MUKILTEO — Ryan Feierabend can’t wait to begin spring training and purge the memory of a 2007 season that went horribly wrong. Most of all, the 22-year-old left-handed pitcher needs to make the Seattle Mariners forget.
His season was a mix of a few decent outings offset by early exits and questions about how effective he can be as either a starter or reliever. Feierabend finished 1-7 with a 6.92 earned run average in 11 starts, including losses in his last two games when he didn’t make it past three innings in either.
With a place on pitching staff at stake — either as a starter if the M’s don’t acquire someone or as a reliever if they do— this will be an important spring training for Feierabend.
“Every spring training is important, but this one is especially because of the way my season ended up last year,” Feierabend said Tuesday, where he and M’s reliever Sean Green appeared at Columbia Elementary School on the first day of the annual Mariners Caravan. “My starts toward the end of the season, I didn’t show anything. I gave up a lot of runs early in the game and, with us still in the pennant race, you can’t do that.”
What happened?
He pitched into the seventh inning in his first start, May 29 against the Angels, and into the eighth in his second, June 3 against the Rangers when he recorded his first career major league victory.
“I thought for sure after that, I was ready to stay up there the rest of the year,” Feierabend said. “Then I ended up pitching that game against Cincinnati.”
“That game” was more of an event, the return of Ken Griffey Jr. to Safeco Field on June 22. It was Feierabend’s first start in 19 days and, besides the rustiness of the layoff, he got caught up in the crowd’s fervor over Griffey.
“I was so in awe, being a rookie on the mound facing one of the greatest hitters of all-time,” he said. “I idolized him growing up.”
Feierabend got the first out of the game, then hit a batter to bring Griffey to the plate. When he made two pickoff throws to first base, the crowd booed loudly.
“That took my breath away, getting booed in our home stadium,” Feierabend said. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is really happening.’”
Griffey singled and before Feierabend got out of the inning, he’d thrown 42 pitches and allowed four runs. He lasted another 11/3 innings, giving up six hits, five walks and nine runs.
“It was a deer-in-the-headlights situation,” he said.
There were good outings, too. Working on the regular four days of rest, he shut out the Red Sox over five innings but followed that seven days later with a nightmare — allowing 10 runs in 11/3 innings at Kansas City.
He started one more game before the Mariners sent him to Class AAA Tacoma, an up-and-down shuttle to the minors that happened once more before the M’s called him up for good in September. Then he struggled and was lifted early from his two starts late in the month.
Manager John McLaren believes the rough 2007 season won’t affect Feierabend in 2008.
“The main thing is to put it behind him and use it as a springboard to keep working hard and keep refining his game,” McLaren said. “I think he will. When he had a rough outing, the next day he was very upbeat and positive, saying ‘I’ll bounce back.’ A lot of guys will hide.”
Feierabend knows the Mariners are pushing hard to trade for Orioles left-hander Erik Bedard. And he also knows that pitchers like Brandon Morrow, Ryan Rowland-Smith, R.A. Dickey and Horacio Ramirez all have been mentioned for the fifth spot in the rotation if the M’s don’t acquire another starter.
“I definitely see myself in that mix,” Feierabend said. “I hope the front office thinks I’m in that mix as well. The last month of the season, I didn’t give them a whole lot to go off of, but I’m going to go into spring training ready to give 110 percent like I always do.”
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