Vitals: Scott Edward Kazmir, 23 yo LHP. Born in Houston, Texas. 6-0, 170. 24-22, 3.75 career. 2-2, 3.83 in 2007. $424,300 salary. Arsenal: Mid-90s fastball, a slider he'll throw to both sides of the plate, and a change. Recent Battles: Last May Kazmir shut the Mariners out for seven innings, allowing just three singles and striking out nine. Our Best Weapon: Nobody has more than 10 at bats against Kazmir. The Mariners have hit lefties......

Vitals: Bartolo Colon, 33 yo RHP. Born in Altamira, Dominican Republic. 6-6, 245. 144-87, 3.97 career. 4-0, 3.66 in 2007. $16 million salary. Arsenal: Mid 90s fastball, high 80s slider, and a change. Throws nearly 80% fastballs, a pretty high percentage. Recent Battles: Colon beat the M's on April 21, allowing 7 hits and 1 run in 7 innings. He didn't overpower the M's though; he recorded only 1 K. Our Best Weapon: Getting guys......

Vitals: 26 yo RHP. Born in Carson City, NV . 6-3, 210. 4-3, 3.61 career. 1-1, 2.75 in 2007. $384,523 salary. Arsenal: A high 80s fastball, a mid 80s change, and a big 12-6 curveball he throws in the low 70s. Very hittable stuff. Recent Battles: Rasner baffled the M's last Sunday, allowing three hits and no runs in 5.2 innings. Our Best Weapon: Vidro had two of the three hits off of Rasner on......

Vitals: 29 yo LHP. Born in Wichita, KS. 6-2, 225. 36-43, 4.44 career. 3-1, 2.48 in 2007. $3.26 million salary. Arsenal: Low-90s fastball, slider, change that runs away from righties. Recent Battles: Robertson held the Mariners to one run in seven innings last September, beating Jarrod Washburn. Our Best Weapon: Righties hit Robertson well. If Ibanez needs a day off, this might be a good game to start little-used Jason Ellison. The Internet Says: Robertson......

Vitals: 26 yo RHP. Born in Carson City, NV . 6-3, 210. 3-3, 4.10 career. 0-1, 3.86 in 2007. $384,523 salary. Arsenal: A high 80s fastball, a mid 80s change, and a big 12-6 curveball he throws in the low 70s. Very hittable stuff. Recent Battles: Rasner has never faced the Mariners. Our Best Weapon: Nobody on the M's has faced Rasner, but Ibanez and Ichiro would seem to be the most likely guys to......

Vitals: 27 yo LHP. Born in Oarai, Japan. 6-1, 212. 86-60, 3.14 in Japan. 2-1, 6.08 here. $4 million salary. Arsenal: An 88-92 mph fastball, a low-80s slider that he throws mostly to lefties, and a pretty good low-80s change. His stuff is a lot like Jarrod Washburn's. Recent Battles: The M's have never faced Igawa. Ichiro probably did, in Japan, but we couldn't find any Japanese batter/pitcher stats. Our Best Weapon: Vidro usually has......

Vitals: 30 yo RHP. Born in Ponce, Puerto Rico. 6-1, 210. 102-105, 4.34 career. 2-0, 3.75 this year. Acquired via trade in 2005. $13 million salary. Arsenal: Four pitches. A fastball from 89-94, a slider, a curve that he throws mostly against RHB, and a splitter that he throws lots against LHB (especially when he's behind in count). Recent Battles: Vazquez stymied the M's in two starts last season...well, 1.9 starts. In a must-win game......

Vitals: 32 year old rhp. 6-4, 230. Born in Gastonia, NC. 124-88, 3.24 career. 1-1, 4.91 this year. Signed as a free agent, 12/05. $8.3 million salary. Arsenal: Mid 90s 4-seam fastball, with a low 90s two seamer that tails in--he'll use this as a back door pitch to lefties. He throws a curve and a slider--he has better command of the slider, so he uses the curve as an out pitch. Recent Battles: Millwood......

Vitals: 40 year old RHP. Born in Melbourne, FL. 6-2, 204 lb. 151-135, 4.21 career. 0-1, 1.50 this year. Signed as a free agent in 1995. $4 million salary. Arsenal: Knuckleballs, almost exclusively. He'll only throw his low-80s fastball if he's ran to three balls on a hitter. He has a curve, but he almost never throws it. Recent Battles: Back when Josh Bard was still trying to catch Wakefield, the M's played him.......

After Felix Hernandez' terrible eight-inning reign, the A's won't be contesting Jarrod Washburn's accession to the mound. What a performance--the best in Mariner opening day history, and one of the best in opening day history period. ESPN says Hernandez is the first pitcher to record 12+Ks and not give up a run on Opening Day since Bob Gibson did it in 1967. Later that year, Gibson won games one, four, and seven of the World......

Jeff Weaver had a terrible 2006, but then had a couple of good games in the postseason and earned himself a contract for next year. Sound familiar? Yes, it appears the M's are going to be the losers of the Jeff Weaver sweepstakes, signing a guy who had a 6.29 ERA in 16 American League starts last year. How bad was Weaver? Put it this way: the Mariners beat him three times. At least it's......

One commenter greeted our proposition that the Mariners could make the postseason next year so derisively, we were forced to do some extra research just to make sure we weren't going nuts. So we fired up the old Seattlest Research-o-Matic 8000 and came to this conclusion: Yes, the Mariners, who won 78 games in 2006, could contend next year. There's precedent for it: In nine of the last ten years, a team's reached the postseason......

Vladimir Guerrero, who hits a baseball harder than anyone we've ever seen, laced a line drive off of Mariners pitcher Rafael Soriano's skull in the 8th inning of last night's 6-4 Mariner win. Greg Bishop of the Times on Soriano's condition: Soriano suffered a head injury and a concussion, but at Harborview he took a CT scan and an MRI, both of which offered results team physician Dr. Edward Khalfayan termed "reassuring." Khalfayan said Soriano......

Forget gay marriage. The greatest threat to that holiest of institutions is Mariner manager Mike Hargrove. His idiotic bullpen management this weekend, summed up in this post at USS Mariner, caused at least one marital breach we know of. There must be others. Says a USS Mariner commenter: My wife is not talking to me because instead of driving I was pounding the wheel screaming to get “Gas Can” Mateo out and Putz in…shut it......

Yes, the M's won yesterday, pulling within 3.5 games of first-place Oakland. But not without another startling managerial gaffe. With runners on the corners, and two outs in the Dodgers fourth, Hargrove had Joel Pineiro pitch to the #8 hitter instead of walking him to get to the pitcher. Of course, the #8 hitter singled, driving in a run, and even Dave Niehaus, who is rarely critical, lamented "I don't understand why you don't walk......

Eddie Guardado didn't cotton to being removed as Mariner closer, the P-I reports today. Apparently he's been sulking, and Jamie Moyer coralled him for a private chat over the weekend. The mano-a-mano preceded a successful inning against Los Angeles. Everyday Eddie thinks it was a turning point. I was able to put all of that anger and those negative feelings and put them into a bag and lock them away. Guardado's negative feelings bag......

The Mariners roster is almost set. Jose Lopez won the second base job, as expected. Longshot bench aspirant Roberto Petagine made the team with a hot spring. The only competition left is for two remaining spots in the bullpen. Journeyman Jeff Harris and former Angel Jake Woods are expected to win these. Jamie Moyer will start Opening Day, followed by Joel Piniero, Jarrod Washburn, Gil Meche, and phenom Felix Hernandez on Friday against the A's.......