John McLaren when asked very early on this spring training what his message would be to the team said simply, “Throw strikes, hit strikes.” The throw strikes is pretty self explanatory, but the hit strikes, a little more goes into that. 

The Mariners last year put up plenty of odd numbers, perhaps the oddest; they had the fewest base on balls in the league, and the second fewest strikeouts. The numbers there are tough to break down. If they are not striking out, wouldn’t that indicate that they have a good eye? But they are not walking. Is it as simple as when they swing, make contact and fail, they are swinging at the wrong pitch?

Take Ichiro out of the mix. I think it has been established that it is best not to mess with what he does. If he wants to swing at a first pitch, let him. Mat Olkin, the Mariners numbers guy (numbers guy better explains what he is than what his title listed in the media guide) would love to see the team take more walks but told us on the Hot Stove League Show that players historically do not improve their walk numbers. You either are a guy who can walk, or you are not.

Mac is well aware of this and rather than try to turn his free swingers into walkers, would simply like to see them hit better in the count. To this end, he is going to give each Mariners hitter a printout of how he does in different counts. If all goes well with the linkage, you can here Mac talk about this and his feelings about numbers, here.

On to other news of the day. Adrian Beltre is not in the line up as he injured the area below his left thumb while fielding a grounder in yesterday’s game. Not to alarm anyone, but I am a bit concerned. He got hit in the same place last year and that injury lingered. Adrian grimaced and said yes when I asked him if it was the same spot. He will play through just about anything, but acknowledged that it caused problems last year. The good news is, it is spring and he doesn’t need to play through it now. There should be a good chance to get it healed.

Jeremy Reed is on the mend after suffering a severe case of road rash from sliding into second in the B game. Jeremy has had a hot spring with the bat and when I asked about his new found power (2 home runs so far) he pointed out that he had 13 in Tacoma last year. “I was feeling a lot better and pulling the ball more. I am not a guy who will be hitting them out the other way a lot. The best thing about the two that I have hit this spring is that they were both against left handers.” Maybe the M’s fourth outfielder doesn’t need to be right handed…

Had a thoroughly enjoyable interview with Ichiro yesterday. I am trying to knock out some “Beyond the Baselines” interviews this spring and Ichiro agreed to sit down with me. Usually these are done at his locker, but since it was such a nice day he wanted to do this one outside. We did what I call one of my “golf cart interviews”. The coaches and staff use golf carts to travel or deliver equipment to the fields.

Those carts are parked outside the clubhouse door and are a great place to sit and soak up some sun while I wait for the guys to come in. I will often grab my pre game guest and sit them down in the golf cart for the interview as they come off the field. Ichiro is so formal I never would have suggested this, but since it was his idea to head outside I pointed to the cart and asked if that would work.

Ichiro climbed into the passenger side, I took the drivers seat and translator Ken Baron sat in the back seat and interpreted. I have got to admit, every now and then I still get the “Wow, I am talking to Ichiro” feeling when I interview him. He still won’t do the interviews in English but I respect this. Japanese or English, how ever he wants to communicate is fine with me. He has a great voice and talks with expression. I enjoy listening to him so much that I had to laugh at myself the first day this spring when Ichiro spoke to the reporters.

I made sure to get to the front of the pack and stood ready with my recorder. A question was asked and Ichiro started answering. I held my recorder up to him and listened. I watched him, gave a couple of nods, then shook myself when I realized that I didn’t understand a word he was saying and it was Baron the translator that I should be recording! Since it was a huge group I had to duck under a couple of reporters and circle all the way around the group to get to Baron, the whole time shaking my head and laughing at myself. What can I say, it is spring training for the reporters too!

Anyway, I am not going to give too much away about the interview which lasted for about twenty minutes. I plan to edit it up and produce it into a three part “Beyond the Baselines” that will run early in the season then be available on the website as well. We spoke about everything from raising the 12th man flag at the Seahawks game, to how he has dealt with people not always believing that he has done things the right way, to the ever popular (though I think he has not had this question before) if you could have dinner with five people, living or dead who would they be.

The thing that struck me about this interview was that Ichiro was not very Ichiro-ish. Usually there will be something that he says that seems to come out of left field or a philosophy he has that is surprising. In this interview I found his answers to be such that I think many people will be able to identify with. This in itself was very surprising for me, and as I said, thoroughly enjoyable.

Well, off to Mesa , where I have never been before! Will definitely have to use the GPS because Hall of Famer Dave Neihaus put it best when he said, “ Shannon could get lost in a circle!”