PEORIA, Ariz. – From the man who presented the possibility of Ichiro Suzuki batting third for the Seattle Mariners comes this wild and crazy idea.
Suzuki pitching.
Manager Bob Melvin says he would never risk injury to his star right fielder with an inning of comic relief on the mound.
But if the Mariners are ever involved in a blowout game and Melvin needs a position player to throw an inning to save the pitching staff, he knows who might be at his side volunteering.
“Ichiro would put both hands up,” Melvin said. “He’d love to go in there and get an inning.”
Suzuki has experience on the mound.
He pitched in high school in Japan – “I sucked,” he said – and dabbled with it in the nine years he played for the Orix Blue Wave of Japan’s Pacific League.
“In Japan, I threw 93-94 (mph),” he said. “I threw a fastball and a split like Kazu (Sasaki), but he has much better movement.”
Control?
“No control,” Suzuki said. “It was all right down the middle. That’s not good control.”
During the 1998 Japanese League All-Star game, Suzuki took the mound against Yakult Swallows pitcher Shingo Takatsu, who’s now with the Chicago White Sox.
“Ground ball to shortstop,” Suzuki said.
Melvin said Suzuki has never come right out and said he’d like to pitch, but his hints have been obvious.
“From the outfield I’ll see him throw curveballs in to (first baseman John) Olerud,” Melvin said. “Then he’ll look at me and kind of nod his head.
“He’s so analytical. He said to me once, if a man is on second base and there’s a base hit to right field that he doesn’t have a chance to throw the runner out, ‘How about if I throw a big curveball to Olerud and they’ll think it’s a high throw and the runner will keep going? It’ll come down in Olerud’s glove and we’ll be able to get him in a rundown.’
“That’s quite a thought, although he might take Oly by surprise and hit him in the head.”
In the three hole: Melvin has batted Suzuki third in the lineup once this month and says he might do it in the regular season if the offense needs a shakeup.
“If we feel like we’re having a little trouble production-wise in the middle of the order, we’ll put him there,” Melvin said. “If we went cold for a streak and I felt like I really needed to shake it up, that’s something I’d do. Or if we had a couple of guys in the middle of the order who are hurt, or if we have a pitcher who we didn’t think we could run on, I would possibly look at that.”
Suzuki has been a different hitter all month in the leadoff spot, rarely swinging at the first pitch he sees in an at-bat. Suzuki says he won’t necessarily take that approach into the season, but the reason behind his method is obvious.
“There was a period last year when he was getting a lot of first-pitch balls and he was swinging at them,” Melvin said. “It seems like the teams that know him the best, the teams in our division, had a pretty good idea of that.”
Melvin said Suzuki has swung only three times all month at the first pitch in an at-bat.
“And I think he’s got hits on all three of them, too,” Melvin said.
Melvin anticipates teams will see Suzuki’s approach and be forced to throw more first-pitch strikes or risk falling behind in the count.
“I think it’s getting around,” Melvin said. “And I think he’ll have a pretty good idea when to make that adjustment.”
Mending: Pitcher Aaron Taylor and outfielder Chris Snelling continue their recovery from surgeries, but they aren’t close to being in shape to play games before spring training ends.
Taylor, who had rotator cuff surgery last September, has battled some minor setbacks this month but should be pitching within the one-year window that typically is the recovery period.
“I think that’s very realistic,” trainer Rick Griffin said. “Any time you have rotator cuff surgery, you’ve got to re-establish your release point and your arm slot. It takes a while.”
Snelling had surgery on the hamate bone in his right hand late last month and two weeks ago had a screw removed that was part of a previous surgery on his left knee.
“He can’t do anything (baseball related) for another 10 days because of the knee,” Griffin said. “Right now he’s doing a lot of upper body and cardio work. His hand is starting to feel really good.”
Packing them in: Sunday’s crowd of 13,171 fell just short of the Mariners’ spring training record, but it kept them on pace to shatter their high for average attendance.
The M’s are averaging 9,915 with their 14th and final home game today at Peoria Stadium. They averaged 9,676 in 2002, when they played 15 home games and drew a total attendance record of 145,146.
The Mariners set a single-game attendance record of 13,366 on March 12 against the Chicago Cubs.
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