June Future Forty
The Future Forty has been updated for the month of June. Mostly minimal changes this time around, with two additions (Rob Johnson and Sabastian Boucher) replacing two players who are underperforming and running out of time (Rich Dorman and Jon Nelson).
The biggest move up the charts belongs to Adam Jones, who moved from Project to Future Prospect and saw his reward rating bumped up from a 6 to a 7. He hasn’t gotten a ton of recognition, but Jones has been on fire the past month, raising his season batting line to .313/.388/.548. 28 of his 65 hits–43 percent!–have gone for extra bases. He’s still a free swinger (19 walks, 49 strikeouts) and has a lot of work to do on breaking balls, but the offensive surge Jones has seen is a very good sign for his future. I’ve been publicly critical of the Jones selection and postulated that he may end up on the mound at some point in his career, but he’s making those comments look quite foolish. Jones’ defense at short is still fairly poor, however, as he’s on pace to make nearly 50 errors on the year. However, the M’s continue to remain committed to him as a shortstop, and it’s not a bad idea to try to get as much value out of a young player as possible. With his offensive surge at age 19 in high-A ball, Jones has moved himself into legitimate prospect status, and now ranks fairly evenly in my eyes with Asdrubal Cabrera and Matt Tuiasasopo.
Also flying under the radar a bit, but having an encouraging start to 2005, is personal favorite Oswaldo Navarro. He’s hitting .274/.361/.371 in Wisconsin, which doesn’t sound like much, but is a huge improvement over his disastrous affair in full season ball last year (.211/.295/.248). Navarro is posting a 22/24 walk to strikeout ratio, showing improved contact ability and discipline at the plate, and despite his underwhelming power, has knocked 13 extra base hits. He’s always going to be a defense first player, but if his bat continues to develop, there is still an outside chance that he could turn into an Omar Vizquel type of player. It’s a longshot, and he’s going to remain in the project category until he shows some offensive potential at higher levels, but he’s one of the few players in the Project category who has the potential to become a regular major league player at some point.
Also, in case you hadn’t noticed, the M’s organizational pitching is a disaster, almost from the top down. It’s absolutely amazing how poorly the pitching staffs are, from the big league club all the way to Wisconsin. Trying to find a legitimate pitching prospect to get excited about in the low minors is nearly impossible.
The next update will come at the beginning of July, and hopefully, the third overall pick will have already signed and we’ll get to add another name to the line of legitimate prospects in the organization. Feel free to use this thread as a prospect/draft catch all, as pretty much anything minor league related fits in well here.
Game 52, Blue Jays at Mariners
LHP Gustavo Chacin vs RHP Gil Meche. FSNW.
A couple of things:
– Beltre looked like he was in pain when he stole third last night. I think that hammy’s bugging him a lot more than we’ve been led to think.
– Jeff is a man of peace
– A lefthander? Noooooooooooooooooooo.
– Is there a lower position on the camera-man totem pole than the guy who has to go into the stands to try and capture Moose antics, or get crowd shots of people waving?
May In Review
Here is the second in our month in review roundtables. Keep in mind that most of this was written Monday, so the numbers are a couple of days old. The points remain the same.
Ah, so that’s it
It’s the bad chemistry, says David Locke. Not the horrific starting pitching, not the pathetic bench, not that the team doesn’t walk or hit for power. It’s the chemistry. Thanks, David.
Roster, lineup summary
Okay, so to recap: Mike Morse is up from Tacoma to play short — and made his debut last night.
“He will start tomorrow night and play a majority of the time, at least at the start,” Hargrove said. “Bloomie [Willie Bloomquist] has done a good job for us, but we didn’t bring Mike here not to play. The kid is 23 years old and obviously still developing.”
At least at the start? That’s an odd qualifier, and I’m not sure what to make of it.
Wilson Valdez gets designated for assignement. It’s unlikely anyone’ll claim him and will probably end up in Tacoma.
With Olivo down Rene Rivera gets called back up. The Mariners may be shopping for another backup, depending on what you’re reading, and that makes sense — Rivera needs playing time and development if they regard him as a serious prospect, and if Borders is going to handle most of the starting duties (and I have trouble believing I typed that) he’d be better off in the minors.
And now we wait. A pitching move seems likely.
Game 51, Blue Jays at Mariners
Hi folks, Jason here with your game thread for the last day of May.
Chad Gaudin, making his 2005 debut, vs. Ryan Franklin. 7:05pm, FSN and KOMO.
Gaudin’s just a kid, having made his MLB debut at 20 years of age back in 2003 with the Devil Rays. Tampa Bay traded him to Toronto this winter for C Kevin Cash. He’s also a short (5-11) righty, and you know how tools-oriented teams hate those, whereas the Blue Jays have no such hangup. Gaudin was 3-2, 2.48 ERA with a 47:14 K:BB ratio in 65.1 innings at AAA Syracuse before getting the call. He’s perhaps best known for having tossed a perfecto in the minors two years ago.
Franklin you know; I’ll spare you the details. Of more interest are new SS Mike Morse and C Rene Rivera, whom few of us dreamed would be in the lineup at the same time (at least this soon). Those who did — were they good dreams, or bad? Oh, and Wilson Valdez got the ol’ DFA to make room for Morse.
Enjoy the game and play nice; the wife’s sick, the kid’s sick, there’s homework to do and then I’m off to bed.
Spiezio encore performance
Get out those lighters, folks, and wave them gently from side to side…
Scott Spiezio, who you may remember as the guy who injured himself getting his only hit of the year and has been out since with a “strained oblique” was on the field for batting practice yesterday. His recovery from the oblique strain was hampered by a brief bout with illness, but not, it appears, the Mariner Jeff Cirillo Memorial Mystery Injury, which keeps players on the DL with different symptoms, rehab schedules, and rehabs until rosters expand in September.
If (when) Spiezio returns, that’ll be another roster spot the team needs to clear on the 25-man major league roster. Obvious suspects include his younger, harder-working (with sweeter-looking swing) twin in production Greg Dobbs, and one of the back-of-the-bullpen guys. The question now is how long can the team put off that return and unimportant transaction?
Ryan Ludwick
If I told you that a 26-year-old right-handed outfielder, who makes the league minimum, and is slugging .512 on the strength of 4 home runs in 41 at-bats so far this year got designated for assignment this morning, would you be interested?
Say hello to Ryan Ludwick. The Indians removed him from their roster to make room for Juan Gonzalez, meaning they have 10 days to trade him or put him through waivers. Now, Ludwick’s not a spectacular player. He’s got holes in his swing, a mediocre approach at the plate, and his defense isn’t great after knee surgery, but he’s got legitimate power as a right-handed bat off the bench and reserve outfielder. His .812 OPS would rank fourth on the team, if he was added to the roster. His slugging percentage is higher than the OPS for Willie Bloomquist, Greg Dobbs, or Wilson Valdez.
At this point, he could be had for something resembling a song. He won’t be a starter on the M’s next championship team, but he could be a very nifty fourth outfielder and a useful pinch hitter, something the organization simply doesn’t have at the moment. If the front office really wants to improve the team, they’ll inquire about guys like Ryan Ludwick, a great example of the freely available talent philosophy that has eluded the organization for a long time.
More roster moves
Shortstop Mike Morse has been called up from Tacoma. No corresponding roster move has been announced yet. He’s expected to get significant playing time at shortstop as the M’s hope to inject some life into the bottom of the order. The fact that he was hitting just .253/.317/.407 in the PCL is apparently not a concern.
I’ve written some pretty negative things about Morse’s defense since the trade, but several people who watch the club on a near daily basis have let me know that he’s looked significantly better than they expected in the field. It will be interesting to see how he handles the position for the M’s, and how much defense they’ll be willing to sacrifice to get his bat in the lineup.
At best, I think Morse projects as a utility player, but if his defense has improved to the point where he can at least be competent up the middle, he’s a better option on the bench than, say, Greg Dobbs.
Drew and Weaver sign
Minutes before the deadline last night, both Stephen Drew and Jared Weaver put their names on the dotted lines with the Diamondbacks and Angels, respectively. As expected, both settled for significantly less than they were demanding.
The interesting thing here, from the Mariners perspective, is that rumors continue to persist that a side aspect to the Drew deal was that Arizona agreed to draft one of Boras’ pitchers, likely Mike Pelfrey, with the number one overall selection. If Arizona passes on Justin Upton, it gives the M’s a shot at one of the two players they covet (Alex Gordon being the other), and significantly upgrades the draft potential for the M’s selection.
They are still just rumors, but the odds of the M’s getting Upton or Gordon went up significantly yesterday.