MLB Team by Team: 2008 Seattle Mariners

Roughly halfway through last season, Seattle Mariners manager Mike Hargrove decided he'd had enough, packed up, and walked away, leaving the team in one of John McLaren's hands (he had an arm in a sling at the time). The Mariners didn't quit, and hung around to make the AL West and Wild Card races interesting almost to the last.

This year, they traded away some of their future to get one of the top pitchers of the present to give the King a little more backup. Does this move payoff in a playoff spot this year for the M's?

OFFENSE: B-

Having a start the caliber of Ichiro (.351 average, 68 RBI, 37 steals) at the top of your lineup instantly makes you one of the better offenses in the game. He gets on base, steals bases, hits the occasional homer, and is just plain pesky. First baseman Richie Sexson may not hit for average (.205), but when he connects, it goes far (21 homers). And, at all other positions, the M's are very solid, especially in left field (Raul Ibanez, .291, 21, 105), and third base (Adrian Beltre, .276, 26, 99). Not too much to worry about at the plate in Seattle.

PROJECTED LINEUP: 1 Ichiro CF 2 Betancourt SS 3 Ibanez LF 4 Sexson 1B 5 Beltre 3B 6 Wilkerson RF 7 Vidro DH 8 Lopez 2B 9 Johjima C

STARTING PITCHING: B

When you have two young guns at the top of your rotation that are in the class of Erik Bedard (13-5, 3.16 ERA with Baltimore last year) and Felix Hernandez (14-7, 3.92), it's hard not to get excited about the future. And, yeah, there's three other guys in the rotation, too, like Jarrod Washburn (10-15, 4.32), Carlos Silva (13-14, 4.19), and Miguel Batista (16-11, 4.29) that are solid as well to back up John and Paul, er, Erik and Felix. Odds are, there's no need for, ahem, HELP in this rotation.

PROJECTED ROTATION: Bedard, Hernandez, Washburn, Silva, Batista

BULLPEN: C-

Here's a question mark for the Mariners. The size of the mark will depend on the effectiveness of the starting pitching. The problem isn't at closer, however. J.J. Putz was about as close to the perfect season from the closer's role as you can get (40 of 42 in save opportunities, 82 strikeouts in 71.2 innings), so if the game gets to him, you can just about put it in the bank. The rest of the pen may make it a quest, though. Sean White had quite a few shaky moments at setup, as did Cha Seung Baek. And Brandon Morrow and rookies/nearly rookies such as Cesar Jimenez round out the pen, and the adventure is on.

CONCLUSION

If it weren't for the 500-pound gorilla known as the Los Angeles Angels sitting in the division room, you'd be hard pressed to pick anyone else to win the West than the Mariners. And, if it wasn't for wild card contenders like the Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays, they could probably take that as well. As it is, they're a very good team with a very bright future to look forward to. Just not a playoff berth this year.

PREDICTION 87-75, second in American League West