mild segue:
It's obvious Dipoto's goal is to eek out a wildcard. As he has argued, one could say there are more racing to the bottom than the top. On one hand, that suggests our chances are better. Unfortunately, with a lack of parity, strength of schedule plays a larger role than we are accustomed to seeing in MLB. A quick glance shows Cleveland and Minnesota have a the softest schedule in recent history, with the Tigers, Royals, and White Sox projected as 3 of the 4 worst teams in baseball (we see you, Marlins).
The Mariners, OTOH, have tough sledding week in and week out. According to Fangraphs (depth charts-WAR), we have the 7th best pitching staff and 9th best lineup in the AL (acknowledging the flaws in projections for some of our hitters). That's not quite enough to compete wins-wise with Minnesota getting 50 free wins in division (hyperbole, but not by much) right off the top. Every team in our division can at least hit a little bit. Here's to hoping TEX/ANA/OAK pitching staffs are as bad as they look to give us a fighting chance.