I love the baseball season and, so far, this one has had a little of everything. There has already been some excitement, like Ubaldo Jimenez's no-hitter (the first in Colorado's history) and Houston rallying from an 0-8 start to a much more manageable 8-11 start. There have also been a few disappointments. Like the Orioles.
As a Mariners fan, there have been plenty of both. The season didn't get out of Spring Training without a major disappointment. With about 2 weeks to go, our newly acquired co-ace, Cliff Lee, went on the DL with lower abdomen strain. That was followed by a 2-6 start. On top of that, our DH combo of Griffey/Sweeney/Bradley are hitting around the
Mendoza Line and are being out-hit by the Arizona Diamondbacks pitching staff. That wouldn't be a huge deal by itself, except that the rest of the team is only hitting .250.
Enough of the bad, because there have been a lot of encouraging signs. First, they recovered from the dreadful start and are now 11-11 headed into a home stand(assuming the M's don't blow their current 5-1 lead over Kansas). Cliff Lee is off the DL and is making his Mariners debut on Friday. The back half of the starting rotation has been unpredictably rock solid, headed by our #4 starter, Doug Fister, who has allowed only 3 earned runs in his past 3 starts.
Players who have started slow are starting to get into the rhythm of things (as I write this, Chone Figgins just hit his first triple of the year) and we're still only 2 games out of first. Also, Eric Byrnes hasn't killed himself yet and Milton Bradley has only
flipped off Texas, so that's a bonus.
All in all, I'll count April a success for the Mariners. If nothing changes in May, we'll revisit that assessment, but I'm feeling good right now.