At some point a team like the Mariners has to retool and go through a bit of a growth period. Teams like New York, Boston, and even Atlanta can continue to stay competitive nearly every year because they don’t have to really develop a farm system except for to trade for guys that are making way too much money. It skews everything as they don’t have down seasons really. But other teams can win, and have proven they can. The Yankees don’t win a lot of World Series if you consider what they put in. They win a lot of games and are always in the playoffs, but that is the way the system is set up.

The M’s ownership will NEVER be like that. So they have to scrap it and this is the year. Now they need to build it right to have some sustained success. Bill Bavasi was NOT the man for the job. Maybe Jack Z isn’t either. We’ll find out this year. If we don’t see growth then he should be gone, but not before Chuck and the Duck go first, so that somebody else can choose the new honcho.

That being said, if this helps the team get better in the future, I’m okay.

I’m worried that the Mariners never get better and the old guard doesn’t care as long as they draw 2 million fans

BTW, my caption for the Wedge picture:
“I saw them! They were green and this tall!”