State of the Mariners – weekly notebook

M’s thrills and chills

Welcome to the third edition of the State of the Seattle Mariners update for the 2012 regular season. In these weekly updates you will find all the information and news regarding the Seattle Mariners Baseball Franchise.

Upcoming Match Ups

The Mariners will continue their home stand welcoming Eric Wedge’s former club, the Cleveland Indians.

Kevin Millwood, Jason Vargas and Felix Hernandez will take on Justin Masterson, Derek Lowe and Josh Tomlin. The M’s went 3-5 against the tribe last season. While Cleveland finished 2nd in their division in 2011, theY finished the 2012 spring training with the worst record of all MLB teams.

Since the regular season started they have maintained their .500 play. It looks to be a fairly close match up.

The Chicago White Sox will be the guests at Safeco and play a three game set through the weekend. Hector Noesi will get the start on Friday followed most likely by Blake Bevan and Kevin Millwood.

The White Sox finished 79-83 in the A.L. Central last year and are essentially the same team as last season. Although the M’s went only 2-7 against the Sox last year, the M’s have developed much more than the opposition.

Expect good things.

Recent Results

The M’s went 3-4 last week as they played Texas in Arlington and FINALLY made their homecoming on Friday the 13th (Hoping that is not a bad omen). The Seattle ball club was greeted by a sellout crowd that watched as the A’s Bartolo Colon shut the door on the M’s offense allowing only 3 hits for the night.

However the M’s came back and won the next two games.

After playing 7 of their first 11 games against Oakland they wont see their closest A.L. West Rivals until July 6th.

Seattle Mariners Weekly Notebook - April 16th

This week Hector Noesi played a bit of Jekyll and Hyde in his two starts. Despite an impressive 4 run first inning, the M’s lost the game 11-5 when Noesi couldn’t get past the third inning.

His nerves settled for his second start of the year as he pitched 8 innings of shut out baseball before handing the game over to the bullpen.

The Good News

Blake Bevan is good news. One of the remnants of the Cliff Lee deal in 2010 is this hard throwing right hander who seems to be settling into his role as a starter.

He held Texas to just a single run at their home run exhibition ballpark. His performance so far this season is even putting Felix to shame as the ace looks for his focus to return.

The M’s showed that they have more of a do or die spirit this year. Over the past several seasons if the M’s have gotten into an early deficit, there was almost no point of watching the rest of the game.

However, Seattle is giving fans more to watch this season, and they seem to be enjoying themselves out there.

Tom Wilhelmsen has given rock solid performances each time he comes in, giving Eric Wedge a trustworthy piece in an unstable bullpen.

The Bad News

The bullpen. Aside from Tom Wilhelmsen, all of the Mariners bull pen pitchers are questionable. Steve Delabar, George Sherill and even Brandon League appear to be struggling with control.

Delbar is leaving pitches over the plate while League is throwing the ball everywhere but. The M’s may need to do some shopping before the season goes much farther.

Roster Moves / Trades

Left handed pitcher Charlie Furbush was called up to replace the injured veteran, George Sherill. While Sherill was more of a left handed specialist for the back end of the pen, Furbush is more of a long relief option for the M’s.

This situation, combined with the concerns about the bullpen will see the Mariners sniffing around the league for another veteran arm to add to the Mariners roster immediately.

Injury Report

Carlos Peguero was favored by many to make the major league club over infielder Alex Liddi, but is now on the disabled list for the Mariners AAA affiliate Tacoma Rainiers.

@CarpusMaximus20 is nearly ready to return.

Peguero underwent surgery to repair an injury to his knee he received while base-running in a recent game. He will likely be out for at least 6 weeks and may struggle to make the team the rest of the season if his momentum does not return when he does.

George Sherill, who was not performing well anyway, was placed on the 15 day DL with an apparent soreness to his pitching arm.

While little more is known at this point, the Mariners were quick to sideline him and add Charlie Furbush to the roster.

Mike Carp is set to be activated any time, although the M’s have given him a rehab assignment at AAA Tacoma. There is difficulty surrounding Carp’s return as Chone Figgins has been starting in Left Field opening up 3B to Kyle Seager who has a hot bat at the moment.

Figgins has been promised every day at bats, so the decision will be interesting to watch.

M’s in the Community

Seattle fans were greeted with a difficult season opener as the team could not score a run and the concession vendors couldn’t take credit cards.

The M’s are on thin ice politically amongst the fan base at the moment, and situations like this don’t help boost public opinion. Watch for Mariners Care projects to get a boost in the next few weeks.

Former Mariner center fielder, Mike Cameron, threw out the first pitch on the home opener and announced his intention to retire from MLB as a Mariner.

The 39 year old originally came to the M’s in trade for beloved Ken Griffey Jr and quickly gained acceptance in Seattle with his infectious smile. Cameron played for Boston and for Florida (now Miami) in 2011 and he signed a 1 day contract with the Mariners to make his retirement official.

Gossip

Nothing juicy at the moment, but just wait the season is young.

Division News

Texas looks to have a secure hold to their place a top the A.L. West and are the favorites for another division championship. The Angles however have looked disjointed to start the season and are currently sitting in last place despite spending a large fortune on free agent Albert Pujols.