Young M's pitchers putting memory of mid-2004 flops behind them

PEORIA, Ariz. — Like some kind of stealth pitcher, Clint Nageotte has climbed from the back of the pack into the Mariners' bullpen competition.

His perfection in his last two outings is 180 degrees of separation from his last performances with the big-league club when he and Travis Blackley both flopped after being called up from the minors in mid-2004.

Blackley, coming off a lost year of arm troubles exposed during his sorry stint in Seattle, showed flashes of his old self this spring, too, before being sent to the minor-league camp last week.

But their failure two years ago, especially when no one knew of Blackley's injury, shook the organization so deeply that minor-league instructors second-guessed what they had been doing.

It was one thing to rush young pitchers who might not have been ready. But these two had sizzled through the system. There was no suspicion Nageotte, 25, would get toasted to a 7.36 earned-run average and Blackley, 23, to a 10.04 ERA.

"Back then, those guys were our 1-2 top prospects, and I think it sent some shockwaves through the entire system when they looked so bad," said Benny Looper, Seattle's vice president for player development. "Those were two guys we all felt would show something, even their first time in the majors."

Looper had always envisioned Nageotte throwing "that devastating slider, and I always pictured Blackie as a Tom Glavine type. It was a surprise to see them struggle like they did."

Pat Rice, the Mariners' well-regarded minor-league pitching coordinator, noted that the shock was not confined to the Seattle organization.

"I think we were all stunned," he said. "Everyone in our organization, everyone in other organizations, thought those two would have some success, even just a taste. [Nageotte] was up maybe a hair too soon. [Blackley] had a good first game, then it was all bad.

"When we saw that, I think a few of us started to wonder what we were doing as coaches. Were we prepping these kids right? Doing right by them?"

No one felt worse than the pitchers, who felt they had let everyone, including themselves, down.

"Being in the majors for the first time was bigger than I expected. I think I took it in too much," Nageotte said. "I never threw my slider the way I wanted to. I was too timid with it. I didn't throw it with 100 percent conviction. I tried to make it too good. They told me there would be bumps in the road, but I didn't expect them to be mountains."

As bad as it was, it was a lesson Nageotte swears he learned from.

"If I apply what I learned, then it won't be as bad as it looked or felt at the time. I didn't stick to my routine back then, and I will now."

One mistake was cutting back on lifting weights, feeling flexibility was more important than strength.

"My conditioning is better," he said. "I thought it was good enough back then, but you can't be in too good physical condition to pitch in the majors."

No one has to remind Blackley of that. He nearly cost himself his career, staying mum about two tears later found in his shoulder.

"I had pitched with it the entire season before and it never got bad enough to stop. And they had been telling me it was a biceps tendinitis," he said. "Even now, I don't want to say it caused my problems.

"And there was also my feeling that I didn't want to be known as a guy who comes up to the big-league roster and is assured of getting the money for it, and saying, 'Now my arm hurts, do something about it.' "

Blackley, too, drew a positive from the depth of his failure.

"I look back on it all now, and while I know it was a horrible time, there was good and bad for me and it will help me the next time I come up against things going wrong," he said. "I mean, before that, nothing had gone wrong. I was something like 25-4 [actually 28-13] in the years before I was called up. I never had to deal with adversity. But it never goes well all the time for anyone. At some point you have to learn to deal with pain or injury or losses. Now, I know I can."

Nageotte has gone back to snapping his slider, and it has shown here this spring.

Blackley is simply healthy, with his curveball coming back. He needs to build his arm up pitching in the minors to get to where Nageotte is, making a run at a bullpen vacancy.

"I think we all look back on what happened to those kids and feel we learned something," Rice said. "They're both going to pitch in the majors, and do well."

Bob Finnigan: 206-464-8276 or bfinnigan@seattletimes.com