It gets awfully maddening to read continually in preseason forecasts by the national media that the Mariners will finish last, again, for the fourth year in a row. The truth is the Mariners are evenly matched with any team in the division, and subtract a fifteen-game losing streak at the hands of the Oakland A's last year, they would've been right in the thick of things. It's an open secret that the M's futility at the hands of Oakland last season handed the division to the A's. It was just the sort of cleavage needed to separate such a pack of evenly weighted teams. Which means, again, that the AL West will be highly competitive, and the M's will be in the thick of things. Sentiments echoed by Dayn Perry over at FOX Sports. His biggest knock on the Mariners' chances come at the hands of Mike Hargrove's questionable use of strategy which has made many M's fans wince over the past two years:

The fact that the M's can contend isn't an endorsement of their work this off-season (it wasn't sensible) or a signifier of possible greatness; it's mostly an indictment of the strength of the division. Of course, that won't matter to Seattle fans if their team takes the flag. For that to happen, they'll require a surprising performance or two, prevailing health, and better use of the bench and bullpen by Hargrove (the latter perhaps a tall order), but it can be done.