Change at the top

Breaking:

Mariners fire GM Bill Bavasi

Mariners general manager Bill Bavasi has been fired by the club today.

Vice president/associate general manager Lee Pelekoudas will take over as the interim GM effective immediately. He is the eighth GM in team history.

"Change is in order," Howard Lincoln said in a statement released by the team. "We have determined new leadership is needed in the GM position. With a new leader will come a new plan and a new approach. A search will begin immediately for a permanent GM, and Lee will be a candidate for the position."

From Baker's Blog this morning:

Prepare the next sacrifice

Anyhow, back to today's topic. Looks like firing the hitting coach wasn't enough, huh? In six games under the teachings of Lee Elia, the M's have scored a whopping 16 runs. Less than three per game. But wait, it gets better. Take away Friday's affair, when they put up six runs, mostly after trailing 7-1, and Seattle has scored 10 runs over the other five games. Yup, two per contest. Yikes.

As we wrote last week, the Pentland firing was just the first of other sacrifices to come that this awful team will have to spread out carefully in order to actually have enough bodies left to finish the season with. Imagine if a mass purge had occurred last week. Who would be left to toss overboard now? The M's likely assumed they would win at least two of three against the Nats. They were wrong and now, they have to ready the next offering to irate fans.

Does this have to happen today? No, it does not. The team can probably afford to wait until Thursday, the next off-day after the upcoming Florida Marlins series. Why is that? Two words (well, four actually): Felix Hernandez and Carlos Silva.

It happened today, as Geoff notes in his very next post:

Now, what does this mean for the future? I'd say we're more likely to see an overall house-cleaning of this team over the next few months than simply a "two or three bats" addition. Bavasi was the one who brought in pitcher Erik Bedard with an eye towards contending in 2008 or 2009. Had the team's ownership and management ranks believed that contending in 2009 was possible, it might have held on to Bavasi one more year. The only other way there is no housecleaning is if someone who specializes in putting a team over the top, like a Pat Gillick, were to come on instead. Remember, Gillick is now in what could be his final season with the Philadelphia Phillies.

But the more likely scenario is, you bring in a new GM who gets his own 3-to-5-year plan to make things work. After all, Lincoln describes "a new plan and a new approach" that would seem to negate the current plan. Those of you who wanted to blow the whole thing up will likely get their wish.

The press conference is at 4:00pm CDT. I'll be on the road, but will check in later. In the meantime, check out the Times. For fan reaction, head over to USS Mariner and Lookout Landing.