PHOENIX — Kurt Suzuki gets excited in a hurry when the topic turns to the young pitchers in camp with the Oakland Athletics.

In his third year as a major league catcher, the Baldwin High School graduate from Maui has nearly made the rounds of catching all 29 pitchers, 12 of them non-rostered, and thinks nearly all of them are ready to make their marks in the majors in the near future.

"They really do all have a chance," said Suzuki, the A's second round draft pick out of Cal State Fullerton in 2004. "Everybody I have caught has a quality arm and quality stuff. It's definitely exciting."

He's catching a lot of guys for the first time, guys who will likely start the season in the minors. That doesn't matter, because Suzuki wants the experience of working with them. He's that confident he'll be seeing several new faces throughout the season.

"Catching them now will only help when they reach the majors," Suzuki said yesterday. "I think it's a huge advantage that we will have worked together."

Keeping all the information organized and filed away in his intellect, apparently, is the fun part of Suzuki's job. He's rapidly developing a book on all of them.

"One of the guys who has really impressed me is (right-hander) Vin Mazzaro," Suzuki said. "The arsenal he has is impressive. He has good movement on his fastball, throws hard and has a good mix. For him, it's only a matter of consistency."

Mazzaro has pitched all of 33 2/3 innings above Double-A, but he had an excellent ratio of strikeouts-to-walks (3-to-1) in his combined outings at Midland and Triple-A Sacramento last year.

A's manager Bob Geren has been stressing the importance of throwing strikes and trusting your stuff and it appears to be sinking in.

Right-hander Jeff Gray, for example, pitched in the Arizona Fall League after making his major league debut last September.

"Late in the year we took him aside and talked about changing his arm angle slightly to get better ball movement," Geren said. "He took it as a challenge and went to work on it. He's spent a lot of time with (bullpen coach) Ron Romanick during the offseason."

Geren is not wasting any time getting the young pitchers into exhibition games. Gio Gonzalez and Josh Outman are slated to throw two innings each in Wednesday's opener against the Milwaukee Brewers. Gray and Mazzaro are also scheduled to throw, along with Chris Schroder and Jerry Blevins.

Gonzalez, Gray and Blevins pitched with the A's at some point last season. Schroder was with the Washington Nationals for a time. The A's signed him as a free agent during the offseason.

"You can tell why he has pitched in the big leagues," Suzuki said. "His command is good and he has a good delivery. My theory is that if you can control all your pitches, you will be successful."