By the way, want to talk about this and more? Tune in to Geoff Baker Live! at 6 p.m. Pacific time, ahead of tonight's game.

And they say spring training doesn't matter, huh? Well, somebody upstairs seems to care about it because Cliff Lee just got suspended five games from the start of the regular season. That takes care of his first scheduled start.

The suspension comes from his throwing at (well, at least in the league's interpretation of events) Chris Snyder in that game with the Diamondbacks on Monday. No, the photo above does not show that. That shot is from when Lee hit one of his own minor leaguers, Kyle Seager, in a simulated game.

Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu just told us that Lee intends to appeal the decision, which could see a reduction in the suspension or at least a delay in its imposition. We'll have to see on that. Right now, the team isn't sure how the rotation will slot out. The M's had hoped to have their rotation set by March 30, but that's on hold until we see when the appeal can be heard.

Mariners GM Jack Zdurienick said: "It is what it is. I'm sure Cliff will appeal it and we'll see where it takes us. We'll let the process play itself out and see where it takes us.''

Zduriencik added: "We'd like to get a definitive on this sooner rather than later.''

So, anyhow, in the life goes on department, you can see Mariners catching co-ordinator Roger Hanson, in the photo above, explaining to folks why he doesn't look nearly as good in real life as he does on a giant billboard being hugged by Ken Griffey Jr.

Griffey had the giant poster assembled on the batter's eye on one of the practice fields here, one of his seemingly limitless practical jokes. Only thing better would be to assemble some giant speakers behind it and play audio of some of Hanson's legendary "talking points" to his catching crew for all to hear.

It will be no joking matter for Jose Lopez when he plays third base tonight. Wakamatsu told me today the team will give the Lopez-to-third experiment a couple of games more before making a final decision on it. There have been a few plays not made at the hot corner and the coaching staff wants one final look or two to gauge whether things will improve.

Wakamatsu added that, in the long-term outlook, Lopez at third and Chone Figgins at second is where he thinks the duo is best suited.

"I've seen five or six plays at second base that we didn't see throughout last year,'' he said.

But the team doesn't have a long-term scenario to get this right. Decisions have to be made in the short-term and tonight's game will go a long way towards determining the fate of this little gambit.