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THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: April 1, 2015

| April 1, 2015 9:00 PM

Believe it or not, the start of the major league baseball regular season is upon us.

Let all the talk of the San Francisco Giants trying to repeat, or who's going to replace Derek Jeter for the New York Yankees begin.

Yeah, maybe not yet.

A LITTLE closer to home, Northwest fans will be glued to the television starting next Monday afternoon as the Seattle Mariners open the season with the Los Angeles Angels at Safeco Field in Seattle.

Seattle starts this season as the favorites in the American League West division, somewhere the Mariners haven't be picked in a while.

For all the acquisitions they've made, signing Nelson Cruz, trading for J.A. Happ and keeping Logan Morrison at first base, the season could very well come down to two simple things.

The first - starting pitching, other than Felix Hernandez.

By now, fans know exactly what to expect from Felix, whether that is giving his team a chance to win for eight innings each night, or just winning games on his own if the offense isn't quite up to par that night.

More will be expected of Happ, as well as Taijuan Walker and Hisashi Iwakuma if the team wants to make a run. If those three struggle at some point in the season, don't expect the Mariners to just run away with things.

A second key will be the offense.

Face it, this needs to improve dramatically this season, whether it be at Safeco Field or any other stadium they step into.

Gone need to be the days where the Mariners find ways to win games 3-2, or struggle to score in a series of games.

This spring, at least, they've shown that they should be able to hit and score some runs. It's just a matter of carrying that over from the spring to summer that might be a concern.

RIGHT NOW, at least, there's a bit of a buzz about the Mariners as well.

For the first time since 2008, they'll open the season at home instead of on the road.

And if Monday's sellout is any indication, area fans are starving to see the team win.

Should all those fans remain interested, it could end up being an entertaining season for the Mariners.

If not, it will feel just like all those other seasons when the team doesn't live up to the lofty expectations.

But with all the uncertainty with Los Angeles not having Josh Hamilton, or the Oakland Athletics maybe coming back to earth, it's not that far fetched that Seattle could win the division playing decent baseball throughout the year.

Texas won't be as good and Houston is, well, Houston.

Fortunately for fans, we'll get to find out just how it will go really soon.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d'Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter at JEPressSports.