Nowhere but up

Mike Hargrove didn’t need to live through the Seattle Mariners’ miserable 2004 season to know what needed to be fixed.

One look at the statistics told him everything.

“We scored 698 runs last year. That’s fairly anemic, especially in the American League,” the Mariners’ new manager said.

You want anemic?

Try 136 home runs, last in the American League.

Or 658 RBI, also last.

Or 276 doubles, 12th of the 14 teams.

The Mariners, who tried to re-coin the term “small ball” at spacious Safeco Field, did it for all the wrong reasons last year.

“Whether you like it or not, this is a big-inning league,” Hargrove said. “In order to compete, you’ve got to have some mashers in your lineup. And more than one helps.”

Welcome, Mariners fans, to the return of the long ball in Seattle, where there once was glory in the power game from Jay Buhner, Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martinez and Alex Rodriguez.

This year, the Mariners hope Adrian Beltre and Richie Sexson can restore not only memories of the past, but a contender at Safeco Field.

“Adding Beltre and Sexson gives us credibility among our peers, which is important,” Hargrove said.

It’s not that the Mariners played without weapons last year.

Ichiro Suzuki won the American League batting title with a .372 average and he broke an 80-year-old major league record with 262 hits in a season. The team’s 1,544 hits ranked fifth in the league and their 110 stolen bases were fourth.

Yet, the Mariners lost 99 games and finished last in the A.L. West.

How vital was it to ramp up the power?

“It wasn’t possible to ramp down,” general manager Bill Bavasi said. “We had none.”

When Bavasi jumped into the rebuilding process during the offseason, his task wasn’t as simple as finding a couple of power hitters.

Plan A was to beef the top of the pitching staff with free agent Carl Pavano, plus a power hitter. Pavano signed with the Yankees, so the M’s turned to Plan B, which was just about anything else that would make the Mariners better than 2004.

“We needed power, but we could have used anything,” Bavasi said. “We could have been a better club by improving a lot of different parts. Pitching, defense, power, on-base percentage. You name it.”

In other words, the Mariners didn’t zero in on two power hitters who also were stellar defensive players at the positions of great need, third base and first base. It just worked out that way.

Beltre left the free agent market sooner than anyone, including Bavasi, had expected when he got everything he wanted from the Mariners – $64 million over five years and a chance to stay on the West Coast. That, in turn, convinced Sexson that the Mariners were committed to improving, and he signed for four years and $50 million.

Those two hitters not only increased the Mariners’ home-run potential, they turned an infield defense with serious uncertainty into one that should be a strength on the team.

“It ends up looking great,” Bavasi said. “We’re much better off being lucky.”

The Mariners considered left-handed-hitting Carlos Delgado, who would have played first base and forced Sexson to left field. The M’s also looked at Jeromy Burnitz and Troy Glaus, neither of whom provided the overall fit that Beltre and Sexson did.

“Once Beltre signed, and then Sexson, it changed everything,” Bavasi said. “All of a sudden we’ve got power, we’ve got defense and it turned out much, much better than it could have.”

Steroid testing may result in fewer home runs, but Bavasi believes power will remain a big part of baseball, especially in the American League.

“I’m not sure it’s going to affect the game,” he said. “Good hitters are going to hit. A few guys who have been using just need a period of time to be get used to playing without it and believe in themselves. Good players are still going to be good players.”

Power alone won’t turn the Mariners around.

Big boppers tend to be streaky and create big innings, but they’re also likely to strike out and kill rallies. Sexson, who averaged 40 home runs and 117 RBI from 2001 to 2003, also averaged 150 strikeouts.

Hargrove believes the Mariners can counter-act that with a balance of speed and athleticism that will alleviate the reliance on the home run.

“We all know the American League is a big-inning league. You wait for two guys to get on and for somebody to hit the ball out of the ballpark,” Hargrove said. “My preference is to have three or four guys in the lineup who can really mash the ball and a bunch of guys who can run.”

The “mashers” bring more to a lineup than their own ability to hit home runs. The presence of the big boppers often helps the hitters around them in a lineup.

In theory, when a lineup is loaded with hitters, opposing pitchers are less likely to pitch around or walk any one guy, knowing there’s an RBI producer coming up next. Beltre, Bret Boone and Sexson – who are likely to bat third, fourth and fifth – offer protection for each other.

“A pitcher has to pitch to somebody,” Hargrove said. “If you don’t have those guys in your lineup, then they’ll pitch around a Raul Ibanez or a Bret Boone or a Randy Winn to get to the hitters who are less likely to hurt them.

“With Beltre and Sexson in your lineup, pitchers have to decide whether they want to pitch around Bret and pitch to Raul, or pitch around Raul and pitch to Bret. The stronger you can get your lineup in that regard, the better everybody is as far as seeing pitches.”

Ibanez, who probably will bat sixth, saw the benefit almost immediately. He set a Mariners spring training RBI record and gave considerable credit to those hitting ahead of him.

“The thing I’m looking forward to is that there will be a lot of RBI opportunities,” he said.