AL West

That photo is Dave Niehaus getting elected into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.  How did he get there? 

Because he's probably one of the best broadcasters ever.

Dave Niehaus' journey started in April, 1977, when he called the Mariner's historic first pitch...

The first month of the baseball season is in the books with the Seattle Mariners among the league's biggest surprises, sitting atop the AL West with a 13-9 mark.

It's a record that seemed highly unlikely given the M's 101-loss campaign in 2008, the complete overhaul of the team, and the fact that their April schedule included matchups with the Angels, Rays, White Sox, and Twins.

Are the Mariners a better team than most of us suspected?

Or are they doing this with smoke and mirrors, only to level off once we get into the dog days of the season?

Over the next month or so, I'm going to break down a different MLB team each day, and make a bold prediction as to what they're looking at, position wise, come September.

Naturally, I'll start with my team—the Seattle Mariners.

It was painfully obvious last year, that the Mariners were not a good team. Suffice to say, almost nothing went right in a 101 loss, last place season. The 2008 Mariners were also the first team in history with a $100 million payroll to lose 100 games. Not an accomplishment to be proud of.

The 2008 Seattle Mariners had the second-worst record in baseball (61-101); it was a campaign of no power and no pitching.

They paid a Carlos Silva $12 million over the season to lose 16 games—almost $1 million per loss.

They gave up five promising prospects for an ace—Erik Bedard—who pitched just 81 innings. GM Bill Bavasi probably thought he was buying job security when he swung the deal, but he was actually ringing up his own ticket out of town.

I always wonder about how managers deal with the various attitudes and personalities on a roster. Baseball is a marathon, not a sprint; which means there are going to be lots of ups and downs.

Tampa Bay Rays vs. Seattle Mariners o8.5 (100)
Tue Apr 21, ‘09 10:10p - MLB Odds
Visit Touthouse.com for more MLB Picks and MLB Betting Info from Mike Rose

The lineup for today's game has been posted and here it is:

Jeter(ss)
Damon(lf)
Teixeira(1b)
Posada(c)
Cano(2b)
Swisher(rf)
Matsui(dh)
Ransom(3b)
Gardner(cf)

Some notes courtesy of Peter Abraham:

The Yankees are batting .125 with runners in scoring position at home so far this year.

Brian Bruney has retired 20 straight batters; his last seven outings are 6.2 perfect innings striking out twelve.

This is why I said making the moves, as the Angel's front office did, made no sense.  The moves limited our control of the situation and basically left us with less options.