Refuse to Lose

It feels as if it is was yesterday I was watching Game 4 of the 1995 ALDS against the Yankees. Oh thats right, root sports was playing the Mariners classic last night, and i was drooling at the sight of Griffey and Edgar. What ran through my mind for most the game though was me trying to remember when Seattle had last been that excited at an M's game. Literally every pitch felt like it was a full-count in a one-run game. And when something exciting did happen the crowd would applause for twenty minutes, no joke. My oh My! Those were the days.

Which brings me to 2013, should we have faith in Jack Z and Wedge? That's a tough question. These last few weeks have been everything i've expected from the two. I didn't expect us to make the playoffs or really be in contention for the AL West division. But I did expect progression, and you know what, they've shown us a small window of it. For most of last year and the early parts of this year, Dustin Ackley and Michael Saunders were the organizations best hitters; now they're our worst. The addition of Brad Miller and Nick Franklin at the top of our lineup has added needed spunk and aggression. I know these guys haven't really had slumps and haven't even been up long enough to go into slumps, but on nights where the box score seems to indicate they sucked they're still productive. Seager has always been good and he's nothing to worry about. As for Justin Smoak, he's gone from, "oh he's up again..." to "MOM SMOAKS UP AGAIN!!!". And what can you say about Rauuuul Ibanez the man has truly found the fountain of youth and I recommend the club hang on to him one more year. Morales and Morse are still young pieces that shouldn't be traded either and provide much needed pop in the middle of the order. Our lineup as of now has got some longevity to it.

Now to our rotation. Well Felix is still "King Felix", and Iwakuma has been a bit shaky but you can't let the recent past affect the overall product. Now what I've seen and what I've heard from young Taijuan Walker he should be a dominant number three. Danny Hultzen was well on his way before he got hurt and should be a solid lefty in the middle of the rotation, and I know James Paxson finishes "The Big 3" we like to talk about here in Seattle, but I'm gonna leave that fifth spot open for now.

I will leave this post by saying yes I do have faith in Jack Z, even though he gave away Doug Fister for virtually Casper Wells who's no where to be found and could have made one of the worst trades ever. But hey, there's still a tomorrow here in Seattle, there's still hope. Our dream of reliving that 1995 ALDS can still become a reality, it's just a matter of time.