Camp In Peoria

As the winter turns to Spring and Summer we are looking forward to the return of http://mlb.mlb.com/home and it’ll be a welcome addition for those living in the snow covered Eastern States.

On the west coast we have taken to cutting our lawns, planting flowers and yes putting the skates away for gloves.

Those south of the 49th are given news that the Mariners had an extremely successful 2014 and it turned out to be successful on and off the diamond as they showed an $11.6 million profit.

This is according to the financial figures that were submitted by the team to the Public Facilities District that oversees Safeco Field’s operation.

It clearly can’t hurt that the club has had their best record since 2007 and the attendance pushed back above the 2 million mark and naturally helped increase the revenues that had shown a $3.6 million loss in ’13.

Once the final count was in it’s interesting to note that the final attendance total of 2,063,624, which is an average of 25,477 per game, was the Mariners’ highest since 2010.

One major piece of the Mariners roster was missing from camp in Peoria for the past few days and it’s expected that “superstar Robinson Cano is expected back at Mariners camp after attending funeral services for his grandfather in the Dominican Republic.

Cano is in the second year of a 10-year deal ($240 million) flew to the Dominican on Sunday after learning of his grandfather’s death.

Cano played only five games for Estrellas De Oriente in the Dominican Winter League during the offseason so he could play in front of his grandfather.

For info on Cano visit http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/canoro01.shtml

Opening day it is expected that Felix Hernandez is or might be the starter April 6th when the Mariners take on the visiting Angels at Safeco.

“You guys got somebody better?” McClendon said with a laugh. “I’d say it’s a really good chance — a 99.99999 percent chance — that he’ll be starting Opening Day.

They’d run me out of town if he’s not out there. Talk about getting second-guessed? They’d be all over me.”

Hernandez has been about the surest thing for the Mariners for many years, particularly on Opening Day.

He already holds a club record with for most Opening Day starts (seven), wins (five) and strikeouts (52).

This would be his seventh straight Opening Day start and second straight against the Angels, whom he beat in last year’s opener, when he struck out 11 over six innings in a 10-3 win in Anaheim.

For more info visithttp://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=sea