Opening Day!

It's Opening Day! Well at least it is in Seattle. The Mariners come home today to start a three game series with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. There are plenty of reasons to be excited for this one.

1. The M's are 5-2 and leading the AL West. Granted it's only a week of baseball and there is plenty left to play, the M's have looked good of late. The bullpen which was a serious question mark heading into the season looks serviceable and the M's are getting great production from their offensive lineup.

2. Ichiro is back! Starting on Wednesday Ichiro will be back into the starting lineup. Anytime you can add 200 hits and 100 runs to the top of the lineup is a good thing.

3. The return of Griffey. The kid comes home! Today will be very nostalgic for me as the player I idolized as a young child comes home. Not to mention, my seats are on the first base line, prime Griffey territory. I only hope that with the return of Ichiro comes the full-time Griffey DH.

But with the good comes the bad, let's highlight some of the things to watch for in this series.

1. The Angels: It doesn't matter if the Angels are starting off slow. The last two years they have owned the Mariners. In that time they have gone 27-11 against the M's. Not to mention their 3-3 record is deceiving after playing a tough series against Boston. The Mariners need to clean house inside the division. They already swept Oakland, now it's time to take care of the Angels.

2. Starting pitching: The M's are trotting their 3-4-5 starters out for this series. With so much uncertainty surrounding Carlos Silva and Jarrod Washburn it'll be interesting to see if they can turn it around. There is already so much animosity in Seattle over Silva. The man is paid a lot of money to perform...something he has done little of while in Seattle. Silva will need to keep the ball down in this game and mix up his pitches. The Angels will crush Silva's fastball if he throws it as much as he did against the Twins.

Washburn was impressive in his debut against the Minnesota Twins, but let's face it. The Angels are NOT the Twins. This second game will be the telling tale of Washburn's season. Washburn will need to throw strikes and effectively change his speed to keep the Angels honest.

So let's get to it already! It's 11:30 on Opening Day and I'm still at work but will soon be out of here. I can't wait! Go M's!!!