I think what has been most puzzling about this off-season is the way the M's have made a lot of moves that don't seem to have any possibility of improving the team in a meaningful way. What do these moves say?
First, that they weren't convinced that they were going to get any help from their promising young players. Signing Jose Guillen says you don't expect Jeremy Reed to do anything. Trading away Soriano and Snelling for players that, to put it mildly, don't create much enthusiasm says you only expected them to be marginal contributors.
Second, that a drastic change in course was unnecessary. The easiest way to say this is to fire your manager, a move that in this case has the added benefit of actually improving the team. In fact, none of Bavasi's major moves (Reed, Sexson, Beltre, Hargrove, Washburn, Betancourt) have been traded away--he either won't cut his losses or can't see that any of them are a drag on the team's production.
So if you think a major change in course is unnecessary, why all the activity? The M's are spinning their wheels as an organization, and that, I think, is what is most depressing about the state of this franchise now.
I've had a great off-season, however, thanks to a new, er, development that has taken priority over blogging:
Here's to a good year, baseball-wise or other.
