Right-hander Jeff Weaver apparently threw the ball well today in a simulated game.  So what, right?  That’s what I thought.

But some comedy came from the piece at Mariners.com.

This is the first few paragraphs of the piece talking about Weaver, fresh with quotes from pitching coach Rafael Chaves and manager Mike Hargrove.

ANAHEIM — Jeff Weaver tossed a simulated shutout on Tuesday afternoon at Angel Stadium, and said he’s ready to return to the Mariners pitching staff.

The right-hander went through a four-inning, 68-pitch workout and was pleased with the results.

“I threw all my pitches and felt strong throughout,” he said. “I was getting after it pretty good the last two innings.”

Mariners pitching coach Rafael Chaves called the session “encouraging” and manager Mike Hargrove said, “He threw the ball well and his stuff was noticeably better.”

Nothing earth-shattering, right?

But this is the very next sentence in the story.

Willie Bloomquist and Jason Ellison handled the hitting duties.

If I would have been slurping down a chocolate shake at the time I was reading that, I would have drown in yummified flavored ice.   Maybe the key is to sneak Willie and Jason into opposing uniforms and have them hit at least half the time versus Weaver.  Then, and maybe ONLY then might Weaver’s stuff appear effective versus “big-league hitters.”

As the Seattle Mariners begin the last leg of a brutal 10-day, four-city road trip, I ask the same question I asked a few weeks ago; How good is this team?

Felix Hernandez is back and appears healthy. The stuff is there and his command is getting close. Washburn has remained solid and with Horacio Ramirez and Jeff Weaver both out of the starting rotation, the only excuse this team has is all about scoring runs.

Did someone say something about scoring runs? Okay, I won’t get too excited, since the 38 runs they have scored over the past four games have been against the Devil Rays and Royals, but it could be worse. They could have scored 18 runs during that span, which is exactly what the club did a year ago this month on a swing through Tampa Bay and Baltimore, who at the time were ranked 12th and 14th in ERA. In six games the M’s managed just 18 runs. This year they scored 48 runs in a similar six games. Clearly, the offense is different. It’s better.

But how much better, and can they create more runs against good pitching than they were able to in 2006? This series with the Angels may help us find that answer. LAA can pitch and though we’ll miss their best two starters in Escobar and Lackey, the Mariners already showed they can get to Escobar with their bumrush on him at Safeco Field two weeks back.

It’s not time to start talking trash, however, as the M’s, a decent team, did what any average club should do and that’s beat the crap out of Tampa Bay and Kansas City. But I will say this: For the first time since 2003, the Mariners appear to be just a few impact players away from being a legitimate threat in the American League. That’s still a lot to accomplish- adding impact players is never easy to do - but they haven’t been this close since they led the west by five games with 68 games to go back in ‘03.

Can they do it? What will it take? YOU tell ME.

If they need to add a few players, tell us all in detail how you would acquire such talent. What is being sent out in trade to get any players added? Which players would you call up? Be reasonable, be fair and realize you have to give up talent to get talent. And most of all, be smart about it. The Mariners aren’t going to be trading Ichiro to the Angels for Vlad, for example. Neither club would even think about it, so why even bring it up?

And let’s leave Hargrove out of this. Just for fun.

I say the M’s need another bat, a bench player who can hit, a healthy Chris Reitsma and one legit No. 3 starting pitcher to put up a good, long fight for the AL West that could last until the final weekend of the season.

What do you think?

Create a plan, a scenario, dig deep, do the homework and come back and post your plan and the rest of us will critque and ridicule and praise the ideas. Your chance to play GM.

The night in the minors for the affiliates of the Seattle Mariners is as interesting as it’s been all season with right-hander Chris Tillman making his first start as a member of the High Desert Mavericks and SS Carlos Triunfel continuing his onslaught on the Midwest League at the age of 17.

In case you missed it, Tillman was promoted to the Cal League on Wednesday after just eight starts in Wisconsin.   His first start is tonight versus Lake Elsinore, and he’s tossed a scoreless first inning to get things underway.

Tillman displayed well above-average command with the Timber Rattlers and his stuff is good enough to get some outs in the Cal League, but I just don’t see how the risk of crushing his confidence is worth the reward of simply proving he can pitch in Advanced-A baseball, where the bats really aren’t all that great this season anyways.

The ballparks, altitude, warm, light air and the wind that often blows 20+ mph out from home plate are enough to tame any teen hurler and completely delete any momentum he’d built in the Midwest League.

[As I type this, Tillman walks a batter and then gets out of the inning with a strikeout-throw-out double play; he’s gone two scoreless thus far]

Triunfel is hitting .322 through the seventh inning of tonight’s game versus Peoria, but has collected seven multihit games in his past 10 starts and has seven extra-base hits in his last 13 games.  As a 17-year-old kid, that’s nothing short of special. You just don’t see players of that age group doing this, and though he hasn’t hit a home run yet, the power is clearly there, as shown by the doubles and triples he’s piling up the past 2 1/2 weeks. 

The kid they call Baby Tejada is 1-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout tonight, but keep an eye on Triunfel over the next few years.  He’s going to start hitting balls really hard as he matures physically and his plus bat speed is only going get even better as he perfects his approach and learns to recognize pitches more consistently.

[Tillman has three shutout innings in so far… this is fun at least, eh?]

Another Sidenote:  Tillman has a 1-0 lead thanks to a sac-fly by Jeffrey Dominguez that scored Adam Moore, who doubled and is hitting .282 on the season with 10 bombs.  Time to challenge the catcher, fellas… send him to West Tenn where he belongs.  Coincidentally, or not, I have a scouting report on Moore coming as soon as I get a chance to talk to Moore himself.  Maybe this weekend.

And in case you’ve been watching American Idol on your DVR every night, Mr. Adam Jones is tearing the cover off the ball.  He’s hitting .417 in May with six homers, four doubles and two triples.  He’s slugging over .500 versus lefties and righties, is hitting over .300 at home and on the road and in 10 at-bats in successive games versus Vegas during this past homestand, the 21-year-old center fielder went 6-for-10 with two homers, a double and six RBI and even the singles and outs he recorded were scorched.

Jones is nearing the point in his development when it’s a bad idea to leave him in Tacoma.   The club might have to find a way to make a move this summer.

After spending the weekend talking baseball - and when I say the weekend I mean the entire freaking weekend from Friday afternoon through Sunday evening and into Sunday Night Baseball - I have enough data to put together the first Draft Board for 2007.

This is the first of four, and the final two will beof the true mock draft style with actual projected picks.

Before I get 50 emails and 40 comments asking if the M’s would take Wieters at No. 11, let me tackle that right now…

Probably not, though they should, just like the Andrew Miller scenario last June. Boras will again play hardball with the signing bonus and the Mariners don’t appear to be interested in dealing with that, even though the payoff could be enormous.

Two weeks ago two scouts soured me on Andrew Brackman, but this weekend I spoke with six others who either love him or think he’s a lot better than the 15th best prospect in the draft. His stuff and polish make him interesting, even to Seattle at 11, though I doubt they end up going in that direction.

If I had to guess right now - without talking to the Mariners yet, that won’t happen until the first week of June - I’d say the Mariners take the best prep player available, and Matt Harvey is probably the guy they really want.