Some positive words about the M's from a random blogger. Considering this season was considered to be a rebuilding season, I'm fairly satisfied as well. I think with a few smart trades/acquisitions, the M's can be back in contention next season.

Quoted: Also, the Mariners aren't as bad as an incredulous Fox broadcasting team made them seem today. "Wow, the Mariners ACTUALLY have a hit off Jason Schmidt. They have seven!" Might want to remind those guys that they're 33-37, only a few games out of first still, and have had a very nice recent stretch. At home or against NL teams, they've been dynamite. (Side note: I need someone to call me "dynamite" before I die. Remember this, future wife.) They actually play entertaining baseball. Gil Meche is 7-4. Felix is 7-6. Jaime Moyer has a great ERA. The offense has come around.

yay.

Quoted: Hey, looks like the Rangers and Oakland both lost. Thus, your Seattle Mariners are two games out of first-place Texas (who is at .500) and one back of Oakland for second.

more on felix's good start today.

Quoted: Yeah, that's just about as dominant as one guy can be. It helps that the D'Rays feature an over-aggressive lineup that's generally incapable of taking advantage of pitcher mistakes, but for once, the Felix we got was the Felix we expected, and he was pleasing to watch

Why does Kenji get the day off when the Mariners actually have a chance to win (Wakefield)? Give him a day off when there is no shot (Beckett).

Quoted: Tomorrow's game starts at 10:20am PDT, with Joel Pineiro going up against Tim Wakefield. I don't know too much about Cuban baseball, but I'd say there's a real good chance that these'll be the first knuckleballs Yuniesky Betancourt's ever seen. Also, Kenji Johjima's scheduled to get the day off, with Rene Rivera getting the start and acting as the third total black hole in the lineup.

Well said. If Gil Meche and Adrian Beltre were pulling their weights, Seattle would arguably be a contender.

Quoted: With Matt Thornton out of town and JJ Putz looking a lot better, I think the battle for "Easiest Mariner To Hate" is down to Beltre and Gil Meche, with Gil holding a slight edge due to duration of suckiness but Beltre threatening to overtake him based on continued suckage and his productivity/cost ratio.

I agree with this. If a starting pitcher is on a roll and unhittable, consistently swinging at the first pitch is a bad idea.

Quoted: As the innings went on, the Mariners decided since Blanton was getting the first-pitch strikes, they shouldn't even try to work the count, so they started swinging early in the count, which I didn't necessarily agree with. I know Blanton was rolling, and his control was way better than that of Felix, but it could have been the difference between Blanton throwing seven innings instead of eight and getting into the Oakland a bit more.