Mariner Minors: 11/12/2006

Mariner Minors

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Clement and the HBL

Baseball America has been going over their top prospects for the two American winter ball leagues and have named Clement as their number 13 HBL prospect, despite his struggles at and behind the plate.

The guys have cited lack of playing time and the four catcher rotation as part of why Clement never got into a groove (despite a few monster BPs), but there's another story up today that indicates that the Mariners have taken heed of their offensive prospects' hitting woes, and have sent Jeff Pentland and minor league hitting coordinator Alonzo Powell, along with catching coordinator Roger Hansen and Frank Mattox, to see if they can help Clement and the others make a few adjustments in the final week (and who wouldn't want to be in Hawaii this time of year?). A little surprising, but it's a good thing for the organization to be doing, both to keep the hitters from getting discouraged and to make sure they aren't getting into any bad habits with their swings.

posted by Jay Y. @ 12:54 AM

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

M's Sign Nine

and they're in the bidding for a tenth... that tenth being some sort of content editor, I'm hoping.

Edit, 9:53 pm: hey look, it's done.
Edit, twelve hours later, releases too.

I don't know when they're going to change the press release, but right now, the title is "Mariners announce agreements with nine Minor League players" (emphasis my own) and the first paragraph reads "Seattle Mariners Director of Player Development Frank Mattox today announced that the Mariners have come to agreement on 2007 minor league contracts with ten minor league free agents." And then, they list off nine players. Awesome.

In addition, they've repeated the idea that the Michael Wagner who was a signing from a while back is the one in the Rangers system who is from around here, when it's actually this dude. You're killin' me, guys.

I've gone over Wagner and Kite in the past, so I'll skip over them.

Bello, now 24, led to some fussing over at LL, mostly because everyone remembers him as an undeserving all-star last year who walked more guys than was reasonable by any conceivable standards and maintained a flukey-low ERA for much of the season. Bello was one of the guys I would harp on a lot in past years, and I didn't think anyone would ever get through to him, but check his walk rate from July on. It's down to 3.73, after averaging over five for his career. Even his season stats are an improvement that I didn't anticipate over his Wisconsin numbers, shaving off two walks per nine innings and tacking on a K. I'm thinking Scott Budner finally got through to him sometime in the season and helped with this improvement, and it doesn't hurt that he's gone from the second most flyball prone pitcher in the system (0.59, to Julio Mateo's 0.53 career average GO/AO) to slightly more passable (0.76), and yes, the light went on around the time he stopped walking guys too (just under one, after that). Helfgott and I seem to be in agreement on this one, he has a serious risk of flaming out, but he's a live arm and displayed notable improvement at a level where pitchers should not be expected to do so. It's enough to take a flier on, since he seems to be able to start now.

Cortez, 23, failed to build on his '05 "breakout", and was walking batters at a worse rate than he previously had at any point in his career (five per nine, to a career average of three). His hits jumped a bit too, so he's gone back to what looks like a triple-A player. He could make a comeback, but I can't say I'm banking on it.

Eichelberger, 23, is a random insurance arm who struck out and walked a ton of guys in Peoria. I don't know if there's a story to go along with this.

Foppert, 26, pitched just over ten innings last year before being shut down with what everyone suspected to be arm troubles. Pitchers can recover from TJ at different rates, and Foppert may be a little different as he wasn't even really a pitcher 'til college. The M's would probably know best as to what's going on with his arm, so I don't mind that they signed him. For anyone who wants to drop the token "Winn trade" reference, I'll point out that, technically, we have Jose de la Cruz too, from turning Torrealba into Carvajal into de la Cruz.

Ordonez, 34, is not to be confused with Rey Sanchez, who also played with the Mets, the Devil Rats, and the M's, but is five years older. He wasn't in affliated ball last year. Maybe he makes a play for backup utility IF, maybe he doesn't.

Torcato, 27, was a first-round pick by the Giants out of high school in '98. He was once in their top five prospects, four years running, and described as their best hitter. He also suffered a bunch of weird injuries and never quite turned into anything after moving from third base to the outfield, and then to first. He played in Charlotte last year in the White Sox system and did nothing of note. He provides Greg Dobbs with some competition for prettiest swing, apparently, but we'll see who does more with it.

Ust, 28, is a corner infielder who hits like an all-glove shortstop. I can't think of anything more to add to that.

It looks like the M's have also released Bryan Sabatella, Juan Guzman, and Alex Gary.

posted by Jay Y. @ 4:22 PM

Monday, November 13, 2006

2007 Minor League Coaching Staffs Announced

Hooray for any kind of news.

The M's announced their coaching staffs today. As speculated earlier, Eddie Rodriguez did take the minor league job and is now the manager of the Diamond Jaxx.

The manager rundown goes like this...

Tacoma: Daren Brown (up from San Antonio)
West Tenn: Eddie Rodriguez (from the Nats)
High Desert: Scott Steinmann (former T-Rats manager, took last year off)
Wisconsin: Jim Horner (returning)
Everett: Mike Tosar (from the Padres)
Peoria: Jose Moreno (up from VSL)
DSL: Raymond Mejia (returning)
VSL: Russel Vasquez (new to system)

There's a whole chart there describing the various moves.

I wonder if the Francisco Gerez on the DSL staff is the same guy who, during a cup of coffee in Tacoma, revealed himself to be several years older than his listed age. Hmmmm...

posted by Jay Y. @ 9:37 PM

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Winter League Stats (11/12/06)

Arizona Fall League
2B Michael Garciaparra: 17 G, 73 ABs, 10 R, 25 H, 3 2B, 11 RBI, 13/1 K/BB, 2 SB, .342/.392/.384
RHP Craig James: 9 G, 0-0, 4.00 ERA in 9.0 IP, 10 H, 5 R (4 ER), 7/6 K/BB, HB
RHP Stephen Kahn: 8 G, 0-0, 9.82 ERA in 7.1 IP, 14 H, 8 R (8 ER), 6/8 K/BB, HB
LHP Bobby Livingston: 6 G (6 GS), 1-3, 10.45 ERA in 20.2 IP, 37 H (2 HR), 25 R (24 ER), 17/3 K/BB, 4 HB
LHP Ryan Rowland-Smith: 10 G, 0-1, 6.23 ERA in 13.0 IP, 16 H, 10 R (9 ER), 14/8 K/BB, HB
3B Matt Tuiasosopo: 19 G, 72 ABs, 9 R, 12 H, 2B, 3B, 4 RBI, 20/6 K/BB, .167/.241/.208
OF Mike Wilson: 20 G, 74 ABs, 10 R, 18 H, 2 2B, 3B, 3 HR, 19 RBI, 27/13 K/BB, SB, .243/.356/.419

Hawaiian Winter League
LHP David Asher: 7 G (3 GS), 1-1, 5.60 ERA in 17.2 IP, 23 H (2 HR), 12 R (11 ER), 15/8 K/BB, HB
OF Sebastien Boucher: 21 G, 66 ABs, 15 R, 11 H, 2 2B, 3 3B, 3 RBI, 20/11 K/BB, 2 SB, 2 CS, 3 HBP, .167/.313/.288
C Jeff Clement: 17 G, 40 ABs, 2 R, 6 H, HR, RBI, 12/0 K/BB, HBP, .150/.171/.225
1B Reed Eastley: 20 G, 66 ABs, 4 R, 13 H, 2B, 7 RBI, 16/7 K/BB, 2 HBP, SB, .197/.289/.212
RHP Joe Woerman: 13 G, 2-0, 3.12 ERA in 17.1 IP, 15 H, 6 R (6 ER), 20/11 K/BB, 2 WP

IBAF Intercontinental Cup
IF Yung-chi Chen: 4 G, 17 ABs, 3 R, 6 H, 3B, HR, 5 RBI, 2/1 K/BB, HBP, .353/.421/.647
3B Alex Liddi: 4 G, 20 ABs, 3 R, 6 H, 3 2B, 3 RBI, 3/0 K/BB, .300/.300/.450
OF Kalian Sams: 1 G, 3 ABs, 3 H, 2 R, 3B, 4 RBI, 0/0 K/BB, 1.000/1.667/1.000

Mexican Pacific League
RHP Jorge Campillo: 5 G (5 GS), 1-2, 3.72 ERA in 29.0 IP, 20 H (5 HR), 14 R (12 ER), 27/4 K/BB, 3 WP
1B Bryan LaHair: 19 G, 64 ABs, 11 R, 15 H, 2 2B, 2 HR, 9 RBI, 16/13 K/BB, CS, .234/.359/.359

Venezuelan Winter League
RHP Nibaldo Acosta: 2 G, 0-0, 0.00 ERA in 1.1 IP, 3 H, 2/0 K/BB
OF Wladimir Balentien: 15 G, 55 AB, 13 R, 21 H, 5 2B, 3 3B, 5 HR, 13 RBI, 15/8 K/BB, 2 SB, CS, .382/.460/.855
RHP Yorman Bazardo: 7 G, 1-0, S, 1.50 ERA in 10.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R (ER), 5/2 K/BB, 2 WP, HB
RHP Cibney Bello: 3 G, 0-0, 4.15 ERA in 4.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R (2 ER), 2/4 K/BB, WP
RHP Ivan Blanco: 7 G, 1-1, 0.93 ERA in 10.0 IP, 7 H (HR), 6 R (3 ER), 9/4 K/BB
RHP Rich Dorman: 6 G (5 GS), 1-1, 2.63 ERA in 27.1 IP, 23 H (HR), 8 R (8 ER), 23/11 K/BB, WP
LHP Jose Escalona: 6 G, 0-0, 6.75 ERA in 4.0 IP, 3 H, 3 R (3 ER), 2/3 K/BB, 3 WP
RHP Emiliano Fruto: 10 G, 1-1, 5 S, 3.18 ERA in 11.1 IP, 14 H, 6 R (4 ER), 11/3 K/BB
IF Jesus Guzman: 7 G, 12 ABs, H, 5/2 K/BB, CS, .082/.214/.082
RHP Jeff Harris: 4 G (4 GS), 2-0, 2.35 ERA in 23.0 IP, 16 H (2 HR), 6 R (6 ER), 9/2 K/BB, 2 WP, 3 HB
IF Jose Lopez: 4 G, 19 ABs, 2 R, 10 H, 3 2B, 2 RBI, 1/0 K/BB, HBP, .526/.550/.684
IF Oswaldo Navarro: 14 G, 50 ABs, 4 R, 14 H, 2 2B, 5 RBI, 4/4 K/BB, CS, HBP, .280/.345/.320
1B Jon Nelson: 7 G, 25 ABs, 2 R, 4 H, 2B, 2 RBI, 6/3 K/BB, SB, .160/.276/.200
C Luis Oliveros: 5 G, 11 ABs, 2 R, 3 H, 2 HR, 8 RBI, 2/0 K/BB, .273/.273/.818
C Guillermo Quiroz: 7 G, 17 AB, 3 R, 5 H, HR, RBI, 2/4 K/BB, .294/.429/.471

New this week, we have stats from the International Baseball Federation's Intercontinental Cup, where the M's have three prospects currently playing.

Wlad continues the bombing campaign of Operation Beat The Snot Out of the Ball (official title pending), with three more doubles and two more home runs this week. Jose Lopez has joined him and currently has hits in more than half of his at-bats. The pitchers didn't have quite as many appearances on the radar, with Blanco as a no-show this week, but Bazardo, Dorman, Harris, and Fruto continued to fare well.
Campillo pitched another six innings, giving up another two hits (including a solo home run) and striking out six. Lahair is still MIA.
There's not much to be said about the HWL at this point because the M's hitters aren't living up to the billing, and that's nothing new. Woerman continues to have a good ERA, but he walked five in just three innings this week and that's no good. Asher continues to improve in small degrees.
The biggest leap forward by any of the AFL pitchers this week went to Bobby Livingston, but when your ERA is over fifteen, it shouldn't be too difficult to shave five points off. For the week, he had nine innings pitched, with four runs on nine hits and nine Ks. Not too shabby. Slight imrpovement all around for the rest of the pack. Mini G finally won himself some playing time, and though his overall production slipped a little (still trying to figure out where his walks have gone), he's remained a contributor. Mike Wilson hit a triple this week. Your "positive" note for Tui this week is the 2/2 K/BB.

While I'm here, we have had a series of international baseball articles in the local papers lately, with the P-I looking at the possibility of an Israeli professional league, and the Times doing a Rich Dorman / LVBP feature and an article on the issue of steroid testing in the summer leagues.

posted by Jay Y. @ 12:14 PM