The Month Ahead - April

This is the first installment of an ongoing series of brief previews of each month for the 2017 Seattle Mariners season. Real baseball is upon us! Celebrate!

April has historically been a real mixed bag for the Seattle Mariners. It's a weird month for all teams as players get into their routines, get more comfortable at the plate and in the field, and adjust to the travel schedules and daily grinds.

If you're looking for unbridled optimism (haha why?), you've come to the wrong place. April 2017 looks absolutely brutal for this Mariners team. If they go 3-7 in the first 10 games, I'll consider it just fine. Hopes are high for this team, as they should be at this point, and I have little doubt that they will hit very well. And I have quite a bit of faith in the bullpen. But the starting pitching rotation that has worried most all offseason officially hit panic mode today as Drew Smyly will be out 6-8 weeks with a flexor bundle strain in his pitching arm. Not great.

Yeah, that's why 3-7 through 10 doesn't seem too unreasonable. Opening the season on the road against 2 of my least favorite divisional rivals and THEN playing the actually good one again at for the first 3 games of the first home stand is just gross and distasteful. Oh and then goodie, the Rangers come to town. Finally, the Mariners get a 2 series in a row where they'll likely be the favorites. Sadly, one of these series is against Oakland in Oakland (pukes in hat). Then it's off to the Midwest in Spring against 2 teams that don't have roofs so there's no way there isn't at least 2 rain outs, right? Oh, also, Cleveland will likely make it to at least the ALCS again. They are very good.

So, things to look forward to!

• ICHIRO! He's comin' back home with the Miami Marlins for a 3 game series that will include a dual bobble head of him in both Seattle and Miami uniforms, celebrating his 2004 single season hit record and his 3,000th MLB hit.
• BASEBALL! YOU GUYS REAL BASEBALL IS BACK. THESE ARE NOT PRACTICE GAMES.
• Starting rotation shenanigans! Will Yovani Gallardo survive the month? Can Ariel Miranda be okay to decent in Smyly's stead? Is Iwakuma just Spring Training rope-a-doping us? Will Felix be Felix? AHHHHH!
• New additions Mitch Haniger and Jean Segura are gonna be fun as hell to watch, win or lose.

Go Mariners.