We will miss you, Soriano

Okay, folks. I can untie my tongue now. It was a lousy article, ripe with inaccurate (yes, it was in the Oregonian) wonderings about Bavasi's inability to keep minor league players and such, but it at least got my question out there: Why not convert Soriano into a starter?
Let's have a look at who we got in return, shall we?
Horacio Ramirez, an unproven, third-tier, injury-prone starter whose only upsides are his age (27) and the fact that he's a lefty. Who knows? He could come through for us. He's got the potential to be a 200 inning workhorse who keeps the ball down and isn't afraid to rely on his infield to get the job done for him. Infield we got.

But, was it worth losing Soriano? A guy who last season proved himself (again) to be capable of a tremendous season in the 'pen! Now, I'll be the first to admit that with Mateo still a part of our club, we have nothing to worry about (sarc), but Soriano wanted to start! He even asked, knowing we were short arms. In his rookie year, he did start for us eight times and pitched a dismal 4.56 and went 0-3. 4.56 on this squad last year, believe it or not, IS starting material!

Our majority starting five and their final ERAs of 2006:
Meche, 32 games started, 4.48 ERA
Felix, 31 games started, 4.52 ERA
Washboard, 31 games started, 4.67 ERA
Jaime, 25 games started, 4.39 ERA
Joel, 25 games started, 6.36 ERA

By ERA alone, and not factoring in his now five years of major league experience (okay, maybe three), he's at least a third tier starter in this mix. Plus, he's a starter to begin with. The only reason he was never considered a candidate to leave the bullpen was because we were NOT short starting pitching (do you remember, fans? the good ol' days?) and he struggled with injuries off and on in his career as a Mariner.
Now, I can't know all the details in this. Maybe the M's know something we don't about Ramirez. Maybe Soriano had lost his magic touch after his injury last year. Maybe we've actually got the stuff to win this year.

But this Mariners' fan is getting a little fed up with "maybes."