Mariners Opening Day Reading Material

The scoreboards are all set at zero and there is a four-way tie for first place in the American League West. Baseball’s Opening Day is maybe the one day of the season when you can let yourself drift off and dream about a Mariners pennant before the reality of the lopsided team salary structure of Major League Baseball smacks you upside the head. Good morning sunshine!

You won’t be getting any season predictions from me. Trying to figure out the season outcome 162 games before it begins is as worthless an exercise as paying attention to the NBA before April.

The M’s open up at Minnesota tomorrow and there is no shortage of reading material to get you up to speed on the 25-man roster, pitching rotation and early season injuries. There’s also no shortage of Griffey love, either. So, feel free to check out some of the coverage below and don’t let your boss catch you dreaming about October baseball:

Season expectations
- The Seattle Times unleashed their Mariners preview in the Sunday edition with Jerry Brewer and Steve Kelley trying to set expectations. Kelley thinks maybe the M’s could be good if everything breaks their way. Brewer says don’t get your hopes up.
- John McGrath of the Tacoma News Tribune invokes memories of the ’02 Mariners to hopefully scare the bejesus out of the Angels, who seem to be an iron-clad lock to win the West. Let’s hope it works.
- The Seattle P-I online weighs in and asks readers how high the bar should be set for the M’s.
- Here’s the Associated Press’s preview piece.
- Part 6 of 6 in the Everett Herald’s Mariners preview. Take a look at the previous five articles as well.

Griffey, Griffey aaaand Griffey
- Larry Stone goes yard with his Griffey profile.
- Geoff Baker looks at the numbers and interviews those who think Griffey should strictly DH.
- There are the favorite memories of Griffey, the Griffey rookie card story, Griffey trivia and Griffey rap lyrics. Yuck.

Roster and rookies
- The News Tribune looks at the new guys who made the roster and will be heading up north with the big club.
- Seattle will have another Tuiasosopo to root for this season. Third baseman Matt Tuiasosopo has made the 25-man roster, thanks to a great spring and an opening left by Ichiro, who is recovering from a bleeding ulcer. Again, yuck.