Every year during spring training there is a lot of optimism voiced by fans who think "this is our year!" I am no different. After making my NCAA bracket (which is near perfect so far-the only prediction wrong is BYU winning, what was I thinking?) I'm in the gambling mood and I'm going to be bold and predict that the Seattle Mariners will win the AL West this year. There have been changes that give the M's a legitimate shot at the pennant.
1. The Mariners finished a mere 6 games behind the Angels last year. They led the Wild Card race until early September, when the Yankees finally realized that they had a 195 million dollar payroll and should start playing baseball. The M's will be more than 7 games better this time around.
2. Richie Sexson will bounce back from a down year. Last year his average was dangerously close to the Mendoza line, he knocked in 63 RBIs, and hit only 21 homers. Fortunately he was making the most money of any guy on the team. Seattle is all too familiar with players getting huge contracts and then sucking it up ( see Andre Beltre, Shaun Alexander, Jim McIlvane). Richie will get his act together or get benched.
3. The pitching additions of Erik Bedard and Carlos Silva will solidify the starting rotation(and getting rid of Ho-Ram and Weaver helped too). Bedard is one of the best pitchers in the majors (I'd go as far to call him the PREMIER French Canadian southpaw in the Bigs), and Silva is at least known for throwing strikes. The starting pitchers should be Bedard, Hernandez, Silva, Batista, and Washburn. That's a HUGE upgrade. Unfortunately we had to give up Adam Jones. It reminds me of when we traded Jose Cruz Jr. and he never reached his star potential. So maybe he will end in the Houston Astros' minor league system up with a career 248 batting average. Maybe.
4. The O.C. Angels of California have lost starting pitchers Lackey and Escobar to injuries. They will be out for several weeks at the start of the season. That should give the M's some time to build a lead and hopefully wins some games against the team from the "City of Angels" not named the Dodgers.
5. The M's will be able to pad their win column vs. the Rangers and A's. OK, so this won't help them gain anything on the Angels, but it's good to know the other 2 teams you play the most are awful. But Billy Beane is still the smartest man in baseball.
6. Ichiro has a crouching tiger in his soul. Everyone else will have to pay. The A's and Red Sox were chosen to play in their opening series in Japan. How does that make sense? Neither of those teams have a better Japanese player then the M's. This will fuel Ichiro's rage and he will continue to take out MLB teams, let alone inferior Japanese players. Ichiro was quoted for saying about Dice K, "I hope he arouses the fire that's dormant in the innermost recesses of my soul, I plan to face him with the zeal of a challenger." Don't think that Ichiro has a bad translator--he's actually that crazy.
7. Coaching Stability: Since Coach Mike Hargrove is gone, the staff no longer needs to be on suicide watch. John McLaren should be fine as long as he remains as nondescript as possible. Norm Charlton has been brought on as a pitching coach, and I'm not sure how to feel about it. I mean, while we're at it why don't we see if Bobby Ayala or Heathcliff Slocumb are available? "The Sheriff" was never that bad, but there is something disconcerting about his Jheri Curl. It's nice to have Mel Stottlemyre in the clubhouse, he should have a positive effect.
8. The backlash from the Sonics moving will motivate the fans. Seattle fans are disgusted in the plight of their Sonics and they are going to use their angst to root on their other sports teams and take grunge music to new highs. I see good things happening for the Seahawks, but that is for another post.
The M's will have their work cut out for them, and in the end they'll at least make the playoffs. I'm exciting to watch the one televised game this year. I'll remain optimistic until our first losing slump-- then I'll start talking football.
p.s. Lindsay.....where are those scores?
1 comment:
Alright, alright already...check our block for a little taster of the competition. This is as far as we've gotten as we haven't had time for 9 holes of golf. Read 'em and weep!
Post a Comment