Tampa

Think Selig would O.K. a game or two with this helmet for the UNC kid?  Hey, think of the merchandising.

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The Detroit Tigers won 95 games last year; the Rangers won 96 and the Yankees 97, forming a stellar Orion's Belt of megateams in the American League.  

The major changes that they've made have not been to swap a great 300-lb. pitcher for a great catching prospect.  By "changes" the Detroit Tigers mean "additions."  Such as adding a $200,000,000 Prince Fielder to hit cleanup, and to call up Drew Smyly to strike out 9 men per game in their #5 rotation slot.  

This situation is not unlike that of the NBA's Miami Heat.  In the NBA, they only get one ball, but in baseball, there are nine lineup slots...

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The Tigers are 15-15 having lost five of six to the Mariners.  Had the Tigers beaten the M's 5 of 6, in Tampa Rays fashion, the Tigers would now be 19-10 and essentially tied with the 20-10 Texas Rangers for the best record in baseball.  The M's have grabbed the Tigers by the lapel and slapped them off the top rung down into a .500 record.  And they're bloomin' lucky they won that single game...

The Placeholder Mariners v0.9 have been frustrating, but they haven't been lame.  Night after night, Dr. D wrings his hands helplessly and wishes for the day that Seager, Vargas and Felix are joined by the organization's best baseball players.

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We sent the Blues out against the A's Opening Day lineup, and they never stood a chance.  Halfway through the first spring game, the M's have four HR's and counting.  These include the two most important ones possible - a Boone-style, off-field shot from Jesus Montero -- while playing the catcher position -- and a two-run GWRBI from Michael Saunders.  

Admittedly, the Japan-bound M's have been in camp a lot longer than anybody else, but baseball isn't a sport in which game sharpness matters very much.  Let the march of the SoDo Hit Men begin.

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Next week's Charger-Lions game is a tight matchup, with an early -2.5 point spread.  If the Chargers win that game, the Seahawks are practically in control of their destiny.

If the Chargers lose next week @ Detroit, the Seahawks have a second draw at the deck:  Atlanta finishing 9-7, with the NY Giants beating Dallas to send everybody to 9-7.  This is not farfetched by any means.

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ESPN has a peachy keen "NFL Playoff Machine" that allows you to noodle around with different NFL ballgames, the next two weeks, and then see the playoff matchups at a glance.

Once you boot it up, you can click on Week 16 and Week 17 and then click the Seahawks' logo to grant them victories and a 9-7 record.  The playoff scenarios will set even before any of the other teams have played their games.  Interesting!  

Try a few scenarios and you'll see that the Seahawks' chances are a lot stronger than you'd think.

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=== Seahawks 9-7 ===

If you are a Mariners fan rubbernecking over through the Safeco LF stands over to Safeco, here's a primer.  Although the Seahawks reached the playoffs in 2010 with a 7-9 record, they need all 9 wins this year to have any chance.  The Packers and 49er's have clinched their own divisions, and the Saints almost have ... the two Wild Card teams right now are Detroit and Atlanta, and both have 9 wins already.

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=== Quick Report Card ===

Matthew of LL pointed out that Jaso's defensive numbers (1) don't look too good, and (2) don't cost his teams all that many runs, relative to other catchers.  He also, wisely, cautioned us not to sell them too hard, and not just because of "sample size" (sigh) factors.

Dr. D had cried bloody murder on Chris Gimenez, as early as May.  The 2011 Mariners indeed wound up 4-16 in Gimenez' starts.  SSI dreamily fantasized that Josh Bard's callup had correlated with the SSI whining about Gimenez... at a CORR of 0.20, anyway ...

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Does Dr. D fear the same about John Jaso, you ask.  He does not, no.

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Baseball Prospectus' U-25 list marvelled that the M's would run three such impressive big-leaguers -- Felix, Pineda, and Ackley -- out ahead of two 5-star prospects, those being Taijuan and Danny Hultzen.  ... Paxton and Franklin were their 4-star guys.

Their list of U-25 talents -- not org prospects, mind yer -- had run,

To me it was even more impressive that Carp and Smoak would be 9 and 10 on their list.

One thing is clear:  it is hiiiiiiiiigh blinkin' time for Seattle fans to lose their "No Cheering In the Press Box," more-objective-than-thou attitude about the Mariners' young talent.  It is time to enthuse about the M's young talent.

Zduriencik has earned several times his salary in this arena.  Hey, he's probably earned several times his salary with the Justin Smoak trade alone.  He probably earned it again with the Danny Hultzen draft choice.

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Not thinking about it too much, I wonder whether Felix would even be #1 on such a list, because of the Net Value factor.

My idea on an U-25 list is this.  "Suppose that the two new expansion MLB teams could take ANYbody off your roster but one player, who would you protect?"

And then, "Suppose they could take anybody but two players, who would you protect?"  And so on.

From my standpoint, the Baseball America-style org prospect rankings often make little sense.  Many times I would protect the #5 org prospect before I'd protect the #1, but they're thinking about one side of the "production rectangle" or the other -- emphasizing either chance to succeed (Seager) or upside (Taijuan).