What do you look forward to seeing from the Mariners in 2008?

However, I am hoping that the M's front office will simply copy what is working for other clubs.  

A few years ago, young stathead college-kid GMs were still pretty controversial.  However, look at the success of new-school GMs with teams like Arizona, Boston, Cleveland, and Oakland.  Boston is pretty much the model franchise in MLB, and Cleveland and Arizona went far into the playoffs.  Even the Yankees have gotten smart.  Its not stats versus scouts anymore.  There are more and more clubs who are run by people who know how to evaluate talent, and fewer and fewer 'Baseball Guys' are filling GM positions around the league.  

Its not about reading Moneyball and breaking with tradition now.  Its not just small market clubs or the odd maverick organizagion anymore.  Boston, Detroit, New York (Yanks), Milwaukee, Cleveland, Arizona, Tampa Bay, Texas, Oakland, and Minnesota (just off the top of my head) are all run by younger GMs who are lightyears better at their jobs than Bavasi, and the success of many of those clubs is readily visible.  The best clubs are doing things a lot differently than the M's, and they are advancing deep into the playoffs.  

I don't like Lincoln and Armstrong much, but I have to believe that they would at least be smart enough to look around the league at what is working for other clubs, and simply copy that.  

Every organization wants to have success like Boston and Cleveland.  Hopefully the M's ditch Bavasi and try to import some of that success by stealing away a good GM candidate from one of these franchises.  

But perhaps I am just being too optimistic.