Will our long citywide sports nightmare never end? Baseball Prospectus, the hardball think-tank of stat-crazy geeks, says the Mariners are going to lose the most games and score the fewest runs in the American League this year. So we might as well pack it in, Seattle. Let’s not even bother spending the money to send the team to Arizona for spring training, because when the guys who are better at running numbers than running bases declare you dead on arrival, there’s just no point in trying.

Actually, there may be some reason for hope. BP did predict the M’s would win more games this year (9!) than last. Last year, they predicted the Tampa Bay Devil Rays would win 22 more games than the previous year, and they went on to win 31 more games than they did in 2007 … and then they went on to play in the World Series. Just saying.

And BP may be overlooking the most important M’s offseason development: Ichiro is gearing up to pitch. Because nothing says turnaround like an aging outfielder taking to the mound.