Opening Day Brings Victory to Mariners and Hope to Fans

Abraham Almonte

Opening Day! A special day in the life of most baseball fans, but to those die hard fans out there, it's a day that is anticipated with every off-season trade rumor. It's a day that you look forward to from the last World Series game, through the Winter Meetings and on into Spring Training. Now, here we are. Day one of an 162 game season and your Seattle Mariners start their trek with 22 of 25 games versus their American League West rivals.

Tonight's game against the L.A. Angels was an amazing start to what we hope to be an amazing season. Felix Hernandez took the hill against Jared Weaver of the Angels and in the bottom of the first, after just two hitters, the Mariners and Felix were down 2 - 0. Mike Trout hit a bomb to left field and showed the world that he's worth every penny the Angels gave him this Spring when they renegotiated his contract. It was a rough start but the Mariners would fight back.

After a Michael Saunders sac fly the Mariners pulled within a run but the Angels snatched that one right back on an error and a bad read on a ball in left field off the bat of Albert Pujols. The M's put another run on the board but were still down 3 - 2 when Felix came out of the game at the end of the 6th. As is customary for Felix starts, the Mariners do not score runs when Felix is on the hill, but tonight would prove to be entirely different.

In the top of the seventh inning, the Mariners offense went to work. With one out, Dustin Ackley singled and was followed by Mike Zunino who hit a triple off the wall on a poor defensive play by Josh Hamilton and the game was tied at 3. Abraham Almonte came to the plate and facing new pitcher Fernando Salas, ripped a double in the left center field gap that scored Zunino and put the M's up for good.

In the ninth, the M's would add another 6 runs on a three run homerun by Justin Smoak and a bases clearing triple by Dustin Ackley after the Angels bullpen walked the bases loaded. The final score, Mariners 10, Angels 3. Felix Hernandez took home the win for his seventh consecutive opening day start and for the first time in a long time the Mariners can boast about being in first place atop their division.

Many fans will look at the success of Opening Day and revert to the Mariners history of winning on this day but flailing much of the season after, but some of us get a horrible sense of hope that grabs hold of us and wont let go. In recent years that hope has clung on until late June or so before prying itself loose with a 16 game losing streak or a couple of series sweeps at the hands of our division rivals. We all understand that this season may not be any different for us this year but to not hope at all is to not love the game. It's only one game in a trend of seasons with one theme, losing, but it's one game of an 162 game season that started with a win.

I'm not counting us in as World Series contenders or even playoff bound, but it's the same every year. We root and cheer, we complain and whine, we scratch and claw with the hopes of continuing to play come October. It may not be likely, but in baseball it's never impossible!

Mariners - True to the Blue!

SodoJoe

John Jaso Gets Traded in Three Team Deal - Mariners Get Michael Morse, Again!

-The Bearded Jaso-

Yes, it's true. The Mariners opted to part ways with John Jaso today in order to give Michael Morse a reunion in the Emerald City. Jaso was one of the most productive pieces in the Mariners lineup last season and an exciting part of the organization. Morse, a former member of the Mariners has spent the last four seasons with the Nationals after being traded for Ryan Langerhans.

In essence, we gave Michael Morse away for almost nothing and to get him back we had to give up John Jaso. The downside of this is that Morse is scheduled to be a free agent after this season. That, and the Mariners now have a handful of outfielders more suited for playing first base.

Upton - On the Mariner-Go-Round

-The Younger Upton-

Once again the rumor mill goes around like a Merry-Go-Round and we hear Justin Upton's name linked with the Mariners again. At the beginning of the Winter Meetings there was speculation of the Mariners interest in Upton and by the end of the meetings there were talks of a possible four team trade involving the slugger.

Texas was the rumored landing spot in the deal that was supposed to tear Josh Hamilton out of Texas to ensure that he landed in Seattle. Looking back, I'm sure glad that we moved away from that deal.

Mariners Prove Interested in Giancarlo Stanton

-The Giancarlo-

The Mariners turned over another stone today when they made the call to the Marlins front office to find what they could possibly want for their premium slugger Giancarlo Stanton.

I imagine that conversation went something like this:
MARLINS: Felix Hern....
MARINERS: Dial tone.
If it didn't end there, it probably continued along the lines of Kyle Seager, Dustin Ackley, James Paxton, Taijuan Walker and the Mariner Moose.

Mariners "Possibly" Dealing With Ethier

-The LA Dodger, Ethier-

Rumored today by our dear friend Jason Churchill from Prospect Insider that the Mariners are in trade talks for a hitter. His belief is that the hitter is named Andre Ethier. First impressions: I love Andre Ethier....

Then I went to www.baseball-reference.com and looked up his contract. Basically, Ethier is making over 17 million dollars per year that the Mariners would never pay the full amount of, luckily for us, the Dodgers would have no issue eating a large chunk of that salary. At least I would hope.