One already done

PEORIA, Ariz. – Six months ago, everyone wondered how low Travis Blackley had fallen mentally after his short debut with the Seattle Mariners ended with a 10.04 earned run average and a demotion back the minor leagues.

Today, the curiosity is back.

Blackley, never able to shake the arm problems that struck him late last season at Class AAA Tacoma, had surgery nine days ago to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder. He’ll be out at least a year.

“At first it was difficult,” Blackley, his arm in a sling, said Wednesday at the Mariners’ spring training complex. “I was pretty excited about this year. But I’m only 22 years old. I’ll get back when I’m 23 and pick up where I took off. I’m bummed about it, but in the big picture it’s best to have it done.”

The Mariners, who had hoped to see Blackley overcome his difficulties on the mound last year, are bummed too. Now they’re looking a year ahead with hope.

“It sounds like a simple, successful procedure and he’ll come back at full strength,” pitching coach Bryan Price said. “He’ll have an even greater appreciation for the game. He will put in an awful lot of hard work to be able to pitch again, and that never hurts anybody.”

Since the high point in his baseball career, a victory over the Texas Rangers last July 1 in his major league debut, little has gone right for Blackley. He went 0-3 in his next five starts, struggled to throw strikes and, after walking nine in four innings on July 26 at Oakland, was sent back to Tacoma.

There, the arm started hurting.

“I kind of knew (it was serious) by the end of last year when I was in Tacoma,” he said. “We really hoped the whole offseason that surgery wasn’t going to be necessary. I came back here after about two months off and it was even worse. We did a lot of exercises with it, and it still came up lame at the end.”

Blackley will wear the sling another three weeks, then begin the slow recovery back to the mound.

“The goal is to get back next season,” he said. “I don’t want to rush it.”

When he does return, especially to the major leagues, Blackley says he’ll approach his outings differently than he did last year with the Mariners.

He enjoys listening to heavy-metal music, especially before the games he starts. He didn’t do that after the Mariners called him up, choosing instead not to invade their space with his ground-pounding music.

“In Tacoma, my teammates knew it was my night to pitch when they’d come in and hear the music blaring,” Blackley said. “After I got called up, I didn’t want to step on anybody’s toes, I just wanted to blend into the background and not stand out.

“I took the passiveness off the field to the field. Next time, I’ll probably go to the weight room and put the music on loud there.”

Eddie is ready: Closer Eddie Guardado bounced with exuberance into the clubhouse Wednesday, saying his surgically repaired left knee is strong and his rehabbed left shoulder feels fine.

Proof, he knows, will come when he begins throwing off a mound, which he hasn’t done yet.

“I won’t know how it is until I throw off the mound and see how I feel the next day,” said Guardado, who missed half of last season because of a rotator cuff injury.

Guardado, who brings intensity to the mound and even his workouts, also realizes that the training staff may need to hold him back if he can’t himself.

“But I’m not here to be babied,” he said. “I’m here to play the game, so let’s go.”

On Ichiro’s turf: A group of Japanese college players will finish more than two weeks of workouts today on what they consider reverential turf at the Mariners’ complex.

The team from Shoka University in Nagoyoa has used practice field No. 1 since Feb. 1 as they conduct their version of spring training in the U.S. Field No. 1 is where the Mariners’ major leaguers – and Ichiro Suzuki have conducted their daily workouts.

“You can tell when they go out to right field that it’s special to be on the same field where Ichiro plays,” said Ted Heid, who directs the Mariners’ Pacific Rim operations.