PEORIA, Ariz. – To the casual spring training observer, the morning drills performed by the Seattle Mariners’ pitchers might seem like a slight step up from watching paint dry or grass grow.
Try telling that to the men who are doing the work.
Pitchers Fielding Practice – known as PFP – can be monotonous, fun, agonizing and tiresome all at the same time, but they all know it can make the difference between winning and losing.
The drills comprise a big part their workout each morning, when they rotate from field to field and face a variety of defensive situations that will occur during a season.
Monday, for example, they covered first base on grounders hit between the mound and the bag on one field; on another field, they gloved grounders back to the mound and caught baserunners in a rundown between home and third; another group worked on a variety of situations with runners at different bases; and a final station dealt with fielding grounders back at the mound, where the pitchers would freeze runners on second or third base, then throw to first.
The pitchers have run those drills every day since camp opened last week, and they’ll keep running them the rest of spring training.
“I think I’ve covered first base about 200 times already,” relief pitcher Matt Thornton said.
Closer Eddie Guardado has him beat – if you can believe him.
“I think I’ve covered the bag a thousand million times,” he said.
The idea is to perform those drills with such repetition that they become instinctive when pitchers face difficult defensive situations in the regular season.
“Those types of things will win you ballgames,” Guardado said.
Hitters in the box: After pitching in the bullpen the past five days, Mariners pitchers will throw live batting practice to the position players today in the first full-squad workout.
The hitters will know each pitch thrown to them, but that won’t necessarily make it an uneventful session, especially for some of the young pitchers in camp.
Thornton said he’ll always remember his first session of live batting practice a few years ago. The hitters he faced comprised a big part of that season’s lineup: Edgar Martinez, Ichiro Suzuki, John Olerud, Dan Wilson and Jeff Cirillo.
“Here I was in my first big-league spring training camp and I had to throw to those guys,” Thornton said. “All I could think about was not hitting them.
“Now, I don’t think about it. All I want is to get a feel for the hitter in the box and get the pitches across the plate.”
Important speech: Manager Mike Hargrove will speak to the team before today’s first full-squad workout, a moment that he considers one of the most significant parts of spring training.
“Of all the meetings you have all year long, this is the most important one,” he said. “I dread giving it every year. It’s such an important time that you really need to be precise in what you go over. You set the groundwork for what it is that goes on from there.”
Hargrove has seen good speeches and bad ones over the years. The key to an effective speech, he says, is to speak to the players with conviction.
“Players can read in a person right away if they’re unsure of what they’re talking about,” he said. “You’ve got to present it with a certain amount of confidence. Not necessarily sell it to them, but they need to know that you’re not up there wasting their time and your time.”
Multi-faceted Morse: Mike Morse knows that versatility will give him his best chance to make the team.
He played shortstop much of last season before the Mariners brought up Yuniesky Betancourt late in the year. Morse switched to left field late in the season and will continue to work there at spring training, and he also has been getting a feel for first base the past few days.
“The more positions I know, the better chance I’ve got,” he said. “It’s not just a matter of being able to say I play all those positions, but that I know all those positions and can play them well. I want the team to be confident that when they put me into a game, no matter where, that I know how to play the position. That’s why I keep working hard.”
Hargrove, a former first baseman, worked with Morse on Sunday, focusing on footwork around the bag.
“Mike’s a good athlete and he grasps things fairly quickly,” Hargrove said. “We want to keep it real simple. This is an ongoing process, so let’s keep it simple and take on one or two things a day.”
Of note: Baseball Prospectus has released its top 50 prospects, and four Mariners made the list: catcher Kenji Johjima (No. 21), catcher Jeff Clement (30), outfielder Adam Jones (44) and outfielder Chris Snelling (46). … The voting for the annual Ford Frick Award for broadcasting excellence will be announced today. Mariners play-by-play announcer Dave Niehaus is among the 10 finalists. The winner will recognized at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony on July 30.
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