The Mariners placed right-handed pitcher J.J. Putz on the 15-day disabled list because of a rib injury suffered in Tuesday's night game against the Texas Rangers. Right-handed pitcher Roy Corcoran from AAA Tacoma was recalled to take his spot on the roster.

Putz felt discomfort on a pitch to Michael Young in the ninth inning and was sore after the game. Putz had a precautionary MRI exam done Wednesday which revealed a mild costochondritis on his right side. Costochondritis is inflammation where cartilage attaches to a rib.

Putz, 31, appeared in both of Seattle's games this season, recording a save on opening day. On Tuesday he allowed a two-run home ru, blowing his first save opportunity since Aug. 1, 2007 vs. the Angels. Putz, selected to the 2007 All-Star team, was named the Most Valuable Pitcher by the Seattle Chapter of the BBWAA and also became the first Mariners pitcher to win the American League Rolaids Relief Man Award in 2007.

Corcoran, 27, was one of Seattle's final cuts this spring after posting a 0-1 record with a 6.75 (4 ER, 5.1IP) in five relief appearances. Corcoran spent the 2007 season at AAA Albuquerque in the Florida Marlins organization. He went 4-4 with a 3.54 ERA (24 ER, 61.0 IP) in 53 relief appearances and finished fourth in the Pacific Coast League with 15 saves. Corcoran has also pitched in the majors in parts of three seasons with Montreal/Washington (2003, 2004, 2006).

He was signed by the Mariners as a minor league free agent on Nov. 20, 2007.

Wednesday is shaping up like much of the rest of the week in regards to the Mariners trade with Baltimore for pitcher Erik Bedard: Nothing to report.

The Baltimore Sun, on its website, reports that as of late Wednesday afternoon Bedard had still not traveled to Seattle to take a physical. And despite reliever George Sherrill and outfielder Adam Jones having already taken their physicals earlier this week in Baltimore, the trade can't go through until Bedard takes his. So maybe Thursday that gets done... or Friday.. or whenever.

Jones and Sherrill are two of the five players the Mariners are reportedly sending to the Orioles for Bedard.

Medical director Edward Khalfayan in Seattle examined the pictures of J.J. Putz’s right elbow on Saturday and said Putz has a mild strain of the flexor pronator.

Trainer Rick Griffin described the injury as common among pitchers in spring training and that two or three Mariners have already had this condition and recovered from it. Putz, who is still hoping to be ready for opening day on April 2, will play catch on Tuesday.

“This is great news,” Griffin said. “Sometimes you get MRIs on guys when you don’t think there’s something real wrong and it ends up being a pretty serious thing. It’s always kind of a scary thing to do an MRI on somebody because you never know what you are going to find. This is very, very good news.”

Putz said he wasn’t worried about the results because he has felt pretty good since feeling tightness after throwing a 25-pitch bullpen session on Thursday.

“We were never too worried about it and it was more of a precautionary thing anyway,” said Putz, who was wearing a protective sleeve.

Manager Mike Hargrove just had his Saturday morning meeting with the press and he said the news on J.J. Putz's MRI is "better than we hoped."

The team is putting out an official press release in about a half hour that should contain more details. Hargrove, though, was in a good mood so you have to think the news on Putz was not bad.

"If it had been bad news we probably wouldn't have had this meeting," Hargrove cracked.

Putz did not talk about the MRI but was in the locker room getting dressed, looking like he was about to begin some type of workout.

I'll post more when we get the details.

We caught J.J. Putz heading out of the clubhouse Friday morning with a neoprene sleeve on his right elbow. His destination? The doctor's office for an MRI on that elbow, which tightened up on him about 30 minutes after he threw a 25-pitch bullpen session on Thursday.

Putz said the exam is precautionary but no three letters can worry players more than M-R-I. He said he is beginning to be concerned that he won't be ready for the start of the season. Putz has not pitched in a spring training game since March 5, his only appearance besides pitching in the Mariners' charity game against San Diego on March 1.

He said he has not experienced this type of sensation before. He said his elbow is not swollen or inflammed but just tight.

After Thursday's game – an embarrassing loss by the Mariners, who dropped one to a San Francisco Giants team featuring almost exclusively minor leaguers – manager Mike Hargrove let this drop:

Closer J.J. Putz, after throwing his scheduled 25-pitch, all-fastball bullpen, had his bothersome right elbow tighten up on him. Hargrove said more details would be available Friday morning.

Not good news for Putz or the Mariners, who need their big closer when the season begins in less than three weeks. Putz has not pitched in a spring training game since March 5 and is getting close to not being able to be ready for opening day, which is April 2.

Finally! I made it down to Arizona for the first time this spring. Got to see the Mariners-Brewers game on Tuesday and today, I'm in Surprise to watch the Royals and the Rockies.

One of my favorite things about spring training is being able to see teams, like the Brewers and Rockies, that we don't get to see often up in the Northwest.

Anyway, here are few thoughts and observations:

* Brewers Ben Sheets looks like he's put his arm woes from last year behind him. He threw five shutout and dominating innings against the Mariners on Tuesday and really mowed 'em down (allowed just two hits).

Sheets said he's trying to incoropate a changeup into his arsenal although he said he doesn't worry about it if his curve is working.

* Brewers second baseman Rickie Weeks is a Player with a capital P. Weeks was on his way to a big season last year but a wrist injury sabotaged him and cost him a good chunk of time on the DL. Weeks had two hits, including a double, and scored a run. The knock on Weeks is that his defense needs to improve; Weeks booted a routine grounder against Seattle so I guess he's still working on that.

* Royals rookie Alex Gordon looks as good as advertised. He lined a single in his first at-bat off Colorado pitcher Rodrigo Lopez and then smoked a triple down the right field line in his second.

* Speaking of sharp looking players, Royals pitcher Zach Greinke had a good outing vs. the Rockies. Greinke, who's trying to work his way back from pyschological problems, scattered four hits in four innings and gave up no runs on Wednesday. He struck out six, shattered a bat and had a few Rockies taking awkward swings.

Several years ago a reporter friend of mine compared covering the NBA to chronicling a soap opera. What was important were the feuds, the back-stabbing, lobbying, legal troubles and crazy behavior of the players.

I remember smugly (and somewhat naively) thinking that was why I like baseball more the basketball, because despite the sports’ warts, the games on the field still held sway over the games off it.

Was I ever wrong.

Baseball, if it ever was like I imagined, has officially become a tabloid sport. The New York Yankees were always good for bad behavior and the headlines that accompanied it. Because of their location, history, owner and wealth they seemed to operate in a galaxy far, far away from the rest of the teams.

Now the entire sport inhabits that alien planet. Consider:

• Forget the Kobe-Shaq rivalry. That’s as yesterday as pagers. The new sports rivalry is between the Yankees’ Derek Jeter vs. Alex Rodriguez.
Media outlets were falling over their laptops this week to report A-Rod revealing his relationship with Jeter has cooled and then Jeter’s reply to A-Rod’s non-news story.

Details emerged that the two don’t dine out or sleep over at each other’s house as much as they used to. I guess that means they don’t have matching footy pajamas anymore.

I can’t wait to learn more. On second thought, I don’t want to know any more.

• Of course there’s Barry Bonds, the perfect tabloid story.
The San Francisco Giants outfielder is perched to break baseball’s most hallowed record for all-time home runs and a lesser known mark for most antagonistic press conferences.

Besides that, Bonds is entangled in the BALCO-steroids mess and a potential indictment for lying to the grand jury. He is also responsible for the U.S.’s invasion in Iraq, back acne and the bird flu.

I just made that last part up; but you get the point. A Bonds story is just as likely to wind up on the front of sports as news.

Bonds smashes demographics like so many hanging breaking pitches. He’s a cross between ESPN, CNN and The National Enquier. The only way he could be more overexposed is if it comes out that he is the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby and is dating Paris Hilton.

• Two words: Roger Clemens.

You used to be able to associate that name with one of the greatest right-handed pitchers of all-time. Now he’s known as the guy who can’t make up his mind about retiring.

Will Clemens play this season? Will he go back to the Yankees or his original team, the Boston Red Sox? Or will he stay close to home and play for the Houston Astros like has the last three seasons? When will he decide?

There has not been this much speculation involving Texas since the nation wondered who shot J.R. from the heyday of “Dallas.”

Enough. I’m not mentioning Clemens’ name again until he actually announces what he’s going to do. If you aren’t saying, then in my book, you’re not playing.

• The whole fascination with Japan League-ace-turned-Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka.

I get it that Matsuzaka’s moving to the majors is akin to an American soccer player starring for Manchester United. But we’ve seen this story before with Hideo Nomo, Ichiro and a whole host of others who wound not being worth a mention in the small type let alone headlines.

Seriously, does Matsuzaka really warrant the type of scrutiny that he’s getting?

And just curious: If the Japanese media are this intent on covering sports stories, what happens when real news breaks? Would there be anyone left in Japan to cover it given the number of reporters and camera people who are counting how many pitches Matsuzaka threw from the stretch in his first bullpen session and how many times Ichiro swung during batting practice?

• In the Northwest we have our own little saga involving Ichiro and his contract, which expires at the end of the season.

You gotta love how Ichiro showed up at camp this week and gave a bunch of comments straight from page 1 of the how to handle a contract negotiation playbook.

More interesting than his words was Ichiro’s pulled down ski hat and pink T-shirt over a long-sleeved black shirt. He looked like a skinny bank robber with bad fashion sense.

Dressed as he was, he didn’t look like he could hold up a baseball bat let alone a franchise.

Before this is all over, Ichiro will have to spout a few more clichés. And, who knows what he’ll wear next.

I saw this about former Mariners coach and Rainiers manager Dan Rohn, courtesy of the Traverse City Record Eagle:

BY JEFF PEEK

TRAVERSE CITY — When the Seattle Mariners struggled through a long losing streak last August, Dan Rohn became the people's choice to replace Mike Hargrove as the team's manager.

That support may have gotten him fired.

Traverse City's Rohn leaves for spring training in Arizona on Monday to begin his first season as skipper of the San Francisco Giants' AAA minor league baseball club in Fresno, Calif.

It isn't exactly the scenario he had planned, but Rohn is excited to be managing again after spending most of last season as the Mariners' administrative coach.

"It worked out OK,” said Rohn, 51. "Things change. On the plus side, I was coaching in the big leagues (last summer). But on the minus side, I spent half my time in the computer room scouting other teams.

"There was a lot more paperwork involved than I expected — or wanted.”

There also appeared to be some behind-the-scenes politics going on.

Rohn spent 10 seasons in the Seattle organization and joined the team's major league staff for the first time in 2006. His promotion kept Mariners fans busy on Internet blogs speculating that he was being groomed as the team's next manager. When Seattle went into a tailspin last August, the talk heated up.

Rohn, who interviewed with the Detroit Tigers before Alan Trammell was hired as the team's manager in 2003, said reporters began asking if he was about to replace Hargrove.

"I told them I didn't know anything about it, that no one had said anything to me,” Rohn said.

Someone eventually said something to Rohn, but it wasn't what he expected to hear.

Following a 10-0 loss to Toronto on Sept. 13, general manager Bill Bavasi announced that Rohn and bench coach Ron Hassey had been fired.

"(Hargrove) told me he was eliminating the position,” Rohn said. "He said he didn't like the negative publicity.”

Fans suspected there was more to it, blogging that Hargrove had simply eliminated his competition. One fan wrote that Hargrove was "afraid that Dan was after his job, so he stabbed him in the back.”

The Tacoma (Wash.) News Tribune reported on Sept. 15 that Hargrove and Rohn's personalities "clashed” and that Rohn "disagreed with Hargrove's managing and, worse, talked to other coaches and players about it. When that got back to Hargrove, Rohn's departure was a matter of time.”

Hargrove is still the team's skipper.

And while Rohn wasn't happy about being dismissed, it didn't take him long to find another baseball job.

The Giants came calling within hours.

"I was fired at about 4 o'clock, and I was already talking to them on my way to the airport at 6:30,” Rohn said. "I flew home to Traverse City and by the next afternoon there was a contract on the table.”

Rohn, who played 54 MLB games for the Chicago Cubs (1983-84) and Cleveland Indians (1986), has already given the Giants reason to feel good about their decision to bring him aboard.

Rohn, who coached in the Minnesota Twins organization for 10 years before joining Seattle, led Indios de Mayaguez into the Puerto Rico Winter League championship series this winter. That earned him manager of the year honors.

Rohn said he won't have trouble feeling comfortable in his new position because "I know a lot of the guys from managing against them in the PCL (Pacific Coast League).”

He was named PCL manager of the year three times while with the Mariners' AAA Tacoma club.

On Monday, Rohn will head back to the Phoenix area for spring training for the 11th consecutive year. The Seattle and San Francisco camps are only 32 miles apart.

"I'm just going to the other side of town,” Rohn said. "I'm ready. It's a little warmer there than it is here.”

Spring training begins this week for the Mariners and most teams. As part of The News Tribune's preview, I wrote a column for Sunday's paper and capsules for all the teams. Here's the column – no sense waiting – and I'll post the capsules, too.

With the first baseball teams beginning spring training on Thursday fans can focus on pitchers and catchers instead of pitchers and money.

It was the kind of winter when Miguel Batista (lifetime record of 68-79 with a 4.46 ERA) was worth $24 million, Gil Meche (55-44, 4.65) $55 million and Barry Zito (102-63, 3.55) $126 million.

It was an offseason – for fiscal sanity. Owners threw cash at pitchers like it had Monopoly stamped on it.

In this bizarro market Adam Eaton received $24 million, Jeremy Bonderman got $38 million and Justin Speier – he’s a reliever by the way – signed with the Angels for $18 million. Get this – Speier’s not even a closer.

The owners spent money like they were oil company executives. In a way, they are. Baseball, as a business, is as healthy as Exxon.

In 2006, 24 of the 30 teams drew more than 2 million in attendance. Owners and players even came together in December and signed a new labor deal, which means you didn’t get bombarded with stories mentioning Donald Fehr all winter long.

But enough about those things. Let’s concentrate on some early story lines:

=> Read more!

ST. LOUIS CARDINALS (Last year's record, finish: 83-78, first)

Pitchers/all report: Thursday/Feb. 20.

Key additions: 2B Adam Kennedy, P Ryan Franklin, P Kip Wells, P Russ Springer.

Key losses: P Jeff Suppan, P Jeff Weaver, P Jason Marquis, 2B Ronnie Belliard.

Player to watch: P Jason Isringhausen. Hip surgery knocked him out of the playoffs last year and he’s trying to come back this spring. If he can’t close, the Cardinals will have to mix-and-match in the bullpen.

Reasons to hope: As long as they have Albert Pujols, they’ve got a solid lineup. … If they can win it all last year, why not this year?

Reasons to mope: Lost three starters and did not really replace them. … P Mark Mulder is out until June. … Lightning rarely strikes twice in the same spot.

=> Read more!

NEW YORK METS (Last year's record, finish: 97-65, first)

Pitchers/all report: Saturday/Feb. 21

Key additions: OF Moises Alou, UTIL David Newhan, UTIL Damion Easley, P Ambiorix Burgos, P Scott Schoeneweis, P Jorge Sosa.

Key losses: LF Cliff Floyd, P Brian Bannister, P Chad Bradford, P Darren Oliver, P Roberto Hernandez, P Heath Bell.

Player to watch: P John Maine. The rookie looked good in the postseason (2.63 ERA) and must be ready to be a reliable No. 3 behind old pros Tom Glavine and Orlando Hernandez.

Reasons to hope: Everyday lineup is strong. … Bullpen was made over, but should still be a strength.

Reasons to mope: Rotation is old in spots, young in spots and untested at the backend. … NL East is stronger, and Mets won’t likely run away with title this season.

=> Read more!