Making Sense of the 2011 Mariners

We've entered the final week of Spring Training and Opening Day is almost here. Yes. Friday. Soon. With that in mind, the club has begun making the final cuts and additions to the roster:

-In a move that surprised no one, lefty Luke French was sent to Tacoma, while catchers Josh Bard and Chris Gimenez were relegated to minor league camp. French will join a whole cadre of pitchers who aren't quite major league material in Tacoma, all of whom will only be a phone call away when Bedard inevitable impinges something in his arm or Pineda gets destroyed by real hitters. Bard never really had a shot of making the team, but Gimenez had an outside chance of getting a bench spot. His demotion seemingly locked Josh Wilson onto the roster until...

-The team announced that Josh Wilson has been released. While Josh certainly had some fans in Seattle, the fact that he's nothing even approaching a major league player doesn't make this a huge loss, at least baseball-wise. Josh was well-liked in the club house and celebrated his 30th birthday only a couple days ago. Happy birthday, Josh! Your present is unemployment.

-Chris Ray and Jamey Wright officially made the team, but Royce Ring got cut. This is the closest thing we have to real surprises anymore, since most observes had predicted Ring would would double with Aaron Laffey as the lefties out of the 'pen. Eric Wedge had other plans, however, citing Ring's inability to pitch effectively to right-handers and go multiple innings. Suddenly, Tom Wilhelmsen is the favorite for that last bullpen spot, jumping all the way up from Single-A baseball. Oh, and he was a bartender the year before that. Maybe Tom and Josh Wilson need to have a little sit-down, inspirational chat...

So, everything is falling into place. With Wilson out of the picture, Luis Rodriguez might make the team, but a last-minute waiver acquisition is much more likely. A right-handed corner-infielder/outfielder with a bit of power would make everything look a bit better, as would an unexpected bullpen pickup. On paper, this Mariners team doesn't look like anything to special and anyone predicting anything other than last place is fooling themselves. However, contrary to much of what I've seen written this week, the chances of the team being as utterly embarrassing as last year's squad are minuscule. Yes, we didn't add much in the way of new players to the offense, but last year's career-lows across the board can't happen again. Our rotation looks much better and our bullpen will be merely bad instead of appalling. We're not a championship-caliber team, but there's no way we could have been with the resources at our disposal this offseason. Jack Z made some smart moves and improved the club. It's gonna be a couple seasons before everything starts humming along, but those days sure seem to be coming. Friday can't come soon enough.