Baseball Season Starts Today

Spring training is over and the rosters are all setup. There are four games playing today with three of them on national TV.

It is too bad the Mariners are not starting until tomorrow. On the positive side the weather here in Seattle will not be as good as today. It will be hard to watch those games because of the weather however I am going to try get some pieces of each.

The final roster spots were made this morning by the Mariners.  Steve Clevenger as expected won the spot. For one thing he played in Saturday’s game and the Mariners traded Mark Trumbo for him. Since he was there first and Rob Brantly came in later. Both of them are without options so the Mariners designated him for assignment. He could make it through waivers and be assigned to Tacoma if he willing to take the demotion.

Speaking of catcher last year’s starter Mike Zunino will start the season with the Tacoma Rainiers. We can hope that he will get his swing going so the Mariners will have him available during the season especially if there is an injury. Also he still is the best defensive catcher the Mariners have.

Speaking of the Rainiers they have opening season beginning in Tacoma on this Thursday the night before the Mariners home opener. It would be nice to go two home openers in two days in a row. I expect that James Paxton will start for the Rainiers in the opener. We can only hope that he pitches in a manner that will allow him to come up to the Mariners when they need him.

The Mariners do look better on paper this season except in the bullpen where it is still a question mark. We can hope that Steve Cishek can bounce back to be the closer the Mariners need. Though Charlie Furbush won’t be starting the season as the primary situational lefty out of the bullpen it looks like Vidal Nuno and Mike Montgomery both should do a good job. The Mariners will need to count on them along with the other relievers. Nice thing it looks like the Mariners will have the depth in Tacoma if they need additional help.

The starting pitching for the Mariners looks good to start the season. They certainly look to have five capable starters unlike many other teams in the major leagues. Most teams have three good starters but the fourth and fifth starters are very questionable. The Mariners have at least four if not all five of the starters. The most important thing is that TaiJuan Walker and Nathan Kerns the fourth and fifth starters can get through six innings either even or ahead in the game. It is important the relievers are not over used.

As far as the hitting goes it is important that the Mariners do not leave so many players left on base like last year. It would be nice to get the runners home from third with one or less outs. Of course it is important to have guys driving in runs with two outs as well. If the percentage can go up some over last year it will make a big difference. The guys the Mariners picked up all have high on base percentages to over their careers. If they can be even close to those percentages this season it will help the big three of Cano, Cruz and Seager. Also having Adam Lind in the lineup will help to. The Mariners haven’t had a first baseman like him for several years. Seth Smith had good spring training so if he can continue in the same way along with sharing time with Franklin Gutierrez it will help a lot. In fact if Gutierrez can stay healthy it will help however the Mariners do have depth down in Tacoma with Stefan Romero and Daniel Robertson as far as hitting from the right side.

The infield is all set including having Luis Sardinas as the utility player. He certainly is an upgrade over what the Mariners had last year. I see him playing some shortstop to give Marte some time off especially against tough first rate pitchers. He is like Marte where he can switch hit. Also he may play some first base especially in the late innings and some outfield as well. Probably won’t play much second and third because Cano and Seager don’t take very many days off however he is quite capable at both positions if either have some nagging injuries or the Mariners are either ahead or behind late in games where they are pretty much decided. Any way we look forward to see how April starts out for the Mariners. It would be nice to get off to a good start unlike the last few years. Go Mariners!