M’s mantra: It’s only March

PEORIA, Ariz. – Hold the angst that Seattle gave up too much for Erik Bedard. Ditch the premature thought that Felix Hernandez is more ace-like than Bedard on the Mariners’ staff.

Eager baseball fans from Seattle to Boston often have nothing else to do after a long, cold winter but overanalyze the results they read from Arizona and Florida on their favorite teams’ exhibition games.

Relax. It is – as every Mariner including the equipment guys are now repeating like a mantra – only March.

John McLaren chafes at spring training evaluations. Seattle’s manager seems more bothered by them than if they were 50 mph winds blowing sand across the desert and into his face.

“I think sometimes the fans, and even the media, are looking for just three scoreless innings and ‘This is why we got this guy.’ We’re not looking for that,” McLaren said Saturday, a day after Bedard allowed three runs in 2 2/3 innings in his Seattle debut against San Francisco – and before Hernandez allowed a single and walked one in two scoreless innings of what became an interminable 11-10 loss to San Diego.

“If it happens, and it does, that’s fine. But there are some other things we are looking for,” McLaren said. “The bottom line isn’t so much to have a zero ERA. They’re working on things. They’re trying things. They’re building their arms up.”

Any team’s main concern is that pitchers pace themselves early in spring training, staying careful not to overthrow after not having thrown so extensively in months. With dry, sometimes blustery desert air in which drives soar, and on hard, dry fields that often turn ground balls into shooting singles, results don’t matter so much.

Pacing is the buzzword for starting position players, too. Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle’s perennial All-Star and Gold Glove outfielder, looked to be in midseason form while racing back and leaping onto the warning track to catch a would-be double by Josh Bard in the fourth inning Saturday.

But Ichiro said that he is in cruise mode since he uses March to ease himself into the regular season’s six-month grind.

“And not just spring training, but the season, too,” Ichiro said through his interpreter after he went 0 for 3 in four innings. “It’s good to learn to pace yourself.”

Bedard, a 28-year-old former top gun with the Baltimore Orioles from Ontario, Canada, is also pacing himself.

Friday, he became uncomfortable with the hoopla of 20-plus questioners circling him inside the visitor’s clubhouse at Scottsdale Stadium asking about his so-so debut. The ace for whom Seattle traded five players last month said it was the most he ever had questioning him after an exhibition game.

Twice Bedard blurted out, “This is way too many questions.

“For me, I don’t have any expectations. Everyone else has expectations. I don’t,” he said.

“I just try to throw all my pitches, throw them for strikes, and get my arm ready.”

Hernandez’s fastball looked ready Saturday. He threw 32 pitches. Nineteen were strikes, and he said 29 were fastballs. All but a few were straight, hard ones on which the Padres often swung way late, as Jeff DaVanon did while striking out leading off the first.

The 21-year-old said he only threw a couple of his diving, split-fingered fastballs. This spring, he wants to establish his signature, straight hard stuff – the pitch he featured in his King-like major league debut at the end of the 2005 season – after an inconsistent an injury-marred 2007.

“It’s been pretty good. I’ve had a lot of command with it,” Hernandez said of his fastball so far in camp. “Last year, it was a little bit off.”

And, no, he isn’t pouting about Bedard replacing him as staff ace.

“It’s no problem. Not a big deal,” Hernandez said, smiling. “Being behind Erik is not a problem for me.”

Happy. And progressing. That’s all McLaren, in his first spring training as a major league manager after 21 1/2 years as a coach, wants from his two top guns.

Oh, and for all those Mariners fans antsy to see their new ace in top form to back off. Wait until Bedard starts on opening day March 31 against Texas.

“I was very happy with Erik. Very happy,” McLaren said Saturday. “He had good stuff. There were a lot of borderline pitches he didn’t get. He got his pitch count in. He had a good delivery. It’s something to build from.

“Some of the questions you guys asked me (Friday), it actually (ticked) me off. And it’s carrying over to today. I just don’t know what the (heck) we’re expecting in spring training, three … scoreless innings and I just want this kid to get in shape.”

With that, McLaren abruptly ended his daily morning chat.