First you take the Fielder Polls, but then you trade Pineda

The off-season sucks.

Pretty excited about 2013 though.

Is that a reason to be excited?

But I understand that this will still be one of the worst teams in the league that’ll go through some large growing pains.

But as a diehard sports fan, it’s so tough NOT to be excited once camp opens up, Hawks or M’s. When you love something so much, there’s nothing you can do. It’s the worst.

I calculated my excitement at a 3.42 and was forced to round down. Z’s follow up move has the potential to slingshot me well into the 4’s (unless he somehow acquires another impact bat in which case 5’s ceiling will not be able to contain me)

Even though it shouldn’t, is that the longer the wait, the more I’m convinced Fielder will not be here. I just can’t shake the feeling that the Rangers are gonna pull in and sign him like it was their intention the entire, Darvish or not.

But possibly, with the way it’s heading, it wouldn’t surprise me if somehow Milwaukee gives a one time, final offer that he can’t pass up. Maybe shorter term, higher annual salary. The longer the wait, the greater I believe their chances increase.

My emotional expectation for how many wins we’ll have just went from 70 to 90. Before I was going to be pleasantly surprised. Now I’m possibly going to be underwhelmed again.

Damn.

for reasons that have nothing to do with their schedule. I haven’t seen a Mariners game in person where they’ve scored more than 3 runs in over 2 years. I’m pretty sure there’s a good chance I’ll see that happen this year, and I don’t think the pitching is that much worse if it is at all.

Because woooo potential decent offense!

I want to see this Montero kid play a season so I get a better feel of his abilities at catcher and with the stick.

I would like to be more excited than that, but this may be a move that looks more towards 2013 and 2014 than 2012. The prospect of additional offense is nice, but I feel like we’re banking on the high-end of Montero’s projections here and the gap left by Pineda probably won’t be filled easily this season. We have to wait for Hultzen (maybe this season!), Paxton (also maybe), and Walker to step in.

Reasoning in the first poll:

Even without further additions, next season I get to watch the team break camp with promising young players rather than a bunch of stopgaps and bounce-back candidates. I am looking forward to seeing more Dustin Ackley, Justin Smoak, Casper Wells, Mike Carp, Kyle Seager, Michael Pineda. Also get to see what we have in John Jaso and potentially Danny Hultzen and James Paxton.

With the way the team is set up, there likely won’t be as much turnover as we had last season. In 2012, we’ll get a better idea of who to stick with going forward and what improvements need to be made.

Swap out Michael Pineda for Hector Noesi and add Jesus Montero to the lineup. Plus Hisashi Iwakuma was added since the last poll. The team is more interesting. And thus, I’m more excited.

I think the proximity of the season is the only reason why.

The team may suffer from the loss of Pineda, but the addition of Montero, Iwakuma, Jaso, and even Sherrill make this team different, if not more interesting, than last year.

Montero is going to be fun to watch, add in the potential of Smoak and Carp and you’ve got me excited.

Sad to lose Pineda from a “I want all the things” standpoint but happy to have at least the promise of offense in Jesus. I’ll feel more strongly one way or the other once the 18th passes and the Fielder sweepstakes can get rolling.

is that alot of the veterans who have been here the past few years, we all knew they wouldnt be here much longer, thus stop blocking youth and letting those guys sink or swim. Cust, Bradley, Branyan, both Wilsons, etc.

Outside of Figgins and maybe Olivo, we dont really have too many of those left. I dont throw League into that catagory because he is still a highly productive player who if for some reason signed a multi-year extension with us, wouldn’t get hate from me.

But 3 for this one. I’m very excited to see what happens, but not at all excited to see us not contend. Kind of a conundrum.

I’m really excited about Ackley/Carp/Smoak/Montero. And with a healthy Guti and a bouneback season from Ichiro… You never know.

And by no way am I trying to start shit, but what makes people think he’ll be bouncing back, especially another year closer to 40? It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he hits .270-ish with an OBP of around .315 this time around.

If I had to bet, I’d be more comfortable saying Gutierrez puts up numbers closer to 2009 than Suzuki ever hitting above .285 again.

The 2012 Mariners are going to be terrible.

The redeeming qualities are Felix, and watching young players develop. This trade doesn’t change either of those significantly, if at all, and doesn’t make the Mariners significantly better, if at all.

Why you ask? Potential Ichiro and Kawasaki commercials.

And it could go up to a 4 depending on the quality of future moves. I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop, but I am no doubt excited about seeing the heart of the order develop.

And while Montero isn’t Fielder, I’m going to be excited to watch him and see if he can turn into that. So I went up to a three, which is the vote I made in the earlier Fielder poll.

There is FAR too much uncertainty on this team and questions at just about every position. How close is Olivo to pulling a Jose Lopez? Which version of Smoak are we going to see? Where does Montero end up playing? Is Ichiro declining and declining hard, or can he bounce back? Can Carp fix his K problem without dampening his power again? Is Wells’ eye problem going to continue to be an issue? And Gutierrez’s stomach? What is actually realistic for Seager/Figgins combo? And Iwakuma/Beavan/Furbush/Noesi is a whole lot of question marks for various reasons. When 2 of the most reliable 4 or 5 players on the team are Brendan Ryan and Jason Vargas I just can’t get my hopes up. I’m excited for certain things about the Mariners, but I am in no way terribly excited about the Mariners as an entirety.

I was probably a 3-3.4 before the trade, now I’d say I’m 3.5-4, so I voted 4. Not that it makes the team much better in the short-term, but I’m excited to see some fucking home runs.

my excitement is a solid 5. This poll would be more accurate if asked after the second week of the season.

Maybe run a poll with both excitement and optimism options and see how close they’d come out. I’m way excited as spring training gets close and probably a 3-1/2 on optimism.

Also can’t wait to change my quote. Spring is almost here!