Three Ex-Rattlers

First there is the update on Mark Lowe in the M's Notebook:

M's Notebook

The next step in the Mark Lowe waiting game is the team figuring out how it's going to treat scar tissue that's preventing Lowe from fully extending his elbow. Lowe had surgery on the elbow last October and is waiting to begin a throwing regimen.

But an MRI on Wednesday found scar tissue, and a decision has to be made about whether to get rid of it via arthroscopic surgery or an enhanced rehabilitation program. A pair of team medical specialists are consulting over that right now, and Lowe expects to hear the plan today or Sunday.

If he has surgery, it could be two or three more weeks before he can start throwing. But the pitcher said the news was actually good, in that the MRI did not uncover any bone chips or other damage to the elbow.

"The only better news would have been that everything's perfect," Lowe said.

Next up Rene Rivera

Rivera's goal: Catching on to backup role

It was a month into last season, and Rene Rivera was already out of gas.

To hear that about the Mariners backup catcher seems strange at first. After all, backup catchers are used to jokes about splinter injuries from riding the bench or neck woes from falling asleep during games. Being worn out simply isn't part of the image.

But going from catching 100-plus games per year in the minors to playing sporadically at age 22 took its physical and mental toll on Rivera last season. The Mariners expect much bigger things out of him in 2007, mainly at the plate, and Rivera is far more urgent about doing the little things to get there.

"It's tough doing that job because you're used to playing 120 games and now they want you to play 25, 30 or 40 games," Rivera said after his team's latest spring workout at the Peoria Sports Complex. "You have to keep in shape and stay ready by doing some stuff on the side."

Then, there is this interesting tidbit from Willie Bloomquist:

"To be honest, early on, a lot of guys were trying to tell him, 'Hey, you've got to stay sharp,' " said Bloomquist, who leaned on players like Mark McLemore, Greg Colbrunn and John Mabry when he was first adapting to a utility role at age 25. "I don't want to say he blew us off, but I think it took a while for it to sink in."

Rivera now follows what others preach. He is well aware his big-league career will be short-lived unless he starts hitting at least marginally better on days regular catcher Kenji Johjima gets a rest.

Last, a report on Chris Snelling and his....way.

Now a National, Snelling still seeking the right fit

As he prepared for the great unknown that awaited him in his post-Mariners life with the Washington Nationals, Chris Snelling fleetingly pondered a way to make an indelible first impression.

"I actually thought about coming here and acting like Steve Irwin, putting on the Australian accent real thick," he said, smiling in the Nationals clubhouse among 60 or so teammates who still remain largely strangers.

"You know, act like I didn't know what I was doing. Hitting a ground ball in batting practice and running to third."

As hilarious as that scenario would have been -- almost worth the backlash just to see general manager Jim Bowden's face -- Snelling wisely decided against it.

"That wouldn't have been very professional," he pointed out.
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It's hard not to look back at Snelling's Mariners tenure and wonder where he would be now, at age 25 ("I feel old," he said), had he not been so injury cursed.

Would he already have a batting title or two, as Lou Piniella always felt he had the potential to do? Would his remarkable batting eye and aggressive style have made him a perennial All-Star, or at least an established regular, with a commensurate paycheck?

Snelling doesn't want to go there. Too painful -- in the emotional sense, not in the writhing-on-the-ground sense.

"If I think about what could have happened if I had stayed healthy, then I'd drive myself insane," he said.
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After the season, Snelling went home to Australia, as he always does, then returned to his stateside home in Peoria, Ariz., to prepare for the season. To his shock, that season would be with the Nationals, not the Mariners.

"I actually found out watching ESPN," he said. "I was surprised, but I guess that's the business part of game. It didn't matter what team I was going to. It was the fact I got traded, and I'm not going to be with the Mariners anymore. I grew up with that organization."
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The Mariners, he added, "were like family to me. I learned a lot. I'm grateful for every opportunity they gave me. Unfortunately, I just couldn't stay healthy."

Plenty there about Snelling and his new home.