Mariner Minors: 02/19/2006

Mariner Minors

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Another Catcher

My goodness... The indie league Gary Railcats sold the contract of C Jose Yepez to the M's. I've lost track of how many times the M's have signed a catcher this offseason, and with Rivera's job as backup being questioned by some, this may not be the end of it.

Yepez, 24, is a guy whose name I heard before, but couldn't place given his mediocre track record. I soon figured out that it was because he spent the LVBP season as the backup for the Lara Cardenales, who have an agreement with the M's and often receive players from our system in the offseason. Over the course of 42 at-bats, Yepez hit .190/.271./262 there. He spent six years in the Jays system, posting decent K/BB rates but otherwise posing no threat in the box. His power ranges from okay to non-existant from year to year, but leans more to the former in recent seasons. For the Railcats last year, he had a double every twelve and a half at bats, twenty-one on the year, which tied him for third on his team, but overall his performances weren't much to get excited about. In affiliated ball, he never got out of advanced-A, and I don't have a lot of expectations for him. Given that the article mentions the possibility of him returning if he doesn't find a home in the system, I'm guessing that I'm not alone in my view.

posted by Jay Y. @ 4:19 PM

Friday, February 24, 2006

Mariners Sign Aussie Right-hander

The Mariners have agreed to a contract with right-handed pitcher Tom Ellis. Ellis is the second player the M's have signed out of Victoria, after Travis Blackley. The metric system isn't my forte, but it looks like he's about 6'4 and 225 lbs. He'll be turning eighteen this week.

As much as I like int'l signings, I don't think we'll be seeing a lot of him this year. He'll be in spring training with everyone else, then he's off to the major league academy in Queensland, over to Cuba for an under-19 tournament, then back to Arizona for the Instructional League.

Does take a bit of the sting off other recent transactions though.

posted by Jay Y. @ 10:10 AM

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Bench Bat?

Dude. That's not a word I break out too often on the blog, but it seems necessary in this instance. The Mariners signed 1B Roberto Petagine to a minor league contract, with a camp invite. Petagine, for those of you just joining us, was putting up Hideki Matsui-lite numbers in Japan, and probably our best candidate right now for lefty masher off the bench. Not that we have a good selection there or anything.

Again: dude.

posted by Jay Y. @ 9:15 AM

Monday, February 20, 2006

Yet Another Minor League Catcher Signed

The M's have dug up another independant league catcher, signing former Evansville Otter and Bockton Rox Jason Radwan to a minor league contract.

Radwan, 28, started his pro baseball career in the independant leagues and returned there after spending 2002 in the Dogers system. He's shown some decent power at times, but he's kind of been all over the place in certain areas of his offense.

Overall, this is a continuation of a lot of the minor league signings you'll find later in the season. You sweep up a lot of these guys, throw them into the fray, and see who survives. This happened last year as well, a lot of catchers signed, and comparitively few who stuck. This is what we have to work with, unless some international signing is announced any time soon.

posted by Jay Y. @ 4:37 PM

Sunday, February 19, 2006

News Around the Minors (2/19/06)

Not much going yet, but we are getting closer to the season, slowly but surely.

The Australian WBC roster has been announced, with LHPs Travis Blackley and Ryan Rowland-Smith as Mariners representatives. Former Tacoma Rainiers and fellow LHPs Craig Anderson and Damian Moss also made the cut.
Someone out there is going to be wonder why Blackley is on the roster when he's coming off injury, so I'll redirect you to a Blackley article at ITP that Jason wrote not long ago. He's throwing, but not with maximum effort and if they have to sub someone in, I suppose that they will.

On the topic of left-handers and Tacoma Rainiers, the Tacoma News Tribune did a Bobby Livingston feature that gives some insight into his approach, from his own perspective. The content the TNT puts out is solid, and they often explore different angles of things that the two primary papers don't get around to, such as an article on the end of last season for Sherrill and Mateo (but mostly Sherrill).

Rotoworld did their own take on the top ten prospects of each AL West team. This list is a bit different from the last one...

1. Adam Jones - OF - DOB: 08/01/85 - ETA: Aug. 2007
2. Shin-Soo Choo - OF - DOB: 07/13/82 - ETA: April 2007
3. Jeff Clement - C - DOB: 08/21/83 - ETA: 2008
4. Chris Snelling - OF - DOB: 12/03/81 - ETA: Sept. 2006
5. Matt Tuiasosopo - SS - DOB: 05/10/86 - ETA: 2009
6. Yorman Bazardo - RHP - DOB: 07/11/84 - ETA: May 2007
7. Asdrubal Cabrera - SS/2B - DOB: 11/13/85 - ETA: 2008
8. Bobby Livingston - LHP - DOB: 09/03/82 - ETA: July 2006
9. Travis Blackley - LHP - DOB: 11/04/82 - ETA: Sept. 2006
10. Rene Rivera - C - DOB: 07/31/83 - ETA: Now

I can't say I agree with everything there...

The Wisconsin Post-Crescent is already getting prepped for the T-Rats with a preseason article. It doesn't offer much, and minor league assignments certainly haven't been decided yet, but it has some info in there and mentions that Wisconsin native Lance Painter will be taking on the role of pitching coach this coming season.

Baseball: It's coming.

posted by Jay Y. @ 10:53 PM