Ackley Out for a Few Days (At Least)
The Arizona Fall League season started Tuesday evening and now we already have our first injury (or second, if you want to consider Mangini’s strained quad leading to IF Matt Lawson being subbed in). 2B Dustin Ackley had tried to catch a line drive in the second game of the season and ended up with a sprained finger on his glove hand. The team doesn’t believe it’s serious, but it should keep him sidelined until next week, maybe longer. It’s disappointing in that he needs as much game time at second as he can get, but again, if he only misses a few games of the AFL season, which lasts a little over a month, it’s not quite so bad.
In more positive news, Josh Fields pitched for the first time since June 11th and ended up with a walk and two Ks in an inning of work. Venezuela is also active for winter baseball, and has Alex Liddi, Johermyn Chavez, Mauricio Robles, and Dan Cortes active so far, with Cortes and Robles both striking out one in one inning of relief. It’s something.
Rainiers PCL Playoffs Game 4
Well at least this doesn’t directly conflict with an M’s game today. If you’re in Seattle, come down to Safeco. Gametime is 12 noon, and if yesterday was any indication, great seats are still available.
Tacoma again goes for the series win, sending Yusmeiro Petit for his first start of the series. Petit is coming off his best outing of the season, going 7 innings of shutout baseball on Sept. 5th with 8Ks and no walks. More importantly, the RiverCats have re-activated Brett Tomko to make the start for Sacramento. This means the Rainiers can satisfy the Sullivan Postulate, which held that after beating Travis Blackley in game 1 and John Halama in game 2, the Rainiers could only win by beating Tomko. That looked tough, as he’d been placed on the inactive list. But he’s back, and I’m betting he can still hear Lou Piniella’s screams echoing around Safeco field.
Recaps/commentary on last night’s RiverCats win from Mike Curto here and Larry Stone here.
Today’s Rainiers line-up:
1: Ackley
2: Halman
3: Mangini
4: Winfree
5: Carp
6: Smoak
7: Nelson
8: Alfonzo
9: Hulett
Lots of photos, not as much commentary below. Just a reminder that gameday is here and you should listen to Mike Curto here or on 850AM. Aaand that’s the ballgame, final score 5-1 Sacramento. Just like last night, none of the Rainiers’ pitchers had good command. Petit struggled a bit, but nobody struggled more than Dan Cortes who gave up 3 in the 9th. The 5th and deciding game is tomorrow night at Safeco Field – it’d be great to get a bigger crowd out tomorrow, but the logistics are going to be tough – the Seahawks game will be letting out and the I-5 roadwork will make getting back to Tacoma a nightmare. I’m not selling this. PLAYOFFS! WINNER TAKE ALL!
Pictures of Ackley, Halman, Mangini, Petit, Cortes, Patterson, Tomko and more after the jump.
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Minor League Wrap (8/30-9/6/10)
Before I get started with this, the Last Wrap of the Season, I’d like to note that the Mariners moved RHP Dan Cortes off the AFL roster and added RHP Tom Wilhelmsen instead. This probably means that they’re planning on calling up Cortes once the Rainiers season ends. I’d add more but Wilhelmsen gets talked about anyway below, so…
To the jump!
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Nick Franklin to Double-A
The minor league season ends today, and moves are still going down as Nick Franklin was called up to join the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx in their playoff run. This comes on the heels of Franklin setting the Clinton franchise home run record with twenty-three, breaking Dick Kenworthy’s old record, which was set in 1961.
A number of thoughts might come up in response to this. One would be to think of the earlier “Franklin to the 40-man” rumor of a few weeks back had legs, and that this is a sign of things to come. Another would be to claim that the Mariners don’t think all that much of the High Desert team and make all sorts of inferences based off that.
Neither of these conclusions would be good ones, because Franklin is also in double-A because Triunfel is on the disabled list at the moment with a sprained finger on his throwing hand. Make no mistake: Franklin is well-regarded within the system, and they’re going to give him as much as he can handle. The double-A move may be a test run on keeping him there for the 2011 season, but any other notions of when he’s going to be on the Mariners 40-man or stick with the team are just speculation at this point. He’s a talented, confident kid, who still has a number of kinks to work out before he gets here, and much to prove in the high minors.
The other part circles back to the original point: Franklin is in double-A because they happen to need someone who can play short. Neither Lawson nor Seager would be an ideal fit, and moving either would open up another hole you’d have to patch up anyway. A few out there have undoubtedly thought of spinning this as “no prospect that the org really likes would spend a lot of time in High Desert”, but the fact remains that Chavez, Seager, and Poythress have all spent the entire season there, and all are highly thought of within the organization.
Placing Franklin in the midst of the Southern League playoffs is a challenge, certainly, but it’s also something that West Tenn needed in order to keep going. Trying to read too much into it is just going to lead to headaches for all of us. Just kick back, and enjoy the ride of the farm system having eight of their nine affiliates in the playoffs.
Minor League Wrap (8/23-29/10)
Things are winding down for the year. The summer leagues are both done, the Arizona League played its final game on Sunday, Pulaski will finish up the regular season on Tuesday and presumably head to the playoffs after that, and what’s more, this will represent your last chance to go to Cheney Stadium before the renovations hit. Let’s get to it then…
To the jump!
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The ’10 AFL Crew
A couple weeks back, the Mariners announced the seven players they’ll be sending to the Arizona Fall League starting October 12th, and this year it’s going to be 2B Dustin Ackley, RHP Maikel Cleto, RHP Dan Cortes, RHP Josh Fields, RHP Josh Lueke, 3B Matt Mangini, and OF Nate Tenbrink. I hadn’t exactly thrown my two cents in on this one yet, so guess what happens next?
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8/26/10 Pineda Day Thread
Comcast 179, Rainiers vs. Beavers, 7:05 pm PDT. On the pregame show, some guy said that PGE Park was better for dog racing than it ever was for baseball. Huh.
2B Ackley
3B Mangini
LF Carp
1B Smoak
RF Winfree
SS Hulett
DH B. Nelson
CF Halman
C Alfonzo
Pennant race baseball, right in your backyard. Former M’s prospect Jeff Heaverlo joins Curto in the booth.
Minor League Wrap (8/16-22/10)
Before we get rolling here, I’d like to notify local baseball fans that the Mariners have extended their player development contract with the Tacoma Rainiers until 2014 and with the Everett Aquasox until 2012. The rest is up in the air a bit, so I think I’ll wait a couple of weeks to cover the other affiliations, which are also expiring. There’s a chance we might get out of High Desert for next year.
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Minor League Wrap (8/9-15/10)
I’m not actually here; it just looks like I am because there’s a posting. For the next week I’m going to be away from the computer, which means that the next wrap is going to be delayed to sometime mid-week.
The draft deadline is 9 pm PST tonight, so hopefully we’ll have some more good news beyond just Shipers by that point. I’m sure one of the other guys will have a post discussing what did or didn’t happen late this evening. I’ll be in the dark about it until I get back.
To the jump!
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Minor League Wrap (8/2-8/10)
If you have any questions, better get them in now because I won’t be around to answer them next week, though the post will go up anyway. And before anyone asks that, I haven’t heard anything new on the draft picks, sorry.
To the jump!
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