By Kirby Arnold
Herald Writer
PEORIA, Ariz. – Most of them have been in Arizona more than a month, getting ready for a baseball season that still is 13 days away.
Oh, do the Seattle Mariners need a day of rest.
They’ll get it today on the team’s only day off of spring training.
“I could use 10 days off,” second baseman Bret Boone said.
When they come back Wednesday, bench coach John McLaren predicts it will be a much sharper bunch of Mariners who finish the exhibition season than the group that has plodded to an 8-12 record.
“I definitely think we’ve hit the wall a little bit,” said McLaren, who has taken over the team while manager Lou Piniella stays with his sick father in Florida. “We’re a veteran ballclub and we’ve gone through this the past couple of springs. We’re an adrenaline ballclub.
“I’m not making excuses for anybody, but the guys are doing their work, we’ve had some minor injuries and we’ve had to play some young guys quite a bit. Come the last 10 days, we’ll start tightening the belt buckle a little bit and getting after it.”
From a hitter’s perspective, Boone says spring training gets monotonous about this time of the month.
“The pitchers need more time to get their six, seven innings and I understand the time they need,” Boone said. “But as hitters we don’t usually need as much time. If you ask the hitters, we’re ready to get it going soon.
“We have such a good team, such a veteran team, that the goal is to get ready. Get your body healthy and get ready for the season. I’m not saying to take spring training lightly and go through the motions, because you don’t. Because we have another 10 or 12 days, the goal for me is to continue to feel good and get ready to go. I’m getting close.”
All he needs is a day off, which he’ll get today.
Illness in the family: Piniella left the team Monday and flew home to Florida to be with his sick father, and it’s not certain when he’ll return. Louis Piniella, 83, was admitted to a hospital in Tampa with double pneumonia.
“Hopefully everything’s going to be OK and Lou will be back with us soon,” McLaren said.
Piniella missed four games during the regular season last year after his father-in-law died.
Abbott, whose father has been hospitalized the past few weeks in Southern California, also flew home after he pitched on Monday.
Tough break: Outfielder Chris Snelling, who played impressively for the Mariners last week after being called up from the minor league camp, is out indefinitely with a broken right thumb.
Snelling was injured Saturday while making a diving catch in center field. Initially it was ruled a light sprain, but X-rays on Monday showed a fracture. A hand specialist, who should be able to determine if there’s any ligament damage and estimate how long his recovery will take, will examine Snelling today in Arizona.
“They said it was a clean break,” trainer Rick Griffin said. “The person who looked at him today said it was just a fractured thumb. But that’s why we’re sending him to a specialist, to rule anything out.”
Knocked around: The walks, hits and runs don’t reflect it, but starting pitcher Paul Abbott was fairly pleased with his performance Monday, when the Mariners lost 6-1 to the Colorado Rockies.
Abbott allowed five hits, five walks and three runs (two earned) in four innings. He originally was scheduled to pitch five innings but was lifted after four because his pitch count was high.
“I’m not worried about walks,” said Abbott, whose exhibition ERA dropped from 7.00 to 6.90. “I got my work in. I threw a lot of good pitches, some of the best sliders I’ve thrown all spring. They just missed.”
And that’s OK? At this time of the year it is, because it’s all about preparation.
“If I’m walking people on sliders up in the zone it would be different,” he said. “But I’m throwing good sliders, 3-2 (count) sliders that are just missing. If I walk them now, who cares? But if I don’t throw it now I won’t have it when the season comes.”
The “tough day” award went Luis Ugueto, a youngster who is trying to make the team as a utility player. He didn’t help his chances with four strikeouts and an error at shortstop, his fifth error this month.
Want to trade? When first-base coach John Moses heard that Mike Cameron took over his job during one of the split-squad games Sunday, he had a quick response for the center fielder.
“I told him that I’d change positions with him any time he wanted,” Moses said. “The only thing is that the salaries have to go along with it.”
Moses was in Phoenix for the game against the Athletics while Cameron, still idled by a sore back, stayed in Peoria for the game against the Brewers.
Today in camp: While the rest of the team has the day off, right-hander James Baldwin is scheduled to pitch five innings in a minor league game. This is the Mariners’ only day off since they reported to spring training in February.
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