3/31: Open game thread

Happy Felix Day, everybody.

Reminder: This is the last Felix Day before the home opener! At Safeco!! In Seattle!!! In front of ~47,000 Mariner fanatics waving King Felix 'K' cloths!!!!!! Yahoo.

We've finally reached the home stretch of Spring Training and dammit if this spring hasn't felt particularly long. A lot of this probably has to do with the fact that our expectations as M's fans haven't been this high for ~12 years - of course our anticipation/impatience is going to be that much stronger! Additionally, the Mariners opened their 2014 season exactly one year ago today, so we actually do have to wait an extra six days for baseball to return this year.

This game could end up being a pretty good one, as both the Mariners and Cleveland have ~seven regulars in their starting lineups (too bad this game isn't televised). These men will likely collect ~4 PA apiece and play for the majority of the game. Mike Zunino is starting behind the dish again (his 19th game of the spring), and we get a chance to see how Rickie Weeks manages in his first start at first base.

Felix Hernandez threw 65 pitches in his last start, so he'll probably throw ~80 in the game today as he continues to stretch out. Cleveland has a fairly potent lineup, so it'd be extra nice if Felix had a solid outing and racked up six or seven strikeouts during his final spring start.

Almost-40-year-old Bruce Chen, who is starting for Cleveland today, was recently told that he wouldn't make the big-league club out of Spring Training; however, he did agree to a minor league deal to stay within the organization.  Amazingly, Chen has been around in MLB since 1998 (when Felix was 12 years old!), and has pitched in almost 400 games. However, his best year was way back in 2000, and he's never put up more than 1.8 fWAR in a season. I don't know how effective he'll be this year, but good for him for sticking around baseball as he enters his fifth decade of life.

Game info:

• Seattle Mariners @ Cleveland Indians, 1:05 PM PST
  
• TV: None!
  
• Radio: 710 ESPN (delayed 'til 7 PM PST), mlb.com

Starting lineups:

Minor-league callups: