Author Archives: Andrew Long

by | June 21, 2012 · 5:10 pm

Charlie Furbush – Shut-down Reliever or 3rd Starter?

I started this post before Dave Cameron at USS Mariner published his post about Furbush.  We think along the same line, although I believe Furbush may have a little higher upside.  Anyway, go read that and sorry we doubled up on topics today! 

Lately, Mariners starting pitchers not named Felix and Kevin have been bad.  Jason Vargas was awful yesterday and has already given up 20 home runs this year.  Hector Noesi shows flashes of potential has his moments but then gets lit up on 0-2 counts – although his location isn’t terrible and sometimes he’s just a victim of good hitting, regardless of what Geoff Baker would have you believe – and Erasmo has struggled thus far (although I believe he’s a lot better than what he’s shown).  The Mariners rotation is in trouble.

There is help on the way!  Danny Hultzen is finally in Tacoma and Taijuan Walker is still one of the top 2 prospects in the Mariners system.  James Paxton and a few others aren’t too far behind those guys.  Those guys (excluding Hultzen) are still probably a year or so away though so the M’s need to take steps to fix the pitching now.  That’s where Charlie Furbush comes in.

When Charles Roderick Furbush was traded to Seattle for Douglas Wildes Fister he was labeled a starter but after surrendering too many home runs and not impressing the front office, he was moved to the bullpen to be a middle reliever.  He started out by throwing several innings out of the bullpen, but has been used more as a LOOGY and has been quite successful at that.

Through his limited innings, his strikeouts have been higher (although he’s always had a pretty high K rate), his BB’s have been lower and his HR/9 have gone way down.  While starting, Charlie struggled against right-handed batters.  As Cameron points out in his post, last year Furbush gave up 2.08 HR/9 to right-handed hitters.  This year, in facing 48 right-handed hitters he’s only given up 2 home runs.  Sure, it’s a small sample size but it’s not like he’s been getting lucky and just avoiding home-runs either.  Right-handers have a slash line of .130/.167/.283 against him.  That’s an OPS of .450.  Oh, and against lefties he has a .341 OPS against.  Pretty good.

In a small sample size, his OPS against has been better on the road then in home games as well.  So, his progress can’t be attributed to Safeco (although, no doubt the park would help if he became a starter).

With Furbush’s pitches he could be a lock-down reliever for the next 10 years.  I have no doubts about that but with the way he’s pitching right now he could be a good middle-of-the-rotation starter, which is way more valuable to the team.

There’s more on why Furbush would succeed after the jump, including pictures! Continue reading →

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by | June 8, 2012 · 11:25 pm

Seattle Mariners Throw No-Hitter

This won’t be a long post.  At least, I don’t plan on writing for very long.  We don’t usually do game recaps here at the Good Guys blog, usually we just focus on bigger ideas and lately we’ve been focusing on prospects.  Tonight though is cause for a little something to be said.

If you haven’t heard, six Mariners pitchers combined to throw a no-hitter.  Kevin Millwood started and was awesome but then he came out with a groin injury at the start of the 7th inning.  It’s a shame he couldn’t keep going because, from what I saw (I did miss the first few innings), he had a real chance to do it all himself.  But, fate had him coming out and, for some reason, that just seems fitting.

These Mariners are different then most teams we’ve seen before.  In the last couple of years they’ve started with a mix of veterans and young players and went from there but this year they started with mostly young players.  The young players have shown promise, but they’ve taken their lumps as well.  They’ve taken more lumps than anything else.  Over the course of the last road trip the team became exciting though.  They struck for 21 runs.  They kept games close, even when they lost.  They came back and won.  The Mariners were actually improving and getting better.

I remember around the third or fourth year of the Tyrone Willingham era in UW football.  We’d go to the stadium every week and after giving him the benefit of the doubt for the first few years, it was easy to see that the coach wasn’t getting his team to improve each week.  In fact, they were getting worse every week.  This is exactly how the last few Mariner last few seasons have been.  This is the first time we’ve seen real improvement.  Sure, we’ve seen winning streaks but not definite improvement.

The Mariners will continue to take their lumps.  They’re still young and will suffer a few more losing streaks throughout the season.  Justin Smoak will go through a cold spell (in fact, he’s going through a mini one right now).  Michael Saunders won’t continue to look like Josh Hamilton.  Kevin Millwood won’t throw 6 innings of no-hit ball.  But, I’m betting that the good times will start to outweigh the bad.

For a second tonight, I thought about the M’s making a run at the playoffs this year.  It’s most likely not going to happen and that’s okay because I’m truly starting to believe in the future of this club.  I have for a while now, but it seems that all of Seattle is starting to buy in.  Tonight the Mariners, Tacoma (AAA), and Jackson (AA) gave up a total of 4 hits combined.  It’s not just happening on the major league level right now, there’s encouraging signs everywhere.  Are you starting to believe?  This team is growing up in front of our eyes and tonight was another major step in the right direction.  Go M’s!

Andrew

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by | June 5, 2012 · 10:12 pm

Mariners Draft Some Guys

In the last 2 days, the Seattle Mariners have drafted 16 players.  I almost wrote that they now have 16 players but, surely, some of these players will not sign with Seattle.  The Mariners have merely drafted the right to negotiate a contract with 16 new players who won’t likely reach the big leagues for at least another 2 years.  I’ve just explained to myself why most people don’t find the MLB draft interesting.

I still think it’s interesting and that’s why all of you readers have gotten about 5 posts about it.  Suckers.  It’s definitely more interesting than watching Blake Beavan tonight.  I’m ready for Erasmo or Hultzen to come up anytime.  Oh, right, this is supposed to be about the draft.  By most accounts the M’s had a good draft day.  Of course, we’ll be able to actually tell you in 5 years if this was a good draft but for now I’ll say that the M’s had a good process in who they picked according to most scouts. They may have to pay over-slot on a number of guys which would mean that a few of them may not sign, since the M’s don’t want to suffer the new penalties that go with going over their allotted budged for the draft.  That’s all a bit confusing, but the main gist of it is that the M’s have an amount, set by Major League Baseball, that they’re allowed to spend on their top 10 round picks.  This amount is the sum of the monetary value that each draft slot the team owns, is given.  If they go over that amount then they will suffer penalties (as severe as losing draft picks for next year).  I could go into more detail but I’d rather talk about the actual players.  I’ll give you a few sentences on each player and tell you if I think they’ll sign over-slot or under-slot, starting with first round pick and moving down.

1st round (3rd overall) – Mike Zunino (C), University of Florida

Matthew gave a bunch of links and wrote a bit about Zunino last night.  The consensus about Zunino seems to be that fans would have loved to have one of the high-upside teenagers (Buxton and Correa) but since they weren’t available, this was the best pick.  There aren’t hardly any concerns about Zunino having to move away from catcher, and while his bat isn’t at a superstar level it’s quite good.  This was a good pick.  If Zunino signs over-slot, it won’t be by much.  Most think he’ll be right at slot.

2nd round (64th overall) – Joe DeCarlo (SS), Garnet Valley HS, Pennsylvania

I wonder when the last time the M’s drafted someone from Pennsylvania was.  DeCarlo may stick at shortstop but could also be a candidate for third base.  He’s a pretty big guy (6-0, 205) who will probably grow some more since he’s only 18.  He’s got a good swing and is thought to have some power with that size.  This is the 4th year in a row the M’s have taken a shortstop with their 2nd pick.  I think that DeCarlo is more of a signability pick, as BA ranks him as their 287th prospect.  I imagine he will go under-slot.  He’s committed to Georgia but I’d be surprised if he didn’t sign.  Another thing to keep in mind is that, with the new rules on the money and signing bonuses, high-schoolers may be taken higher because they are more likely to go to college if they’re selected later and not given as big of a bonus.

3rd round (98th overall) – Edwin Diaz (P), Caguas Military HS, Puerto Rico

Diaz is right-handed pitcher with a mid-90’s fastball.  He has hit 98 MPH a few times.  He’s tall and skinny (6-3, 163) and is more of project pick.  He will need to develop better off-speed pitchers and his mechanics seem to be a little weird but his upside is high.  He’s ranked as the 75th prospect by BA (just to let you know, those rankings are just a few scouts opinions.  Don’t pay too much attention to them) and will probably sign just over his slot, if not right at it.

3rd round (126th overall) – Tyler Pike (P), Winter Haven HS, Florida

This pick was compensation for not signing last year’s 3rd rounder.  Pike, a lefty, may have the most signability concerns of these first 3 picks, but this is one of my favorite picks for the M’s.  He’s a lefty with a high 80’s to low 90’s fastball and a good change-up.  His velocity may go up as he grows.  He will have to work on his breaking pitch but many scouts call him crafty.  He was rated as the 94th prospect by Keith Law, and will likely go overslot.  He is committed to Florida State but if he signs, this will be a good pick.

4th round (131st overall) – Patrick Kivlehen (3B), Rutgers

Kivlehen has an interesting story.  He played on the Rutgers football team for 4 years and then tried out for the baseball team.  He quickly went on to be the Big East Player of the Year.  If the Mariners do have a trend in drafting college players, I’d say it’s that they draft based on results rather than projected upside.  That’s not to say that the college players they pick don’t have upside but it’s surprising how many of those guys have won conference players of the year.  Maybe it’s just me, and every team does this but it doesn’t seem like this.  I like this approach.  Anyway, Kivlehen can hit.  He had better numbers than Zunino this year.  I don’t know anything about his defense but surely he’s athletic since he was a defensive back at Rutgers.  That or he was just a really crappy defensive back.  I would guess Kivlehen will go right around slot, if not under.

5th round (161st overall) – Chris Taylor (SS), University of Virginia

The other knack the front office has had is drafting guys from the same college or area.  Sure enough, Taylor was shortstop on the team with Danny Hultzen, John Hicks, and Steven Proscia (all now current M’s farmhands). Taylor is a very good defensive shortstop with plus range and a strong-arm.  There are concerns about his bat.  He doesn’t have much power, although he’s hit a good amount of doubles.  If he can hit adequately, his defense will carry him.  I would guess that he would sign at about slot.

10 more picks to cover after the jump!  Thanks for coming this far!  Continue reading →

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by | June 4, 2012 · 4:34 pm

Mariners Draft Mike Zunino

We’ll have more insight later, but in case you hadn’t heard the Mariners selected Mike Zunino 3rd overall a few minutes ago in the MLB draft.  Zunino is who the Mariners had been linked to for a while.  I think it’s a good pick, especially considering Buxton and Correa were off the board already.  Zunino is the most major-league ready position player in the draft and could be seen as early as 2014 in the majors.  We’ll have more on him later but this was for anyone who hadn’t seen.  Go M’s!

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by | June 4, 2012 · 12:10 am

Who I Would Draft

Happy MLB Draft Day!  As Matthew covered last week, the first round of the draft is today (starting at 4 P.M.) and the Mariners have the number 3 pick.  This is probably my favorite draft out of all the major sports because no one really knows what’s going on aside from the people inside the organization.  Last year is a perfect example.  Everyone and their dog had the Mariners taking a hitter with the number 2 pick last summer.  It would be Anthony Rendon.  If not, it’d be Bubba Starling or Francisco Lindor.  Then the Mariners took Danny Hultzen.  Lookout Landing had a meltdown, U.S.S. Mariner authors were shocked and I had friends on Facebook ripping the Mariners to shreds.  Most of these people, excluding the U.S.S. Mariner writers, had never seen video of any of these players.  If your friend tells you that he thinks the Mariners are dumb for taking whoever they take today at 4 P.M. tell him that he doesn’t know anything.  Neither do you!  Neither do I!  None of us know anything about what the Mariners are going to do and what fits best for them aside from Jack Z and a few close employees.  Some of us have better ideas than others but nothing more.  What we do know is that the Mariners will have a new prospect in their top 5 after tonight!  Unless you’re really high on… Pimental?  Catricala?  Francisco Martinez?  Carter Capps?  Steve Baron?  Just kidding.  Whoever they draft should be in their and your top 5…

With all of that said, I’m going to give you my draft board because that’s what sports are for.  Matthew outlined about 6 players last week in his post and I’ll add a few to those.  I don’t know what I’m talking about too much, I’ve seen video of most of them and that’s about it.  But, after reading about them and thinking about how I value players, these are my top 8 in order of who I want the most.  I would love to see the M’s draft board but you’ll have to settle for mine.  Suckers.  It may be exactly the same as theirs (I doubt it) or there might not be a single slot the same (probable).

1.  Byron Buxton (OF), Appling County High School 

Buxton, who will be drafted out of high school, is said to be the best talent in the draft by just about every expert.  He’s fast and extremely athletic.  He has the build to think that power will come soon in his career.  He puts on batting practice shows but that hasn’t completely translated to games yet.  He’s the most intriguing player to me because of the raw talent.  Most people don’t think he’ll fall to the Mariners but there are rumors that Houston will pick Appel and the Twins go with Correa.  I really hope this happens but I won’t get my hopes up.

2.  Carlos Correa (SS), Puerto Rican Baseball Academy

Correa is another young guy (17) from Puerto Rico who has a lot of raw hitting talent.  He doesn’t have a ton of plate discipline yet but is a very strong hitter.  Carlos may be moving to third before too long in his career as most scouts don’t think he can cut it at shortstop. He seems to be Buxton’s only challenger as ‘Most Talented Player’ in the draft.  These guys aren’t the safest picks but they are said to have the most talent and I think the Mariners farm system is in a safe enough place to where they can stray away from the safe pick.

3.  Mike Zunino (C), University of Florida

Zunino is a college guy from Florida.  The organization hasn’t had a catching prospect that’s worked out in…. well, get back to me if you think of someone.  Zunino is the most sure position player in the draft.  Most experts don’t see him having any problem with catcher and he hits pretty well.  He’s belted 2 home runs in the last 2 nights in the college regional.  He’s below Buxton and Correa because he just doesn’t have the upside those 2 do, in my mind.  You can counter that by saying he’s more major-league ready than both of those guys and you’d be completely right.  I think it depends on your preferance there.

4.  Kyle Zimmer (SP), USF

Most people wouldn’t agree with this.  Every mock draft has Zimmer below fellow college arm Appel and most of them have him below Gausman.  Zimmer is just interesting to me.  He was recruited to college as a hitter.  He did that, then all of a sudden became the staff ace his sophomore year in college.  He out-dueled last year’s number 1 pick, Gerrit Cole, in the college world series and then went on to have a very successful Junior season.  He throws in the mid-90’s with a few different off-speed pitches.  He’s more raw than the other college arms because he hasn’t pitched as much  But, that means his arm hasn’t gone through as much wear and tear, as well.  I think of him as Taijuan Walker a little bit because of their late starts as pitchers.  He has the most upside of the college pitchers because he has the most room to go.

5A.  Kevin Gausman (SP), LSU

Gausman is the next in line of the college pitchers.  He throws a little harder than Zimmer does and has a good change-up to go with it.  He doesn’t have a very good breaking pitch at the moment but, well, I think that’s a little overvalued at times anyway.  He is labeled with the ‘number 2 starter ceiling’ in this draft.  You know who had that last year?  Hultzen.  Don’t listen to the scouts on that.

5B.  Mark Appel (SP), Stanford

Appel is projected to be the number 1 pick to Houston by most and there was a rumor floating around today that Houston is indeed where he is going.  Who knows?  Why is he sixth (or tied for fifth) on my list than?  Well, along with liking upside, I also like to see results.  Appel may have the best ‘stuff’ of anyone in the draft but he wasn’t as dominating as what people expected.  That sounds like Gerrit Cole.  After half of a minor league season, I’d rather have Hultzen, Bundy and Bauer over Cole who were all drafted behing him because their stuff wasn’t as good.  It’s dumb to base things off half a minor league season but that’s what I just did so, take that.

7. Max Fried (SP), Harvard Westlake High School

Fried is a high school arm, a lefty who could be Clayton Kershaw or could be a finesse lefty.  We saw last year that the organization likes their lefties who throw in the 90’s but Fried doesn’t seem to project quite the way Hultzen does.  He may add some velocity as he gets older, which would put him around 95, and that would truly put him in the Kershaw category.  If Jack Z sees that kind of future, then I would be fine with this.  Otherwise, we’re getting to the point where any of these would be a huge surprise.

8.  Albert Almora (CF), Mater Academy Charter

We’ve seen how valuable a good center fielder can be here in Seattle.  Almora is extremely athletic, and although he doesn’t possess the power potential Buxton has but he does have most of the other gifts.  He’s sure to be great defensively.  He may be a giant reach for the Mariners here but, then again, I have no idea so maybe it wouldn’t be.  Why did you even read this far?

9.  Lucas Giolito (SP), Harvard Westlake High School

Giolito probably won’t go as high as this but before an elbow injury, he was headed towards the number 1 pick.  He’s a high school lefty who throws hard.  Of course, I don’t want to spend the third pick of the draft on a guy with injury concerns.  If I wasn’t worried about that then he would move up to the number 3 on this list.  Unfortunately for Giolito, just about everyone seems worried about his health.

The next 2:

10.  Deven Marrero (SS), ASU
11.  Andrew Heaney (SP), OSU


So, hopefully you know more a little bit more about these guys now.  None of them would disappoint me but I do feel like there’s quite a gap between the first 6 I put and the rest of this list.  I could make the same argument about such a gap between the first 2 and the rest of them.  Hopefully, Buxton falls to the Mariners and there won’t be any second guessing tonight but that is unlikely due to his talent.  I think Zunino or Correa is the most likely but maybe one of the college pitchers is the best option in the front office’s eyes.  We’ll see shortly!  Happy draft day, again!

Andrew

 

 

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by | May 30, 2012 · 8:41 pm

Checking in on the Young ‘Uns – Clinton

The Mariners are currently ahead by two touchdowns in Texas, Justin Smoak seems like a new man, and Kyle Seager could be the Mariners new 3 hitter for the rest of the season but this good guy is still talking about a minor league team.  Why?  Because it’s the last one in a series and I promised myself I’d finish this before I’d write anything else.  There’s nothing worse than breaking promises to yourself.

I’ve covered Tacoma, Jackson, and High Desert in the last couple of weeks (read them by clicking on the location that you’re interested in).  Today, I’m going to check in on some of the guys from the Clinton Lumberkings (low-A ball).  Aside from the awesome nickname, Clinton doesn’t have the most exciting club.  They are 18-33 and haven’t had anybody completely surprise us like Taijuan Walker did last year (although, that’s not completely fair to say because Walker is a first round draft pick who pitches with that kind of talent).  One thing to consider is that high draft picks from Monday’s draft (especially college guys) who sign quickly could be sent to Clinton.  That’s one thing to look for.  Anyway, I’ll highlight some guys, starting with position players.  If you have any questions let me know in the comments.

Steve Baron (C) – .226/.271/.351, 2 HR, 1 3B, 13 2B, 17 RBI, 36/9 K/BB, .622 OPS.

I include Baron because he was 1st-round draft pick and people usually like to follow along with those.  The truth is, Baron probably isn’t a serious prospect and most people don’t see him reaching the majors.  On the plus side, he’s very young still and he has improved some.  He’s hit a good amount of doubles this season and that’s great to see.  He’s also hit 2 home runs in the last 3 days.  You go, Steve!  Otherwise, his hitting is really lacking.  People say he’s good defensively but I can’t really speak to that.  More doubles and more walks, Steve!

Mike Dowd (C) – .244/.320/.267, 2 2B, 12 RBI, 8/11 K/BB, .587 OPS.

Dowd has only played in 25 games this year, so this is a pretty small sample size.  Dowd obviously isn’t hitting for much power but the walks are nice.  Dowd is another defense first catcher who is just a few months older than Baron.  Maybe one of these guys will work out but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Dan Paolino (2B) – .258/.329/.386, 3 HR, 8 2B, 20 RBI, 15/12 K/BB, .715 OPS. 

Paolino was a 10th round pick in last years draft and has been doing alright in Clinton.  There’s not a lot of power coming out of him.  He’s splitting time at 2nd with Dillon Hazlett who is basically hitting the exact same as him.  Anyway, Paolino isn’t striking out much and is walking some.  His OPS is acceptable for a middle infielder but he’s not blowing anyone away.

Guillermo Pimental (LF) – .206/.255/.301, 2 HR, 7 2B, 18 RBI, 49/7 K/BB, .557 OPS.

This is disappointing.  We had a discussion on this blog before the season about Pimental being the number 2 prospect in the system by the start of next season.  That seems like a long ways off at that moment.  Pimental has struck out in over a 1/3 of his at-bats.  His power hasn’t quite come either.  He has been abysmal against southpaws, sporting a .065 batting average.  Pimental did seem like he was getting going but then got injured and was out for about 2 weeks.  He has come back recently and we’ll see if he continues to heat up.  The hope is still high on him, but this season shows that he may have a long ways to come.

Jabari Blash (RF) – .220/.342/.421, 8 HR, 2 3B, 5 2B, 23 RBI, 53/29 K/BB, .763 OPS.

Blash is a 3 outcome hitter – a strikeout, walk or extra base hit.  Having an OBP that’s .122 points higher than his batting average speaks to his abilities in taking a walk.  Like Pimental, Blash has struck out in about a 1/3 of his at-bats.  Blash is really pretty interesting although I don’t know if he’ll ever make it up to the bigs.  I’d like to see the crazy stats he could put up in High-Desert because of his power.

Ji-Man Choi (C?/1B/DH) has just joined the club recently.  Choi was an intriguing prospect but spent most of last year injured.  He has played catcher but it looks like that might be over with after his injuries.  The guy can hit but I don’t know if he can hit enough to be a major league first baseman.

Pitchers (all 2 of them) after the jump. Continue reading →

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by | May 22, 2012 · 9:33 pm

Checking in on the Young ‘uns – High Desert

So far, we’ve looked at the Mariners’ AAA (Tacoma) and AA (Jackson) teams in this series.  Today we head to California to check in on the High Desert Mavericks.  The place where the Mavericks play is very descriptive of its climate.  The single-A team plays at a high elevation.  They also play in a desert which is hot.  Guess what that means?  A bunch of ding-dongers and crazy offensive stats.  While the rest of the Mavericks league have favorable parks for hitters, their home park might be the most offensive park in baseball.  Not just in their league, or in single-A, in all of baseball.  That means the stats for the Maverick hitters are off the charts.  Conversely, the pitching stats are terrible.  I’ll try to wade through some of the misleading stats but that’s hard to do in a few sentences.  Just don’t go crazy about a hitters numbers or get too bummed about a pitchers numbers.  There, I hope that makes you cautious.

High Desert, like the Jackson Generals, is in first place.  They don’t have quite the record Jackson has but it’s a very respectable 25-21.  Nice job!  It seems like most of their hitters have good slash lines so I’ll pick out the few I’m interested in and if you have questions about the others than just let me know in the comments.  As I’ve been doing, I’ll start with the hitters (so good news first here):

John Hicks (C) – .300/.350/.471, 5 HR, 14 2B, 32 RBI, 31/11 K/BB, .820 OPS

Just to drive the point home a little further, Hicks would have the 4th best OPS if he had been playing in Jackson.  On High Desert though his OPS is 10th best.  An .820 OPS is 10th best on the team!  That’s crazy!  Anyway, Hicks was Danny Hultzen’s catcher last year in college and was the M’s 4th round draft pick last year.  Sure enough, Hicks’ OPS is .300 points worse in road games than it is in home games.  He has homered 3 times on the road, while just twice at home.  That’s somewhat encouraging but 12 of his 14 doubles have come at home.  We’d like Hicks to walk more and strikeout less.  He’s a catcher in the Mariners’ system though so that won’t happen.

Jack Marder (C) – .350/.406/.556, 4 HR, 1 3B, 10 2B, 18 RBI, 18/8 K/BB, .962 OPS.

Marder was another college catcher drafted last year.  He went to Oregon and has split time between catcher and DH with Hicks this year.  He did miss a chunk of about 20 days this year due to injury.  He’s back, healthy and playing now.  His OPS is about .350 points better at home but it’s a decent .777 on the road.  Not good, but decent according to Mariner standards.  There are questions about Hicks and Marder’s defense this year.  They both seem to have their problems but that’s why in they’re both down in the minors, they can work on these things.  Their slash lines are good and I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them is promoted to Jackson at some point.  With that said, I’m not blown away by either of them.

Brad Miller (SS) – .318/.415/.570, 9 HR, 2 3B, 14 2B, 29 RBI, 42/30 K/BB, .985 OPS, 9 SB.

Miller started the season on fire (not literally), and has put up pretty good numbers hitting in the first quarter of the season.  Continuing with the theme, his OPS is just under .500 points higher at home.  11 of his 14 doubles and 6 of his 9 home runs are at home, as well.  That’s not so encouraging.  He’s taken  lot of walks and has only increased that rate in the last few weeks.  He has struck out about 23% of the time.  Which isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it’d be.  I don’t know why I told you about all of that.  His defense has been terrible (17 errors) and he’s a prime target to move away from his current position.  I’ve read that centerfield may be an option and that’s where I’m hoping for.  Miller did have success in limited time in Clinton last year with his hitting, so there may be reason for continued optimism with this hitting.

Stefan Romero (3B) – .350/.374/.588, 8 HR, 2 3B, 14 2B, 37 RBI, 24/7 K/BB, .962 OPS.

Romero was drafted in the 12th round in 2010 by the M’s.  He hit pretty well last year in Clinton and ended up with a decent .803 OPS.  That’s okay for that ballpark.  Now, he’s upgraded ballparks and become an extra-base machine.  Thankfully, his home and road splits aren’t as drastic as the prospects before.  Romero has a .848 OPS on the road.  Half of his home runs have come on the road and while his home average is not sustainable (.397) he’s still hitting a perfectly adequate .313 away from the desert.  He’s not really walking.  That’s a bummer but when you’re hitting really well, walks aren’t a huge worry (see Kyle Seager).  His strikeouts aren’t very high either so that’s awesome.  Romero hasn’t just been a case of High Desert like some of these players have been. The guy can hit.  His fielding may come into question.  He reminds me quite a bit of Vinnie Catricala so far in his progression.

Julio Morban (OF) – .374/.425/.692, 8 HR, 2 3B, 6 2B, 28 RBI, 23/9 K/BB, .1.117 OPS.

Julio may be the surprise of the season.  It’s not that he isn’t talented.  He was a big bonus guy when he signed but he’s had tons of trouble staying healthy thus far.  He’s played regularly in the last month and has been, to borrow from Nick Holt, awesome.  Morban is still only 20 and has plenty of time left to develop.  Morban isn’t just a byproduct of playing at High Desert either.  In fact, he’s hitting better away from home (yahoo)!!  His OPS on the road is 1.288 compared to .958 at home.  He’s hitting better against lefties than he is righties (although, that’s a very small sample).  Morban is probably the surprise of the season.  If he keeps this up, to any extent, he will be moving up to Jackson and shooting up prospect lists in a hurry.

Jumping to the pitchers after the jump… There won’t be many of them.  Continue reading →

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by | May 16, 2012 · 10:50 am

Checking in on the Young ‘uns – Jackson

Last week, I took a look at Tacoma’s top performers and prospects.  I mostly came away disappointed.  Since then, Carlos Triunfel has continued hitting and Andrew Carraway had a good start but otherwise not a lot changed.  In this post, I won’t be very disappointed.  Jackson was heralded as the Mariners’ most talented farm team and the most talented minor league team in all of baseball by many.  They haven’t disappointed much.  They haven’t just blown people away (mostly because of their offense) but they do sport a 23-17 record (as of Wednesday, May 16th).

Since the beginning of the season, Andrew Carraway (SP) and Stephen Pryor (RP) have moved up to Tacoma.  I covered them in my post about the Rainiers but they’ve been pretty awesome.  Chih-Hsien Chiang has also moved up to Tacoma since the beginning of the season, mostly due to injuries and not awesomeness.  Steven Proscia (3B) started out in High Desert as a guy to keep an eye on and he’s made his way up to Jackson.  He obviously excelled at High Desert but has struggled through his first few at-bats in AA.  He’s someone to keep an eye on though.  Otherwise, the other guys I highlighted in my seasoning opening post are still in Jackson.  Again, if there’s any questions about players (or anything else, leave them in the comments).  All stats are updated through Wednesday, lets start with position players (and go by position).

Rich Poythress (1B) – .259/.352/.375, 1 HR, 10 2B’s, 18 RBI’s, 14/16 K/BB, .727 OPS

Rich is currently on the 7-day DL but he should be back soon (it is only the seven-day DL).  Poythress hasn’t hit many home runs but he’s tied for the team lead in doubles.  Maybe he misses High Desert?  He’s a right-handed hitter and his OPS is over .500 points higher against left-handed pitching (although, small sample sizes).  His lone home run and 4 of his 10 doubles have come against left-handed pitching even though he’s only faced them 28 times compared to 84 at-bats against right-handers.  Obviously, his K/BB ratio is very good right now.  Keep that up, Rich!  Poythress had a great year in High Desert in 2010 but hasn’t done much in Jackson last year or this year.  The lefty-righty splits are interesting and could make him an interesting option as a platoon bat going forward.

Nick Franklin (SS) – .318/.373/.467, 2 HR, 10 2B’s, 14 RBI’s, 16/10 K/BB, .840 OPS.

Through the top three levels of the Mariners system there’s one position that is having a great amount of success hitting – shortstop.  That’s weird, now if only they could play defense.  Franklin is probably the best position player prospect in the Mariners system and he hasn’t disappointed thus far.  He’s hitting for a good average, a few more walks and homers would be nice but I won’t complain with these results.  He’s still only 21 and could see Tacoma by seasons end.  The one stat that is a bit scary… 7 errors.  This is a common theme among the systems shortstops.  Franklin has been dealing with a small, nagging foot injury.  That’s annoying but it’s not serious.

Francisco Martinez (3B, CF?) – .245/.317/.311, 0 HR, 8 2B’s, 1 3B, 9 RBI’s, 34/16 K/BB, .629 OPS, 14 SB.

Francisco hasn’t really hit.  Well, that’s not fair.  He’s done okay, just not very well.  He’s got 9 extra base hits which is 5th on the team.  Plus, he’s 14 of 16 in stolen bases.  The organization loves his speed and has been messing around with the idea of him playing center field.  Go for it!  We have terrible outfield prospects, do it!  Anyway, Martinez strikes out a ton, which is bad.  He’s always had a gaudy amount of strikeouts and this year has been no different.  If he could raise his contact rate, I’d be very interested in what Martinez could be.  For now, he just seems like a really fast guy.

Steven Proscia (3B) – .317/.348/.545, 8 HR, 9 2B’s, 25 RBI’s, 30/8 K/BB, .893 OPS.

These are Proscia’s combined numbers between High Desert and Jackson.  He’s had 24 at-bats since being called up to Jackson and only 4 hits.  3 of those hits have been home runs though.  That’s pretty neat.  You know what’s not neat?  Strikeouts.  Maybe our minor league team has been watching our major league team too much.  Proscia definitely has power and can get some extra base hits but he swings and misses too much.  If he could cut that down just a bit he could become a really interesting prospect like a few other third base prospects in the system.  Who would have thought the M’s most interesting position player prospects would be at SS and 3B.  Have the Mariners had a good shortstop since Carlos Guillen?  Have they ever had a good third baseman not named Beltre? Sorry Steve, this paragraph was supposed to be about you.  I forgot.  Strike out less and hit more!

Johermyn Chavez (RF) – .287/.357/.436, 3 HR’s, 6 2B’s, 10 RBI’s, 21/10 K/BB, .793 OPS.

Chavez has been hurt for the past few weeks but otherwise he’s been about what we expected.  He strikes out a lot but otherwise has put average numbers.  He’s another guy who had a great year at High Desert in 2010 but still hasn’t put it together in Jackson.

Joseph Dunigan (OF) – .303/.357/.568, 7 HR’s, 10 2B’s, 2 3B’s, 21 RBI’s, 38/9 K/BB, .925 OPS, 6 SB.

Power! Strikeouts…. Power!  I wouldn’t have guessed before the season that Dunigan would be the M’s outfield prospect who’s having the best season.  He’s 26, in AA, and was pretty crappy last year.  But, he has 19 extra base hits.  Double that and you have his strikeouts.  The strikeouts are the only thing that keep me from taking Dunigan very seriously.  He’s always had decent power, a bad average and a lot of strikeouts.  The average has improved but will it stay that way.  With 38 of his 133 at-bats ending in K’s I would guess no, but hopefully I’m wrong.  Thus far, he may be the biggest surprise of the season.  You go, Joe!  By the way, Dunigan has 19 extra base hits and only 21 RBI’s.  Is this normal?  It seems like that’s a lack of RBI’s or maybe I’m way off.

We get to the pitchers after the jump.  It’s all good news after the jump (well, mostly). Continue reading →

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