Bill Simmons is the biggest cheerleader for the only Mariners cause left to root for

There's a veritable army of Seattle Mariners writers, podcasters and influencers who are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Kade Anderson in the big leagues. But none of them have 5.1 million followers like Bill Simmons does, so it's nice to have his support in this ongoing struggle.

While one doesn't know exactly how many X posts it takes for someone to commit to a bit, Simmons is pretty well there with his thirst for Anderson. The Ringer founder has posted about the Mariners' No. 1 prospect four times just since July 27, and the posts are only getting more manic.

Hard agree, Bill… even if we're coming at this from different angles.

Simmons is, rather famously, not a Seattle guy but a Boston guy. His Anderson bit has something to do with having the 23-year-old stashed in a keeper fantasy league. One is therefore led to understand that Simmons is in the "We Want Kade!" game for profit or bragging rights, rather than for the love of it.

The Mariners don't have much to lose by calling up Kade Anderson, and the moment is coming

For our part, we desire neither respect nor money. We just want to see Kade Anderson pitch for the Mariners.

It's not as if there's much else to root for these days. We thought it was bad enough when the Mariners fell both below .500 and out of first place in the AL West back on June 28. But, hoo boy, do those hard times look a proverbial day at the beach now. The Mariners have dropped 20 of their last 29 games and are now eight games below .500. They can't do anything right, and nobody looks like they even want to be wearing the uniform.

And yet, Anderson remains the gleaming button of hope the Mariners might still push.

Everything about him has the energy of an impossible gift. The Mariners had no business landing him at No. 3 in last year's draft. Now he's absurdly good, posting a 1.17 ERA in 17 starts for Double-A Arkansas. Keith Law of The Athletic even has him ranked as the No. 1 overall prospect in baseball. The Mariners hadn't had that kind of prospect since Alex Rodriguez was coming up in the 1990s.

The Mariners know they can't keep Anderson down for much longer, and the only hard line Jerry Dipoto has drawn is between Anderson and the bullpen. When he comes up, he's going to take his rightful place in the Mariners' starting rotation.

That moment arguably should have been yesterday, the day before that and so on, but the Mariners still have PPI-related incentives to wait at least a few more days. At the latest, Anderson figures to get the call when rosters expand in September.

Still, we're not about to tell Bill Simmons to cool it with the posts. It's too good of a bit. And even if it's probably not helping, that kind of megaphone surely doesn't hurt the Kade Anderson cause.

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