Tell us what's going right for the Mariners

Last week, in January's bleakest times, I asked you to tell me your greatest fears regarding the upcoming season. Almost 1400 of you responded, and officially the bullpen has us quivering and quavering. But, a week later, and many of you just spent a portion of your weekend at FanFest, and Charlie Furbush seems to be healing nicely:

The Hawt Corner Revival Tour hits Safeco Field. #MarinersFF https://t.co/0iKWlZQXpQ

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) February 1, 2016

In addition to hijinks, James Paxton is skinnier, which is good because Dadgut was in retrospect a fairly unkind moniker and (looks down at self) perhaps a bit too apt. Most heartening is that the calendar is finally flipped to February, the month of pitchers and catchers, the month before the Cactus League, and two months before the regular season frees us from this torment. Oh we'll still be grumpy and complaining, but they'll be different things to complain about, and for that we are grateful.

Those factors, combined with ever so slightly longer days, and a break in the rain, impart in us a renewed determination to not let this horrible winter kill us. We will make it to Opening Day. We will spend a week in the sun in Arizona. The Mariners will be fun. We will enjoy baseball, and be successful professionally and personally. Our diet will be balanced, and our exercise habits regular and sustainable. April will come, it will. We are not doomed to January forever. February is here.

In light of baseball's further advance, please do your best to close your eyes, clear your mind, and focus on Jerry Dipoto's smile. Focus on those pearly whites, and the way his confident mannerisms and style of dress impart upon you, the blessed recipient of his words, feelings of warmth, happiness, and confidence. Look at you, you're well dressed, you're fit, you are the envy of your coworkers, you will C the Z, you are ready to raise your personal floor.

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