John Blanchette: M’s effort nets needed front-line starter

So Bill Bavasi has drawn his line in the sand.

Or did he just mark where they should start digging his grave?

Whatever, we shouldn’t have to wait as long to find out as we did for the consummation of the deal that brought ace pitcher Christy Mathewson – sorry, Erik Bedard – from Baltimore to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for Swiss Army outfielder Adam Jones, George Somebody from the bullpen and the entire roster of the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx.

You’ve heard of the Trade of the Century? This is the Trade That Took a Century.

“I know it seems like it was a long time coming,” said Bavasi, the Mariners general manager who had to keep pushing on this end. “But these are high-stakes deals and we were getting one hell of a player and moving some real good players along. A lot of details go along with that.”

Like making sure Orioles owner Peter Angelos’ morning toast is buttered on the right side, that his bed is made up with hospital corners and that he steps on no sidewalk cracks between his limo and his office door. You can never be sure what part of Angelos’ day has to go wrong for him to blow up a trade.

In this case, he was probably so alarmed by Bavasi’s aggressiveness in pursuit of Bedard that he suspected the deal had to be booby-trapped. Maybe Angelos needed to see for himself that Kam Mickolio, the 6-foot-9 minor league throw-in, was who the M’s said he was and not Richie Sexson in disguise.

After all, you don’t want to get stuck rebuilding with a first baseman who hits .205. Now, a pennant contender can absorb that kind of liability.

Can’t it?

There has been much hot-stove debate over the Bedard trade because A) it had the gestation period of a humpback whale and B) the stoves have required constant stoking this winter here in Baja British Columbia. Naturally, much of the hand-wringing was done over having to part with Jones, who not only has the five heavenly tools, but also time: For a few years, at least, he can be paid a relative pittance.

Beyond that was the question of whether this actually brings the Mariners any nearer the Angels in pursuit of the big bauble in the American League West right now.

Do we have to ask? In Bedard, Bavasi has landed a Cy Young-level No. 1 starter, a power pitcher with enormous strikeout ability – albeit one who has never thrown 200 innings in any of his four big-league seasons. Plus, there was the earlier – and regrettably inflated – signing of free-agent starter Carlos Silva, who for what he lacks in Bedard’s dominance seems to make up for in durability.

Throw them together with Felix Hernandez, Jarrod Washburn and Miguel Batista and it’s a top-of-the- line rotation – especially since Horacio Ramirez doesn’t qualify to be part of it.

“Without putting any undue pressure on any one guy, we have four guys – and now five – that can go out every night and win, or give us a good chance to win,” Bavasi said. “We’re not trying to make one guy the focal point. We’re saying this makes us a good, solid five-man staff.

“Maybe as good as there is.”

With the Angels a mere six games to the good in the standings last season, surely the M’s have already ordered champagne for the traditional locker-room spray-orgy when the 2008 flag is clinched.

Well, not so fast.

Baseball’s Beautiful Minds have unholstered their slide rules and discovered that the 88 wins the M’s managed a year ago were something of a mirage. The fact they were outscored by 19 runs over the course of the season means, by the sport’s new algebra, that Seattle should have finished closer to .500. Of course, some of us were never very good at math – Ryan Feierabend, for instance. He was the M’s pitcher of record in losses of 17-3 and 16-1, which more than accounts for that run differential.

Still, it is obvious that if the 2007 Mariners did not overachieve, they licked the bowl clean. Their hit total should have produced far more runs, they lost no position players to the disabled list and only Sexson among the regulars was a bust, while several had career years. Not all of those moons will align again, especially since their everyday lineup has been compromised by the loss of Jones and Jose Guillen.

But Bedard and Silva are stunning upgrades to Ramirez and – brace yourself – Jeff Weaver. Perhaps the M’s were more than just one exceptional player from their grail and maybe this won’t get them close enough – but not making the deal wasn’t going to get them closer, either.

“That’s the whole point,” Bavasi said. “We thought these are the two years we need to make another step.”

He’s right. Maybe a little desperate, but right. Because if they don’t make a step, it will likely be suggested that Bavasi himself take one – and keep taking them.