With the Mariners' pitchers and catchers scheduled to report in about a week interest is beginning to build in baseball. With that, comes the inevitable question asked by many fans: What are the Mariners going to be like this season?

It's a question with no good, short answer. Before we start speculating, let's try and break down what we know.

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1. The Mariners' pitching is vastly different from last season. In less than a year the Mariners have said good bye three-fifths of their starting rotation. Jamie Moyer, Gil Meche and Joel Pineiro will do their work for other teams while new starters Miguel Batista, Horacio Ramirez and Jeff Weaver were brought into replace them.

That's different, but not necessarily better. Best case scenario has Batista being a consistent innings eater, Ramirez being healthy and pitching like he did earlier in his career and Weaver continuing his success he enjoyed in the postseason.

Worst case has Batista showing his age (he turns 36 on Feb. 19), Ramirez breaking down and Weaver reverting to the form he showed with the Angels last season (3-10, 6.29 ERA).

Something in between would probably leave the Mariners a little better off than they were in 2006 if Felix Hernandez takes another step up and Jarrod Washburn is better in year 2 with Seattle than year 1.

2. The bullpen has question marks.

By the end of last season the bullpen was the strength of the Mariners. J.J. Putz was as good as it gets as a closer and the setup men of Mark Lowe, Rafael Soriano and George Sherrill provided a solid bridge to the ninth inning.

Putz and Sherrill are the only two the Mariners can count on entering spring training. Soriano is gone in the trade for Ramirez and Lowe is slowly making his way back from risky elbow surgery.

Julio Mateo, who missed a good chunk of 2006 with a broken hand, didn't pitch that great when he wasn't dropping a weight on himself. The Mariners need him to step up in a big way.

The same goes for free-agent signee Chris Reitsma. The Mariners grabbed this guy off the scrap heap and need him to be healthy (which he wasn't last year) and effective.

The rest of the pen is a work in progress. Holdover swingman Jake Woods, who was good in long relief and got a little sniff of starting in 2006, is back and probably will earn a similar role. The others could be filled by veterans Arthur Rhodes and Jim Parque or the young guys in the system.

Overall, it's hard to say this unit is better than 2006.

3. The lineup is about the same, and maybe a slight bit stronger than last year.

No big news here unless you consider adding Jose Guillen to play right field and Jose Vidro to be the DH. Both are veterans who have had success in the past and both have had injury concerns in recent seasons. They will have to prove they are healthy and able to hit in the AMerican League after spending time in the NL. The Mariners have had trouble with guys coming over from the other league in the past or did you forget about Jeff Cirillo and Al Martin?

I'm willing to give Guillen, if his elbow allows him to play, the benefit of the doubt. Vidro's legs should be OK know that he's not playing the field any more. Besides, that's an upgrade from last year when you consider you are replacing Jeremy Reed with Guillen (now that Ichiro is in center) and Vidro for Carl Everett/Ben Broussard/Eduardo Perez.

Assuming youngsters Jose Lopez and Yuniesky Betancourt keep improving and Adrian Beltre and Richie Sexson don't struggle like they did in the first half of season, the lineup is OK. But if those things don't happen and Raul Ibanez comes back to Earth, the M's will have trouble scoring runs again and they don't have the pitcing to win a lot of 3-2 games.

4. What does it all mean?

All of this means, to me at least, the Mariners are about where they were last year at this time. I can't share manager Mike Hargrove's optimism that this team is capable of winning the division but I don't think it's a lock the M's are headed for the cellar. If everything breaks right, I think the M's could be fighting for second come September.