Mariners notebook: Who’s on first? Logan Morrison

PEORIA, Ariz. – If you are looking for a good competition in Mariners camp, do not look to first base for it. The question doesn’t even need to be asked as no attempt to bring in another first-base option was made this winter. In fielding drills yesterday there was no one standing behind Logan Morrison. It is his position.

Some believe that’s a lot of faith to put in a guy who hasn’t played more than 99 games in the last three years, but moving him out of the outfield to first base may cut down on the injuries. The Mariners like what they saw from Morrison in the second half of last year and would like to see more.

“He can be an everyday first baseman,” said manager Lloyd McClendon. “I thought he played defensively average to slightly above average, got big hits for us off left-handers. I thought he took a real nice step forward.”

The biggest step for Morrison was to listen to his coaches. Hitting coach Howard Johnson believes the process of buying into what his new coaches said they needed from him was a big factor in his turnaround.

“He had a so-so start, just really trying to find himself. The things that he had previously thought of himself offensively, we wanted to get beyond that to another level and I think he responded to that,” Johnson said.

“LoMo is relatively young as far as I think years under his belt. He is still maturing from that standpoint, he’s still learning. I think his ceiling is very high but I’m trying to teach him to learn himself, know what he can do and what he can’t do, when to try to drive a ball, when to take a walk,” McClendon said.

He is starting with a good foundation. McClendon regards him as a good hitter who is still learning.

“He hits left-handers, right-handers, takes his walks. Every now and then he goes outside the zone. We are trying to get him to shore up when he is in his hitting counts to look for his pitch and not expand and that takes time, but he’s getting better,” McClendon said.

How much better could he get? With time, McClendon believes he has a chance to put up some very big numbers.

“All in all he’s got a chance to be a guy to hit 25 home runs for us and drive in 100,” McClendon said. “He’s that type of guy.”

Notes

• Plenty to watch today on the field as the Mariners will have their first live-arm batting practice. If you need a refresher, live-arm refers to pitchers – as opposed to coaches – throwing to hitters.

• Walker, Rollins, Smith, Elias, Leone, Lowe, Kickham, Guape, Snow, Ramirez and Pries will all throw to hitters. Felix will throw his first bullpen of the spring.

• The Mariners will play an intersquad game March 2.

• Rickie Weeks will spend most of his time in the outfield this spring but McClendon said they would get him some reps at first as well later in the spring.

• At this time, Willie Bloomquist is the backup at first base. If he can back up short as well, McClendon admitted that it’s very unlikely the team will carry both Brad Miller and Chris Taylor on the 25-man roster.

• McClendon made it clear this morning that in his eyes, Franklin Gutierrez is not in camp to win a job out of spring training after missing almost two years.

“There’s no (expectations) for Guti,” McClendon said. “We hope he’s healthy, he can make it through the camp feeling good about himself playing baseball. There’s no expectations. Do we expect him to be the guy he was two years ago, three years ago? I doubt it. He’s been off for a long time. He needs to ease himself back into things. It’s going to take time. No. 1, we have got to make sure he is healthy.”

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