First look at Bedard as a Mariner in competition. First thoughts, the fastball appears to get on the hitters very fast. Second, the breaking ball looked good and he was not afraid to use it. He threw everything today, got 44 pitches in gave up 3 runs but was throwing strikes. Kenji Johjima who caught him told us that the balls that were getting hit were a bit up.

Had an interesting conversation with Joh. I will sit him down soon for an interview, but in a group session he spoke of how he went about trying to learn the new pitcher. He also admitted to problems or “arguments” as he called them in the past with Jamie Moyer and Felix Hernandez. I will talk further about this in a future post.

Joh is going about the business of learning a new pitcher. He said he hasn’t had a lot of conversations with Erik on the field, but he has taken him out to dinner a couple of times to get to know him. “Sushi, of course, and I buy.” He said in English. “Hamburgers, steak, they buy!” Joh is starting to drop some English in his interviews and it is great to hear. The point here though is to illustrate how seriously he takes his job. He will not let language barriers get in the way of learning his pitchers and personality factors into his assessment as much as the pitches themselves.

As for the rest of the game, like yesterday, just about all those battling for jobs looked good. The potential bullpen arms did not give up a run. Charlton Jimerson showed the bat and the legs with 2 stolen bases. Mike Morse had another 2 RBIs. Jeff Clement had a double. As promised, there was much running including a double steal.

Back to Morse. I interviewed him for the pre game show today. I only have two minutes for the spring interviews so I edit them down. I find it very hard to stick to minutes limits, there never seems to be enough time to really get into a subject or ask follow up questions. What I usually do is conduct a longer interview and edit it down for time constraints. I think from time to time I will post the full interview here so you can hear it if you are interested.

Mike is always fun to talk to. He is in a tough spot as he is out of options which basically means he has to make the 25 man roster out of camp and stay on it or be exposed to waivers. Mike has had an interesting go of it coming up as a shortstop and now finding himself playing just about any position. Every time he has been called up he has hit and he has shown a good eye. He has a knack for flipping the ball the other way for a single, but many expect him to hit for power sometime soon.

He has been up and down quite a bit and done everything the organization has asked him to do. He is one of the most good natured players I have ever encountered and as you can hear from the interview he has a goofy streak. He’s the one who called Mike Hargrove “Big Dog” his first day in big league camp three years ago. I think all of this has kept him sane while he tries to find his way to the big leagues once and for all.

I like his approach to this spring. In the interview he talks about his decision to stay loose. “In the past I have always pressed a lot trying to make the team out of spring and you know I have always NOT made the team. When I get to triple A I just relax and then I play. This year I said to myself, take that pressure off. If I don’t make the team, I don’t make the team but it’s not going to be because I didn’t give 110% on the field. My whole thing is just to play.” Love that approach. Here is the interview.