Call me an eternal optimist or just a glutten for punishment but I have a pretty good feeling about the M's this year.

The starting rotation looks to be the best we've had since the 2001 season with the 1-2 punch of Lee and Hernandez. The 3rd spot should go to Snell, with the 4th spot going to Roland-Smith, who pitched well towards the end of last year, and 6 guys competing for that 5th spot. The bullpen will be solid with Aardsma closing again but I like the pickup of Chad Codero too. He closed 47 games with the Nationals in 2006. Pretty good considering he probably only had 50 save opportunities with the Nats that year.

I'll take a stab and say they'll probably have the best defense in the league this year. With the addition of Kotchman at 1st, who hasn't made an error in 188 games, and Figgins at 2nd we're looking pretty solid. Move the now slower Lopez to third and Wilson is a stud at short. Gutierrez and Ichiro will track down nearly everything hit to center/right. The wild card is Milton Bradley. Will he be able to keep it together? Will Griffey be the clubhouse glue they need to keep Bradley from losing his cool?

We won't score a lot of runs and games may be boring to watch for those who aren't truly fans but I think we've got a pretty good shot at making a run at the Angels this year.