After last week's events, Mariners fans have a clearer picture of what their team will look like in 2012.

Without Prince Fielder, the Mariners need to find another way to drastically improve their offensive output from last season in order to contend. Another issue is Michael Pineda's vacated role in the rotation.

The biggest question facing the Mariners this season, however, deals with the AL West. Will they be able to improve enough to compete against two reloaded teams in the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels? Regardless, the Mariners have to put a product on the field based on what they have, not what they could have had. 

Check out my 25-man roster projection for 2012 after the jump!

The Michael Pineda trade can only be summed up in one word: wow. Jack Z did it again, in typical fashion of holding his cards close and not giving anyone a peek. Everyone following the Mariners closely knew Pineda could be a trade chip but no one thought there could be a package suitable for Jacks standards.

Not only did he find one, but with a mixed reaction from the Mariners faithful. Did we get fleeced? Did we just make a move that will set our team back another 10 losing seasons? Is this Adam Jones all over again? If this is still your opinion of the trade after a week, maybe you should re-evaluate your stance as a Mariner fan.

READ MORE AFTER THE JUMP! 

Yesterday the Seattle Mariners announced Dan Wilson and Randy Johnson will be inducted into the Seattle Mariners Hall of Fame this year on July 28, 2012 in a game against the Kansas City Royals (mark your calendars!).

Dan Wilson played 12 of his 14 Major League seasons for the Mariners (1994-2005). Wilson, who played more games as a catcher than any other player in Mariners history (1,281), is ranked among the Top 10 in a bevy of Mariners offensive categories.

Johnson had one of the most dominant fastballs in the game and regularly hit 100+ mph in his prime. He won five Cy Young Awards (1995, 1999-2002), including the first by a Mariners pitcher when he went 18-2 with a 2.48 ERA in 1995. (Via: Mariners.com)

Johnson and Wilson will be joining Alvin Davis (1997 induction), Dave Niehaus (2000), Jay Buhner (2004) and Edgar Martinez (2007) into the Mariners Hall of Fame. For eligibility, a player or a manager must be active in a Mariners uniform for at least five season and must be ceased to be active in the MLB for at least two seasons before selection.

The next obvious inductions have to be Ken Griffey Jr. and Lou Piniella. Ichiro and Jamie Moyer will also get their nods once they retire. Anyone else out there?

A ludicrous suggestion that came in my head after perusing all-time Mariners career stats tells me maybe a case for Jeff Nelson could be made. He is third all-time in ERA and also held opponents to batting .222 in his Mariners all-time leading 432 appearances.  Nelson was also a crucial piece to the Mariners' runs in both 1995 and 2001.

Could he be the greatest Mariners reliever of all-time? Think of an M's reliever that had that much of an impact for as long as Nelson did. I can't. I'm not saying his impact was large, but I am saying his impact is unmatched. On the other hand, I found out he only totaled 4.3 WAR in his eight seasons with the Mariners. And then there's that part that he only pitched one inning when he went into games. Am I crazy? Yes, I'm probably crazy.

--Kevin Cacabelos (@seatownsports) 

In one of the biggest off-season moves in the MLB, the Mariners have reportedly traded young star, starting pitcher Michael Pineda to the New York Yankees in exchange for Jesus Montero. As many reporters have mentioned, this deal won't be announced today or anytime soon until physicals on both sides have been completed. The Mariners are also sending over pitching prospect Jose Campos, while the Yankees are sending back Hector Noesi.

The Mariners entered this off-season looking to upgrade their offense, and this move on many levels is a step towards acheiving that goal. Montero played designated hitter and catcher for the Yankees last season. In 18 games he batted .328 with a .406 on-base percentage. Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik tried to acquire Montero two years ago when shopping Cliff Lee, but ended up dealing Lee to the Texas Rangers for Justin Smoak instead.

For ongoing updates on the trade, head over to SB Nation Seattle's storystream. At SeaTown Sports we'll have some analysis in the coming days.

--Kevin Cacabelos ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) 

No. 1 is still present and accounted for, but who takes over the No. 2 slot? 

By now, you’ve probably heard that the Mariners agreed to trade Michael Pineda and Jose Campos to the New York Yankees for Miguel Montero and Hector Noesi, pending physicals.

So now the big question is: Who will take Pineda’s rotation spot? ANSWER AFTER THE JUMP!

Edgar Martinez failed to reach the 75% vote margin in order to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame coming in at 36.5% this year. Even though this was only Edgar’s third year of eligibility, he is headed in the right direction by adding on votes from last year’s 32.9%. With the upcoming years of Hall of Fame voting it will only get harder for Martinez as the players from the Long Ball Era will make their way onto the ballot including Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, Craig Biggio, Mike Piazza, Curt Schilling and the list goes on.

Current projections are placing Martinez on the ballot for another 10+ years before being inducted. How is this so? Comparable nominees such as Bert Blyleven and Jim Rice had similar routes to the Hall of Fame by slowly increasing their vote each year. Blyleven in his third year received 17.4% of the vote and Rice received 35.3%.

READ MORE AFTER THE JUMP! 

Morry Gash/Associated Press

Prince is not our Savior.

I am a huge Fielder cheerleader and, if the price is right, would gladly accept a late Christmas present from Jack Z with arms wide open. But, as has become familiar with Scott Boras’ clientele, landing Fielder may require a contract richer than what it behooves the Mariners to spend.

My message to frantic M’s fans is this: sit down and take a deep breath. Let’s stay the course.

What do I mean by stay the course? It’s simple, and something that you may already have heard. Ex-GM Bill Bavasi left this team—and, most importantly, its farm system—in shambles. His $100 million dollar payroll brought us 100 losses. I have no recollection of a GM firing from the hip in the way Bavasi did, dreaming of buying and trading for a winner.

Mariners brass did right back then when they realized they needed to start with the farm system and build from within. Why did the Mariners bring in Jack Zdurencik? He had 24 years of talent evaluation and scouting under his belt and an impressive drafting track record (recent first-rounders include Fielder, Ryan Braun, Rickie Weeks, Brett Lawrie and Matt LaPorta). READ MORE AFTER THE JUMP!

Everyone knows that Pujols just signed a monster deal with the Angels. But what are the Mariners going to do about that? We’ve all been hearing Fielder’s name tossed around here and there, but the M’s have only flirted with the idea of signing him. In order to determine what moves could be made by Jack Z this offseason, we either have to go all out for Fielder and risk coming up empty handed, or we just gotta move on from him and go for smaller name players who could still be somewhat productive. Here’s a list of rumored/potential signings for the Mariners this offseason:

Prince Fielder- Like I said, if we go for Fielder, it’s gotta be all or nothing. He’s going to be the only big player we get this offseason, if we do sign him. But how much is he worth? Personally, I’d say $20 million a year is the limit.  It’s a high risk move for a team that’s still a year or two away from competing. Having a player like Fielder would be nice, but we’re still two or three big pieces away from contending.

Player Rating: 9/10

Likeliness: 7/10

When all of the t’s are crossed and the i’s dotted, Albert Pujols is going to be kicking it in the 90210 with a brand new, 10 year, $254 million contract with the Los Angeles Angels.

In deals that came out of nowhere on day four of the MLB Winter Meetings in Dallas, the Angels quickly stole the show, signing Pujols to the above deal and Texas ace C.J. Wilson to a 5 year, $77.5 million deal.

Signing two all-stars to their roster, the Angels are quickly becoming a favorite in the division. They now have an enormous amount of flexibility with the young players left on their roster, including Kendrys Morales and Mark Trumbo. One can assume that the Angels will likely employ Morales at DH and find a trade for Abreu.

The Houston Astros will move to the AL West in 2013, but in reality, the move doesn’t make a whole lot of difference for baseball or the division.

Let’s be honest, adding the Astros to the division doesn’t add any competition or more challenge to the “worst division in baseball”. Here’s what the new division will look like:

Texas Rangers  (96-66)
Los Angeles Angels (86-76)
Oakland Athletics (74-88)
Seattle Mariners (67-95)
Houston Astros (56-106) 

The Astros really haven’t helped themselves in the winning aspect, as they have been trading away their best players for cheap as of late. In the past two seasons, here are the players the Astros have traded away in the past two seasons: 

2010: Roy Oswalt (traded to Philadelphia)
2011: Michael Bourn (traded to Atlanta)
2011: Hunter Pence (traded to Philadelphia)
2011: Jeff Keppinger (traded to San Francisco)

The Astros stood a fighting chance of doing pretty well in the AL West if they kept all of these guys from leaving. Now, in such a place as Houston was in, no one wanted to stay. They traded away most of their better players, and because of it have been suffered some miserable seasons since.  Being in the AL West isn’t going to help their cause when it comes to signing free agents, because it doesn’t change how much money they can put fourth for transactions.

There is no way this move makes the AL West any better. The Astros haven’t been a .500+ club since 2008, where they finished third in the AL Central with an 86-75 record. They aren’t going to compete with the likes of the Rangers and Angels, who are getting better every year as their young players grow into their roles.  Even the Mariners are looking up- with players like Michael Piñeda, Dustin Ackley, and Justin Smoak all progressing nicely, the Mariners should be able to at least contend for the title.

The Astros-Rangers rivalry and trophy series will now take a back-seat to the chase for the AL West Pennant, ending what has meant sold-out games every matchup between the two during their rivalry in interleague play. The sad part is, now that that matchup will happen more often, it will lose a lot of its luster, and the Rangers will continue to dominate the Astros in the matchup.

It also doesn’t make sense to add a second team from Texas. If the MLB was looking to shake things up during realignment, it would have made a lot more sense to move a team like the Diamondbacks to the AL West and move the Astros to the NL West. A swap like this expands the viewing region for each division, giving it better rating throughout the season, and teams would get to travel to more diverse places, rather than just boring ole Texas.

Whatever the pros and cons of the move are, it is going to happen, and we’ll be ready for it when it comes in spring of 2013.

(@jimmymichaels1)