Safe Company

As I’m sure you all have read or heard about, the Mariners fired their general manager Bill Bavasi yesterday. Larry Stone has a nice rundown of potential replacements for the Mariners, but let’s be honest, this is the first progressive move the organization has made in a few seasons. As much as everyone would love to believe this team is suddenly going to take a step in a new direction – which doesn’t just mean a “stat head” getting the job, but rather a non-rehash -- it’s at best 50/50, in fact some Mariner fans are even expecting the new hire to be a downgrade from the often criticized Bavasi. So what better way to “categorize” the choices but by naming them after grunge band songs?

Smells Like Teen Spirit: The sexy picks

Chris Antonetti - Cleveland Indians Assistant GM, helped to master the DiamondView program along with Mark Shapiro and current Pittsburgh Pirates' GM Neal Huntington. David Cameron at U.S.S Mariner definitely wants the guy, and he was considered an option to replace Theo Epstein not too long ago in Boston. 

Paul DePodesta - San Diego Padres Assistant GM, Moneyball fame, has former general managing experience which is likely a plus in the Mariner book. I'd imagine the idea of staying on the west coast is a plus for DePodesta, if nothing else it should be interesting to see if he addresses the idea on his personal blog. I covered DePodesta's tenure here and did an interview with him as well here .

David Forst - Oakland A's Assistant GM, another Moneyball "character", Forst's background is similar to DePodesta's before his Dodger tenure. Jonah Keri sat down with Forst in spring training to discuss the A's off-season and with nearly ten years worth of front office experience Forst’s relatively young age (31) could be overlooked.

Tony LaCava  - Toronto Blue Jays director of player personnel, and a pretty sought after name in the past few years. LaCava has been a part of numerous successful organizations and is quite experienced at the scouting level. Bucco Blog endorsed LaCava for the vacant Pittsburgh job last year.

The Black Hole Sons: The connected, but unfortunate picks

Pat Gillick – No offense to Gillick, but returning to the man that Bavasi replaced is hardly progress, despite Gillick’s impressive résumé.  He’s also indicated multiple times that he will indeed retire at the end of this season.  

Jim Beattie – Beattie teamed with Mike Flanagan in Baltimore to form what Baseball Think Factory called “Beatagan”. That pretty says it all.

Allard Baird – To be fair to Baird, working under one of the stricter owners in the game couldn’t have been easy, but again, this is not the direction the Mariners should step towards.

Given to Fly: The intriguing, but unlikely picks

Logan White - Los Angeles Dodgers Assistant GM and the architect of the Dodger farm system and young talent, White would bring unrivaled draft approach.

Kim Ng – Los Angeles Dodgers Assistant GM, would become the first female general manager in any sport, has a ton of experience in the front office between the Dodgers and White Sox.

Jack Zduriencik - Milwaukee Brewers Director of Amateur Scouting and the first non-general manager winner of Baseball America's Executive of the Year award.

Keith Law – ESPN.com writer, former assistant to the general manager in Toronto, however unlikely it is that Law would be heavily considered, but he possesses a nice combination of scouting ability and statistical understanding.