MVN: Most Valuable Network

Carlos Silva, despite being a control artist, gives up a tremendous amount of hits and needs a premier defense behind him.

In one of his final moves as Seattle Mariners general manager, Bill Bavasi signed starting pitcher Silva to a four-year pact for $48 million. The signing was widely rebuked across the industry, and Silva proved why.

After a 3-0, 2.79 ERA April, the wheels quickly fell off for Silva and won just one more game the remainder of the year, finishing at 4-15 with an unsightly 6.46 ERA in 28 starts encompassing 153.1 innings.

He gave up an awe-inspiring 213 hits, 20 homers, 110 earned runs and whiffed just 69. I suppose one can tip his hat to his minuscule 32 walks allowed, but that doesn't mean much when batters are hammering all your pitches.

Now that Bavasi is gone, new GM Jack Zduriencik has his hands full figuring out how to make Silva an effective member of the Mariners' rotation with that unsightly contract saddled around his neck.

You can count on Silva getting another shot in the rotation to rebuild his value as the Mariners rebuild, but the possibility is high that Silva will receive the Russ Ortiz treatment shortly. Ortiz signed a four-year, $33 million deal that was disparaged and the Arizona Diamondbacks cut him loose with $22 million dollars and over two and a half years left on his contract. Thought to be the most expensive release in baseball history, Silva could break that record.

With that, I present MVN's NL John Van Benschoten award to Seattle Mariners right-hander Carlos Silva.