Minor League Wrap (5/17-23/10)
Instead of an intro this time out, I’d like to do something different. Alert readers have probably noted Wes Littleton’s coming and going from the West Tenn roster. Well, a few days ago, I found out why, via a blog. As it turns out, he and his wife had a son recently, and the kid has been going through an awful lot of medical trouble early on, with diagnoses of bacterial meningitis and a form of hemophilia. These are both very serious health issues for a kid so young, and so Wes has been flying back and forth between the team, which seems to have been fairly understanding, and the hospital. Of course, if there are any comments you want to leave or any support you might be able to provide them as they go through this, I’m sure they’d appreciate it. Even at the minor league level with eight innings in the books, he’s still part of the Mariners family.
To the jump!
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Minor League Wrap (5/3-9/10)
Covering the minor leagues is odd business for a number of reasons. I’m going into my sixth year of doing it now, and the M’s have not made the playoffs once in that stretch. On one hand, I know that it’s good for the attention, because if the major league team isn’t doing anything, you have to look elsewhere, but on the other, it’s kind of uncomfortable because I’d rather be in a position where we’re not scouring A-ball rosters for signs of hope. More games like Sunday’s would be helpful, certainly, and I look forward to them as they come.
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Prospect Pitching Performance of the Year to Date
RHP Michael Pineda, last night at Huntsville:
7.0 IP, 4 H, 11/1 K/BB, 2/6 G/F, eleven of last twelve retired in order
The Huntsville offense ranks fourth in the league right now in OPS, walks drawn, runs, and RBI. Pineda tore them apart.
Be cautiously exuberant.
Minor League Wrap (4/26-5/2/10)
If nothing else, this will help you figure out how the two recent call-ups have fared in the past week. I was going to mention them either way, but the timing makes it all the more significant. If you’re additionally looking for an opinion on Peguero, or some insight into how the prospect-laden West Tenn rotation is faring, you can click on in now. Don’t be a stranger.
To the jump!
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Minor League Wrap (4/19-25/10)
I can’t say that this will entirely wash away the stain of this past weekend’s performances, but it will help, and if not, just look at Marc’s report from Tacoma again and remember that Cliff Lee will be back soon. Hannahan and Langerhans might be too.
To the jump!
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Cliff Lee’s Mariner (organization) Debut
Cliff Lee made his eagerly anticipated 2010 debut today, pitching six scoreless innings against an overmatched Salt Lake Bees roster. He yielded 3 hits, an infield hit that Jack Hannahan couldn’t quite handle, a bunt (that Lee didn’t cover first base on), and a fly ball that Ezequiel Carrera lost in the clouds.
Lee got through six innings in 68 pitches, with his change-up looking like the best of his offerings. His fastball was between 89-91 on the stadium gun today, with his change-up in the low-mid 80s. Tony Blengino was on hand to watch the M’s big off-season addition, and it looks like Lee’s on track to make his next start on 4/30.
Pictures from Cheney below the jump…
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Minor League Wrap (4/8-18/10)
The wraps are back again, for a second minor league season. It’s your one-stop shop for all the data you need on the past week in minor league action, distilled into a more easily digested form (but littered with box scores for the more curious among you). As per usual, I’ll try to be around as much as I can to field questions about this and that when it comes up. Unless it’s about Rafael dePaula, because I haven’t heard anything lately.
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2010 Tacoma Rainiers Preview
Happy Minor League Opening Day, all.
I wish the Rainiers were as neat as the D-Jaxx. They aren’t at the moment, sadly. You have a few interesting pitchers here and there who might see time with the club (more, if Lee and Bedard come back healthy later), multiple slugging first baseman and only two positions they can comfortably occupy, and outfield entirely of 40-man members which run a spectrum of risk and reward. It’s not the most exciting triple-A squad out there, but if you’re nearby, I’d say the outfield provides enough reason to go, if not the possibility of Brad Nelson playing it.
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2010 West Tenn Diamond Jaxx Preview
This is the team you listen to on off-days when the Mariners aren’t playing. Actually, scratch that, because of the time difference, you really have no excuse to not tune in to D-Jaxx games before the M’s come on most nights. The West Tenn squad features a glimpse of what the infield might look like two years down the road and a number of pitchers that might contribute in the near future either in the rotation or the bullpen. Even moving past the top prospect types, the team can run, hit for power, throw hard, even field a little, and should be fun to follow regardless.
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2010 High Desert Mavericks Preview
To start out by setting some reasonable expectations, I expect this year’s High Desert squad to be decent, but have few hopes of them repeating as division winners in both halves. Part of that is that the talent isn’t quite as high as it was in last year, though to be fair, there were a lot of unanticipated breakouts in that group. The other part is that I find the pitching more interesting than the hitting here, which is not something I’m comfortable saying too loudly given what kind of circumstances this crew is going to be dropped into there. That is not to say that the offense will be hopeless, as they have some experience and at least three hitters who could establish themselves as quality prospects in the system with a good showing there, conditional on it being not just a home park thing.
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