Mariners' Chris Shelton says he has regained form

PEORIA, Ariz. — Returning to his roots both on and off the field is something Chris Shelton hopes will revive his major-league career.

Shelton heads home to Salt Lake City every offseason, works out with a high school baseball buddy at his old junior college and also takes part in a local home run derby fundraiser. It was two such Octobers ago, while watching Shelton swing for the fences in that derby, that the buddy, Jason Crawford, a hitting instructor at a local baseball academy, noticed a serious flaw in his approach.

They've worked on it the past two winters and Shelton, fighting for a first base job with the Mariners this spring, hopes the corrections get him back to his roots as a hitter. It's a path he strayed from three years ago when, after bursting into his first full season in the majors on a torrid home run pace with the Detroit Tigers, he quickly faded into minor-league obscurity.

"I made adjustments in my swing and it paid off last year, just not at the major-league level," said Shelton, 28, a nonroster invitee to camp. "It was around July, when I was in Triple A, that it all finally clicked. Coming into camp this year, I'm just excited about some of the things I think I can do that I wasn't doing before."

Shelton hit a solo home run on Thursday as the Mariners opened their Cactus League schedule with a 4-4 tie in 10 innings against the San Diego Padres at Peoria Stadium. Felix Hernandez tossed two innings, giving up two runs on four hits — including a two-run homer by Henry Blanco — in what will be his only outing before he heads to Team Venezuela's training camp ahead of the World Baseball Classic.

Driving balls over the fence was routine for Shelton when he broke camp with the Tigers in 2006 after spending the final four months of 2005 with them as a rookie. He gained national attention with nine home runs in his first 13 games and finished the first month with 19 extra-base hits and 72 total bases — the most in April by a Detroit player in 45 years.

But it ended just as quickly. After 10 homers in his first 23 games, he managed just six over the final 92. Detroit shipped him to the minors July 31 following a trade for Sean Casey.

"If anybody thought I was going to stay on that pace, they're crazy," Shelton said. "I knew myself that nothing was going to stay like that. I just had to continue to go out there and put quality at-bats together. The power numbers went down, and I had a bad month after that. The average was still pretty high. But unfortunately the Tigers decided Sean Casey was going to come in and help them."

Shelton admits that first part of 2006 was "a little overwhelming." He wanted to be the guy who came in the clubhouse and left without being bothered.

His pal, Crawford, who first got to know Shelton on a traveling high school all-star team, feels the pressure to fulfill everyone's home run expectations likely got to his friend. It was while watching him in the local home run derby, after Shelton had spent all of 2007 in Class AAA, that Crawford noticed the right-handed hitter trying to pull every pitch over the left-field fence.

"He's better when he lets the ball get to right-center instead of trying to pull the ball," Crawford said.

Shelton had developed a habit of "toe tapping" with his front foot and sliding his hip into every pitch. He and Crawford worked for hours in a batting cage at their former junior college — where Crawford had started coaching — to eliminate that problem and get him to stay back on the ball.

"He just got to the point where he couldn't make an adjustment," Crawford said of the leaning in to pitches. "If a pitcher was getting him out, he couldn't adjust and figure things out. Now he can."

Shelton has had just 97 major-league at-bats — all last season with Texas — since the 2006 demotion by Detroit. He hit only .216 with a .330 slugging percentage with the Rangers, still adjusting to his new approach, but took off power-wise after a July 2 demotion to Class AAA Oklahoma.

Over the final 53 games, he hit .337 with eight homers and 18 doubles, then added another homer, three doubles and a .325 average in nine postseason games. Much of it came by driving the ball the other way.

Shelton and Crawford continued fine-tuning his new approach this winter. But Shelton isn't beyond pulling a ball, as he did with Thursday's home run to left.

Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu remembers watching from the opposing dugout as Shelton clubbed three homers in a 2006 game. He feels Shelton will always be more of a pull hitter, but it doesn't preclude him from going the other way when a pitch's location calls for it.

"He's very studious about hitting," Wakamatsu said. "He's always learning how to do more. He has a notebook where he writes down details of each at-bat."

Shelton faces serious competition this spring from Mike Sweeney, Mike Morse and others as he tries to make the Mariners — most likely as a right-handed platoon partner for first baseman Russell Branyan. And with each step toward that, he knows his past — his hot start in 2006 — won't be far behind.

"I'll never get sick of talking about it," Shelton said. "It was an exciting time in my life, in my baseball career. I'm never going to forget it, so I'll talk about it all the time."

Only now, he hopes to add some new lines to the story.

Geoff Baker: 206-464-8286 or gbaker@seattletimes.com.

Thursday's box score

Seattle						San Diego
	AB	R	H	BI			AB	R	H	BI
Chavez cf	2	0	0	0		Gerut cf	1	0	0	0
Redman cf	2	0	0	0		C.Hunter cf	2	1	1	0
Clement dh	3	1	0	0		C.Burke 2b	2	0	0	0
Johnson dh	1	0	1	0		Macias lf	2	1	2	1
Morse 3b	2	0	1	1		Giles rf	2	0	0	0
Tuiasospo 3b	1	0	0	0		Venable rf	3	0	0	0
Shelton 1b	3	1	1	1		Floyd dh	3	0	0	0
M.Carp 1b	1	0	0	0		Canham dh	1	0	1	0
G.Halman lf	3	0	1	0		Brown lf	2	0	1	0
LaHair lf	1	0	1	0		Gonzalez 2b	2	0	0	0
Wilson rf	3	1	1	0		Blanks 1b	3	1	1	0
T.Gillies rf	1	0	0	0		Huffman 1b	0	0	0	1
J.Burke c	2	0	0	0		Blanco c	2	1	2	2
A.Moore c	2	0	0	0		Morton c	3	0	1	0
Woodwrd ss	2	1	1	1		Denker 3b	5	0	1	0
Navarro ss	2	0	0	0		E.Cabrera ss	2	0	0	0
R.Corona 2b	1	0	0	0		Durango ph	1	0	0	0
Crabbe 2b	2	0	1	0		Kazmar ss	0	0	0	0
Totals	34	4	8	3		Totals	36	4	10	4

Seattle	030 010 000 0	—	4
San Diego	020 000 011 0	—	4

E — E.Cabrera (1). LOB — Seattle 4, San Diego 10. 2B — Morse (1), Wilson (1), Woodward (1), Macias (1), Brown (1). 3B — LaHair (1). HR — Shelton (1), Blanco (1). SB — Woodward (1), Crabbe (1), M.Canham (1). CS — R.Corona (1), Gerut (1), E.Cabrera (1).

Mariners	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
	Hernandez		2	4	2	2	0	0

	Washburn		1	0	0	0	1	0

	Lowe		1	1	0	0	0	0

	Aardsma		1	0	0	0	2	1

	S.Kelley		1	0	0	0	0	1

	Stark		1	1	0	0	0	0

	T.Thorpe		2/3	1	1	1	2	0

	Hull		1	2	1	1	0	1

	J.Lugo		1/3	0	0	0	0	0

	Munoz		1	1	0	0	1	1

Padres	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
	Young		1	0	0	0	0	0

	Hampson		2/3	3	3	2	0	1

	Thatcher		1 1/3	1	0	0	1	2

	Reineke		1	0	0	0	0	1

	C.Carrillo		1	1	1	1	2	0

	M.Buschmann		1	0	0	0	0	2

	N.Schmidt		1	0	0	0	0	1

	A.Lopez		1	0	0	0	0	1

	E.Moreno		1	1	0	0	0	2

	G.Burke		1	2	0	0	0	0

HBP — by Washburn (C.Burke), by T.Thorpe (C.Huffman), by Thatcher (Morse). WP — T.Thorpe. A — 2,402.