Featured in this box score: three guys whose careers have fallen short of what was hoped, and Cory Luebke.
Mike Sweeney is hitting .857/.857/.1.429 so far this spring. Last spring he hit .408 and won a job on the bench, so his numbers this time around put him on pace to win a job on the board of directors.
In all honesty, since this is bound to come up - unless someone gets hurt, there's really no way for Sweeney to make this team. It doesn't matter if he goes 4-4 against bad pitchers from a bad league. The Mariners acquired Casey Kotchman and Ryan Garko for a reason, and they're not going to be swayed by a strong showing in Arizona. This isn't to say Sweeney should just up and stop trying; someone could very well get hurt here, and some other teams will be paying attention. It's just that Sweeney's immediate future with Seattle is pretty much out of his control, unless he takes that axe-chop swing to Garko's knees, which may cast doubt on assertions that he's a positive in the clubhouse.
Beamer Weems and Lance F. Zawadzki. The Padres don't draft shortstops; they sign civilians in Witness Protection.
Ian Snell didn't walk anyone over two innings, which is impressive considering early last season he walked 44 as a Pirate, later last season he walked 39 as a Mariner, and just yesterday afternoon he walked his lunch.
Not that one inning on March 6th means much, but Sean White's 12 fastballs averaged 91.4mph, far closer to his mark in '07 than his mark in '09. We'll see how this progresses over the course of the spring as he gets a little more loose. It's no secret that the team isn't real confident in the health of his shoulder.
Dan Cortes touched 96mph, once.
If you, like me, are all about following along with Mike Koplove, then you will be delighted to hear that he was throwing his 87mph sidearm two-seamer with an absolutely ridiculous amount of tail and sink. In addition, I'm not quite sure what to make of a 69mph sidearmed curveball, but I know I'd pay to see it. Koplove, as an ML-quality righty specialist, doesn't have a place on this team, but I'd love to see him make it somewhere else, because I like guys that throw weird and have a K in their name.
O'fer for Dustin Ackley. I don't mean to cause alarm but I'm pretty sure big league pitchers have figured him out.
Last year, Ezequiel Carrera led his league (and also the minors?) with a .441 OBP. Today he drew the team's only two walks. This is the Reggie Willits skillset right here, so in case you were worried that the Mariners didn't have much depth to their annoyingness, you can sleep easy. There are roots.
By the way, Drayer says Snell's foot was pointing towards third again. I hope this means the team wanted him to make different adjustments over the offseason, because otherwise this reflects really poorly on him. "What we want is for you to turn your foot like 30 degrees." "I don't know coach, that seems like a tall order."
Shortstop was manned today by Josh Wilson and Chris Woodward, a couple of guys here on minor league contracts who are better than the starter Kansas City will pay two million dollars.
Greg Halman didn't make a dog's breakfast of anything, or at least anything evident in the box score, which is a nice reminder of the limitations of the format of the box score.