M’s notebook: Iwakuma makes welcome Cactus League return

PEORIA, Ariz. – We’ve got Mariners at home and Mariners on the road today as the team will have the first of two split squad days this spring. Lloyd McClendon is mixing things up a little with the teams but keeping most of the regulars at home, where Hisashi Iwakuma will make his first start of the spring.

Lineup!

Jackson 8
Smith 9
Cano 4
Cruz DH
Weeks 7
Peterson 3
Zunino 2
Kivlehan 5
Taylor 6

Iwakuma

Iwakuma has looked strong and sharp this spring, aside from hitting Gabriel Guerrero, who was standing in for a bullpen.

When looking at the club this winter Iwakuma was one of the biggest question marks for me. He obviously is very key to this rotation and what we saw at the end of last year disturbed me. After giving up just 13 earned runs in 10 starts from July 1 to Aug. 19, he gave up 28 in his next seven starts.

At first he didn’t have much of an explanation for what was going wrong. Then he talked about his balance being off. Clearly something in his explanations could have been lost in translation, but at the time to me it didn’t seem like he had a good handle on what was going on. I could be completely wrong about that – in fact I probably was wrong about that – but it left me with an uneasy feeling about Kuma going forward and fears that perhaps we had seen the best of him.

Lloyd McClendon allayed those fears last week.

“It didn’t feel right because he didn’t have any training,” McClendon answered when I asked if he had been able to get to the bottom of why Iwakuma didn’t feel right on the mound at the end of last season. “That’s tough. If you really think about it, what he did was remarkable. He missed all of spring training. What did he have, one start? It’s phenomenal.”

There was no mistaking when Kuma hit the wall.

“I can still remember when he walked a guy on four straight pitches,” remembered McClendon. “What the heck is happening? I’d never seen it before. Are you kidding me? I said, ‘Get him out of there!’

“For the fatigue to set in, it’s probably something we should have seen coming. I am still amazed at what he accomplished last year with no spring training. From a physical standpoint he really wasn’t as strong as he could have been and he really went out and competed and did a fantastic job for us most of the year. When fatigue sets in you fight a lot of mechanical things and I think that was the case with Kuma.”

Kuma himself has acknowledged that having no spring training last year made things difficult for him late in the season. This winter he stayed in Seattle for most of the offseason and worked cout at Safeco Field. He put in a tremendous amount of work and he says he is feeling much different now. McClendon likes what he has seen and believes the troubles we saw at the end of the season are behind him.

“This guy is amazing and he is only going to get better,” he said. “I think he is really excited about this year and I am excited for him.”

Notes

• Lineup for the team traveling to Camelback Ranch to take on the White Sox

Marte 4
Ruggiano 9
Gutierrez 8
Seager DH
Morrison 3
Rivero 5
Ackley 7
Miller 6
Baker 2

Pries

Trent Jewett will manage the traveling Mariners while McClendon will stay with the team in Peoria.

• Felix’s first start will not be Wednesday as we were previously told, but instead he will make his Cactus League debut Tuesday on the road vs. the Rockies.

• James Paxton’s first start will be March 17 against the White Sox. Paxton should be able to get four starts in before the Mariners break camp, and with an off day April 9 the Mariners could skip him in the first turn of the rotation if they feel he needs more innings before he makes his first start of the regular season.

• Tough news for the Rangers as the MRI performed on Yu Darvish turned up a sprained UCL. He will get a second opinion but Tommy John Surgery is a very real possibilty.

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