Mariners Morsels - aka "Free Adam Moore and Rich Poythress! (George Sherrill is FREE!)"

Well, I don't know about you, but as far as I'm concerned, it's officially spring.

Clear skies, mildly warm temperatures with a hint of winter bite, flowers starting to bloom, pitchers and catchers in Peoria. Since all but the last item are happening this year thanks to el Niño, I'm relying upon a more consistent date for MY official start of spring. Punxsutawney Phil may also say there's 6 more weeks of winter, but I say "Play Ball!" (side note -- I wonder if the Phillies, Sixers, Pirates, Eagles, or Steelers were to win a championship, would one of them receive the honor of being in Phil's inner circle???)

I remember well the feelings I had this time last year. Hints of optimism were really overshadowed by irate frustration: that we signed Raul Ibanez so soon, that we didn't even flinch at Vladie. I was more interested in Kaz Matsui, but would've been fine with Tejada. Instead, we ended up surplussing Guillen, and signing Rich Aurilia. Bonehead move, followed bonehead move, and going into Spring Training, the players seemed to be scratching their heads about as much as I was. In spite of what Edgar said when he decided to return, I didn't get the sense that this team was all that excited about its chances for making the playoffs. A lot of evolution, but nothing seemed to change.

And, it was worse than David Cameron's New Year's pessimistic prediction that the M's would plummet from a 93-win team to a 73-win team (he was only 10 off).

This year's got something different. Going into FanFest a few weeks before heading down to Peoria, guys like Boone, Wilson, Moyer -- all guys who've been around awhile -- have a different swagger about them. I mean, why shouldn't they? We just filled our biggest hole in several years by stealing the previous year's HR champion, and another guy who's not so bad himself. But contrary to what another blog will have you believe, we've actually made some good below-the-radar signings in Pokey Reese, Jorge Campillo, Yuniesky Betancourt, and Dan Reichert.

I don't know about you, but this summer's going to be quite fun for me!