General manager Bill Bavasi has been stalling, disinclined to give up on a team that swept the Angels in a four-game series at Anaheim on the eve of the All-Star break. But the Mariners are 2-3 since the break, producing the kind of inconsistent work that’s plagued them all season: When they get OK pitching efforts, they don’t score enough runs. When they score enough runs — as they did Tuesday night at Toronto, where they broke out for 10 — they are undermined by terrible pitching.

This team would be unwatchable were it not for the fresh faces who have arrived since Bavasi suspended competitive operations for a necessary housecleaning last summer. Phase I brought Jeremy Reed, Mike Morse and Miguel Olivo for Garcia. Phase II brought Richie Sexson and Adrian Beltre as free agents.

Now it’s time for Phase III: Initiating trade talks with every contender for the likes of left-handed closer Eddie Guardado, starting pitcher Jamie Moyer, outfielder Randy Winn, and lefty set-up reliever Ron Villone.

Each could bring some young talent into the organization — especially Guardado, who deserved to be the Mariners’ lone representative in the All-Star Game. With his age issues (he turns 35 on Oct. 2), contract issues (there are club/player options for 2006) and health issues (a torn rotator cuff that might yet require surgery), Guardado’s trade stock never will be more valuable than it is today.

So what’s holding Bavasi back? That 1995 thing, of course, and the accompanying suspicion that any July deal might send a message to fans that the cause is lost.

Seattle management takes pride in promoting the team less as a business operation than as a sort of extended family. This is an organization that’d rather be blistered by a cult of stats-driven bloggers than open up piles of handwritten letters authored by brokenhearted loyalists upset about trading a popular veteran.

But when Mariners executives tout their fans as “the best in baseball,” they ought to take a prominent place in the trade market as if their fans are, well, the best in baseball. At the very least, Mariners fans should be regarded as knowledgeable enough to read the standings.
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This is a big deadline for us. Weve got to sell as much as we can to get some new blood in here. Standing Pat wont work.