I've been thinking: "Golly! The Mariners sure have had a lot of talent over the years. Even though they have yet to earn a single World Series title, and they own a mere three division crowns, I bet the talent we have seen on this club could stack up against the talent any other club has enjoyed over the same period of time."

Here is a way to examine the idea. "A fun exercise", if you will. Teams have 25-man rosters, so let's go back to each of the last 25 seasons, including 2010. We will take one player that was on the Mariners from each season, trying to build a 25-man roster this way. Perhaps you will wish to attempt this exercise for other teams! It is my hypothesis that a "super-Mariner teams" would be extremely tough to beat compared to even the best talent the Braves, yankees or Red Sox could put together.

My attempt at creating such a legendary team is below. As a means to quickly judge how productive each player was in each given year, I included their WAR value for the season.

2010 - Cliff Lee (3.7)

2009 - Franklin Gutierrez (6.1)

2008 - Felix Hernandez (3.9)

2007 - Kenji Johjima (3.0)

2006 - Adrian Beltre (4.9)

2005 - Richie Sexson (4.2)

2004 - Ichiro Suzuki (7.2)

2003 - Joel Piniero (3.8)

2002 - Mike Cameron (5.1)

2001 - Bret Boone (7.8)

2000 - Kazuhiro Sasaki (0.7)

1999 - Freddy Garcia (3.8)

1998 - Jamie Moyer (5.3)

1997 - Ken Griffey Jr. (9.4)

1996 - Alex Rodriguez (9.8)

1995 - Edgar Martinez (7.5)

1994 - Jay Buhner (2.8)

1993 - Randy Johnson (7.1)

1992 - Dave Fleming (4.4)

1991 - Brian Holman (2.5)

1990 - Erik Hanson (6.9)

1989 - Harold Reynolds (4.6)

1988 - Dave Valle (1.7)

1987 - Mark Langston (6.5)

1986 - Matt Young (1.8)

My starting pitchers: Randy Johnson (L), Cliff Lee (L), Erik Hanson, Mark Langston (L), Jamie Moyer (L)

Bullpen: Felix Hernandez, Dave Fleming (L), Brian Holman, Freddy Garcia, Joel Piniero, Kazuhiro Sasaki, and Matt Young (L)

Starting on defense: Kenji Johjima, Richie Sexson, Bret Boone, Adrian Beltre, Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Jr. (L), Franklin Gutierrez, and Ichiro Suzuki (L).

DH: Edgar Martinez
Sitting on the bench: Dave Valle, Harold Reynolds, Jay Buhner, and Mike Cameron.

I have two quibbles with the team. One is that the rotation is awfully left handed. The counter-point is that every three or four game series would either feature at least one righty (Hanson) or two ridiculously dominate pitchers who are virtually immune to platoon spits. The other issue is how right handed the offense is, especially the bench. Thankfully, enough righties on this team did not discriminate in what type of pitchers they chose to abuse. Facing right handed pitching would not be a problem.