Center fielder Franklin Gutierrez won’t participate in baseball activities for at least four weeks because of a partially torn pectoral muscle, then will be re-evaluated on a week-to-week basis.

That means Gutierrez, 29, could technically begin playing about the time the Seattle Mariners open the regular season on March 28 in Tokyo – and certainly could join them upon their return from Japan, when they don’t play another game that counts until April 6.

Gutierrez, injured Tuesday while throwing in a routine outfield drill, had an MRI and then flew to Seattle on Wednesday to be examined by team doctor  …

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Still waiting for word on Franklin Rafael Gutierrez, who hasn’t been in camp today and whose MRI results remain a guarded secret with the Seattle Mariners.

While waiting, got assistant general manager Jeff Kingston to give us a quick guided tour of the hallway that leads from the team parking lot to the clubhouse. It’s lined with poster-sized photos of Mariners – great players and great moments in franchise history.

Want to see what the Mariners in camp walk through each day entering and leaving the clubhouse? Take a look and a listen to Kingston’s two-minute …

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No word yet on Franklin Gutierrez MRI – that’s expected late this morning – but manager Eric Wedge has posted lineups for the fourth and last Seattle Mariners intra-squad game.

Chone Figgins will leadoff for one team and play center field, and Brendan Ryan will make his spring debut at shortstop, leading off for the visiting team. Ryan’s double-play partner at second base? Kyle Seager. Their first baseman? John Jaso?

The lineups:

Team 1:
Chone Figgins CF
Dustin Ackley 2B
Ichiro RF
Justin Smoak 1B
Jesus Montero C
Vinnie Catricala 3B
Trayvon  Robinson …

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Three intra-squad games into spring training, perhaps the bviggest surprise in camp is that Michael Saunders – the 25-year-old outfielder who seemed a forgotten man after last year – has reopened eyes.

The same Canadian left-handed hitter with the career .197  batting average spent his winter revamping his head and his swing, and the early returns are in. Saunders has doubled, tripled and homered, stolen a base, scored four fruns and driven in four.

“Saunders has been swinging it all camp,” manager Eric Wedge said. “He’s no longer in between swinging and not swinging. He’s taking some chances, going after …

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Gold Glove center fielder Franklin Gutierrez, finally over his battle with an irritable bowel and strained oblique muscle, walked off the field Monday after making a throw from the outfield.

“We’re waiting on the MRI,” Seattle Mariners manager Eric Wedge said late this afternoon. “He felt something in the pectoral region. It’s just one of those things.

“He’d warmed up, made a couple of throws. He’d been looking good all camp.”

Gutierrez, 29, came to camp two weeks ago have gained 25 pounds from the 176 pounds he’d weighed late in 2011, when an 18-month bout with that bowel had cost …

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Yes, even though the game will be blacked out in Seattle – and everywhere else in the world – the Mariners third intra-squad game has some intriguing story lines today.

For one thing, Chone Figgins will play shortstop for one team, Nick Franklin for the other. Tacoma designated hitter Luis Jimenez will DH for one team. And right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma will start, facing big league hitters in a game for the first time.

Here’s the lineups:

Team 1
Chone Figgins SS
Dustin Ackley 2B
Icihro RF
Justin Smoak 1B
Miguel Olivo C
Luis Jimenez …

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They’re working toward two days in March – the 28th and 29th – but Seattle Mariners starting pitchers Felix Hernandez and Jason Vargas are on very different programs as they work toward the first two games of the regular season.

Those will come in Tokyo, Japan, and Hernandez will pitch the opener. Still,  by the end of the day today,  weather permitting, Vargas will have appeared in two intra-squad games and thrown a total of five innings.

 Ace Hernandez won’t throw in another intra-squad game.

  “We’ve backed it off from the 28^th and 29^th, and mapped it all out, and …

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Entering his 12th year with the Seattle Mariners organization, his sixth with the Tacoma Rainiers, Daren Brown has managed the big-league team and most everywhere else in the system.

As with all Pacific Coast League managers, Brown has to coach third base and does so with flourish.

For budding third base coaches, or fans wondering just what all that motion down on the field means, let Brown explain the delicacies of the job.

Apologies again, to you and Brown, for the choppy editing here. Learning on the job with this video gig.

And if you have …

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