One week into the young Major League Baseball season, the Seattle Mariners have been good, bad and everything in between.

One week in and the Mariners are right where most thought they would be — tied atop the American League West.

After a three-game losing streak that included two shutout losses, many fans took to social media. Grumbling that this is just the same old Mariners baseball they were accustomed to seeing – the same old Mariners baseball that’s failed to reach the playoffs the past 13 seasons.

But this isn’t the same old Mariners’ baseball. There is a different feel to this team. Even when the Mariners went down 5-0 in the second inning during last Wednesday’s 5-3 loss to the Angels, there was still an optimistic feeling that the deficit was not insurmountable.

This offense is explosive, and can catch fire from a spark at any moment. For example, the Mariners were no-hit through five innings in last Sunday’s extra-innings win at Oakland. Then, they exploded for eight runs over the game’s final six innings.

The bullpen is better than advertised — and that is saying something about a group that is already heralded as baseball’s best. In 22.1 innings pitched, the bullpen has given up nine runs and struck out 21 hitters — nearly a hitter per inning. Carson Smith himself has struck out seven in 3.2 innings pitched, which is nearly half the hitters he’s faced.

The starting rotation looks good, too. Felix has been Felix and James Paxton is showing the same dominant form he showed before suffering an injury last season. Hisashi Iwakuma was able to bounce back after a rough first two innings and throw well during his first start. J.A. Happ looked good as well, going six scoreless innings last Saturday before running into some trouble and being pulled in the seventh.

The only question mark is Taijuan Walker, whose ERA ballooned up to 24.30 in a horrible start last Friday in Oakland. This was a little unexpected because of how well Walker threw in spring training. Fans have seen the potential of how good Walker can be, but they’ve also seen him struggle like he did last Friday just as often.

Finally, there’s the offense. The best part of the offense is that the team is collectively hitting .201. You read that right. The best part of the offense is that the team is collectively hitting .201.

In baseball, it is important to get hot at the right time, and far too often we’ve seen the Mariners get off to hot starts and then fade away during the dog days of summer in July and August.

Maybe, for once, this cool offensive start signals good things to come when things start to really matter toward the end of the season.