Seattle Finalizes Roster

Just yesterday I was pondering how much longer the Mariners would wait to trim a few loose strings. Today those strings have been neatly trimmed…kind of.

Here is your Seattle Mariners 2012 Opening Day Roster.

1. Blake Beavan
2. Steve Delabar
3. Erasmo Ramirez
4. Charlie Furbush
5. Felix Hernandez
6. Hisashi Iwakuma
7. Shawn Kelley
8. Kevin Millwood
9. Brandon League
10. Lucas Luetge
11. Hector Noesi
12. George Sherrill
13. Jason Vargas
14. Tom Wilhelmsen
15. John Jaso
16. Jesus Montero
17. Miguel Olivo
18. Dustin Ackley
19. Chone Figgins
20. Alex Liddi
21. Brendan Ryan
22. Kyle Seager
23. Munenori Kawasaki
24. Justin Smoak
25. Mike Carp
26. Michael Saunders
27. Ichiro Suzuki
28. Casper Wells

Astute readers have already begun to ponder if I know how to count. 28 is not 25; I’ll get to that in a moment. Even more astute Sodo Mojo scholars have noticed that Carlos Peguero and Chance Ruffin are no longer participants in the battle of remaining roster spots. Both have been reassigned to minor league camp, so any scenario involving Peguero making this team over Wells may now be laid to rest. Rest in peace, I never liked you much, but really that is not an appropriate thing to say when something is being laid to rest.

Shifting back to a roster bloated by three. Since the Mariners and A’s are opening their season in Japan, they are subject to a unique set of confusing and awkward rules. I am not pretending to be an expert on the matter so I defer this to Greg John who has already explained the rules far more eloquently than I ever could.

"All 30 are available for the two exhibition games against the Hanshin Tigers and Yomiuri Giants on Saturday and Monday, but each team must set an active roster of 28 by 1 p.m. local time Wednesday in Japan on Opening Day, then designate 25 of those players to be eligible to play in the two-game Opening Series."

That 25 man roster must include those players with which the team actually desires to open the season. For all intents and purposes, it is the real thing. Feasible candidates to be cut include Alex Liddi, Lucas Luetge, Steve Delabar, Jesus Montero, Erasmo Ramirez, and Charlie Furbush. Okay you caught that right? Just making sure you’re still with me. Assuming you stay up into the wee hours of the morning, you could get an early idea of how Wedge plans to utilize his team throughout the season. Or at the very least, how he has envisioned using his team early on. Team dynamics change, plans change…he’ll figure it out.

Either way, I would encourage those of you who do not have engagements tomorrow to fend off fatigue and stay up to watch

tonight’s

this mornings game. The picture is coming into focus; before you know it the Mariners will be a week into the regular season and this will all be an afterthought.

Welcome, games that count.