First, a brief recent history:

In 2001, the Seattle Mariners won 116 games and were one called strike from Arthur Rhodes to David Justice to going to the World Series. This would turn out to be the last time they got a sniff of the postseason to this day.

In 2002, the team won 93 games and finished 10 games back, missing the playoffs.

In 2003, Lou Piniella left for Tampa Bay and was replaced by rookie manager Bob Melvin. Pat Gillick retired as the general manager and was replaced by Bill Bavasi. The season passed with 93 wins again but still six games back. Both years the Oakland A's got hot after the All-Star break to win the West.

In 2004, the team got old and the wheels came off. A purge came down as Melvin, considered an easygoing manager, was let go for Mike Hargrove, a gruff Lou Piniella clone.

Fortunes didn't change as Bavasi stumbled from one ill-advised signing to another bad trade. Partway through 2007, Hargrove bailed on the team without warning, despite being deep in a pennant race. John McLaren, an assistant to Piniella for years, was promoted.

It would be easier to tell you what went right than what went wrong for the M's. At one point, we had Carl Freaking Everett batting cleanup for us but only because Juan Freaking Gonzalez bombed so badly.

Starting Pitchers Gil Meche and Joel Pineiro failed to live up to potential, gutting the rotation. When they were resigned originally, shouldn't Mariner brass have noticed that? When had these guys, both once tabbed as number one starters, ever shown that they could consistently give seven innings? Never, that's when. Both would go from dominant to batting practice from inning to inning, never mind a complete game. When Jamie Moyer, a gutsy and determined guy who I love, is your ace, your rotation is not a strong one.

Whew, okay, enough with the downers of the past.

Last year, the team showed potential, staying in the race much longer than expected. Until September, that is, when the starting rotation, finally blew out the bullpen that had been worn out by the five inning starts.

King Felix Hernandez displayed his potential and dazzled the baseball world by outdueling the Red Sox's Daisuke Matsuzaka at Fenway early in the season. He couldn't hold it at that high level all season but he is very young and thrust pretty quickly into a starting ace role out of desperation. Offensively, there were some high lights, such as Jose Guillen, and some low lights, such as Richie Sexson. What worries me is the Mariners first signing in the offseason is Brad Wilkerson, a former Texas Ranger with a history of knee problems and strikes out almost as much as Sexson.