Fire Bill Bavasi - The beginning of baseball season

The Seattle Mariners, along with the rest of the MLB, kick into high gear next week, and while I am and always will be a loyal fan, I am preparing for the worst: a fourth place finish once again in the AL West, and perhaps the loss of one of the greatest players in the game: Ichiro Suzuki.

Several years ago, when the Mariners were off-and-on again in regards to the playoffs, I criticized Alex Rodriguez (and still do) for abandoning his loyal fans to go to a crappy Texas Rangers team for a shit load of money. Why leave a good team for a bad team just for more money you're not going to use?

Anyway, the point of my story is that I cannot blame Ichiro for leaving, if he does at the end of this season. Why stay with a team that sucks, when your dream, like any other baseball player's dream, is to play in and win the World Series? And yes, you should stick it through the bad years like Ichiro has, but when your management shows no sign of doing anything to help the team, what's worth waiting around for? Bill Bavasi, general manager of the Mariners, like the general managers before him, has failed to make a big trade once again. We're stuck with the same team that could do well if everyone has career years, but with exception to 2001, that doesn't happen. I like Beltre and Sexson and some of the other guys, but in a season where Bavasi really needed to make the big deals to keep people interested in the Mariners and to give us even a long shot at winning the division, he purchased B-grade players that are lackluster at best. Fire him now, and let's move on to the next crappy Mariners general manager!

In a Yahoo! sports prediction I read today, the Mariners were of course rated at the bottom of the division, but the prediction also included staff picks of who would be the first to be hired. Guess what? Bavasi, and Mariners manager Mike Hargrove, were both on the list!