MARINERS SEASON PREVIEW: Optimism surfaces

Mike Hargrove is seeing things few others are seeing. Either that, or his Seattle Mariners managerial seat is so hot it’s causing him to hallucinate.

“For the first time since I left Cleveland, this team is ready,” the Indians manager through 1999 said on the eve of his third season in Seattle.

He said he’s more excited than he’s ever been before any of his previous 15 seasons as a manager. That includes his two Cleveland years, 1995 and ‘97, which ended in the World Series.

He cited greater leadership in what has recently been a meek, rudderless Mariners clubhouse. He mentioned an influx of veteran talent such as Jose Guillen, Jose Vidro and new starting pitchers Miguel Batista, Jeff Weaver and Horacio Ramirez.

Isn’t this the American League West’s last-place team in each of the previous three, mostly lifeless seasons? Isn’t this the man whom team CEO Howard Lincoln first placed on “my hot seat” at the end of Seattle’s 78-84 season in 2006 – and then again on the first day of spring training this season?

“You can say Hargrove is full of baloney,” Hargrove said. “But in my heart, I don’t believe that. I’m excited beyond … “

Words, apparently. Hargrove didn’t finish the thought. He just chuckled.

Inside the Mariners’ clubhouse, anyway, Hargrove has company believing that Seattle will go from doormat to division king inside an apparently weakened West.

“We think, on paper, our club, when you look in our division, is probably the most improved,” general manager Bill Bavasi said.

“We’re going to make some noise this year,” said Felix Hernandez, who at six days shy of 21 years old will become the youngest opening-day starter since Dwight Gooden in 1985, on Monday against Oakland.

They’d better. Lincoln has put every Mariner on alert that improvement must occur immediately – or else.

“Yes, everybody in the organization is on the hot seat,” Lincoln said inside his spring training office in Peoria, Ariz.

The remodeled Mariners believe their makeover will mirror Hernandez’s. The previously pudgy rising star has lost 20 pounds since last season, when he flopped to 12-14 and allowed 23 home runs in 31 starts.

“I have to prove to myself what I can do. I am out to prove I can do more than lose 14 games,” he said, during a spring training in which his split-finger fastball danced again.

Beyond Hernandez, the Mariners are a tenuous, teetering house of pain. Almost all of their off-season acquisitions are coming off injuries. Then there’s the Ichiro Suzuki saga. Ichiro is entering the final year of a contract for the first time in his 16 professional seasons in Japan and with Seattle.

Lincoln said he wants the 33-year-old, six-time All-Star and Gold Glove outfielder to retire as a Mariner. But the team has yet to enter serious negotiations on a new contract, and Ichiro has said that he is intrigued by the prospect of free agency.

Ichiro moves to center field for the first time, to make room for the fiery Guillen in right. Seattle traded with the Washington Nationals to get Guillen, who had ligament replacement surgery last July on his throwing elbow. He played only sparingly in the field during spring training.

Vidro has also arrived from Washington, to be the designated hitter. The career .301 hitter hasn’t hit better than .300 since 2003.

The Mariners traded occasionally electric setup reliever Rafael Soriano to Atlanta to add left-hander Ramirez to a rotation in which Hernandez and 2006 bust Jarrod Washburn are the only holdovers. Ramirez, 27, pitched in 14 games last season with the Braves after a strained left hamstring, a line drive off his head, and a freaky middle finger sprain on his left hand.

Chris Reitsma, another Atlanta import, signed a one-year, $2.05 million contract to replace Soriano as the primary setup reliever for closer J.J. Putz. But Reitsma had problems with control while allowing nine runs in nine March outings, his first work since surgery on his pitching elbow last July.

Weaver spins beauty

Jeff Weaver ended spring training in the same form he finished last October.

Weaver gave up five hits in six scoreless innings of relief as the Seattle Mariners finished spring training Saturday with a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs at Las Vegas.

In the postseason for the St. Louis Cardinals, Weaver had a victory in each round, and he won the Game 5 World Series clincher against the Detroit Tigers.

Weaver, who signed an $8,375,000, one-year contract with the Mariners, pitched the final six innings against the Cubs, striking out four and walking none.

Seattle starter Horacio Ramirez allowed one run and three hits in two innings. Cubs starter Jason Marquis gave up one run and two hits in four innings.

Seattle made two roster moves, reassigning Gookie Dawkins and right-handed reliever Justin Lehr to its minor league camp.