"2009 - Return of the Ancient Mariners"

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. History will remember 2009 as the year the world barely dodged the second Great Depression. As the World Series was wrapping up near the end of '08, the financial turmoil in the American and global economy was an apt commentary on what had happened to the Mariners during 2008. After breezing to an (illusory) 88 wins in 2007, blind optimism reigned as Bedard (Oh Boy!) and Silva (oh, God no) joined the club. The club tanked to 101 losses and the Bavasi era ended, as Jack Zduriencik took the reigns of the Mariner franchise in October of 2008.

The 2009 season for Seattle really began at the end of 2008, when Z traded J.J. Putz to the Mets in a 3-team, 12-player deal that brought in Franklin Gutierrez (from Cleveland), along with Endy Chavez and prospect Mike Carp from the Mets, (just to name a few). In the real world, Stocks plunged from the once lofty 14,000 level all the way down to 6,500 as the call for pitchers and catchers went out. In many ways, the "real world" experience during 2009 was a replay of the 2008 Mariner Season -- a long descent into despair accompanied by equal portions of agony, grief and grumbling, leaving many people without jobs, (Sexson, Vidro, Wilkerson). Americans everywhere can only hope that if the 2008 Mariner season was prophetic for the coming 2009 tribulations, perhaps the 2009 Mariner resurgence will be equally prescient in regards to 2010. Because, in 2009, Mariner fans could not have asked for more without appearing to be greedier than the worst of the Sub-Prime bankers.

In 2009, the Wall Street fat cats came forward with hats in hand begging for handouts from the government as compensation for a job completely and utterly botched. In Seattle, Captain Jack was stealing from the rich and giving to the fans of Seattle. He sent J.J. Putz to the Mets. Putz would go 1-4 with 2 saves, while posting a 5.22 ERA in the "lesser" league. Seattle got a .764 OPS and otherworldly defense in CF out of Gutierrez. Jeremy Reed, the incumbent CF went on to post a .605 OPS for the Mets.

Captain Jack would go on to trade away players like Yuni Betancourt, Wlad Balentien, Jeff Clement and Jarrod Washburn for players that more closely fit Zduriencik's profile of a legitimate major leaguer. The Bavasi house or horrors received an extreme makeover with extreme alacrity. By the end of 2009, Seattle would retain only two starters, (Jose Lopez and Ichiro Suzuki), and two starting pitchers, (Felix and RRS), left over from the Bavasi teams.

Not every move worked perfectly. Z flipped Aaron Heilman (who would post a 4.11 ERA in 72 innings for the Cubs) to get Garrett Olson (5.60 ERA in 80 innings) and Ronny Cedeno (.504 OPS before departing for Pittsburgh). When Seattle got Lucas French and Mauricio Robles for Washburn, Seattle fans were underwhelmed. Of course, Washburn went on to post a 7.33 ERA in 8 starts for Detroit, while French posted a 6.63 ERA for Seattle, so Detroit certainly cannot claim to have won that particular trade.

In addition to the trades the new GM spun, he also acquired an interesting mix of free agents. Russell Branyan was signed as the club's (dirt cheap) first baseman along with former All Star Mike Sweeney. Future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Junior returned to the Emerald City to fill the DH position. David Aardsma was brought in (along with a veritable plethora of other bullpen potentials) to battle for the closer slot. It didn't take long for "spaghetti" to become the shorthand for latest Captain Jack pickup from the cheap and easy discard pile.

Overnight, the focus of the team went from veteran entitlement to one where the only determining factor for job security was work ethic and production. After the debacle of 2008, inherting a club whose group psyche would make Sylvia Plath seem like Kelly Ripa, the clubhouse mood needed a truckload of Prozac, and they got it in the form of Ken Griffey mixed with a chaser of Mike Sweeney. The formerly erratic "King" Felix suddenly found a groove that wouldn't end once paired with another kid, Rob Johnson, that seemed to instinctually know how to call the perfect game.

In a single season the defense was transformed from 26th in baseball to #1. From April Fool's through September the club was built on top of a defensive foundation that surrendered only 692 runs during the season -- a full 40 runs better than the runner up palehose. Seattle had allowed 811 the year before. The offense didn't fare as well, slipping from 13th (671 runs scored) in 2008 to 14th (640 runs scored) in 2009. The offense made great gains at CF, DH and 1B ... but swooned by an even greater amount at 3B, SS and LF.

The rotation was led by Felix, who would finish with a 19-5 record, 2.49 ERA and second in the Cy Young voting. No other Seattle pitcher would break double digits. But, that was largely due to injury (which held both RRS and Erik Bedard to 15 starts each - though the two would combine for 10 wins). And Washburn was traded with an 8-6 record and 2.64 ERA. He would only win once with Detroit, so he didn't break double digits in wins personally, either. But, the lack of Win totals for pitchers was also a result of a constantly revolving door of young talent funneled through the lineup. From the early season optimism around Chris Jakubauskas, (6-7, 5.32), the club would audition Vargas (3-6, 4.91), Morrow (2-4, 4.39 - with 10 starts and 16 relief appearances), Olson (3-5, 5.60), Fister (3-4, 4.13), French (3-3, 6.63), and Ian Snell (5-2, 4.20).

And the debut season of Z and Wak ended with a spontaneous outpouring of joy and comeraderie as Ken Griffey was carried off on the shoulders of his teammates -- a fitting reward for all those years in Seattle when Junior had carried everyone else. The season ended with King Felix winning his 19th game, while Ichiro scored, and Jose Lopez and Franklin Gutierrez each doubled in a pair of runs. In the end, Aardsma closed it out (for his 38th save), and the club's 85th win. No, it wasn't the playoffs, but it sure felt good enough that it might as well have been.

In the end, it didn't matter that 7 of the Seattle hitters who played in that final game had batting averages below .225. They played together as a team. The fought. They scrapped. They simply refused to allow the negative blathering of the pundits to play the game they loved just for the love of the game. They never gave up, winning an astounding 35 1-run games, (and playing in an even more amazing 55 1-run contests). The team would have a winning record for every month of the season except May. They finished 4 games over in the 1st half, 4 games over in the second, 4 games over in interleague play. Opponents didn't seem to matter, (except for absolutely pasting Oakland with a 14-5 season series win). The opponent didn't really matter, because the opponent was going to have trouble scoring runs, and the game was going to be closer and down to the wire.

Following a 24 game increase in victories from '08 to '09, there is much enthusiam and optimism for the club heading into the 2010 season. And after St. Jack delivered a pre-Christmas present of Cliff Lee to the team, there is good cause for optimism. History will call 2009 a year of change. For Mariner fans, 2009 holds the potential to not just be remembered as an enjoyable winning season. It may well be remembered as the year that marked the transition from quietly invisible pretender to an American League West dynasty.