Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Catcher Enmanuel Familia (center) and the Pulaski Mariners open the season today against the Danville Braves.

PULASKI -- Things happen fast for rookie baseball players in their first season of pay for play.

Brandon Haveman, an outfielder out of Purdue University, provides an illustration. So far, he has had a brisk spring. First, there was the matter of his fourth and final season of college baseball and his second at Purdue after arriving as a junior college transfer.

The Boilermakers advanced to the Big Ten conference tournament for the seventh time in the past 11 years, with Haveman leading the way offensively. Two weeks later, he was taking a call from a scout from the Seattle Mariners informing him that he had been taken in the 29th round of the amateur draft. A couple of weeks later, he's on the way to the Appalachian League, his amateur status gone like a low line drive disappearing into the night.

"It's awesome," he said while taking a break from Calfee Park workouts Monday. "All these players know how to play the game. It's a lot faster than college. The transfer from college to pros is a lot faster. You have to be on your toes at all times."

Even more so today as the season starts for the Pulaski Mariners. The Mariners will entertain the Danville Braves for the beginning of a three game set. First pitch is 7 p.m.

Four players are expected back from last year's East Division champions including Dwight Britton, the probable starter in left field. For the second year in a row, Seattle appears to have sent Pulaski some very nice players. Among the newcomers are a couple of highly-regarded Dominicans, outfielder Julio Morban and third baseman Jahmidy DeJesus.

The left-handed hitting Morban signed last year as a 16-year-old, banking a $1.1 million signing bonus in the bargain. DeJesus closed on his contract last year after a $1 million bonus was agreed to. DeJesus came to the organization as a shortstop, but at 6-foot-3, 190 pounds, the Mariners have decided they like him better as a third baseman.

Both ought to be in the lineup tonight: Morban, who should bat third, possibly as a designated hitter, and DeJesus at cleanup hitter and third base. Another player projected for the starting lineup is Vinnie Catricala, a 6-2, 220-pound infielder who blasted 20 home runs in three years at the University of Hawaii, fourth-most ever for a career at that school.

Pulaski has a new coaching staff with Jose Moreno the manager replacing the departed Rob Mummau, now a full-time scout for the Mariners.

"We have a real good team, a real fast team," said Moreno, who managed the Everett AquaSox to a 32-44 record last year. "We don't have a real power guy who can change the game with one swing. ... We're going to do the little things to play baseball. "We're going to bunt a lot, we're going to hit and run a lot; we're going to squeeze a lot. That's the way I like to play baseball."

Fifteen players signed last year or before. Haveman is one of the 11 who are rookies this year.

"They know me because I was with them last year in spring training," Moreno said of the first- and second-year players. "They know how we like to play baseball."

Two years ago, Moreno managed the Peoria Mariners to the Arizona League championship with a 37-19 record.

The opening night starter will be right-hander Nolan Diaz, an 18-year-old Dominican. Next up on Wednesday will be right-hander Brandon Maurer, who is 19. Also on the staff is 18-year-old Jerome DeHaas, a right-hander from the Netherlands, and 18-year-old Yao Wen Chang, a right-hander from Taiwan.