We'll be contenders in two years though, I just have to be patient.

Didn't they tell you that in 1999?

We were contenders two years after 1999, and this time it won't be a bunch of mediocre guys in their thirties having career years augmented by a few good players, it's three or four ace pitchers, a 25 year-old, all-star infield, and some decent outfielders.

Mariners I presume?
I have zero faith that their management has any idea of what they're doing. Unfortunately, I think the Mariners are one of those teams that are going to be bad for a long time. Shame about wasting Felix there.

The problem with the Mariners is that they hold onto their stars well past the point when they hold top trade value. If you ask me, they should have been shopping Hernandez, Saunders, and Morales at the trade deadline for a package of top prospects. They've got some good young-ish talent in Smoak, Ackley, Saunders, and Seager, but this isn't going to be their year, and a team like that can't afford 20 million for one player, even a superstar like Felix. They should be dumping salary and building for the future.

Smoke? Ackley? Maybe a few years ago. Dangerously close to absolute bust category now...

Ackley's only in his second full MLB season. He'll get his feet under him. And Smoak... I think he's still developing. Progress is slow, but I think if they stop trying to make him a home run hitter and let him be a 3rd in the lineup doubles-hitting guy with a little more protection, he'll come around.

They definitely should have traded Morales and they definitely should have traded Ibanez. If they want to build around Felix, great, but they'd better hurry up. Keeping a 41-year-old with some value is no way to build a roster.

I don't think there were any takers on Ibanez. He'll retire this off-season.

I guarantee you the Yankees would have loved him back.

Having been a Mariners fan for all of their bad years and only one of their good ones, I've learned to pay too much attention. Yes, our management sucks at things like trades and veterans and such, but our wonderful GM whose name I won't attempt to spell has managed to rebuild the farm system Bavasi gutted, and I do think that we're now on the right track.

To address a few things:
1. Trades. The Mariners were shopping players like Saunders, Morse, et al., it seems like they just didn't get any good offers. There's no reason to trade Felix when he's got this much contract left and they have the potential to contend in a year or two. Morales can be given a qualifying offer to nab a draft pick , or they can use the threat of a qualifying offer to get him on a cheaper deal, so trading him is unwise. Ibanez isn't going to get anything back, and he's been a good clubhouse influence (note Smoak not sucking this year), so there's no reason to shop him now.

2. Young guys.
We have a lot of these. Ackley is pretty much a bust at this point. We've moved him to the outfield because we have no outfielders, and he's been replaced by a young, power-hitting Nick Franklin who may contend for rookie of the year. Franklin is joined in the middle infield by another rookie, Brad Miller, who also shows promise and has been impressive. We've got Seager and Smoak in the corners, so things are looking good there. We also have five stellar pitching prospects hovering in the AAA/Majors area, and if even one of them pans out, we'll have a rotation with Felix, Iwakuma, and some cool young guy.

3. Blind, irrational hope.
I have a whole lot of this. Please don't ruin it with your logic.

You forget Mike Zunino. He's gonna be a beast.

Brad Miller and Nick Franklin are going to rub against each other a bit. There's no doubt that Ackley's a bust but you can't give up on him quite yet. My personal favorite Mariners prospect is Stefen Romero, playing in the outfield right now but traditionally a middle infielder. For some reason, he can't seem to hit against lefties, but if he fixes that up, he's going to be a really, really good hitter in the middle infield. I also like Luis Gohara and Gabriel Guerrero (Vladdy's nephew if I remember correctly).

I did. I was at the fans when Zunino got hurt a week ago. He's gonna be good, and he brings a right handed bay to a lefty dominated lineup.

I do like Romero and Guerrero, though I will point out that a successful move to the outfield would make Romero more valuable to an organization with a young infield and no outfield talent. The best prospect we have is unquestionably Taijuan Walker, and then probably a few of the other pitchers.

What makes you think Miller and Franklin will rub against each other?

Game* damn phone.

I've heard of Walker but don't particularly know of him.

Miller and Franklin will be competing for the same position unless the Mariners want to go the Profar-Andrus-Kinsler route and try to mix everyone in. One of them is eventually going to become trade bait, though obviously it's more likely that one of them simply doesn't work out as expected and becomes expendable anyway.

Walker's a top 20 prospect according to BA and top 5 according to MLB.com, and he's only 20. He's the best prospect we've had since Adam Jones, and his upside is about as high as King Felix's. He'll probably bust terribly because that's what happens to Mariners prospects, but I still have high hopes.

Miller is a shortstop and Franklin is a second baseman who can also play shortstop, there's not really a conflict there. We sent Ackley down to AAA to learn to play the outfield when we brought Franklin up so that we wouldn't have to deal with such things. I think Ackley is really the more likely trade bait, and possibly Romero as well unless they succeed in moving him.

All right, no conflict then. This website is a bit deceptive (it labels both as primarily shortstops but in the lineups just says MI for middle infielder).

Was Taijuan Walker in the futures game?

Yeah, he pitched a scoreless inning for the US.

That's where I know his name from then.

What do the Angels do to their outfielders?

First it was Mike Trout ... http://content.usatoday.com/communities/dailypitch/post/2012/06/mike-trout-catch-of-the-year/1#.UfyY56WEzdk

Then it was Peter Bourjos ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe-25kuax24

Now it's JP Shuck ...... http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130802&content_id=55704640&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

Goddamn these guys are good, and it's not at Camden Yards this time!

Jesus Christ, that Shuck play is amazing. I feel like I've seen that happen over the tiny wall at Fenway. Is it more common there?

Also, fuck the Angels.

Alright, the other two aren't *that* impressive. As in, there are at least a few other people in existence physically capable of doing that (I miss Ichiro).

Victorino once tumbled over the wall but missed the catch. Another time he ran into that short fence so hard that his glove flew into the bullpen and he blacked out on the field.

That Mike Trout play was probably the best catch I've ever seen. The Peter Bourjos play was amazing but not quite as insane as Shuck's, which would have been pretty damn awesome even if he stayed in play doing it.