Larry Stone: Yes, it’s early. But here are some genuine concerns about the Mariners.

The Mariners have been a team predicated on a precise yet tenuous blueprint for success: A strong enough pitching staff, particularly the lockdown bullpen, to compensate for a middling offense. To make this work requires an efficiency on defense and in the clutch that ensures a preponderance of close victories — a .620 winning percentage in one-run games and .676 in extra innings the past two years. It’s a dangerous way to live — some would say a recipe for regression to the mean. And the early part of this Seattle season has been very mean at times, with an outpouring of many flaws and inadeq…

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