New guys at the top

The Seattle Mariners named a bunch of new coaches yesterday.

McLaren picks a veteran staff

The Mariners officially unveiled four of their five new coaches Monday, and manager John McLaren expressed confidence that Larry Bowa will soon be added as third-base coach.

If and when that happens -- Bowa has a personal matter to resolve -- McLaren's first hand-picked staff will be long on experience.

It also will include coaches with whom McLaren has long personal associations, something lacking with the staff he inherited from Mike Hargrove.

Those new, non-Larry Bowa coaches are:

...Jim Riggleman, 54, the new bench coach, each have managed two different major-league teams.

New pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre, 65, had a long and decorated tenure on Joe Torre's Yankees staff (1996-2005) and also served as pitching coach for the Mets and Astros.

Eddie Rodriguez, 48, the first-base coach, has had nine seasons on major-league staffs, including Toronto, Arizona and Washington. He managed the Mariners' Class AA West Tennessee team last year.

This will be the first major-league coaching job for bullpen coach Norm Charlton, 44, who became close with McLaren during three stints in the Mariners bullpen. Charlton spent the past four years as a special-assignment coach for Seattle, and had scouting duties.

The lone holdover from Hargrove's staff is hitting coach Jeff Pentland, another veteran.