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: Carsten Charles Sabathia, 26 yo LHP. Born in Vallejo, California. 6-7, 290. 87-57, 3.94 career. 6-1, 3.65 in 2007. $8.75 million salary. Arsenal: A 92-93 mph fastball with wicked movement that he can amp up to 96 when he needs it. Lefties must look for a sharp breaking slurve, while righties must look for the slurve and a straight change. Recent Battles: Sabathia faced the Mariners once last year, he went eight innings and......

Vitals: Justin William Germano, 24 yo RHP. Born in Pasadena, California. 6-3, 205. 2-3, 5.71 career. 1-0, 0.69 in 2007. No salary info. Arsenal: Germano's a sinkerballer--he'll throw that pitch lots. He also mixes in a fastball. Recent Battles: Germano's never faced the Mariners. Our Best Weapon: George Costanza rule: Whatever the M's did against the last sinkerballer they faced, Chien Ming Wang (when they didn't get a hit until the 8th), they should do......

Vitals: Gregory Alan Maddux, 41 yo RHP. Born in San Angelo, Texas. 6-0, 180. 336-205, 3.07 career. 3-2, 3.20 in 2007. $10,000,000 salary. Arsenal: Fastball and a changeup. Neither are as fast as they once were, but they get the job done. He mixes in a slow, tight curve and a slider. Recent Battles: Only one of Maddux' 685 career starts has come against the Mariners. In 2003, while with the Braves, he struck out......

Vitals: Christopher Ryan Young, 27 yo RHP. Born in Dallas, Texas. 6-10, 260. 30-17, 3.84 career. 4-3, 3.11 in 2007. $600,000 salary. Arsenal: Low 90s fastball, a curve that he changes speeds on, and a change. Terrible at holding runners on, he allowed 41 stolen bases last year. Recent Battles: Young started once against the M's in interleague play last year. He allowed three runs in six innings, all on solo homers by Sexson, Lopez,......

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......

Sorry about the two sports posts in a row. Hope you non-sportballers have scrolling capability. Vitals: John Derran Lackey, 28 yo RHP. Born in Abilene, TX. 6-6, 245. 65-52, 3.94 career. 5-3, 2.70 in 2007. $5.8 million salary. Arsenal: Low 90s fastball, a nasty, late-breaking curve, and a change. Recent Battles: Lackey was 1-2 with an 8.44 ERA in five starts against the M's last year. The M's had 46 hits off of him, and......

Vitals: Kelvim Jose Escobar, 31 yo RHP. Born in La Guaira, Venezuela. 6-1, 230. 87-84, 4.20 career. 4-1, 2.21 in 2007. $9 million salary. Arsenal: 92-97 mph fastball, hard slider, splitter and change. Recent Battles: In two August starts against the M's last year, Escobar totaled 16 Ks. On the 17th, Escobar beat Jamie Moyer in Moyer's last start as a Mariner. On the 28th, Felix Hernandez (today's M's pitcher) beat Escobar 2-0. Our Best......

Vitals: Andrew Eugene Pettitte, 34 yo LHP. Born in Baton Rouge, LA. 6-5, 225. 188-105, 3.79 career. 2-1, 2.72 in 2007. Arsenal: Low-90s fastball, his excellent cut fastball (it runs in to righties), a 12-6 curve and a change. Recent Battles: Pettitte hasn't pitched against the M's since August of '03. Only two guys from that team still on the M's are Ichiro (who went 2-4) and Willie Ballgame (0-3). Pettitte's 8-9 career against the......

Vitals: 26 yo RHP. Born in New Castle, PA. 6-0, 170. 0-0, 1.29 this year (he's a rookie). Arsenal: DeSalvo told Baseball America in 2005: “I throw seven different pitches: a four-seamer, a two-seamer, a cutter, the [knuckle] curve, a slider, a forkball, and a change. Having a lot of pitches gives me backup options." His fastball is low 90s. Recent Battles: Last Monday, in his first major league start, DeSalvo allowed a double to......

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: 24 yo RHP. Born in Manakin Sabot, VA. 6-5, 200. 19-12, 3.66 career. 2-1, 2.75 in 2007. $1.03 million salary. Arsenal: Mid to high 90s fastball, sweeping curve, changeup. Recent Battles: Beat King Felix last April in a much-touted battle of young fireballers. Held M's to 4 hits in seven innings. Our Best Weapon: Beltre's our best fastball hitter. Hopefully he can lay off of Verlander's soft stuff and gear up for the heater.......

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: 24 yo RHP. Born in Kennewick, WA. 6-2, 220. 46-53, 4.67 career. 1-0, 3.69 in 2007. $4.5 million salary. Arsenal: Mid-90s fastball, nasty slider, change. Recent Battles: The M's faced Bonderman last on September 5th, knocking him out of the game with a three-run fourth. This game was notable for being Joel Pineiro's 58th, and last, win as a Mariner. Our Best Weapon: Ibanez is 8-17 career against Bonderman. The Internet Says: In 2002,......

Vitals: 26 yo RHP. Born in New Castle, PA. 6-0, 170. This will be his first major league game. (3-0, 1.05 at AAA in 2007) Arsenal: DeSalvo told Baseball America in 2005: “I throw seven different pitches: a four-seamer, a two-seamer, a cutter, the [knuckle] curve, a slider, a forkball, and a change. Having a lot of pitches gives me backup options." His fastball is low 90s. Recent Battles: None Our Best Weapon: A guy......

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 RHP. Born in Tainan, Taiwan. 6-3, 225. 27-13, 3.84 career. 0-2, 5.84 in 2007. $489,500 salary. Arsenal: A hard-sinking mid-90s fastball that's so effective, he throws it 75% of the time (most pitchers throw about 65% fastballs). Wang's almost a two-pitch pitcher, because he throws his slider almost exclusively to righties, and his change (a forkball) almost exclusively to lefties. Wang's hard-sinking fastball gave him the highest groundball/flyball ratio in the American......

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: 26 yo RHP. Born in Tokyo, Japan. 6-0, 187. 94-45, 2.99 in Japan. 3-2, 4.36 here. $6.3 million salary. Arsenal: Dice-K throws six pitches--three fastballs: a mid 90s four-seamer (rides high), a low 90s two-seamer (moves down), and a cut fastball that moves away from righties, and three off-speed pitches: a slow 11-7 curveball. a mid-80s slider that he tries to back-door lefties with to strike them out, and his change-up, which is considered......

Vitals: 22 yo LHP. Born in Austin, TX. 6-1, 200. 0-3, 5.32 career and 2007 (he's a rookie). Acquired via trade from Texas (Brandon McCarthy) before this season. $380,000 salary. Arsenal: Same was Barry Zito's. He's got a 88-91 fastball, a 80 mph change that he appears to locate well (and likes to use with two strikes) and a big looping curve--which, from what I've seen, isn't as big and looping as Zito's is. Recent......

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.......

Vitals: 27 year old RHP. Born in Spring, TX. 6-5, 220lb. Acquired in 2005 from the Marlins via trade. 58-45, 3.84 career. 1-0, 1.80 in 2007. $6.7 million salary. Arsenal: Mid-90s fastball, 12-6 curve, and a rapidly-improving change that he throws mostly to lefties. Recent Battles: Beckett's only faced the M's once--it was last April. He went seven innings, gave up six hits and one earned run, and got a win. Our Best Weapon: Ben......

Vitals: 36 years old, born in Louisville, signed as a free agent by the Indians in '05. 82-73 career record. $7 million salary. Arsenal: A below average (84-89mph) fastball. To lefties, he'll work up and away with the fastball, a 12/3 looping curveball and a change. To righties, he'll work low and away with the fastball and a slider. Recent Battles: Triumphant! The M's knocked Byrd around in his one start against them last year,......

Arsenal: Harden throws a mid-90s fastball, a tight-breaking curve and, his unhittable out pitch, a late-breaking splitter called the "ghost pitch" (because it seems to disappear) or the "spuckle" (because it breaks as dramatically as a knuckleball). Opponents bat .164 against this pitch. Pure nastiness. Recent Battles: Sherman through Georgia-esque. Harden only had two starts against the M's in 2006 (he was injured most of the year). In those starts, M's hitters were 5-41 with......

Arsenal: High 80s fastball, slow curve, unremarkable slider. Relies on location to get guys out. Recent Battles: Waterloo-esque. Blanton started four games against the M's last year, and beat them all four times. Twice he held the M's scoreless for 8 innings. The rest of the league had no trouble, he was 12-12 with a 5.38 ERA in starts not against Seattle. Our Best Weapon: Patience. Blanton threw less than 100 pitches (3.5 per ab)......

We're going to fiddle around with a few ways of covering the Mariners this year, starting with this: "Today's Target." Meaning the starting pitcher the M's are facing. Nothing affects a team's performance more than what the opposing pitcher gets up to, so we'll give you a couple of things to know in case you catch the game. Target: Dan Haren, righty. Arsenal: mid-90s fastball, hard slider, nasty, nasty split-finger. Recent Battles: Not good--Haren was......