Mariner Minors: 03/12/2006

Mariner Minors

Thursday, March 16, 2006

MiLB.com M's System Review

I swear I already saw one of these for this season, but I have to say that this one goes into a lot more depth than the others I've seen. A lot of people wouldn't put Blackley in the top five after the injury, and that remains a point of contention. There are interesting choices elsewhere, like suggesting C Danny Santin as a breakout candidate, and they name-drop some summer leaguers I've been pretty high on in the last section. I can't say I saw that one coming, but with various other sites exploring the minor leagues more and more, the content can only get better.

In other news, I'm done with the SECA and Runs Created for the past minor league season and am in the process of getting it all organized. Churchill helped me out with the table templates, so give him some thanks when they go up. Expect them about a week from now.

posted by Jay Y. @ 10:01 AM

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

The First Cut

This time, from the PI Blog.

To bring it down to the basics...

Released: RHP Jeff Heaverlo
To Tacoma: RHP Renee Cortez, LHPs Travis Blackley and Cesar Jimenez
To San Antonio: RHPs Yorman Bazardo and Marcos Carvajal, IF Oswaldo Navarro, and OF Wladimir Balentien
To Minor League Camp: LHP Lindsay Gulin, C Andy Dominique, and IF Rayon Lampe

Heaverlo's release was a little surprising, as I figured they'd try to give him a longer tryout.

posted by Jay Y. @ 9:33 AM

Balentien Gets It

Courtesy of a story in the TNT today...

“I swing at a lot of bad pitches. I hurry too much at the plate. I’ve got to establish a strike zone and stay with it, have more discipline,” Balentien said. “I know all that, but doing it isn’t easy.”

-----

Last year, for instance, he worked up the courage to talk to third baseman Adrian Beltre.

“Adrian told me to learn the pitchers I faced, to remember them and what they threw me,” Balentien said. “He said until I got two strikes, I should look for my pitch. With two strikes, you have to adjust, but until two strikes, try to hit only your pitch.”

Pentland insists he isn’t about to remake Balentien’s swing, despite the strikeouts.

“I never try to speed up a swing. If anything, I slow hitters down. A pitch comes from 60 feet at 95 mph, but you have more time up there than you think,” he said. “If you shorten a swing, you’ve got more time still. Balentien is coming along fine.”

There's also some mention of pitch recognition and whatnot. Saying that you understand something and putting it into practice are two different things, but I still appreciate that he's able to figure out where his problems lie and not assume that he's going to get to the big leagues by taking the biggest cut anyone's ever seen.

posted by Jay Y. @ 9:23 AM

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Random News Bit

Found this one over at MinorLeagueBall...

The Twins recently signed a Dutch pitcher who is measured at 7'1, and would become the tallest pitcher ever in the majors should he reach it. The M's (unsurprisingly) were also interested in him last summer, but the Twins had been talking to him for years before that and he pretty much decided on them no matter what the M's offered.

International scouting... fun stuff...

posted by Jay Y. @ 6:15 PM

Monday, March 13, 2006

Adam Jones' Journal

Moving on to better news, MiLB.com has started a series of player journals for the '06 season, and Adam Jones was selected to be one of those featured, turning in his first journal earlier today.

You have to like his attitude about things.

posted by Jay Y. @ 2:56 PM

Huang Gone?

I've held off on reporting this one until I got some additional confirmation, but as was reported in the comments earlier, RHP Chia-an Huang and his younger brother have gone missing. Huang did not report to the airport to catch his flight back to the U.S., and neither his agent nor anyone in the M's player development department seems to know where he has gone.

I talked to The Taiwanese Terror about this and he's been hearing the same reports. Huang appears to be dodging his financial problem, as it's assumed that he's blown all of his 700k signing bonus. There were rumors that he spent 100k of it in one month, and while I did remember hearing about it at the time, I had tried to force it out of my mind, hoping that he could get back on track. For the time being, it appears the Huang opted to run from his problems instead of working through them. We may be hoping for a happy ending here, given his potential, but I don't see that happening so easily.

When I was talking to him, TT went on to inform me that Huang comes from a poor family situation: divorced parents, disabled father, living off government handouts, etc etc. The M's probably knew this coming in. They've rarely shied away from players coming from difficult circumstances, hoping to be a steadying influence on them. Most of the time, it works out well enough, and you'll rarely hear another word about it, but these are the instances that you'll hear the most press coverage on.

For some of these guys, getting that signing bonus is the equivalent of "making it", and not every player knows what to do with it. Some of them blow it right away on various trinkets and luxuries, and don't quite grasp what they needed to do to earn it. The worst of them blow it on drugs, and there are a few notable examples of that in the greater minor league world, though the M's haven't had too much of that bringing them down. Sometimes, baseball is just the way out, and it works both ways. With some players, they play to escape the economic conditions of their homeland, sometimes trying to send money back when they can. With others, it's a way of hitting the big time and getting all that stuff they always wanted, but could never have otherwise. This is neither the first time it has happened nor will it be the last.

posted by Jay Y. @ 1:41 PM