Greetings from Peoria, Arizona

It feels like the 2011 season just ended, but here we are having landed in Phoenix, AZ, and arrived at the Mariners side of the Peoria Sports Complex today for the start of another great year of baseball. When the Mariners have their first official workout of the spring on Sunday, we’ll be the only Cactus League team, or Major League team for that matter, to be open for camp.

A few players have already arrived including RHP Tom Wilhelmsen, LHP Jason Vargas, INF Alex Liddi and C Adam Moore and many more will be trickling in before their scheduled physicals on Saturday.

The fields are not completely empty. The Doosan Bears, a professional baseball team based in Seoul, South Korea, have been working out at the complex and will continue to work out here until February 19 in preparation for their regular season.

It should be an interesting first few days being the only team in the Cactus League. With RHP Hisashi Iwakuma and INF Munenori Kawasaki joining Ichiro on the Mariners and with RHP Yu Darvish joining the Texas Rangers just down the road, we expect to have a higher-than-normal influx of Japanese media.

Here’s a quick run-down of what the schedule looks like for the Mariners in the next few days.

Important Spring Training Dates

Fri.

Feb 10

Major League Camp Coaches Meeting

Sat.

Feb 11

Major League Staff Meeting / Pitchers/Catchers Physicals

Sun.

Feb 12

First Workout — Pitchers/Catchers

Wed.

Feb 15

Minor League Mini Camp players report (more on this next week)

Thurs.

Feb 16

Mini Camp Physicals

Fri.

Feb 17

Physicals Position Players / First Mini Camp Workout

Sat.

Feb 18

First Full Squad Workout

• FA