Ichiro Suzuki

Forget the Chinese Zodiac. 2010 was supposed to be the Year of the Mariner. 

As a result of a promising 2009 season and the acquisition of many talented players, there were extremely high expectations for the Seattle Mariners to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2001.

But through the first two and a half months of the season, the Mariners stand 28-41 and 13 games behind division-leading Texas Rangers.

It was definitely a big week for the league’s corner infielders. The names of Youkilis, Glaus, Konerko, Rolen, Kouzmanoff, and Cabrera were on the tops of all the statistics. The guardians of the baselines spoke with their bats, and ruled the diamond.

Martinez, Gardner, Rasmus and Suzuki spent last week blasting the hardball. Injuries and rest days couldn’t put out their fire.

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It was definitely a big week for the league’s corner infielders. The names of Youkilis, Glaus, Konerko, Rolen, Kouzmanoff, and Cabrera were on the tops of all the statistics. The guardians of the baseline spoke with their bats and ruled the diamond.

Is speed more important than power? Is experience more valuable that youth? If you had to pick one man to lead your franchise, who would you choose?

In this special Would You Rather: MLB Edition I take a look at some of the burning questions in the game. Would you rather have Doc Halladay or Tim Lincecum? A-Rod or Evan Longoria?

What about anchoring your rotation for the next decade: King Felix or Zack Greinke? Is Jose Reyes a better leadoff hitter than Ichiro? Can anyone other than Mariano Rivera claim to be the game’s best closer?

Let's be honest. The first week of the Seattle Mariners season has been a massive disappointment.

Thus far, the offense has underwhelmed and the pitching has struggled. The defense has been stellar, but it can't swing a bat or strike a batter out; therefore it can't solve the current Mariners' dilemma.

As several fans and writers have correctly pointed out, it's too early to abandon ship. This team has talent at several key positions, the best young pitcher in the American League, and a ballpark that is built to accommodate its playing style.

They say nobody's perfect.

That may be true, but that won't stop me from trying to create the perfect baseball player.

In this article I will combine players with specific talents to create the perfect baseball player.

P.S.: I want to apologize to Mo Vaughn in advance (you'll find out why momentarily).

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Every spring, there are a handful of questions that each team faces and must resolve before the start of the regular season.

Often these questions revolve around how to set the lineup and many times start with who will be the team's leadoff hitter.

For the teams that had the 10 guys that follow on this list, that was never an issue, as you could pencil them in atop the lineup and count on them to be a catalyst for your team.

I have chosen who i feel are the top 10 leadoff hitters in baseball history.

When Ichiro Suzuki entered the league back in '01 he was far from unknown, underappreciated, or underrated. In fact if anything for a guy who had never played a MLB game, there might have been a better argument he was overrated.

Since then Ichiro has slowly but steadily fallen out of the spotlight and has become virtually untalked about all around baseball.

My question is, why?

I am now on the sixth installment of my series in which I am naming who I feel are the top 10 players in each MLB franchise's history, and this one is the Mariners.

With just four postseason appearances in their 33 seasons, the Mariners have had some tough times with just ten winning seasons i their history. Nonetheless, they have had some great players don the Mariners uniform.

As with any rankings list, I'm sure not everyone will agree with me.

A recent study from the New York Times concluded that air traffic controllers suffer the most stress than any other job. I beg to differ. Without a doubt, I confidently believe that being a Seattle Mariners fan is the most stressful "occupation" known to man.