Do good GMs grow on trees?

Alas, apparently they do not. However, some do spawn in the muck, and we've got one in Bill Bavasi.

There are some good ones out there: Billy Beane, Omar Minaya, Brian Cashman, Terry Ryan, Dave Dombrowski, Theo Epstein, Walt Jocketty, Kevin Towers, to name a few. Those lucky teams have seen recent, sustained success, several (Oakland, Minnesota, San Diego) with bottom-half payrolls. Contrast that to our beloved M's, who have what most ranking lists show to be one of the very worst GMs in all of baseball.

Terrible trades and free agent signings aside, the part of this rebuilding effort that has disturbed me the most is the unwillingness to do a complete tear-down. The M's have vainly tried to compete over the last four years, coming modestly close in 2007 and thus providing what I believe will prove to be utterly false hope to Seattle fans. Contrast this with the full rebuild that Cleveland did, and where the two franchises stand today. Cleveland is a true division favorite, whereas Seattle seems poised for a cratering this season and is, at best, a distant also-ran to the Angels. Cleveland has four more players under 30 on their 40-man roster and what appears to be a hell of a lot more logically constructed team. Oh yeah - they spent about $45 million less on payroll in 2007.

I miss Pat Gillick. Heck, Bavasi is making me yearn for (gulp) Woody Woodward again.