Seattle Mariners Odds and Ends: Expectiations, Branyan, And More

After watching the Seattle Mariners on "30 Clubs in 30 Days," I picked up a few tidbits of information that I wanted to pass along regarding the Mariners' offseason and the high hopes the team has for 2009.

• When asked about Jack Zduriencik's expectations for 2009, he replied with, “ We want to win a World Series. I don’t see any reason why we can’t”..A playoff season is a long shot, let alone a winning season, but a World Series victory? Obviously he is proud of what he has done this offseason...and why shouldn’t he be?
• When the hosts were talking about recently-signed first baseman Russell Branyan, they made a few bold statements, such as: “He can change games … [Branyan] can hit it out of the Grand Canyon.” That was when they were debating whether or not the size of Safeco Field will effect Branyan’s home run count.

  They also mentioned that the main reason that Branyan chose Seattle was because the club told him he would be expected to receive 400-500 at-bats. Branyan commented on that by saying that he will only get better the more he is on a set routine such as being the Mariners starting first baseman

• Harold Reynolds and Sean Casey believe that the Mariners 2008 season was similar to The Perfect Storm. They strongly believe that had the Mariners not had such high expectations and laid the amount of pressure on the players they did, that the Mariners would have been in the running for the AL West title. Erik Bedard also said that he felt incredible pressure last season and that he feels little to no pressure this season.

• The management has faith in the Mariners offense, yet won’t fully rely on it to win all games. “We need to manufacture some runs,” said Jack Zduriencik. While the show was talking about players set to have good years, they showed Mariners third baseman Adrian Beltre and second baseman Jose Lopez.

• One of the main reasons that Don Wakamatsu was chosen to be the Mariners' field manager was because of his knowledge in the American League West. He has spent eight seasons in this division and has “very good familiarity with it.”

• Finally, they finished off the show by saying “The Trident rises in the Pacific Northwest.” Think of that as you will.