Mariners pitching coach Carl Willis says mound hopefuls need to hit ground running

There are 35 pitchers in camp with the Mariners this spring, 19 of them on the 40-man roster and another 16 invites. That means the team has a whole lot of evaluation to do in a limited amount of time, given their March 22 departure for Japan and an early opening to the regular season. Willis sounds excited and ready to go. And he suggested that anyone hoping to show something this spring had best get it going early. "Once games start, starting with that first intrasquad game...for many of these guys we're going to need them to go out and it's going to count,'' he said. Those intrasquad games, by the way, are scheduled for Feb. 24th, 26th and 28th. Willis said they'll run eight or nine innings apiece. The Mariners have Felix Hernandez and Jason Vargas set to go as the No. 1 and 2 starters and are reasonably comfortable with Hisashi Iwakuma after that. But from there, it's pretty much an open competition. The team is counting on seeing something from Hect...