In A Previous Life, Bill Bavasi Was the Eskimo to Whom You Could Sell Ice
Mariners with Felix Hernandez
Record: 2-0
Payroll: $106,516,833
Mariners without Felix Hernandez
Record: 3-9
Payroll: $106,096,833
Sometimes, words can't tell the story as well as numbers. Look at that--the $106 million of player that Mariners GM Bill Bavasi recruited to surround Felix Hernandez can't manage to win more than 25% of its games.
To put it another way--0.39% of the Mariners' payroll is responsible for 40% of its wins.
The blueprint for the season was this:
1) The M's go 20-10 in Hernandez' 30 or so starts.
2) They somehow manage to play .500 ball in games started by other pitchers.
If 1) and 2), then the M's win 90 games, which might be enough in a weak AL West.
Instead, neither 1 (injury) or 2 (optimism) looks likely. Without Hernandez, the M's appear to be not just bad, but '62 Mets bad.
After Jeff Weaver (who makes 19 times more than Hernandez) botched his chance to stop the M's week-long losing streak, the $106 million men will turn to...some fella named TBA to stop the bleeding in today's game versus the Tom Emanski Baseball School Texas Rangers.
