Arizona Sun

I made it to Arizona today, but I don’t have much to pass along.

After an unexpected 1.5-hour delay getting a rental car, I reached the Mariners minor league camp just in time to see nothing but empty baseball diamonds. Well-groomed baseball diamonds, yes, but empty nonetheless.

It turns out the Mariners minor league intersquad games were played in the morning, and were all wrapped up by 1:00.

I visited the Mariners office and said hello to the PR crew of Tim Hevly, Jeff Evans, and Fernando Alcala (you guys better make me a “Camp Guest” after all of that name-dropping). Jeff was kind enough to give me a rare spiral-bound copy of the Mariners Media Guide – which is sure to make this guy green with envy for the next six months.

Daren Brown stopped by and we chatted briefly, as did Dwight Bernard. They were getting ready to assist the major league coaching staff in tonight’s game against the Giants (7:00 on ROOT).

Brownie gave me some bad news: Taijuan Walker had pitched earlier in the day in an intersquad game. That means that on this four-day stay I will not get to see him pitch. However, I should be in luck to see James Paxton and Danny Hultzen.

So my first real day of camp will be tomorrow, when I go to the Tacoma – Omaha game at the Royals camp in Surprise! I’m hoping Paxton starts that game tomorrow – regardless, I’ll have a full report on it ready for you early tomorrow evening.

Links:

• Larry LaRue speculated the Mariners opening day roster.
• Bob Condotta has a camp round-up with some tidbits about the roster for the trip to Japan, and injury updates.

Travel wasn’t friendly today – I’ll make up for it with a huge post tomorrow.