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And isn't Safeco a pitchers park?

I'm not so high on the M's rotation. From my memory Silva and Washburn had pretty poor peripherals. They're an ERA-correction waiting to happen. Also the Seattle D stinks.

The Seattle rotation was - at the absolute best - mediocre last year. Jeff Weaver turned back into a pumpkin, his completely idiotic and horrible trade, I may add, ten times worse than any trade Cashman has ever even thought about - of Rafael Soriano for Horacio Ramirez continued to bite him in the ass, and Felix Hernandez, the crown jewel of the organization, battled elbow trouble due to irresponsible use.

Mel Stottlemeyer is absolutely talking out of his ass. The 1998 Yankees and 2003 Yankees staffs are absolutely, positively, leaps and bounds ahead of what Stottlemeyer can even dream of with this staff. Eric Bedard is nice, and Felix Hernandez can be even nicer (if he is healthy, which is a huge concern due to the awful way the Mariners have been taking care of him), but the rest of the rotation is mediocre filler or garbage.

Their staff last year allowed 813 runs. They were in every sense worse than the Yankees in pitching.

No, you can't love a GM that traded away a dominant relief arm for a humongous, useless turd. He was also the one who signed Richie Sexson and Adrian Beltre to huge, awful, unmovable contracts for awful, awful production. And it wasn't even hindsight that tells us this, everyone knew they were horrible deals from the start. He has absolutely no clue how to construct a baseball team. His team was outrageously fortunate to even break .500 last year. Seattle should be rebuilding, not trading away top players and prospects for Eric Bedard. Bill Bavasi is truly one of the absolute worst GMs in baseball today. It's not even arguable.

While I liked Mel, and thought he was an alright pitching coach, he definatly wasn't as great as he had been made out to before.

Many of his pitching staffs underperformed from their previous histories before him, and some rebounded after him.

Even granting Mel's point arguendo, it won't be after he moronically gets their strkeout pitchers to pitch to contact.

Well, it might be a GREAT rotation if:

Hernandez finally fulfulls his potential. Or at least most of it. Probability this season: 75%

And if Bedard doesn't suffer a more serious injury than he usually does each season, causing him to miss, say 1/3 to 1/2 the year: Probability: 90%

And if Washburn pitches against everyone else like he does against the Yanks: Probability: 5%

And if Miguel Batista can pitch to under a 4.00 ERA as a starter, something he's down exactly twice in 9 years in the rotation, and only once in 5 years in the rotation the whole season. Probability: 20%

And if Carlos Silva can cut his walks back down to around 1 every 15 or 20 innings. Probability: 10%

Hmmm...let's see (.75)(.90)(.05)(.20)(.10) gives the Mariners, what...about 1 chance in 1500 of being a great pitching rotation (1 THROUGH 5, as Stottlemyre meant it, talking about the 1986 Mets)?

The potential of Hernandez and Bedard, their ceilings, might well be greater than that of Petitte, Wells, and El Duque, but those pitchers were tough, durable, and clutch, and I havn't even mentioned David Cone yet.

So, by what standard does Mel think this Mariners' pitching staff, with three very average major league starters at the back end measures up with the staff that helped the Yanks win 125 games in 1998?

The answer is none. Or rather one, the standard that now that the Yanks have fired his buddy Torre, he feels it's OK to slight them by comparison.

Heck, the 2003 starting staff is better on an even playing field than the Mariners staff, and that's with a crumbling Weaver holding down the 5th slot, never mind the 1998 staff.

This Mariners' pitching staff has two potentially ace starters, and 3 mediocre ones. That's not an all-time great staff, though it might be a very good one, if they're lucky enough.

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Oh, and the great pitching staff that won it all for the Angels in 2002? Maybe in the regular season, but not in the postseason it didn't. Aided by a strong bullpen, it outslugged everyone to win that title.

Postseason ERAs of the Angels starters:

Appier: 6.23 (15 ER in 21.2 IP in 5 GS, a nifty 4 1/3 IP per start)

Lackey: 2.79 (6 ER in 19.1 IP in 3 GS, including the famous 7th game of the Series)

Washburn: 5.02 (16 ER in 28.2 IP in 5 starts, including his good work against the Yanks and the Twins; in the WS, he got blasted twice and lost twice, almost costing the Angels the title)

Ortiz: 9.00 (13 ER in 13 innings in 3 starts, nevertheless, he went 2-0 with a ND; he was so effective that he got passed over to start Lackey on 3 days' rest in game 7)