Ex-shortstop Morse learning the nuances of playing the outfield

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, March 16, 2006

PEORIA, Ariz. – Converting from shortstop to the outfield is much more complex to Mike Morse than learning the difference between catching the ball in the air and scooping it off the ground.

The footwork is different. The approach to the ball is different. The transfer from the glove to the bare hand is different. The throwing motion is different.

Wednesday, when Morse threw out the Royals’ Esteban German at the plate to preserve a Seattle Mariners victory, all the little details he’d been trying to perfect in practice came together in a game.

“It’s like instinct now,” he said. “It’s a matter of repetition; I need to get the chances.”

None was better than the ninth inning Wednesday when the speedy German broke from second base as, with two outs, Joe McEwing grounded a single to left field.

Morse charged the ball, scooped it up on the run and made a strong throw to catcher Rob Johnson, who tagged out German to end the game.

What made that play?

“I was about 1.3,” Morse said.

Among the many ways to measure a player, what’s important to an outfielder is the time it takes to get rid of the ball after it reaches the glove.

“He was at 1.3, 1.35 seconds on his exchange, and when he does that he stays pretty consistent with his accuracy,” M’s first coach Mike Goff said.

Morse says he easily can knock a tenth of a second off that time, to 1.25, but Goff doesn’t want to see that.

“That’s too quick for him,” Goff said. “He gets his feet tangled up when he does that. If we can keep him at 1.3 to 1.35, that keeps him in rhythm.”

Morse has spent considerable time in the outfield at spring training, but also has played third and first base. That versatility and his potential as a hitter give him a good chance to make the team as a utility player.

“I can play right, left, anything,” he said. “And my arm helps me out big-time.”

Cut-day memory: As the 11 players cut Wednesday were called one-by-one into manager Mike Hargrove’s office, relief pitcher J.J. Putz remembered the day he was cut from his first big-league camp.

“Bryan Price (then the Mariners’ pitching coach) came and said, ‘Skipper wants to see you,’ ” Putz said. “Everybody knows what that means. You see a lot of guys walking around all day trying to hide, hoping maybe they’ll forget about you. They always find you.”

The Mariners’ major and minor league clubhouses are separated by a wall, but they might as well be miles apart. The big-league clubhouse, while cozy with about 60 players, is nothing compared with the throng of 150 on the minor league side.

“It’s such a drastic change when you go to the minor leagues,” Putz said. “You never want to leave this place. It’s not only the environment, but the way drills are run. Here, you do bunt defenses for 20 minutes and everything is smooth and it’s crisp. Down there, we’d spend an hour on bunt defenses. And pitching in those minor league games, there’s nobody watching you on those side fields. It’s a completely different atmosphere.”

It’s how they play the game: After a dismal start to the exhibition season, the Mariners have won four of their past five games and are 5-7 with 18 games to play.

That’s nice, but Hargrove is more concerned with how the Mariners are playing, not that they’re winning.

“We don’t step on the field to lose,” he said. “We want to win every day. But to me, wins are relatively unimportant here. Sometimes winning is a function of how badly the other team plays.”

As long as the Mariners play well fundamentally, have the right alignments, run the right plays and get their signs down, Hargrove will be happy.

“If we do those things well, then we have a chance to win,” he said. “There were times early in camp that we got beat because we pitched poorly. It wasn’t necessarily a reflection that the other team played great. But if we can go out and play good solid games and pitch well, that’s the important objective of this spring.”

Idle time: Thursday was the Mariners’ only day off during the six weeks of spring training. It was, in fact, the players’ only chance for a complete day off without having to travel or work out until June 1.

Putz planned to spend the day with his wife and twin daughters, then eat sushi with Texas Rangers outfielder Kevin Mench and attend a wine tasting.

Asked if the wine tasting meant he suddenly had become sophisticated, Putz shook his head.

“Not really,” he said. “I’m going because it’s free.”