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Ken Griffey, Jr. has rejoined the Mariners as a special consultant. I don’t really know what a special consultant does, and there’s no telling if Shannon Drayer’s account tells the full story.

While Greg Johns of MLB.com reports that the role is “evolving,” you need not wait further. I just got the inside scoop.

First things first, and that’s player development. We’re talking about a first ballot Hall of Famer who is in the 600 home run club and also played solid defense. He has a ton of insight to offer.

However, the Mariners believe they have the talent on their young roster already. What they really want to do is build chemistry. As we know from ESPN experts, talent doesn’t matter in team sports. It’s all about how you get along with your teammates.

Junior is scheduled to be in Seattle six times in the upcoming season. While there, he’ll visit the clubhouse pregame, spin his hat around and tickle Ichiro. A good time will be had by all.

While the team trots out to the field with smiles on their faces, Junior will saw some logs in the clubhouse. Last one out, please hit the lights.

After a perfect game thrown by David Pauley against the Yankees, the team will rejoin “The Kid” for some postgame hijinks. Crank the hip-hop, bob your heads and let’s play pin the smile on Milton Bradley!

As Drayer notes, this isn’t all about player development.

Having his “Swingman” brand with Nike, along with numerous bobbleheads and t-shirts, Junior has experience in marketing. He’ll quickly get together with the Mariners marketing staff, that being people who actually hold degrees in the field, and put his personal spin on things.

On May 30, a day game matinee, we’ll have “Siesta at the Park Day.” Leave your Lunexor at home. Griffey won’t be on hand that day, so the non-chemistry-infused product on the field will be the only pill you need. First (only) 15,000 fans get a Junior Blankey.

Come July 1, Mariners fans will enjoy the first ever “Demand a Trade Night,” where you get to wander the ballpark and threaten ushers to upgrade you from your nose bleed seat to the Diamond Club, else you’ll move to San Diego next year and be a fan of the team we play that night, the hated rival Padres.

Last season, Griffey was featured with Ichiro in the first ever bobble head to feature two players. On a still-to-be-determined night this season, they’re going to top that with the first ever three person doll. Junior and Chone Figgins will be wielding bats at “Revenge on Don Wakamatsu Bobble Head Night,” with a ceramic version of the former manager between them.

That’s all I could dig up on Griffey promotions, but more are expected to be announced soon.

Then there’s the broadcasting that got mentioned in Drayer’s report. I couldn’t get hard proof on this, but I’m told Junior will spend some time in the booth with Dan Wilson and Jay Buhner. Other rumors include Junior swatting Rick Rizzs’ hairpiece off every time he starts a sentence with, “Say, fans…”

This is all secondhand information and speculation at this time, I’m afraid. It’s quite possible Junior will just have some ideas pop in his mind while playing golf and pass them on to actual decision makers. Perhaps give a few rah-rah speeches to minor leaguers who will be tweeting, “OMG Griffey just talked to us!”

Whatever the case, it’s good to have the franchise icon home again. Again.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

In preparation of the 2011 MLB Fantasy Baseball season, The Fantasy Fix team will preview a team’s pitching rotation each day.  

In his third pitching preview of the American League West, Chris Summers looks at the King, Felix Hernandez and his supporting cast.

Typically, when you write an article, you don’t encourage your readers to turn away, but the Seattle Mariners just look brutal on paper—if you are a Mariner fan, go to tmz.com and check on Charlie Sheen’s latest antics.  

There’s not a lot to like on the Mariners, aside from Felix Hernandez.  

First, they had a putrid offense last year, so putrid that it nearly cost Felix Hernandez the Cy Young because he had so few wins.  

Second, they really don’t have any big name starters, all are relatively unknown quantities.

The big detriment is the lack of runs, the Mariners scored 100 runs LESS than any team in the American league and looking at their projected lineup, I don’t see anything that will lead to a significantly result this season.  

The good news is “King” Felix Hernandez projects as one of the best fantasy starters in baseball.  

Felix lead all of the major leagues in ERA, second in strikeouts, fifth in WHIP, lowest OPS against, but he was nowhere near the top in wins. The culprit: He was DEAD LAST in run support, only receiving 3.75 runs per game on average.  

Think of it this way: Felix had an ERA of 2.27; Phil Hughes, the leader in run support at 9.6 runs per game, finished the season 18-8—just imagine Felix’s record with a couple more runs a game.  

King Felix will turn 25 about a week into the season, so the scary thing is he still has room to grow. He’s reduced his ERA each year he’s been in the league and improved his strikeout numbers each of the last three seasons.  

Simply stated: He’s a stud; he’ll be gone in the first couple of rounds of all fantasy drafts.

The bad news is the rest of the rotation leaves you saying “Um, and he is…?” The only recognizable name is Erik Bedard, so we’ll move onto him.

Well, he hasn’t pitched since July of 2009 and he’s had three shoulder injuries over the last three years, limiting him to 164 total innings, so he should be plenty rested.  

When healthy Berdard can be decent, unfortunately, his last serviceable year was in 2007. There was some optimism that he would be able to return last July, but he was subsequently shut down.

Based on his past history, you can’t count on a full season from him; at best, you are probably getting 15 serviceable starts. Buyer beware.

Jason Vargas quietly had a decent season; on a team that could score more runs, he probably would’ve been middle of the road.

He managed to have a 3.78 ERA, but his fifth worst run support left him with a 9-12 record. He does play at the pitcher friendly Safeco Field, plus he proved to be durable, but his strikeout totals are low, so even with more wins he’s not going to be a world beater.

I feel like a broken record, but Doug Fister suffered from the lack of Seattle run support. His ERA of 4.11 wasn’t terrible, he only issued 32 walks in 28 games, but he only strikes out one batter every other inning.  

There is no established fifth starter. David Pauley, a career minor leaguer looked solid over his last five starts of 2010, posting a 3.41 ERA. But as a career minor-leaguer, you can’t expect much from him this season.

Another possible fifth starter is Luke French, he made 13 starts last year and posted a 5-7 record with a 4.83 ERA; he didn’t strike anyone out and allowed an alarming number of home runs, so it won’t take much to knock him out of the fifth spot.

The most likely outcome is that some combination of Pauly and Fister keeps the fifth spot warm until midseason, when the Mariners will call up top pitching prospect Michael Pineda.

He finished last year in Triple-A, where he had 76 strikeouts in 62 1/3 innings. He has a live arm that tops out at about 97 mph, while Seattle has little reason to rush him; they also have ample room in the rotation to let him grow up on the big league roster like Felix Hernandez before him.

He probably won’t start the season on the major league roster, but watch him as a waiver wire pick-up in midseason. 

There really isn’t too much to this Seattle rotation, obviously Felix is a stud and projects to finish in the top three of fantasy starters this year.

Aside from Felix, you aren’t drafting any Seattle starter, but monitor the waiver wires for Pineda and Bedard.

Article’s Original Location at TheFantasyFix.com

Written by Chris Summers exclusively for TheFantasyFix.com

Follow The Fantasy Fix on Twitter @thefantasyfix or for Free Fantasy Sports Advice use our Quick Fix to get help with your team!

Read more of Chris’ 2011 Fantasy Baseball Pitching Previews:

Jered Weaver & The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Trevor Cahill & The Oakland Athletics

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Update, 2/12: According to John Hickey via Twitter, Bradley won’t be charged for threats that he allegedly made against his wife in January. Apparently, he and his wife will work things out of court.

Bradley is in the last year of his three-year, $30 million contract he signed with the Chicago Cubs before the 2009 season. He should enjoy this season in Seattle because it will be his last in a Major League uniform.

I can’t see any team signing him to a contract after this season. He has too much baggage for any team to deal with.

Update, 1/31: In an interview with KJR-AM 950 in Seattle, Mariners’ GM Jack Zduriencik said that Bradley will come into spring training and compete for a job.

“Obviously, there’s a legal process that Milton has to go through,” Zduriencik said. “As of right now, he’s a part of the organization, and we’re planning on him coming into spring training and competing for a job.”

It’s not surprising Zduriencik would have this answer. Bradley hasn’t been charged with anything yet and perhaps more importantly, he has $12 million coming to him in 2011 by hook or by crook.

Bradley has a court hearing set for Feb. 8. We should know more about this situation after that date.

Original Post: According to Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times, Seattle Mariners’ OF/DH Milton Bradley was arrested on Wednesday morning for violating California penal code section 422, which involves making a “criminal threat.” The details of the arrest are not yet known, but Bradley was released on $50,000 bail.

It looks like it’s game over for Bradley in Seattle.

And yes, it’s also game over for the 2011 “Cheesy Line of the Year by a Blogger” award, which I just won with the above sentence. It always feels good to run away with an award so early in the year.

In all seriousness, since we don’t know yet exactly what Bradley did, I am not going to comment on that. What I will comment on is that Bradley has most likely played his last game in a Mariners’ uniform.

Bradley has seemingly had issues with every team he has been throughout his Major League career and now it appears the Mariners are no different.

Considering that Bradley and new manager Eric Wedge had issues in the past during their time in Cleveland together, I can’t possibly see how he can be on the Mariners’ Opening Day roster.

GM Jack Zduriencik said he is going through process in determining the full circumstances of what occurred. In laymen terms, he means that he is figuring out contractually if he can get rid of Bradley so he doesn’t have to pay him the $12 million he is owed in 2011.

And speaking of Zduriencik, has a GM gone from chicken salad to chicken sh%t quicker than him? Last year he was the darling of baseball. He was the trendiest guy in all the land. Now he is running a mess in Seattle.

More on this story as it develops.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

While the Mariners keep dumpster diving, we keep counting down the days until pitchers and catchers report.

Here’s a look at what happened with the team this week and in the blogosphere, such as the M’s signing OF Gabe Gross to a minor league deal with an invite to spring training and the effects Safeco Field has on certain types of players.

Read about how awesome Nick Franklin might be on and off the field.

Milton Bradley’s court hearing has been pushed back. Sorry folks, but we’re stuck with him and his contract.

Felix Hernandez‘s big brother has signed with the Mariners. Unfortunately, looking like Felix is all they have in common.

Speaking of King Felix, his Twitter account is finally verified. Trying to match the timing of his tweets to when he’d realistically be available to do so was getting frustrating. He tweets in Spanish often, which gives you a chance to use Google’s translator.

MLB.com beat writer Greg Johns digs up some answers on the progress of a Dave Niehaus statue. You’ll have to dig through the silly questions to hear about it, though.

Vladimir Guerrero’s nephew, Gabriel, signed (video included) as an international free agent. He’s 17 years old, and is described as having raw power with a strong arm and projects as a corner outfielder. He gets a $400,000 bonus.

RHP Manny Delcarmen was signed to a minor league deal, but he has a problem. Add him to the heap of players the Mariners now have extended invites to spring training to.

There will be a whopping 33 pitchers in camp. Let’s hope 12 of them don’t suck.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Seattle Mariners recently signed Moises Hernandez to a minor league contract. Not a huge deal, right? Well, he’s the brother of reigning AL Cy Young Felix Hernandez.

I’ll get into more specifics on that later in the next slide.

I started to think, though. How many other brother combinations have there been, and often did the shared genes translated to shared talent? The best duo was Lloyd and Paul Waner, who are both hall of famers.

After that, there were some combos who both played in the major leagues, but it became apparent that sharing the same parents is about all most of these guys had in common.

This list will be solely for brothers who had large disparities in baseball talent. For a related piece, check out Asher Chancey‘s top 50 list that looks at all sports and relatives.

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It’s like hitting the big red reset button.

Spring comes and players report to Arizona. Some have new looks with their hair or physical condition. Some spent the winter hibernating while others never stopped to enjoy the downtime.

You never know what you’ll get from your team heading into a new season. Unfortunately, the 2010 Mariners saw that these surprises aren’t always as sweet as the contents of a box of chocolates.

So we turn the page to 2011 and find out what surprises lie ahead. Here are 10 of those that we might (maybe, possibly, could) see.

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Pitchers in hitter-friendly ballparks or tough divisions may benefit from being traded. The same applies to struggling pitchers in search of redemption.

The Seattle Mariners would be a good destination for such pitchers. The home of the Mariners, Safeco Field, is the most pitching-friendly venue in the American League and the AL West division isn’t too frightening.

The following ten pitchers would benefit from moving to Seattle. Interested to find out who they are? Read on.

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Felix Hernandez took the Cy Young last year after going 13-12 for Seattle. He went 1-9 when the Mariners scored two runs or less, and had the lowest run support of any pitcher in baseball.

Seattle needs some help in the bat department.

In homers, RBI’s, batting average, runs scored, on base, slugging and OPS, the Mariners were the major’s worst offensive team in every department.

The 513 runs that the Mariners managed to score were the lowest in the designated hitter era.

This off season the Mariners added Jack Cust and parted ways with Russell Branyan.

Seattle brought in Branyan back in 2009, and the organization believed that he could be a run producer in the middle of the lineup. He was productive when he played, jacking 31 homers in just 116 games back in 2009; but that was the problem. Branyan often found himself on the disabled list.

The Mariners hope Cust can come in and an anchor an offense that is so very desperate for some power.

Cust and Branyan look very similar on paper, but the Mariners made a major upgrade when they added Jack Cust to their lineup.

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Our 2011 fantasy baseball projections will be released one-by-one until the top 100 players have been revealed. These rankings consider past achievements, current performance and expected future results based on standard 5×5 H2H settings.

Felix Hernandez has made great strides over the last three years. In each season since 2008, King Felix has increased his innings pitched and strikeout rate. Likewise, he’s improved his walk rate, batting average against, ERA and WHIP each year.

The Mariners’ right-hander had his best season yet in 2010, posting the lowest ERA in baseball (2.27) to go a long with stellar peripherals:

• Strikeout rate: 8.36 K/9
• Walk rate: 2.52 BB/9
• Batting average against: .210
• WHIP: 1.06

Hernandez boasted the fifth-best fastball (25.5 runs above average) and the second-best change-up (18.7 runs above average) in the majors last season, while showing great improvement with his slider.

So why is Felix just the fourth-ranked starting pitcher on our 2011 big board?

It’s mostly because of things that don’t show up on the stat sheet.

For example, the three pitchers we have ranked ahead of Felix (Halladay, Wainwright and Lincecum) all pitch in the National League, while Hernandez resides in the hitter-friendly American League.

Also, Felix pitches for one of the worst offensive teams in baseball. It’s now a well-known fact that pitchers have very little control over their win totals, and Hernandez’s 2010 campaign was a great example of that. Despite posting the best ERA in baseball, Felix won just 13 games. This was a result of only 3.10 runs of support per nine innings, the second-lowest total among qualified starters. This clearly isn’t his own fault, but just like the NL/AL factor, it’s something to consider.

There’s also a luck factor involved. This isn’t to say Felix isn’t wildly talented, but his .263 BABIP was the 11th-lowest among qualified starters last season. Hernandez is a ground-ball pitcher, so low BABIPs are more likely. Still, a clip in the .290 range is reasonable to expect for him this season.

The sub-2.50 curse is also worth mentioning here, especially in Hernandez’s case. Since 2000, there have been 15 instances of a sub-2.50 ERA (minimum 150 innings). Only three times was a pitcher able to lower his ERA in the following season. Felix Hernandez was one of those pitchers, as he dropped his ERA from 2.49 in 2009 to 2.27 last season.

While this feat is quite impressive, a regression to the mean is likely. This isn’t to say Felix will lose his way. Heck, the kid is just entering his age-25 season, and he’s already pitching among the league’s elites. Recent history, however, indicates at least a slight regression in terms of ERA.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: FANTASY BASEBALL INSIDERS

Check out the Home Run Heroics Forum to discuss the hottest baseball topics, including the upcoming 2011 fantasy baseball season!

The latest from Fantasy Baseball Insiders:

• Guerrero to Baltimore: Why He’s Better Off in Camden Yards than Rangers Ballpark

Fantasy Baseball Insiders’ 2011 Big Board:

• Nos. 1-10 Is Pujols Still The Top Pick?
• Nos. 11-20 Where Do Votto, A-Rod and Halladay Fit In?
• No. 21: Dustin Pedroia
• No. 22: Chase Utley
• No. 23: Ryan Zimmerman
• No. 24: Jose Reyes
• No. 25: Josh Hamilton
• No. 26: Shin-Soo Choo
• No. 27: Adam Wainwright
• No. 28: Tim Lincecum

MLB Trades: Fantasy Impact:

• Frank Francisco Traded to the Blue Jays, Who Will Be The Team’s Closer?
• Mike Napoli Traded to the Texas Rangers: Fantasy Impact
• Vernon Wells Traded to the Los Angeles Angels: Fantasy Impact 
• Adrian Beltre Traded to the Texas Rangers: Fantasy Impact

Previous articles from Fantasy Baseball Insiders:

• The Sub-2.50 ERA Curse: Why Five Elite Starting Pitchers May Regress in 2011
• 2010 Batting Average on Balls in Play Leaders: What to Expect in 2011?
• 2011 Closer’s Corner: Papelbon, Cordero & Rivera Are the Only Reliable Options

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

From “Mr. Mariner” to “The Bone,” there have been nicknames.

From Arquimedez Pozo’s one plate appearance to Edgar Martinez’s franchise record 8,678, there have been different lengths of stays.

Since 1977, the Mariners have employed hundreds of players. While not every team has a history rich with players like the Yankees, they all have a large pool of players where you’ll find interesting characters who defined the franchise.

The following rankings were determined by a combination of stats, longevity with team and character. Only factors we know were considered.

Without further delay, here is a look at 50 players who wore the trident or compass rose that we’ll never forget.

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