By Shannon Drayer

No earth shattering news to come out of the Mariners annual Spring Training press conference but there were a few things to pass on.

The Mariners are going to be very young.

The youth movement continues. The commitment is without a doubt to the young players. These guys are going to play period. Of the 65 players invited to spring training, 55 of them have less than 5 years big league service time and 45 have less than one years time. They are comfortable going forward with the youth according to Tony Blengino.

"It is refreshing that we didn't need to go out and fill as many holes as we have in the past and are able to go more towards our younger players," he said of the spring training roster.

The wealth of young players the Mariners have right now at the big league level is seen as a good thing because those players will develop as other players are brought in. Zduriencik has been rebuilding and makes no bones about how he will continue to build this team.

"This is not going to be a fly by night thing. We are doing this thing the way it is supposed to be done. Do we have superstars? We will see. Do we have great players? We will see," he said. "I like where we are at as an organization. I am not satisfied where we are at, I am not content but given all of the issues we are in a pretty decent place going forward we are climbing up a ladder and we are moving up those steps in a very positive way."

Jack Zduriencik is pretty much done for now.

Zduriencik stated both today and last night on the Kevin Calabro Show that while his eyes were open, he didn't expect much to happen on the trade front so close to spring training. As for free agents it would appear that he is not pursuing anything else on the pitching front but he did admit that he would like to add something in the form of veteran presence to the offense. It will not be a big move by any means.

"If we do something it will probably be a little chip. There's not much out there," Zduriencik said.

The team is healthy.

Head athletic trainer Rick Griffin took the podium and had nothing but good news regarding the players health and fitness levels.

Felix is fine after getting hit in his last start. Casper Wells is no longer suffering from equilibrium problems. Brendan Ryan is running and throwing after spending the off season dealing with is neck issues. Griffin expects him to be good to go for spring training but admitted there is no way to prevent this from happening again. A bad slide or dive could be trouble but he his hopeful that the work he had done to strengthen the area will keep him from missing significant time should something happen.

Franklin Gutierrez has experienced no stomach problems and has put on 19 pounds. His weight is up to 197 "all muscle" according to Griffin. Eric Wedge who had Gutierrez in Cleveland says he has never seen him look so good. 197 would be a huge change for Guti who looked flat out breakable at times last year. A healthy Guti is a good thing and Wedge said that he is expecting big things out of him.

Justin Smoak has dropped 14 pounds and lowered his body fat by 4%. Wedge had told Smoak that he wanted him to return stronger and to that end Smoak along with Mike Carp took a trip to Santa Barbara to work at the P3 Institute early in the off season. Wedge said that Smoak should be a 30/100 guy. To do that he will have to stay on the field something he wasn't able to do last year.

Chone Figgins is going to be busy this spring.

I have said that I thought this would happen several times but Wedge said today that Figgins, who also appears to be stronger, will "play everywhere" this spring. When asked who was a candidate for third base Kyle Seager's name was the first out of Wedge's mouth but said we could see Figgins there too. Believe it or not, with the current roster if they decide to go with three catchers Figgins all of a sudden becomes more useful to this team. A guy who can play 2nd, 3rd short and the outfield is actually something they will need if they carry the third catcher which is very much a possibility.

News and notes...To celebrate their 35th anniversary the Mariners will wear patches on their sleeves and place the anniversary logo on the outfield wall. Also, every weekend of the season they are home they will welcome back a former player...The broadcast schedule for the games in Japan has been announced. The team will play exhibition games against the Hanshin Tigers and and Yomiuri Giants on March 25 and 26, and then the opening games against the A's on March 28 and 29. 710ESPN will carry the exhibition game against the Tigers and both games against the the A's. The games against the A's will be at 3:10 and 2:10am PST and will be carried live but also rebroadcast later in the day. ROOT Sports will carry the two games against the A's live and also rebroadcast them at a more reasonable hour...Vinnie Catricala is listed as an outfielder on the spring training roster. He could compete at third but will also get looks in the outfield...

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