I've made fun of many general managers before. People who have read my "work" know that I hold Ned Colletti, Jim Hendry, and Mike Flanagan in very low esteem. None of these men are the worst GM in baseball. That honor/shame goes to Bill Bavasi of the Seattle Mariners. Bill Bavasi is a mysterious character. Mysteries like "how could anyone be so stupid as to sign Adrian Beltre to a $64 million contract when he'd been a below average hitter for three of the previous four years?"

Really, that one isn't very fair. I know why he gave Beltre that contract. He did it because Beltre was coming off a sensational career year in 2004, having posted a 163 OPS+. What I don't know is why Bavasi thought that Beltre was going to continue along that path, as opposed to the well-established one of mediocrity he'd been steadily plugging along at for several years before.

Everybody's entitled to one mistake, though, right? I mean, Beltre had been a highly-touted prospect, and it was conceivable, if not reasonable, that he could have turned the corner into stardom. How about Horacio Ramirez? When the Red Sox were searching for a closer this offseason, they should have checked into Rafael Soriano, who was apparently available for the low, low price of one crummy and injury-prone pitcher. Soriano has thrown 171 innings in his major league career with a 2.89 ERA and a 177-53 K/BB ratio. Ramirez is an injury prone sinkerballer with lousy home run rates and horrendous K rates. Also, he made $2.2 million last year, as compared to $450,000 for Soriano. Which one would you rather have?

That certainly seemed like a steal for John Schuerholz; on the other hand, John Schuerholz steals from a lot of people. He's a pretty sensational GM. Jim Bowden, on the other hand, is not a sensational GM. So getting screwed by him is going to be a good bit harder to justify. Bavasi traded OF Chris Snelling and RP Emiliano Fruto to Bowden's Nationals for 2B Jose Vidro. Vidro, you may remember, is a former all-star from the days of the Montreal Expos. Snelling is a highly-touted hitting prospect who has been slowed by injuries (think a poor man's Nick Johnson), and Fruto is a young, righthanded power arm who has shown control problems in the past, but seemed to have solved them in AAA last year, posting a very strong season at age 22. Apparently Bill doesn't like young, righthanded power arms. Vidro declined a great bit last year, and posted a line of .289/.348/.395. Snelling posted a major league line of .250/.360/.427. Oh, by the way, Bavasi acquired Vidro to be his DH. He acquired Vidro, who will make over $7 million next year, to be his designated hitter, despite the fact that Vidro can no longer hit. If money and age were no object, I'd rather have Snelling as my DH next year than Vidro, and here Bavasi has sacrificed both to get an inferior player. Ouch.

To top this offseason of horror off, Bavasi was the "winner" of the Jeff Weaver sweepstakes, and will pay over $8 million to verify that his limited postseason success was a fluke. Honestly, do we really believe that Weaver's 30 postseason innings last year are a better indicator of future success than the 1568 he's thrown over the course of his major league career? Weaver had an ERA+ of 76 last year. That is not just regular bad. That is horrendous.

So, Bill Bavasi, we salute you. You suck.

Questions? Comments? Insults? I welcome all at peter.bard@gmail.com