Update...Mac once again did not announce the rotation and says that he should have something for us tomorrow.

Note: We did not get the skipper or the players this morning because of the meetings. I am expecting that Mac will announce the 3-4-5 starters after practice and I will update that on this post if the news comes down this afternoon.

Found some time to write, by accident. I try and take it a little easier on the weekends since I don’t really take days off. I slept in an extra hour and arrived at the complex about 40 minutes before Mac was scheduled for his morning media talk. Or so I thought. Apparently there is a security meeting this morning so I could have had an additional extra hour of sleep. Grrrrrrrrr…

So I will write instead. Just what is a security meeting you may ask? Well, MLB sends its top security guys to every camp to speak with every player about everything from just plain common sense type issues to things that athletes are specifically targeted for. A major issue of late (which I do not believe has been a problem for the Mariners) due to the PED issues in the game is who can and who cannot be in the clubhouse or on the field. Long gone are the days of player’s entourages in the clubhouse. The clubhouse is a very different place from what it was when I first started covering the game.

There has been a proposal that clubhouse personnel be put through more thorough screening, perhaps even criminal background checks in light of the Mitchell Report. I haven’t talked to the Mariners “clubbies” about their feelings on this, but no doubt they don’t feel too good about the representation of their position in the report.

In baseball as in life it is unfair to paint an entire group with the same brush. The Mariners have a great group of clubbies; most have been with the organization for a long time. I’ve written before about how important they are to the day to day life of players and of how we lost a member of that family at the end of last season when Rob Reagle died of a heart aneurysm. It was very tough walking into the clubhouse the first day and seeing his locker. It was even tougher to see the picnic table right outside the clubhouse door where Rob spent hours each day cleaning off the cleats, working on his tan and chatting with all of us as we waited for practice to end.

The new clubbie, Chris the former bat boy, has taken over that duty. He has embraced the job and understands the history as he too knew Rob. One day I looked over and saw three clubbies banging the dirt off the the cleats with brushes. I knew exactly what was going on. They were honoring their buddy. One had told me just a couple of days earlier that he couldn’t even go near that table, yet there he was with brush in hand.

On to other subjects…Live arm BP was a blast to watch yesterday as we got to see the starters plus JJ and Phillipe Aumont pitch. JJ went first and was followed by Erik Bedard and Felix. I don’t think I saw anyone take a swing off of that group. Talked with Adrian Beltre after and he said that he was just tracking the ball and was glad he didn’t get hit like he did last year. He said that he hated facing Bedard when he was with the Orioles and that in addition to having good stuff he hid the ball very well. Bedard really turns his back to the hitter on his wind up and has a slight hesitation before he comes down on his front foot and releases the ball. He was also very deliberate out there.

As for the others, JJ looked like JJ and Felix looked like Felix. He and Beltre got a little chirpy when one got away from Felix and Adrian had to dance out of the way. Yes, we got to see the “happy feet”. Adrian said that the pitchers are indeed following the orders of Mel Stottlemyre and are holding back a bit. To him it appeared that Felix and JJ were throwing at about 80 percent. Here is some of my conversation with Adrian.

Morrow, Batista and Silva followed with a younger group that included Bryan LaHair and Jeff Clement stepping in. We saw some swings against Morrow and Batista, but nothing looked like a hit. When Silva was up he was true to form inducing the hitters to swing at everything. Just about everything that was hittable was put into play but most looked like they would be groundball outs. I asked him about this after and he told me that he approaches BP just like a game. Here it is, hit it. He also told me that he doesn’t see hitters, just the catcher’s glove. He didn’t for a minute think, “hey, those are my teammates out there.”

The last pitcher I watched was Phillipe Aumont. You could hear the sizzle as he released the ball. What was most impressive was seeing the late movement he has. A couple got away from catcher Adam Moore who made valiant efforts to corral them. Another good thing I noticed is that when he missed, he almost always missed low. The future looks very bright for this one, and I am beginning to understand how the Mariners were able to let Chris Tillman go with Aumont in the pipeline.

A lot of you have asked just where I think Aumont will start. It won’t be with the big league team. I think the better question is where will he end the year. He strikes me as the type that is going to be hard to hold down once he gets going. Odds are he will hit a snag somewhere in the minor league system that will take some time to work out, but then again, he could pull a Felix and overpower the competition at every level. He is young, but he is not the type that they are going to have to build up his body. He is huge. He hasn’t pitched a ton, but as Mac said, he possesses skills that can’t be taught. He has good stuff, he is intimidating, he has a good head on his shoulders and he is teachable. Down the road it could be a good thing that he hasn’t pitched a ton because right now, there are barely any miles on that arm. This one is going to be fun to watch.