If J.J. is not 100%, this season is over.

Quoted: J.J.'s clearly not healthy. Fuck this season.
I even thought this just felt like a win. I smiled knowingly when Richie hit it out in the 10th. I had felt confident the entire later innings. I was confident with J.J. I was sure he was going to come up and put the fears instilled in that Oakland game to rest. And for one batter he did. Kudos to Batista, Rhodes, Morrow, Richie and Ichiro.

Yay, especially re: Clement...although I wish they had waited 7 days in order to get the extra arbitration year.

Quoted: There is official confirmation, finally - catcher Jeff Clement and outifelder Wladimir Balentien are joining the Seattle Mariners in Cleveland on Wednesday.

Yesterday's game exposed the M's weaknesses this season:
- Weakened bullpen (due to loss of LHP George Sherril)
- Black holes in our offense, specifically Sexson, Wilkerson
- To a lesser extent - lack of a power hitter

Quoted: Six pitches, all of them out of the strike zone. Joaquin Benoit did everything he possibly could to walk in the go-ahead run, and Sexson just wouldn’t let him. If the Mariners continue to hit Sexson cleanup and ask Lopez to bunt Ichiro over every time he gets on base in high leverage situations, we’re going to see this a lot - Ibanez walks and Sexson leaves the man on.
...
There’s just no reason a team that wants to be a contender should be hitting Richie Sexson cleanup in 2008.

This random blog thinks (generously?) that the M's are the 9th best team in baseball.

Quoted: 9. Seattle Mariners
They aren’t a great team, but they have a spattering of great parts in their closer, pair of aces, and a lineup centered around Ichiro. The Angels begin the season with a hurting rotation, and this Mariner team will pounce on the chance to gain an early lead in the division.

John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar (of the Angels) will open the season on the disabled list.

Quoted: Probability is that these injuries - assuming their given timelines are correct - make the Angels a win or two worse. And that, in turn, improves the Mariners' chances of winning the division by roughly 6-12%. That's pretty substantial. I'm still deathly afraid of watching our offense, but even so I feel like we're getting closer and closer to pulling up right alongside the preseason favorites.

Quoted: Yesterday, we covered the win value of the entire roster, and came to the conclusion that this team is built to win about 82-83 games, if everything follows the projections. Well, we know that nothing ever follows the projections completely, and there is always room for variance in pretty much any statistical model. So, today, let’s look at a few of the potential opportunities the roster presents for improvement, and how those potential improvements might help push this team closer to the 90+ wins it needs to contend this year.

I agree. The M's should aim to at least have one of a premier offense or defense/pitching. You can't win by being mediocre across the board.

Quoted: Instead of trading for Eric Bedard, which would've given the Mariners one of baseball's best 1-2 punches, they've signed the very mediocre Carlos Silva.
...
Instead of signing Torii Hunter and pairing him with Ichiro Suzuki and Adam Jones to give the Mariners one of baseball's best outfield defenses, they stayed pat.
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Looks like, once again, the team will have a mediocre offense, a mediocre defense, and mediocre pitching. I don't need a complicated formula to figure out what that's going to add up to.

The rumors are looking generally positive.

Quoted: Quick reactions to some of the rumors going around right now.