Ichiro Suzuki

The general consensus is that the American League West is the weakest division in baseball. I would have to agree with this. 

Not only does the division have just four teams, but it is also lacking a powerhouse team that most other divisions possess.

In a lot of ways, this is a good thing. Namely, it gives average teams like the Mariners a chance to compete. It's rare for anyone to walk away with the division in dominating fashion, with the exception of the 2008 Angels.

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4/29/09 – The Seattle Mariners finish season series No. 7 in slight disappointment, losing the series 1-2 to the Chicago White Sox. 13-9 is our record heading into the Oakland A’s series after a day off.

Cheer! – Rain outs mean double headers and the White Sox even switch up the rotation to give us a better pitching match up, M’s Chris Jakubauskas vs. the Sox Bartolo Colon and moving John Danks to the night cap to face off vs. M’s Felix Hernandez.

The 2008 Seattle Mariners had the second-worst record in baseball (61-101); it was a campaign of no power and no pitching.

They paid a Carlos Silva $12 million over the season to lose 16 games—almost $1 million per loss.

They gave up five promising prospects for an ace—Erik Bedard—who pitched just 81 innings. GM Bill Bavasi probably thought he was buying job security when he swung the deal, but he was actually ringing up his own ticket out of town.

4/23/09 - Felix Hernandez pitched seven shutout innings against the Tampa Bay Rays. Despite the Mariners netting three errors on defense, having a catcher playing 1st base, and Yuni Betancourt still shading 3rd base instead of playing short stop, the Mariners won the April afternoon game, 1-0.

In the first inning, Hernandez pitched through the order in three outs, striking out BJ Upton looking and Evan Longoria swinging. The bottom of the first was led off by Ichiro hitting a lead-off homer to give the Mariners a one run lead.

Like he has so many times before, Ichiro Suzuki slapped a single through the right side of the infield.  Pretty routine if you think about it…but the historical significance was huge.

With that hit, Ichiro surpassed Isao Harimoto and became the all-time hit leader among Japanese baseball players.

With Erik Bedard and Jarrod Washburn’s successes in the past week, a 5-2 record going into the Mariners home-opener, and both Endy Chavez and Yuniesky Betancourt hitting over .350, there is a ton of reason to be optimistic as an M’s fan.

In 2001 the Mariners came into the season with a lot of questions.

Face of the Franchise:  Ken Griffey, Jr.
 
Manager: Lou Piniella

Ichiro Suzuki (SEA, OF)

Ichiro has been placed on the DL for fatigue and a bleeding ulcer. Ouch.

Travis Hafner (CLE, DH)

Pronk has finally found his pop. With zero home runs in his first 41 spring at-bats, he has hit two long balls in his last three games.

Andre Ethier (LAD, OF)

Ethier went yard and added a triple on Thursday. Big things expected from Andre this year.

Mark Teahen (KC, OF/2B)

With Ichiro out for 15 days with a bleeding ulcer, this change can't be effective immediately, but it might be a good idea.

Ichiro is not none for power; many analysts have said "he could hit for power if he wanted."

Well, from the M's three spot, they don't need too much power.

Yet, Ichiro seems to have the perfect amount of power.

Today it was reported that the Seattle Mariner's all-star lead off man, Ichiro Suzuki would be out for 15 days with a bleeding ulcer.  Mariners fans are all hoping he gets better soon, because he is the club's lead-off man.

Now, while a bleeding ulcer sounds painful, and can be deadly if not treated, there are other things to discus, other than the injury.

Who will be the first man to step into the batter's box on Monday?

In the major leagues, there seem only four options:

Franklin Gutierrez