Just What Seattle Needs: a Garciaparra

Wait a minute. The Seattle Mariners are enjoying one of the best starts in baseball history and now they hope to acquire Garciaparra?

True enough, but let’s be clear.

This is not Nomar Garciaparra, who is still under contract to the Boston Red Sox and still recovering from wrist surgery.

This is his 18-year-old brother, Michael, who was Seattle’s first selection in Tuesday’s amateur draft, the 36th pick overall and a compensation-round gift from the Texas Rangers for their signing of Alex Rodriguez.

No, Michael isn’t Nomar, but then again . . .

“You watch him work out and you think it’s his brother at that age,” said Roger Jongewaard, Seattle’s director of player development. “The similarities are amazing.”

A shortstop like his brother, Garciaparra recently graduated from Don Bosco Tech in Rosemead. Because of a football injury that required knee surgery in December, he had only 12 at-bats this spring, but he previously played for the Mariners’ scout team and convinced club officials of the knee’s stability in recent workouts.

He has the option of a baseball scholarship to Tennessee, but it would be a surprise if he didn’t sign with Seattle, considering that last year’s 36th selection received an $895,000 signing bonus. Garciaparra, with the usual escalation, could be offered more than $1 million. His father, Ramon, a multisport coach of both sons, thinks Michael has more ability.

“I’ve seen him make plays Nomar couldn’t [at that age],” he said. “He’s at least even or better than Nomar was defensively. Hitting-wise, he’s not there, but Nomar had played a lot more baseball than Michael has.”

The younger Garciaparra is one of the country’s top high school kickers and has also been on the U.S. developmental soccer team.

Jongewaard cited that athleticism--and bloodlines--as key factors in Seattle’s decision. Nomar II? The Mariner official laughed and said:

“We’re hoping that’s what he is, but those are high expectations.”

On the final weekend before the draft, Gerald Prior, a San Diego financial advisor and the father of USC pitcher Mark Prior, engaged in some admittedly heated talks with Minnesota General Manager Terry Ryan over what contracts could be used for comparisons if the Twins made Prior the top selection.

The Prior camp believes the six-year, $17-million deal third baseman-quarterback Drew Henson signed with the New York Yankees, partially to give up football at Michigan, is the valid yardstick. The Twins, offering considerably less and claiming the Prior people wanted a record package of more than $20 million, ultimately selected high school catcher Joe Mauer. Prior fell to the Chicago Cubs, drafting second.

In retrospect, Gerald Prior said the family had no preferences where Mark was picked until the “negative communications” with the Twins’ GM.

Now, he added, “whenever I think of Minnesota, I’ll think of Jesse Ventura and Terry Ryan.”

The scorching Mariners have helped rekindle the flames under Oakland Manager Art Howe. The A’s have been unable to build on the promise of last year’s division title, although the Mariners have so skewed the race in the West that Howe, before leaving Anaheim on Thursday, said he knew “we were in trouble” when the Mariners signed Ichiro Suzuki.

“I had the benefit of touring Japan with [a major league all-star team] a couple years ago and [Suzuki] had three hits a game against all-star-caliber pitchers and was stealing bases against [Ivan Rodriguez],” Howe said. “When I heard he signed with the Mariners I said, ‘Oh . . . .’ I knew he’d make up a lot of what they lost in A-Rod and give them a legitimate leadoff hitter.”

The A’s, of course, thought they were getting a legitimate leadoff hitter themselves and a final piece to their puzzle in the trade with Kansas City for Johnny Damon, but Damon began the weekend hitting .215 with an on-base percentage of .283 and about the best thing Howe could say is, “He’s a class act who hasn’t stopped hustling.”