Last night the Mariners took the first game of the 4-game series with the White Sox. Hopefully more wins are on tap for the weekend. Also on the horizon is sunny weather if you like that sort of thing. As for me, I’ll be mourning the loss of the clouds and cool temperatures.

On to the links!

In Mariners news...

• Some good news on the injury riddled starting rotation:

• In other injury news, Shae Simmons is throwing bullpens in Arizona in preparation for rehab starts soon and Mitch Haniger is continuing to take batting practice.
• Fangraphs takes a look at the strange statistical season prospect Gareth Morgan has been having.

Around the league...

• Major League Baseball announced the formation of a new competition committee. The purpose is to advise Rob Manfred about on-field matters in general, but more specifically pace of play. The Mariners own Jerry Dipoto is a member.
• Sports Illustrated takes at look at Jon Lester’s yips and how he manages them.
• Former Mariner Doug Fister has signed with the Angels:

• Kevin Pillar has been suspended by the Blue Jays for 2 games after using a slur in Wednesday night’s game.
• The Brave’s Freddie Freeman will miss at least 10 weeks with a wrist fracture.
• Muninori Kawasaki was called up to the Blue Jays this week and he gave the perfect interview:

(Edit: Turns out this is an old interview and I was tricked by the internet into thinking he was back. I’m leaving it here though because Muni is delightful and we could all use a little delight on our Friday.)

• Alex Rodriguez made his broadcast booth debut last night. I caught 2 innings of the game and thought he did great. Of course he had a pre-game Twitter incident and received a few critiques.
• SB Nation has some mock draft action for you.

Amanda’s Picks...

I’m still in shock at hearing about the suicide of Chris Cornell. Soundgarden was a huge part of my formative years and I’m heartbroken by his loss. I spent much of yesterday listening to Soundgarden songs. So many of them take on a different meaning in light of his death.

In the 90s, Seattle musicians were often seen hanging out with the team before games, and sometimes taking batting practice. Randy Johnson was a big reason for this. He was a huge music fan and became friends with many of Seattle’s bands, including Soundgarden. Upon his retirement from baseball, Johnson has dabbled in rock photography. This article from Spin in 2010 showcases some of his pictures from Soundgarden’s comeback that year.

Johnson was also photographing the band on their recent tour; he is mentioned in a concert review in Tuscaloosa last week.

Seattle grunge is the soundtrack of my musical awakening. It’s the way I learned to love music. It was raw emotion wrought into sound. It was lyrics confessing deep pain. It was an outlet for feelings that are hard to categorize and handle. It’s indescribably painful that so many of our grunge icons are gone, that they couldn’t find the emotional relief they gave us through their music.

RIP, Chris.