More Hickey:

The Seattle Mariners have announced the candidates they'll be talking to in the first round as they look for a new manager, and the key word appears to be new.

Starting with Boston bench coach Brad Mills, who is in Seattle today, all seven candidates would be first-time big league managers.

The others include White Sox bench coach Joey Cora, Diamondbacks third base coach Chip Hale, Red Sox third base coach DeMarlo Hale, Cardinals third base coach Jose Oquendo, Triple-A Portland manager Randy Ready and A's bench coach Don Wakamatsu.

I don't know who they are but I'm just gonna go ahead and guess that Chip Hale and DeMarlo Hale aren't brothers.

Conspicuously absent from this list is Jim Riggleman, but he's already said his piece on this team, and as far as I'm concerned, he'll be going out on top. The Mariners are going to go in a different direction, and I imagine one of the things they'll be looking for from each candidate during the interview process is that the candidate in question doesn't harbor a bitter contempt for like half of the players in the clubhouse. That sort of thing is bad for morale.