Hargrove tabs Olivo as starter

PEORIA, Ariz. – Miguel Olivo will be the Seattle Mariners’ primary catcher this season, supplanting longtime starter Dan Wilson.

New manager Mike Hargrove said Saturday he anticipates the 26-year-old Olivo will catch at least 110 games this season.

“He’s a strong guy,” Hargrove said. “He should be able to do that.”

Wilson has been the Mariners’ top catcher for the past 11 seasons. He will back up Olivo this season, catching one or two times a week, Hargrove said.

Hargrove thinks Olivo might have the strongest throwing arm among major league catchers and has the potential to become an All-Star. He compared him to a young Sandy Alomar Jr., who caught for Hargrove when he managed the Cleveland Indians in the 1990s.

“He’s got a good, quick release and a cannon for an arm,” Hargrove said.

Olivo was less than a polished catcher when he arrived last June 27 from the Chicago White Sox, committing nine passed balls in 50 games with Seattle. He had 13 for the season, third-most in the majors.

Olivo has worked with minor league catching coordinator Roger Hansen and former catcher Jeff Newman, who is Hargrove’s third-base coach this season, on his defensive deficiencies and allowed his first passed ball of the spring in the fifth inning of Saturday’s game, the Mariners’ 10th game of the spring.

Mariners thump Rangers

Raul Ibanez went 3 for 4 with an RBI and left-hander Bobby Madritsch pitched three hitless innings, helping the Mariners to an 8-3 victory over the Texas Rangers.

The Mariners improved to 2-8 in exhibition play.

Ibanez, successor to retired Edgar Martinez as Seattle’s designated hitter this season, had a double and a pair of singles to raise his spring average to .500 (12 for 24), with five doubles and four RBIs.

Madritsch, fighting to hold onto the starting job he earned in the final two months of last season, walked Richard Hidalgo in the second and faced 10 batters.

The Mariners collected 15 hits off five Texas pitchers, with Ichiro Suzuki, Randy Winn, Dobbs and Lopez each getting two hits.

Spring ritual works again

It’s one of the oldest pranks in the baseball book, yet every year an unsuspecting rookie experiences it for the first time.

Make that three Seattle Mariners rookies, who learned the meaning of the “three-man lift.”

It’s a stunt that typically begins with a veteran or two arguing over who is stronger. Then one will bet the other that he can lift three people at once.

Word will circulate through the clubhouse, wagers collected and three “volunteers” gathered to provide the dead weight to be lifted.

Players will gather around and the instigator – in this case Mariners closer and team pundit Eddie Guardado – will begin to prove his point.

On a grassy area outside the Mariners’ clubhouse, the scene played out as it has for decades in baseball.

Young pitcher Felix Hernandez, catcher Rene Rivera and Japanese trainer Ryo Tahara learned that there really isn’t much lifting in the “three-man lift.”

Guardado had the three lie on their backs next to each other and lock their arms tightly. Then, as he prepared to lift three bodies at once … someone dumped a cooler filled with … well … a mixture of unpleasantness.

“Catsup, mustard, mayonnaise and some things from the lunchroom,” Guardado said.

“I’ve been doing this for years,” Guardado cackled later. “But this was a good one.”