Improvement

Shawn Kelley ('08, '09) moved quickly through the Seattle Mariners system and has been in the big leagues for awhile now.

But, he is looking to improve and be healthy.

“After the injury, when I came back, I’d have good streaks and bad, and I tried too hard to be that guy who’d pitched in April,” Kelley said. “I had to realize, that guy was me. I got back to focusing 100 percent on every pitch. Stay back, just hit the mitt. …

“There were days after I came back when the oblique would feel tight, when I’d be aware of it. I didn’t want to say anything, but I thought about it too much.”

Kelley finished his rookie season with a 5-4 record, a 4.50 ERA, with 41 strikeouts and nine walks in 46 innings.

“When we came out of spring training last year, I was throwing the best I’ve ever thrown. I executed on every pitch,” Kelley said. “Overall, my year wasn’t bad and it wasn’t great. The bulk of the runs I allowed were in a few appearances, times when my focus wasn’t good. That’s on me.”

When the season ended, Kelley came to a startling revelation.

“For the first time in my career, I didn’t have to get an offseason job,” he said. “Every other winter, I’d worked for a golf course back home, mowing fairways, rolling greens, picking up range balls. If you could do it on a golf course, I did it.”

Freed from that, Kelley decided to make his offseason job, well, himself.

“I made my job to get my body ready for 2010. I was hurt last season, and I wanted to come in with my body in the best shape I could get it in,” he said.

“I ran with my wife, who runs marathons. I lifted weights, took a leg class twice a week. A woman at the gym told me she thought it would be good for me – and it killed me the first time. I limped around the house for two days. I thought, ‘If it hurts this much, it must be good for me.’ ”