Eye eye, captain! (Or, look what the tide washed in today!)

We are among the cast of thousands of fans clamoring for Bavasi to fix our beloved Mariners for the long term, and to do so in concrete, specific ways like flipping valuable players who will not be on the next good Mariners team for other players who might.

Last night, Randy Winn was sent to San Francisco for one-time pitching prospect Jesse Foppert, coming back this year from TJ surgery, along with a young major league catcher who has never really been given a chance (Yorvit Torrealba).

Last night, Miguel Olivo was sent to San Diego for disappointing catcher Miguel Ojeda and marginally intriguing RHP Natanael Mateo. Mateo has been a reliever in the AA Mobile BayBears bullpen this season, with 15 walks, 39 Ks, and a 3.08 ERA in 52 2/3 IP. He'll be 25 on Christmas Eve, so I doubt that he's much of a prospect, but I hear that he's good a better fastball than I do. Meanwhile, Ojeda will caddy for Torrealba for the foreseeable future.

Like with the Beltre and Sexson deals last offseason, I see eye to eye with Bavasi on this pair of trades. Winn, valuable in the short term but blocking Chris Snelling or Shin-Soo Choo, brings us a major league quality catcher to play until Jeff Clement is ready. Foppert might flame out (I'm not on the bandwagon, but he's been touted as one of the top pitching prospects in the past), it is true. He is, however, the kind of near-major-league-ready starting pitching option that we really needed to be digging up. Even shipping out Olivo and getting anything at all in return is, well, neat.

Add to this that we got rid of Bret Boone's salary and attitude, (along with his miserable glove and bat) a few weeks ago, and I'm increasingly impressed by our GM's trade savvy.

Bill Bavasi, I salute you.