The 133rd season of Major League Baseball is upon us.  Over the next month and half, we will be taking a look at each ball club, leading up to the Expert Predictions of the esteemed staff at Sparty & Friends.  We will be previewing each team, from worst to first. Today, we turn our attention to the home of grunge, bad weather and something that I like to call; My Lifeline.

Remember when the Seattle Mariners were supposed to vie for the AL West crown in 2008?  They were going to have one of the most potent 1-2 punches in the league with Felix Hernandez and Erik Bedard at the top of their rotation.  They were going to be awesome!  Those were good times.  Of course, the Mariners became more depressing than the weather in Seattle , and saw their losses mount up faster than those of Starbucks.

The Mariners don’t have a rich history, but an interesting one. Let’s just jump forward to 1995, because they were terrible before that.  They won a match-up with the heavily favored Yankees in 1995, the first year of the divisional playoffs in what was considered to be one of the better playoffs series of recent years.  In the last 20 years, they have watched the one player that everyone is now considering the best of his era walk away.  They also traded away the most dominant left-handed pitcher of all time.  Then of course, they got rid of the best player to be busted for PEDs.  Strangely enough, after all those moves had been completed, the Mariners won 116 regular season games in 2001…only to lose in the playoffs.  The Mariners fell back to mediocrity after that, but again, had high expectations going into last season.  However, that didn’t workout quite the way they wanted as they ended up finishing with one of the worst records in baseball due to a terrible offense and incredibly inconsistent pitching.  A $117 million payroll and last in the AL…enough with the baseball needing a salary cap crap.

Last Season: 61-101 (4th place in the AL Wast)

Who’s Gone: LF Raul Ibanez (FA), CL JJ Putz (Trade), CF Jeremy Reed (Trade)

Who’s New: 1B/3B Russel Branyan (FA) Endy Chavez (Trade) CF Franklin Gutierrez (Trade)

Projected Lineup:
1. Ichiro (does he still have a last name?)
2. Yuniesky Betancourt SS
3. Jose Lopez 2B
4. Adrian Beltre 3B
5. Kenji Johjima DH
6. Franklin Gutierrez CF
7. Russel Branyan 1B
8. Jeff Clement C
9. Endy Chavez LF

SP Felix Hernandez
SP Erik Bedard
SP Jarrod Washburn
SP Carlos Silva
SP Brandon Morrow

CL Mark Lowe

Key Bench Players:

Wladimir Balentien OF
Ronny Cedeno  INF
Miguel Batista RP
Matt Tuiasosopo 3B
David Aardsma RP

Manager: Don Wakamatsu

Lineup Outlook - We thought we were looking at a bad offensive team yesterday?  The Mariners are atrocious, and one of the more productive bats in their lineup (Raul Ibanez) has moved on.

The only player in this lineup that cannot be criticized is Ichiro.  Sure, his OBP dipped a little bit last year, which is something that you don’t want to see in your lead-off hitter, but he still remains one of the best in the game. He may still be a singles hitter, but he turns many of those singles into doubles with his ability to steal bases (43sb last year).  Ichiro is still an above avg defender in RF, and has returned to that position now that Gutierrez will be roaming in CF.  His arm alone is still one of the better ones and his field coverage is still excellent. Ichiro is the rock of this lineup.

Russell Branyan comes over from Milwaukee and will most likely begin the season as the teams 1B.  Branyan has been somewhat of a journeyman player over the last 10 years, so there is no reason to believe he’s going to bring much offense with him.  Branyan hit 12 HRs last season in limited duty with the Brewers, but only knocked in 20 RBIs.  Not exactly what you want to see out of one of your corner infielders.  However, there is a certain FA out there that used to roam CF in Seattle and would be the perfect fit to play 1B.  Who knows if this Kid is really going to finish where it all started.

Adrian Beltre has never lived up to the huge contract he received following his monsterous 2004 season (48 HR, 121 RBIs, 104 Runs, 200 Hits).  Beltre is another guy who loves to swing for the fences but has zero patience as he only walks about 40-50 times a year.  The Mariners would love to see him become much more selective with his pitching, considering Safeco remains to be one of the harder stadiums to hit HRs in.

Franklin Gutierrez  has been platooning the OF the last few seasons with the Cleveland Indians and they just didn’t have a spot for him as they were already set in CF with Grady Sizemore.  Now that he is in Seattle, he should get his chance to prove that he belongs in the everyday lineup.  Hopefully for him, Seattle is not looking to bring back that Kid to play in CF.

The Mariners did not do much improve themselves offensively, but they definitely received an upgrade defensively in Endy Chavez.  But, if you can’t score runs, you are simply not going to win many games.

You can go ahead and scratch Kenji Johjima from your fantasy board.  The man has zero value these days.  He entered the league as a catcher at the age of 30 and the mileage has already shown.  He has regressed each season he has been in the league and the injury bug hit him last season.  He could be headed the same direction that Jose Vidro and Richie Sexson went last year (released mid-season).

More light hitting exists in the lineup along with Yuniesky Betancourt, Jose Lopez and Jeff Clement; I can’t believe I am saying that they need the 39 year-old Kid.

Starting Rotation - This is supposedly the stregth of the Mariners.  Felix Hernandez, when will you finally give us that 24-4 record, with a 1.53 ERA, 268 Ks, and .965 WHIP?  Those were Doc Gooden’s numbers in his second season in the league. That is the guy I first thought of when I saw the curve ball thrown by Hernandez in 2005.  Patphish kept telling me about this kid (not that Kid; a different kid), and the night after his television debut I was getting emails from Mr. Phish; “Did ya see it? Did ya see the curve?”  Yes I saw it, and it was mesmerizing.  However, “King Felix” has been extremely disappointing as a full-time starter with Seattle.  He has moments where it seems like he has turned the corner, but he just can’t seem to become that dominant starter that we’ve been told has the tools in his possession.  He still walks too many guys for a #1 starter; but that curve is just still too awesome to give up on.

Erik Bedard was the biggest disappointment from last years team.  Bedard was suppose to dominate out in the AL West being around slightly weaker teams than the big bopping bats of the AL East.  The knock on Bedard has been that he can’t stay healthy, and that was never more evident than his first season in the Pacific Northwest. Bedard did not pitch that poorly last year, but was not nearly as effective as he was in 2007 with the Orioles.  Bedard would not inform the team that his shoulder was bothering him until July; and since they had already been eliminated from the playoffs, the team chose to shut him down.  A cyst would have to be removed from his shoulder in the offseason and they expect the lefty to be ready by the start of the season at full-strength.  He has yet to tally 200 innings in a season; but because their bullpen is not nearly as strong as it was a year ago, the Mariners need him at his very best for at least that many if they expect to win many games this year.

Jarrod Washburn was being offered at the trade deadline to a lot of teams, including the Yankees, but nobody would bite. The Mariners expected way too much in return for the effective, yet underwhelming, Washburn.  He will keep you in the game, but he is not going to win games for you.

Carlos Silva may have been one of the worst FA signings in recent years.  Silva made over $8 million last year but was killed all season long by opposing hitters.  He posted a career worst 6.46 ERA over 158 innings while striking out only 69 batters all season.  That is horrible.

Brandon Morrow was moved late in the season into the rotation and looks like he will start the season there; he wants to be a starter and management wants him there as well. Morrow will be a huge K guy, but this will be his first full season with a full starter’s workload; he could be the surprise addition to the staff.

Bullpen - Just a couple years ago, the Mariners had one of the best bullpens in baseball with JJ Putz, Rafael Soriano and Eddie Guardado.  Miguel Batista has never quite figured out if he is a one inning pitcher or a starter, so this year he will most likely be the long man in the pen.  The closer role is not really decided, but going into Spring Training it is Mark Lowe’s to lose.

Prediction - 65-70 wins; 4th in the AL West.  There will be very slight improvement by the Mariners this season, and most of that will be due to the starting rotation as Hernandez and Bedard meet the expectation a year late.  People will continue to be depressed in Seattle, but because of the weather, not the Mariners.

A funny look back to the days when the Kid ruled Seattle:

UPDATED: Griffey to sign with the Braves?

UPDATED#2: Griffey headed back to Seattle.  Must have been this preview.

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