Desperate for lefty help, GM Jack Zduriencik invited a boxcar-full to spring training, but so far only converted starter Charlie Furbush has done well.
Author: John Hickey
John Hickey
John is a longtime West Coast-based baseball writer who covered the Oakland As for two decades with The (Hayward) Daily Review and the Oakland Tribune. He headed north in 2000 to cover the Mariners for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, starting on the day Ken Griffey Jr. was traded to Cincinnati. After the print P-I closed in 2009, he joined the national sports staff of AOL FanHouse and contributes to Seattlepostglobe.org. He is a longtime baseball correspondent for the Tokyo Chunichi Press. A member of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) for two-plus decades, Hickey is a Hall of Fame voter. When hes not covering baseball, he has written about pro football, college sports, tennis, golf and winter sports. A University of California grad, Hickey is a fan of rock and jazz music, traveling, reading and cooking. He proved in high school that hes no athlete, but he does like to ski. Hickey and his wife live in Seattle in a house ruled by two magnanimous cats.
The majors are sprinkled with premier pitching that once belong to M’s, but that is the price paid for having few quality draft choices from the eras of GMs Pat Gillick and Bill Bavasi.
Hultzen, Paxton and Walker are the buzz; Zduriencik is amped over Erasmo Ramirez, 25. But to win in 2012, the Mariners will go with more seasoned pros.
Montero isn’t ready to be a full-time catcher, but neither is Miguel Olivo, at least from a physical standpoint. The job-share, including John Jaso, is a way out of the ditch at catcher.
Seattle centerfielder will be out a minimum of four weeks and could miss most of April with a partially torn pectoral muscle. Options include moving two vets, either Ichiro or Figgins, to CF.
Mariners former leadoff hitter will lose some plate appearances batting third, but if the offense picks up at all, he still can have a shot at 200 hits.
Former Orioles great Cal Ripken Jr., served as keynote speaker at the annual luncheon, in which Kansas City’s Billy Butler was feted for raising funds for food.
On his second day in Seattle, Japanese pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma, expected to compete for the No. 3 starter’s job, says is injured shoulder is fine.
With the additions of Casper Wells and Trayvon Robinson in the last week, Franklin Gutierrez is no longer the only option in center for Seattle.
After two big trades, Mariners will use Beavan to fill one spot in rotation, but will have to dip into Tacoma roster for a fifth starter.