Carlos Guillen: Good with the glove

URL By Jim Cour Associated Press

PEORIA, Ariz. - Seattle Mariners shortstop Carlos Guillen may never put up the gaudy offensive numbers of the top players at the position, Alex Rodriguez, Miguel Tejada, Nomar Garciaparra or Derek Jeter.

But Guillen, 27, is doing exactly what the Mariners want from him - playing solid defense.

"He's got better range than I thought he had and he has very, very good hands," rookie Mariners manager Bob Melvin said Monday.

Third-base coach Dave Myers, who works with the Mariners' infielders, points out that Guillen fits perfectly into the team's philosophy of pitching and defense first. Guillen and second baseman Bret Boone form a top double-play combination.

"Until he hits 50 homers, he probably won't be mentioned in the same breath with the other guys," Myers said. "But we're not asking him to do something that he's not capable of."

Acquired in a trade for Randy Johnson with the Houston Astros along with pitchers Freddy Garcia and John Halama in July 1998, Guillen has had to follow in the gigantic shoes of Rodriguez in Seattle.

After Rodriguez left the Mariners as a free agent and signed baseball's record $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers following the 2000 season, Guillen became the Mariners' starting shortstop.

In January, the Mariners gave Guillen a $2.5 million, one-year contract. On April 1 in Oakland, he is scheduled to be Seattle's opening night shortstop for the third season in a row.

"I feel like this year is going to be my year," Guillen said. "I've got more experience, I'm healthy and I'm more comfortable with myself. I know more about the pitchers in the league and the way they pitch."

Staying healthy has been a problem for Guillen, who has suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and pulled his left hamstring since joining the Mariners.

At the end of the 2001 season, when the Mariners tied the major league record with 116 victories and reached the AL championship series, he was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis. He got into one game of the AL division series and had eight at bats in the ALCS.

Last season, Guillen posted career highs in nearly all offensive categories: batting average (.261), hits (124), home runs (nine), RBI (56) and runs scored (73). But he played in only 134 of Seattle's 162 games, missing games with a strained left ring finger, bruised hand and a strained left thigh muscle.

"I would like to be healthy and play every day," Guillen said. "I think that would be a good season."

Rodriguez, the ex-Mariners All-Star shortstop, led baseball with 57 homers and 142 RBI last season, while Tejada had 34 homers.

A switch-hitter, Guillen acknowledges he will never have those kinds of power numbers because he's more of a line-drive, hit-it-to-all-fields-type hitter. But he would like to be considered in the same class with Rodriguez, Tejada, Jeter and Garciaparra some day.

"I would like to be part of this group," Guillen said. "I feel I can do it. I don't talk too much. I just do my job on the field. But I feel like someday I can be with those guys."

Defensively, Guillen already is, the Mariners believe.

"I think he's on an equal par," Myers said. "I think you throw Carlos in with those four guys and he's very comparable with them. He's having an excellent spring defensively. He's moved laterally very well. He's thrown extremely accurately and he's taken charge in the infield."

Melvin, former bench coach of the Arizona Diamondbacks, didn't know much about Guillen until this spring. He underestimated the quiet infielder from Aragua, Venezuela.

"I wasn't really sure if he was a true shortstop, but he definitely is," Melvin said. "He impresses me defensively."

Guillen agreed to an interview in the Mariners' locker room Monday on the condition that the questions did not include anything about his being arrested by police in Clyde Hill, a suburb of Seattle, last year.

He was stopped by police for driving 89 mph in a zone with a 60 mph limit and then had a .093 percent reading on a portable breath test. The legal intoxication threshold in Washington state is .08.

Guillen pleaded guilty to negligent driving after prosecutors agreed to drop a drunken driving charge against him. He was ordered to perform 100 hours of community service.