Mariner Minors: 01/09/2005

Mariner Minors

Friday, January 14, 2005

Transaction Update (1/14/05)

Baseball America's most recent transaction log states that Mariners have released recently acquired infielder Kervin Jacobo. I'm also hearing reports from Rett's mom over at the ITP message boards that Rett Johnson has re-signed with the M's, or is close to it. I've yet to see it in writing elsewhere, so don't any of you jump the gun on me yet.

Jacobo, 22, was drafted in the minor league portion of the rule 5 this year with the plans of converting him from a third baseman to a pitcher. Whether they found something wrong with his arm or he refused the switch, I don't know, but he's gone now.

Johnson, 25, is (according to his mother) on his honeymoon right now and will be headed to the M's training camp in Arizona next week. If this is true, congratulations and good luck Rett. If not, please refer to the earlier disclaimer (transaction news is slow now).

On an unrelated note, there was a Matt Tuiasosopo sighting at the Huskies basketball game last night. Cool stuff, aside from the cream-colored Red Sox cap he was apparently wearing.

posted by Jay Y. @ 4:00 PM

Wait 'Til Next Year's 75-100 Prospects

Bryan Smith at Wait 'Til Next Year (link now on the sidebar) has posted his 75-100 prospects (in no particular order) to gear up for the WTNY Top 75. The lone Mariner representative on the list was right-hander Clint Nageotte...

It was hard to label Nageotte a starting pitcher or relief one, because what he’s doing now and what everyone swears he’ll be doing at one point are far different things. Nageotte, like his buddy Travis Blackley, struggled mightily in both Tacoma and Seattle this past season. Neither was ready for the Majors at all, and both pitched far worse after returning to AAA following their demotion. But Nageotte’s slider gives him a lot more future value than Blackley, since he should be converted to relief pretty soon. The Mariners return on pitching prospects lately (Nageotte, Ryan Anderson, Blackley, Rafael Soriano, Rett Johnson, Gil Meche, etc) is disastrous, and they should realize that the treatment their giving Felix Hernandez should be instilled on all players. Anyways, I think Nageotte will soon be converted into a two-pitch reliever, where he could have great success in both the set-up and middle relief slots.

As readers will wll know, I have a good amount of faith that Nags will put it together as a starter, if the back issues aren't recurring. Bryan's statements, on the other hand, echo what you will hear most of the time when talking to those outside the organization. If he sticks as a starter, fantastic, but if not, there are worse things in the world than having a Brad Lidge type reliever coming out of the 'pen.

posted by Jay Y. @ 3:48 PM

Thursday, January 13, 2005

New Agreement Between MLB and mLB

Minor League Baseball is expected to reach an agreement with Major League Baseball that would allow streaming audio AND video for the minor leagues on MLB.com. The details from USA Today...

Finally, fans in Zaire or New Zealand might be able to go online to see real-time game stats, radio calls or even Webcasts of, say, the Savannah (Ga.) Sand Gnats or Jupiter (Fla.) Hammerheads.
Major League Baseball, at its owners meeting Thursday in Phoenix, is expected to announce that mlb.com will oversee Internet and interactive media services for minor league baseball.

The 10-year deal with the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, governing more than 200 teams, means mlb.com will bring online mass marketing to the minors, whose attendance reached nearly 40 million last year.

Starting next season, mlb.com will sell minor league tickets and merchandise online and gradually increase live game audio and video coverage of games. Eventually, real-time game stats are expected to be available online for all minor league teams.

But online users will have to imagine the $2 beers.

They'll also have to supply their own collection of baseball related songs, or such was the case in Everett this year.

I'm liking this. I wonder what implications it might have on attendance in the future, but putting the resources of MLB.com at the disposal of the minor leagues sounds amazing. Real-time game stats? That's more than enough to get my attention.

Big thanks to Brad at NoPepper, whose site I found this on.

posted by Jay Y. @ 7:09 PM

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Petit v. Hernandez

At the end of last season, I kept seeing the name of Yusmeiro Petit appearing on various lists with the tag of being one of the top right-handers in all of minor league baseball. Having read a few scouting reports on Petit, I wasn't certain how he was doing it, nor why there were a handful of people running about saying Felix was overrated and elevating Petit to diety status. Not that he's bad or anything, but the two didn't quite match up.

While the idea of asking them this particular question didn't come up, someone out there has been good enough to Ask BA to compare the two pitchers...

Petit is a good prospect coming off an exceptional season (12-6, 2.26, 200-41 K-BB in 139 IP), but his stuff isn't in the same category Hernandez'. The best pitching prospect in the game. Hernandez has plus-plus pitches in his mid-90s fastball and his mid-80s curveball, and those who have seen his slider (which the Mariners haven't let him throw) say it's his best offering. For good measure, he also has a solid-to-plus changeup.

Scouts still aren't sure how Petit has dominated lower-level hitters as much as he has. His fastball has good velocity (89-93 mph) and movement but is a 55-60 pitch on the 20-80 scouting scale. His slider and changeup are solid-average and could become plus pitches. While Hernandez projects as a No. 1 starter, Petit realistically has a ceiling of a No. 3.

This year will be a big test for Petit, who figures to open in Double-A after making two starts there at the end of 2004. If he enjoys similar success in Double-A, it'll be that much easier to believe he's for real and probably will serve as a springboard for his major league debut by the end of the year.

Now all I need is a comparison to Ismael Ramirez, but I figure it will come up eventually, and poor Jim might be getting sick of all the Felix questions.

posted by Jay Y. @ 8:14 PM

Monday, January 10, 2005

More from Diamond Futures

Ordinarily, I try to lump like content together, but in this instance I've decided to break up what's going on at Diamond Futures into a post now and a post to come at an undetermined date. Mike will be taking a break from all the number crunching and table fixing pretty soon, so it makes sense to post what's going on there before he steps back for a bit.

We'll start off with the positional rankings

Starting Pitchers (5): Felix Hernandez (1), Bobby Livingston (17), Travis Blackley (83), Brandon Moorhead (110), Ryan Feierabend (132 out of 133)
Relief Pitchers (1): Cesar Jimenez (1 out of 31)
Third Basemen (1): Jesus Guzman (23 out of 24)

No catchers, first basemen, or second basemen appeared on the rankings for the M's, and the shortstop and OF rankings will be out later, but you can expect some representation there.

Next up are his top 100 hitting prospects and top 100 pitching prospects. Keep in mind that the hitters list goes up to 978 and the pitchers list goes to 582 (if you're curious about the odd numbers, it's all based on which hitters grade out), and you can check that out in the OVERALL section of the sidebar.

Hitters (3): Wladimir Balentien (38), Jose Lopez (54), Shin-soo Choo (66)
Pitchers (4): Felix Hernandez (1), Cesar Jimenez (4), Bobby Livingston (20), Travis Blackley (98)

Combining the two lists into a single top 100, you end up with Felix on top again, Cesar at 8th, Livingston at 52nd, Balentien at 65th, and Jose at 87th, an above-average representation overall.

I've seen some comments from Mike over at Brad's blog indicating that these aren't necessarily the best 100 prospects, but are more indicative of the 100 best '04 seasons according to their methods. Keep that in mind when looking at them, and also feel free to wander around the site as there is much of interest there. Just remember that the team notes aren't quite up to date, and that those will be coming in the second round as spring training gets closer.

For those interested in more top 100 lists or seeing how one stacks up against the other, I recommend the page that JDM has been putting together. I plan on adding a link to JDM's minor league pages soon.

posted by Jay Y. @ 11:29 PM