With no other reason than sheer baseball interest, I have been living and breathing the sport since I decided it was a personal goal of mine to make as much of a living through it as humanly possible. Immersing myself in the game has left me with a little bit of a problem. I am really starting to like the Seattle Mariners this season. I’m not ready to turn in my Yankee pinstripes by any means, but after the off-season they’ve had they are the clear favorites to topple the Angels 3 year run as AL West champions. I admired the way the Mariners played last season. Their off-season moves have put them in the running to be legitimate contenders for the AL Pennant in 2010.
I absolutely love the amount of speed in their lineup. Figgins and Ichiro at the top will easily score 200 runs and steal 60 bases between them. Franklin Gutierrez won’t exactly hurt them in that category in their either. While they lack a true middle of the order stud in their lineup, the solid addition of Casey Kotchman as well as emergence of Jose Lopez last season will provide them with all the pop they need. Taking on head case Milton Bradley in exchange for the Irabu-esque Carlos Silva was a great gamble. I’m not saying they’re head and shoulders above the Rangers or Angels. I just think their team got better while all other AL West teams either remained stagnant or lost out in free agency. The Athletics are out of the conversation until they get some legitimate starting pitching. The Rangers added over the hill slugger Vladimir Guerrero, but it feels like a letdown season is coming from a pitching staff that performed way over its head last season. That leaves the Angels attempting to take their 4th consecutive division title with some major subtractions via free agency. The losses of mainstays Vladimir Guerrero, John Lackey, and Chone Figgins simply cannot be understated. Those three comprised the heart and soul of what’s left of that 2002 championship team. It’s just one of those feelings you get at the beginning of the season that if I had an expendable 100 dollars to throw around, I’d check the Vegas odds on the Mariners to take the West. I bet it would come in at least 4:1, a very solid investment in my eyes.
Gambling references aside, I not only think the Mariners are going to win, I want them to win. As a Yankee fan I am trained to hate the Angels, while not taking the Rangers nor Athletics seriously. The Mariners ripped my heart out in 1995. They stole Donnie Baseball’s last chance at glory. However, we got them in 2000 when they were on an almost unstoppable path towards eclipsing our immortal 1998 team. We both got our licks in and I am ready to forgive and forget. Besides, I just don’t like the Angels regardless of the outcome of last season’s ALCS. It’s about time someone ended their reign in the West in a division that has been pretty mundane for the past decade. I’m ready for a young athletic team lead by aces King Felix and Cliff Lee to handily take the West. If Erik Bedard can regain any semblance of his former self after signing an incentive laden one year contract, the Mariners will be able to contend with the likes of the Yankees and Red Sox.
I think it’s healthy to pick a second team to root for not only to hedge your bets, but also to make the season that much more interesting. I’m at the point as a baseball fan that I’ve seen my team win so much that it would make me happy to see good baseball. Let’s get some good rivalries going all over the league, not just in the AL East and the AL Central. I’m ready for it and I’m sure the success starved city of Seattle is as well.
Posted in 
Tags: 
[...] AZ) Built to Win? Absolutely, pitching and defense baby! By sheer coincidence, just like Cary the M’s are my new second favorite ballclub. They have everything that I like in a ball club: a savvy general manager, a smart manager, two [...]
[...] AL West is where the story starts getting interesting. While my Mariners pick is looking like absolute dog shit, the Texas Rangers continue to roll right along with a 7.5 game [...]