Morse eyes role as super sub Mariner

02/03/2006
For Mariners fans wondering where Mike Morse will fit in with the team in 2006, here's a quick answer in the form of a question: How about anywhere?
Morse, who will turn 24 during Spring Training, impressed the team and the fans quite a bit last year when called up to the Major Leagues in late May and stayed for the rest of the year.
He hit .278 with three home runs and 23 RBIs in 230 at-bats over 72 games, and although he lost his temporary starting shortstop job to slick-fielding rookie Yuniesky Betancourt, he became a valuable bat off the bench and showed versatility by starting to learn how to play the outfield.
Since then, he's been working hard at becoming even more valuable. He's been taking tons of fly balls in the outfield and he's been honing his baserunning skills with fellow Floridians Betancourt and Mariners outfielder Raul Ibanez near his Fort Lauderdale, Fla., home.
Reached via cell phone, Morse sounded upbeat and confident that he -- and the Mariners -- will have a lot to be excited about in 2006.
"It's going really well," Morse said. "I've been working on my running form and getting quicker. I'm just really getting ready. I can't wait for Spring Training."
Last year, the Mariners couldn't wait for Morse.
He was the third-most-mentioned name in the late 2004 deal that netted center fielder Jeremy Reed and catcher Miguel Olivo from the Chicago White Sox for starter Freddy Garcia, but he looked good last spring and didn't waste much time making an impact on the Mariners once he was called up last May.
He seized the starting shortstop job for a while, adding some clutch hits and showing strength and athleticism with a 6-foot-4, 220-pound frame.
But with those positives came some first-season growing pains.
Betancourt came on the scene in August and became not only the club's shortstop of the present but the franchise's middle infielder of the future.
Then, in September, Morse was suspended by Major League Baseball for 10 days for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. It was the third time in Morse's professional career that he was suspended for failing a drug test, the first two times coming in the Minor Leagues -- once when he was in the White Sox organization and again in 2004 after being acquired by the Mariners. He insisted that all three positive tests were the result of residue remaining in his system from two years prior, and an arbitration panel agreed with him.
He apologized to the Mariners front office, his teammates and his fans and suffered emotionally from the embarrassment of the situation. Now, he hopes it's all behind him.
"I haven't been around the game that long, but I feel like that's going to be one of the hardest things I'll have to deal with in baseball, and I got through it pretty good," Morse said.
"The truth and the real side of the story got out, and I'm happy for that. I wasn't just some crazy person that got busted. I got penalized for something I already got penalized for.
"I was one of those different cases where the rules kind of messed me up. And I was always straightforward with the team. I told them what was going on. It's not like I was hiding anything. I think they saw that and they believed me."
In 2006, the Mariners will most likely believe in him even more as one of their primary utility players.
He'll back up Betancourt at shortstop, he'll back up Ibanez in left, and he'll be ready to play "almost anywhere," as he says, in the unfortunate event of injury.
"I feel like I'm more versatile now," Morse said. "I feel like I can be a key part of the team if, God forbid, somebody goes down. I can play first, short, third, all over now. It makes me not just a one-position guy now. I think that helps me get a role on the team."
Morse said he has never been discouraged about his role on the Mariners, especially when it comes to the shortstop situation.
"If somebody's going to take my spot, Yuniesky is the right guy because he's really good," Morse said. "I usually don't say that about players, but he's good. Real good."
And Morse said he'd like to be considered a good outfielder some day, which is why he trained one-on-one with Mariners outfield instructor Mike Goff in the Instructional League and is presently enduring daily drills with veteran Major Leaguers Cliff Floyd and Jeffrey Hammonds, who also live in South Florida.
"Working with Mike, man, it was hard," Morse said. "That guy is toooooough. Basically I wasn't leaving there until I pretty much a legitimate outfielder. And I feel like I can play outfield now.
"Last year was a quick class on how to play it and not look like a fool at the big-league level. Now I know what to do and what not to do. And with Jeff and Cliff, they know what they're doing, too, some I'm just like a sponge out there."
Morse said he'll continue to soak up all the knowledge he can get his hands on as long as he's in a uniform, and that's pretty much the only thing he'll guarantee about the coming season.
"Last year, when the team asked me about trying the outfield, I said, 'You don't have to ask me that stuff,' " Morse said. "I'll do whatever it takes. It makes me feel like they actually want me on the team. If they don't want me playing, they would have sent me down to the Minors.
"And now I feel like I can play wherever they want me."

Source: http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/