M’s farm system ranked 27/30
…by Baseball America.
“Utter lack of pitching prospects has roots in run of poor drafts in late 1990s, early 2000s.”
or, as the in-depth look writes:
“By contrast, Seattle’s 1998-2002 were extremely barren, peaking with Willie Bloomquist and featuring a series of expensive reaches such as Michael Garciaparra and Sam Hays.”
Owwwwwwwwwwww.
To look on the upside, I’ll say this — prospect lists, and particularly BA’s lists, look for potential major leaguers and only pick out players in A-ball if they’re really interesting. If the Mariners (as we’ve argued) are doing a much better job drafting talent now, that’s not going to show up yet. Of course, you could say that about every team.
Thursday pre-season countdown fun
Dave covered the many roster moves. Only one got articles written up. Petagine’s on the roster, occupying the Dave Hansen/Greg Dobbs spot. PI, Times, Tribune.
There’s a split-squad game v San Diego @ 11 and a split-squad game v the Dodgers in Vegas that’ll be on TV at 7. It’d be shocking if they didn’t send almost all the starters to Vegas.
And yes, there’s a Craig Wilson-for-Pineiro rumor. I’m not sure where they’d put him or how they’d patch the rotation.
M’s make all kinds of moves
Moves:
Nageotte and Morse optioned to Tacoma.
Appier, Atchison, Cruceta, Green, Dobbs, Morban, Ransom, Jones, and Miller reassigned to minor league camp.
Summation:
The last two bullpen spots are down to a fight between Jake Woods, Luis Gonzalez, Jeff Harris, and Emiliano Fruto. Harris is the only non-roster player on the list, so he’s fighting an uphill battle to begin with. I’d be surprised if they carried Fruto, but they like him a lot more than I do. So my guess is Woods and Gonzalez, giving the team four lefty relievers. Prepare for some LONG innings.
Dobbs and Morse both going away means that Petagine and Borchard both make the opening day roster. When Lawton returns from his suspension, they’ll pick one of the two to try to sneak through waivers. Pretty surprising that Petagine made the club over organizational favorite Greg Dobbs, but surprising in a “I just found $1,000 in my jeans!” way.
Wednesday: would this season start already? Please?
PI: Random notebook stuff, including this cool tidbit:
Rafael Soriano was warming up in the bottom of the third inning when Betancourt homered into the bullpen. Without stepping off the mound, Soriano caught the ball on the fly, flipped the ball into the stands and continued warming up.
Both Beltre and Sexson should be sluggers, but one was not. Hickey analyzes the M’s and calls Everett and Washburn “nice additions”. Also, on Betancourt batting second:
Betancourt has worked all spring on hitting to the right side of the diamond, and he should be a good bunter and hit-and-run threat.
Be afraid, fans.
TNT has two bits on Reed: the medical story, the inspiring luck turning story.
Times: Guardado is a prankster. In tomorrow’s paper: dog bites man.
More freely-available talent theater
“And now I must leave — for no raisin!” — Giant Brain
Ryan Church got tossed off the Nationals. Church is a 27-year old, left-handed-hitting outfielder who can play center field fine and is good defensively in the corners.
A while ago, I was bitching about the M’s roster makeup and how their bench choices as discussed then didn’t really help them solve their problems. Look! Right here! You can have him be Ibanez’s defensive caddy and general all-around 4th OFer! He hits for some power! He’s fricking free!
Ryan Church’s weighted mean PECOTA forecast: .272/.337/.468 (!)
Carl Everett, just to bring this up again, weighted mean .268/.334/.449
(Hee Choi: .270/.371/.511)
Church had a really nice year last season, too, which makes the decision to toss him even more baffling. There are a lot of teams that could use him. The M’s should be first in line.
Or the Royals just tossed Chip Ambres in the scrap pile. Ambres is 26, right handed (for that L/R balance) and plays the outfield too. I don’t think he’s quite the fielder that Church is, and his weighted mean forecast is .251/.341/.438 — hey, that’s still Everett-esque — but here’s another guy available for nothing. And Ambres has some really strange comperable players on his PECOTA card: maybe he stinks, and maybe he turns into something useful.
Borchard was a nice pickup, but Church would be a far better fit as a backup outfielder. And this whole sampler table of talent only serves to further illustrate that Carl Everett was a massive overpayment.
Tuesday two
Times: Lopez “makes most of 2nd chance“… at second, get it?
They shot some X-rays through King Felix’s leg. Looks fine [PI].
That’s it: two stories.
Update! The Seattle Times is reporting Reed’s wrist isn’t broken. The fracture they saw on the X-rays was an old injury.
Carlos Pena
The Tigers released 1B Carlos Pena yesterday. If you were on the Hee Seop Choi bandwagon, you should certainly be on the Pena bandwagon. Heck, some of us were stumping for a trade for Pena this winter, and now he’s available for free (well, almost). Pena v. Choi: Pena’s older, sure, but he’s also had more success at the major league level and doesn’t have nearly the platoon issue Choi does.
Negatives? Sure. He doesn’t hit for average. He strikes out a ton. But he also hits for pretty serious power — for his career, better than 43% of his hits have gone for extra bases. He draws walks at a good clip. With these ‘old player’ skills, Pena likely won’t age well — some would argue he’s already not aging well — but the M’s don’t need a five-year solution here, they need that infamous left-handed sock.
USSMariner Gathering Reminder
For those who didn’t check the blog over the weekend and see the original post on Friday, here’s the information on our next USSM trip to Safeco. We still have quite a few spots available, and everyone who has signed up so far is in.
Sunday, April 2nd, from 2:30 pm to 6:30 pm at Safeco Field
We’ve got space for 200 people to come join Derek, Jeff, Jason, and myself for four hours inside Safeco on the eve of opening day. 24 hours before the season kicks off, you get to come hang out with us as we spend a few hours talking baseball and having a good ol time.
Of course, we won’t be the only people talking. Once again, Mariners General Manager Bill Bavasi has graciously agreed to give up a good portion of his free time and participate in a question and answer session. Quite simply, this is a unique opportunity for Mariner fans to get together and pick the brain of the guy who makes the decisions.
Four hours of baseball talk, including time with the number one guy in the front office the day before the season starts? Hard to beat that, honestly.
We’ve done our best to keep the costs as low as possible, and we’re really happy we can offer this get together for $15 per person. That will include snacks and drinks, so while it’s not a feed, you will be able to get fatter while attending, which is a nice plus.
If you’re interested in attending, here’s what you need to do: send an email to ussmarinerfeed@gmail.com with the number of people you’re requesting spots for in the subject. In the body of the message, I need full names of those who will be coming under your reservation.
Due to the event being just nine days away, we’re going to have you pay-as-you-enter to avoid problems with the postal service and getting checks around in time. We’re counting on your good faith to attend the event if you sign up; we’re paying for your spot whether you come or not, so if you don’t come and don’t pay, that’s money out of our pockets.
One last note; we’re making one minor change to how we handled the event last summer. Instead of a free-for-all where everyone gets the mic and we pray that they ask a question that isn’t insulting and makes sense, this time around, the Q&A will be moderated. If you have a question you’d like to hear Bavasi answer, leave it in the comments of this thread, and we’ll cull the best ones and make sure they get asked.
Also, any general questions that you think may be of interest to others, feel free and ask in the comments.
Each day brings new hope
Man, the Mariners get stomped twice. T-Rex couldn’t have done a better job. I wonder if life’s worth living if the M’s are going to get so trampled. This season is going to be one wacky adventure.
Lopez has been annoited the official starting second baseman for the Mariners. I think I sighed in relief along with all good Mariner fans at the news.
PI: Felix forced to sit by pain from shin splints. Back in the day I ran cross country with shin splints. Holy crap did that hurt. I’m wincing just typing this. The danger, really, is that leg pain forces him to alter his delivery to compensate and then BAM! we’re screwed. Also, the M’s want to take extra bases this season. Even if it means getting thrown out more. Which is dumb. And there are two unclaimed bullpen spots. Noted as locks for the bullpen: Guardado, Putz, Soriano, Mateo, Sherrill, which would leave one LHP and one other, no handedness required.
The Times concurs on the bullpen thing. Also, Dobbs getting hit in the jaw wasn’t good.
O’er at the TNT — the shin splint thing.
Sunday
Today’s game against the Angels is televised, noonish.
Articles worth reading: Beltre’s lighter in body and in spirit [TNT]. Borchard’s the new center fielder (probably) [TNT].
Also available in the Times: Lawton. Borchard in center, maybe.