Mariners

PEORIA, Ariz. — A pretraining-camp conversation between Mariners pitcher Blake Beavan and his former college-basketball-playing father proved revealing.

Not because his dad had tips on how Beavan could beat out the half-dozen other pitchers competing for spots in the team's rotation. Instead, some of his father's words sounded an awful lot like what manager Eric Wedge is saying these days as he looks around at some of the better-conditioned bodies he sees in camp.

"He told me, maybe when you turn 23, you'll get your man strength," said Beavan, who changed his diet and engaged in a workout regimen that involved both weight training and long-distance cycling. "He'd always tell me I had little-boy strength. Well, now I'm 23, so I guess maybe I'm getting there. I want to believe my dad. Maybe I'm getting my man strength, finally."

The Mariners will stage their first full-squad workout of spring training Saturday with a 66-player list that Wedge continues to say is impressive in its conditioning. Beavan, who went 5-6 with a 4.27 earned-run average in 15 starts last season, is one of many Mariners who arrived in camp visibly leaner and more muscular.

Franklin Gutierrez is another, having strolled into camp Friday for his physical with biceps bulging out from under his shirt sleeves and a thicker upper torso than the past two years. Gutierrez is said to be free of the stomach ailment the team blamed for sapping his strength in 2010 and again for all of last season.

Mike Carp managed to slim down even more than last year and said he's maintained his upper-body strength. Even Felix Hernandez, who generated headlines five years ago when he arrived in camp some 20 pounds lighter, now appears to have trimmed off even more body fat in favor of added muscle.

The added conditioning and endurance will be key for a youngish squad with many players still striving to reach their physical peaks and learn how to survive the demands of a 162-game schedule. Every team boasts a handful of weight-loss and muscle-gain stories this time of year.

But Wedge had ordered an across-the-board conditioning improvement from his squad — both individually and collectively — at the end of last season. Wedge was concerned that so many of his players seemed to run out of gas and had numbers plummet as 2011 dragged to its conclusion.

He plans to address the players Saturday before they take the field for their workout. He told reporters Friday he can already sense a difference from a year ago.

"We've got to check all the position players once they get in here," Wedge said of the improved conditioning, "but obviously I saw a good portion of them who came in (to Seattle) in January and I've seen some of them here already early on who've come in. So, I'd say it's a responsibility they have to themselves and to their teammates."

Beavan said he always works out hard in the winter, but that it's tougher to do it as intensively during the season when there is so much else going on. As a result, he said, it's usual for him to gain 10 pounds between offseasons.

"You can train hard three months a year and that's got to last you," he said. "It isn't like those guys who can go 12 months a year and stay ripped."

But Beavan did get up to 256 pounds last season in a relatively successful second-half debut in the majors. He prefers to be closer to 235 or 240, so he made offseason changes that included eating more protein and fewer carbohydrates.

He also hopped on a bicycle once a week to ride a 20- to 25-mile route with his wife, Allison, whom he calls "Lance Armstrong." She is an avid distance cyclist and competed in the Hotter'N Hell Hundred last August, a 100-mile race in Texas.

"She didn't want to kill me," Beavan said. "Because I'm kind of a wimp compared to her when it comes to riding bikes. It's different, man. It doesn't matter how strong your legs are. My legs are really strong, but it's all about endurance and pacing yourself. Keeping a rhythm when you're riding. There's a lot that goes into it that I learned from her."

Beavan said it's the toughest training he's ever done — especially the uphill parts. He'd spend the entire week after that working out in the gym to recover and gear up for the next ride.

Now that he's used to it, he hopes to do two rides per week next winter. For now, he hopes his experience last season can make him a "smarter" pitcher this year and that his conditioning prepares him for an upcoming fight for one of two free rotation spots behind Felix Hernandez, Jason Vargas and Hisashi Iwakuma.

The Mariners have Beavan, Kevin Millwood, Hector Noesi and Charlie Furbush as well as minor-leaguers Danny Hultzen, James Paxton, Erasmo Ramirez and Taijuan Walker looking to either grab one of those spots or break into the majors at some point the next two years.

"For me to get half a season last year was a great opportunity, but nothing's guaranteed," he said. "You can't come into camp thinking you've got a spot. You want to keep that competitive fire and have someone always nipping at your heels. That way, it makes you want to go out and prove you deserve a spot."

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

On Twitter @gbakermariners