With March Madness wrapped up and most of our brackets turned to shreds, it’s time to welcome fresh starts and new hopes in the 2015 Major League Baseball season.

Predicting a champion in any sport is tough, but the 2014 World Series was further proof of just how difficult it is to predict a baseball champion in April.

Who could have envisioned a southern boy from Hickory, North Carolina turning in the greatest postseason pitching performance, perhaps ever?

But it happened. Madison Bumgarner cemented himself in San Francisco baseball history when he pitched the Giants past the Kansas City Royals in an epic, seven-game series, to earn his third title in five years.

The task of selecting a winner in 2015 is even more challenging because of the parody in today’s league. By my count, 18 of the 30 MLB teams come into this year’s season with aspirations of winning it all.

It’s a wide-open race, and while there is an abundance of worthy picks coming into the year, I believe it will be the Seattle Mariners lifting the 2015 World Series trophy.

Yes, the Mariners, a team who hasn’t made the playoffs in 13 years and in that time has only posted five winning seasons. Yet this year, Seattle has the perfect balance across its lineup and pitching rotation to turn this year into a banner raising one.

Last year, the Mariners finished 87-75 and just one game out of the playoffs. The strength of this team was, and will be its pitching staff.

Led by Felix Hernandez, the Mariners were second in the league with a 3.17 ERA. Opposing teams hit a league worst .230 against Seattle pitchers.

King Felix is back in 2015 and although his velocity isn’t what it used to be, he still features some of the best stuff in baseball and is a perennial Cy Young candidate. Hisashi Iwakuma is Seattle’s number-two starter and is coming off two consecutive productive years.

We can expect those two to be successful again in 2015, but even more help is on the way. Taijuan Walker was the 11^th ranked prospect by Baseball America last year and will see his first consistent time in the Majors this season.

Walker dazzled in Spring Training and has a huge opportunity to impact Seattle’s title chances. With all this pitching, the key to a successful season will be the Mariners’ offense.

Last year’s acquisition of slugger Robinson Cano helped the entire lineup improve. Former University of North Carolina standouts Dustin Ackley and Kyle Seager benefited from Cano’s presence, and they should take another step this year with the arrival of another talented hitter.

Seattle’s biggest acquisition in the offseason was designated hitter, Nelson Cruz. Coming from the Orioles, Cruz followed a serious steroid suspension in 2013 with a 32 home-run 2014. His power should provide Cano with some relief in the middle of the lineup.

Another reason Seattle has a great chance to do something special is the fact that the Mariners play in the American League West. The Oakland Athletics, Houston Astros, and Texas Rangers, all find themselves in somewhat of a rebuilding mode.

Seattle’s biggest rival in the division will be the Los Angles Angels, but aside from Mike Trout, the Angels are an aging team filled with older players on terrible contracts.

The Mariners have the fewest holes of any team, and are surrounded by teams with question marks in the American League.

So there it is. Book me down for Mariners over Nationals in the World Series, although I whole-heartedly know I am probably wrong, and maybe just jinxed the entire Seattle organization.

Godspeed, Mariners.