The Seattle Mariners are pushing hard to land Japanese free-agent pitcher Hiroki Kuroda, and their pursuit of the 32-year-old right-hander has reached the stage where the team is considering sending a delegation to Tokyo that likely will include general manager Bill Bavasi.

Kuroda has a history of winning games and piling up innings and has shown interest in all things Seattle – from the team to fellow Japanese catcher Kenji Johjima to the pitcher-friendly dimensions of Safeco Field.

A number of teams have expressed serious interest in Kuroda, including the Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Dodgers, Texas Rangers, Chicago

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Outfielder Jose Guillen will be asked to talk to MLB’s Mitchell Investigators about his reported use of steroids and HGH, but that committee has no subpoena powers – and Guillen’s value on the free agent market appears unchanged.

Baseball continues to fight itself over the issue of performance-enhancing drugs. In the midst of rumors and accusations, even confessions of HGH use, Cleveland picked up the $7.5 million option on pitcher Paul Byrd.

And the Kansas City Royals say they’re not deterred by the reports of Guillen’s spending $19,000 on similar drugs between 2002 and 2005.

"You’re talking

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It’s unofficially official – meaning it’s happened but hasn’t been announced yet – that the Seattle Mariners have a new third base coach and two Gold Glove Award winners.

The team is finalizing a contract with coach Sam Perlozzo, who will complete the coaching staff for manager John McLaren.

And those Gold Gloves? Ichiro Suzuki got his seventh, and first as a fulltime centerfielder – and third baseman Adrian Beltre won the first of his career.

For Ichiro, it’s just a little more bling for the trophy case.

For Beltre, it’s an honor he’s wanted

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It used to be certains bars or in the little black books of women who ran escort services – now the last place a baseball player wants his name associated with is the Palm Beach Rejuvenation Center.

The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that Jose Guillen spent more than $19,000 there between 2003 and 2005 – years before he spent 2007 in a Seattle Mariners uniform. And that he spent it on steroids, human growth hormone and other performance-enhancing drugs.

Guillen has never acknowledged using any of that, and last season was outspoken in his criticism of players

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The third base coach whose decision to send Ken Griffey Jr. home from first in the ’95 American League Divisional Series – setting up perhaps the most famous play in franchise history – could return to the Seattle Mariners.

Sam Perlozzo’s career wasn’t exactly defined by that play, when Junior scored in the 11th inning and the Mariners won their first post-season series. Since then, he’s been a third base coach, bench coach and, with the Baltimore Orioles, a major league manager.

A coach under Lou Piniella in Cincinnati and Seattle, Perlozzo, 56, has also coached in Minnesota.
…

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By 9 a.m. here in Orlando – 6 a.m. on the West Coast – general managers representing all 30 major league teams were in their first meetings.

Hours earlier, they were doing what most baseball fans have been doing since the end of the World Series. Talking about baseball.

The biggest topic of discussion was Alex Rodriguez and Scott Boras, and whether any team would cough up more money than the New York Yankees were willing to pay A-Rod before he walked away from them.

Many GMs were amused by Boras, who is here, saying he would

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The Seattle Mariners took their promised course

, declining the 2008 contract options for outfielder Jose Guillen and relief pitcher Chris Reitsma – leaving the door slightly ajar for both players.

Guillen, the 31-year-old who batted .290 with 23 home runs and 99 RBI last season, can still accept a player option on the same contract and return to the Mariners for $9 million next season.

For weeks, however, Guillen said he wasn’t interested in a one-year contract, even if that meant testing free agency.

"I’ve earned the right in my career to stay somewhere I’m happy,

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There were those who vilified the Seattle Mariners after the 2000 season for letting Alex Rodriguez go, and when writers said he’d engineered his departure few believed it.

Then he orchestrated his departure from Texas after the 2003 season – three years after he and agent Scott Boras hoodwinked the Rangers into the largest contract in major league history.

And now, A-Rod has pulled the pin on his days as a New York Yankee, stealing attention from the final game of the World Series in the process.

Believe us now?

As Edgar Martinez, Ken Griffey Jr.

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