Mariners Fill Holes And Pray If New Faces Can Produce, Seattle Has Chance To Repeat
They won a division championship and then a playoff series, lured capacity crowds to the Kingdome, made announcer Dave Niehaus’ raspy voice croak louder than ever and inspired interest in a new, $320 million retractable-roof playground.
Most of those accomplishments occurred during the six-weeks-that-made-Seattle-a-baseball-town last fall, when the Mariners became America’s team for a month.
They’re still America’s team - sort of.
Let’s see: Mike Blowers is in Los Angeles, Tino Martinez and Jeff Nelson are in New York, Tim Belcher is in Kansas City, Vince Coleman is in Cincinnati and Andy Benes is in St. Louis.
And don’t forget Bill Risley - he’s in Toronto. So the Mariners actually could be Canada’s team, too.
Most of what remains is a memory.
When the revamped M’s begin defense of their American League West championship this evening at the Kingdome, their magical, monthlong sprint to the division title and ensuing Division Series triumph are little more than never-to-be-forgotten memories.
But baseball is a what-have-you-done-lately business.
And what the Mariners have done lately is make changes. There are three new infield starters, one new outfield regular, four different starting pitchers and three bullpen newcomers. There is even a different backup catcher.
In some key areas, youth has replaced experience:
Third baseman Russ Davis has 142 days of big-league service, two home runs and 13 RBIs. He replaces Mike Blowers, who ended last season with four-plus years, 54 homers and 229 RBIs.
Shortstop Alex Rodriguez (122 days, five HRs, 21 RBIs) replaces Luis Sojo (four-plus years, 24 HRs, 139 RBIs).
The five-man starting rotation at the end of the regular season last year included Randy Johnson (six-plus years, 99-64 record), Chris Bosio (nine-plus years, 90-89), Tim Belcher (nine-plus years, 94-90), Andy Benes (six-plus years, 76-77) and Bob Wolcott (43 days, 3-2).
The ‘96 rotation includes Johnson, Wolcott, Sterling Hitchcock (161 days, 16-15), Edwin Hurtado (99 days, 5-2) and Paul Menhart (one-plus years, 1-4). Bosio, who underwent off-season knee surgery, is expected to rejoin the rotation around May 1.
Even with the almost unbeatable Johnson - the M’s were 27-3 when he started - anchoring the rotation, and defending batting champion Edgar Martinez, 40-HR producer Jay Buhner and a healthy Ken Griffey Jr. in the middle of the lineup, the Mariners’ success this season might depend on the youngsters.
“To really have a good year, we need for the position-player kids to come through and some of the young pitchers we added to come through,” said Woody Woodward, the Mariners’ vice president of baseball operations. “If that happens, then we will be a very competitive club. If that doesn’t happen, we won’t compete.”
Johnson, who will make his club-record fifth straight opening-night start against the Chicago White Sox tonight, says it is imperative for the Mariners to get off to a quick start and build confidence in a young, inexperienced rotation.
Mariners manager Lou Piniella echoes the thought.
“We need to get out of the gate well, play good solid baseball, stay in the race and build momentum as the season goes along,” Piniella said. “We have a lot of young people here. Getting off to a good start is relaxing for everybody and builds confidence.
“You send a clear signal to the rest of the division that we intend on repeating. Other teams will want to beat us with a little more fervor than before. That is a challenge for us.”
The schedule appears to offer a quick-start opportunity. The Mariners play 24 games in April against teams that had losing records last season and only three games against teams with winning records - California and Texas. Seattle has seven games against the Milwaukee Brewers (65-79 in ‘95) and Toronto Blue Jays (56-88); and five against the White Sox (68-76) and Detroit Tigers (60-84).
If the Mariners can get through the first month in good shape, the younger players’ confidence levels should be high heading into a more strenuous May, a month in which Seattle plays 19 games against Cleveland (4), New York (5), Baltimore (5) and Boston (5).
Hitchcock and Wolcott have started and won games with playoff implications. Hurtado and Menhart, acquired during the off-season in a trade with Toronto for Risley, haven’t been exposed to such pressure.
“The young kids in our rotation are going to need help during the season, and it’s up to (Bosio) and myself to be the leaders,” Johnson said. “Anyone can handle success. It’s the bad times that really test you.”
The 22-year-old Wolcott, who moves into the No. 2 spot between lefties Johnson and Hitchcock to start the season, displayed remarkable poise last season after being promoted from Class AAA Tacoma.
He became an exception to a 3-year-old trend.
Since becoming the Mariners’ manager in 1993, Piniella has desperately tried to find a quality fourth or fifth starter, primarily from within the organization.
The result: a 15-48 record from those two spots.
Piniella said he feels good about three-fifths of this year’s rotation. And he is impressed with the quality of arms that will fill the other two spots.
“But until you get into the heat of battle during the regular season,” he said, “you never know.”
It might be impossible for the Mariners to match the drama they generated last fall while writing one of the greatest comeback stories in major league history.
Chapter One was erasing a double-digit deficit in the A.L. West and winning a one-game playoff against California.
“What we did was very, very difficult,” Piniella said. “Coming from 13 games behind in August is not an easy thing to do. It has only happened three times in major league history and baseball has been around since the turn of the century.”
Chapter Two was overcoming a 0-2 bind in the best-of-five Division Series against New York to reach the A.L. Championship Series against Cleveland.
Chapter Three still hasn’t been written.
2 Graphics: 1. 1996 Seattle Mariners schedule 2. Seattle Mariners’ starting lineup