the world, new leadership will be needed at the top.
It’s sad to see a genuinely good guy fail.
Best of luck to you, Bill.
Regarding DePodesta, why is there an assumption that a guy who’s fired at his first job of a certain sort can’t get better at it?
From out here in Massachusetts, I offer the example of Bill Belichick who didn’t win that much as coach of the Cleveland Browns (he inherited a terrible roster). The chorus of nays when he was hired by the Patriots was deafening. After one year building the team up they’ve been terrific.
People learn. People get better. Not always, but it does happen. Paul DePodesta actually made mostly good decisions with the Dodgers but he could have played some of the public relations and internal relations parts of the job better. Is it so beyond the pale to believe that a very bright, and by most accounts, personable young guy could get better at those things?
Yup.
Remember who you’re dealing with. A team that thinks 15 games is enough to see that a rookie can’t cut it. And that veteran goodness trumps inexperienced talent.
Today has been a roller coaster for me, personally.
I lost my job today, and was feeling kinda down and watched the US open playoff. Even though Tiger won it and deserved the win, I felt for Rocco.
Then, on the way home, I get the news the Bavasi joined me in the unemployment line. My spirits soared! I found myself thinking the Mariners could have a chance in the future. (Emphasis on *could*.)
By tonight, even though we got waxed yet again, I see Dennis Raben got a Web Gem on ESPN. And I’ve even got a few leads on new jobs.
The future is looking brighter and brighter.
Bavasi’s tenure of ineptitude leaves a black mark on a Mariners franchise that has worked desperately to erase a stained legacy of losing over the last 25 years. While Bavasi’s work, like a tangled mess of fishing line, will take years to undo, I find myself feeling oddly sympathetic and proud of the man that I once tabbed as “the bald Geico caveman”.
The tumult for the 2008 season extended beyond the field for Bavasi as his father, and mentor Buzzie Bavasi, died on May 1st. Bavasi, never used his father’s death as an excuse to duck questions from inquiring reporters as to the cataclismic collapse of the team that he put together. As the M’s struggles continued, he further took it upon himself to remove the post game spread and towels from the locker room until each player made themselves available to answer questions fired at them by local media members.
Ultimately, the accumulation of poor free agent signings, terrible managerial hires, dubious draft history, inefficient and poorly planned player development, and the lack of attention to team chemistry have sunk the Mariner ship and they had no choice but to toss their helmsman overboard. To his credit, Bavasi candidly fielded questions from the media for about 45 minutes. How many people, on the heels of being fired and ridiculed by strangers across the country would have the desire to stand up and answer for their failure to perform their duties? I would venture to say that many of us would opt to go home and wait for the severance check.
This stands out to me as being a huge indicator of the person that Bavasi is beyond his failures as a General Manager. Bavasi, by all accounts, is a man of solid integrity, dedication to his family and to his work. I wish him the best of luck in all of his life ventures and forgive him for the damage he has done to my beloved Mariners!