A Pair Of Aces: Felix Hernandez and Cliff Lee Set To Power The Mariners

Jack Zduriencik is a beloved man in Seattle heading into the 2010 baseball season. Over this offseason Zduriencik made high impact moves that no one saw coming. When Seattle landed Cliff Lee in a huge three team trade at the Winter Meetings sports nation collectively took notice. The 2008 CY Young award winner in the A.L. Cliff Lee was a player seemingly not on the M's radar at the time the move was made. The moves that accompanied this one were , while not as momentous, polished off the most highly speculated offseason in Seattle Mariners history.

 Jack Zduriencik (Or GMZ as he's known in Mariner land) added Chone Figgins, the versatile speedster from Anaheim, to hit second in the order and play the infield. He landed an offensive threat to the middle of the lineup in Milton Bradley in a trade for Carlos Silva and his ridiculous contract. Jack added Eric Byrnes, Ryan Garko, and Casey Kotchman as well just to name a few more low risk high reward moves the Mariners wheeling and dealing GM put in motion during the winter.

All those moves were in a singular direction, defense. A team built around it's pitcher friendly ballpark and stud ace Felix Hernandez who was second in A.L. Cy Young voting last season to eventual winner Zack Grienke. With Cliff Lee behind Hernandez in the rotation things are certainly looking up for an M's team that was greatly improved last season, to take yet another step forward. A right handed- left handed 1-2 punch like Hernandez and Lee is certainly hard to find anywhere else in baseball. A duo like that will be surely formidable throughout the summer, not to mention the devastation that they can cause teams in the postseason.

One thing can be said for GMZ at this point, the fans love him. After skimming some message boards you come away thinking he may be the most loved GM in sports at this time. How can you blame the Mariner faithful? The Mariners are certainly the favorites in the A.L. West right now and they may not be done adding pieces.