MVN - Most Valuable Network

Tuesday Night Notes

I wanted to express some of my ideas about some of the recent moves and going ons in Mariner land.  First off the big news of the day is that Brandon Morrow is slated to start Friday September 5th against the New York Yankees.  The M’s sent him down to stretch him out and to see what his future could be in the starting rotation.  The reports out of Tacoma have been mostly good, but his stats have been pretty bad.  It seems that some of the troubles he had at times as a reliever are going to cost him more severely has a starter.  His control has been shaky and he has had to use a lot of pitches to get hitters out and get out of an inning.  This are all common problems of a young starter, so if anyone thinks that Morrow is going to have an instant impact is joking themselves.  He will show flashes of brilliance, but at the same time make you go crazy.

The Mariners also announced a roster move, they sent Mark Lowe down to Tacoma and called up Randy Messenger.  The move was basically to have an extra reliever that could throw because Lowe was going to be sidelined for a couple of days.  They think he will be back before 15 days so they opted to send him to Tacoma and then bring him up on September 1st when roster expands.  Messenger was signed by the team in July (released by the Giants) and has been solid down in Tacoma compiling a 6-0 2.38ERA.

In other news Miguel Batista may be moved to the bullpen for the remainder of the season.  It appears with Ryan Rowland Smith’s good start coupled with the inevitably call up of Morrow there is no longer a spot for Batista.  After a strong 2007 season Batista has struggled with his command and his health.  He has been pitching out of the bullpen for most of the second half and could see most of his 2009 season from the pen.

And one last tidbit, J.J. Putz is apparently angery at Riggleman over his decision to use Corcon instead of him in the ninth tonight.  Putz got up to warm-up and Riggleman called the bullpen and told him to take a seat.  Putz didn’t have a whole lot to say, but it does seem like the M’s are going to try and protect down the stretch.  This is a smart move, so quit complaining Putz and pitch better when the manager does put you in.

Game Recap

Minor League Report

The Mariners continued there horrendous season this evening laying down for the Chicago White Sox to a score of 13-5. Jarrod Washburn continued his downward spiral since not being traded. He was knocked out of the game in the fifth inning after allowing eight earned runs.

The offense once again lacked the crucial hit and compiled only five runs on 15 base hits. The M’s bats left 13 runners in scoring position in the defeat.

The one positive note of the game was Jeff Clement, who had his first three hit game of his career. He has shown an improved approach at the plate while continuing to hit for power. In August he has amassed a respectable .372/ .400/ .442 line at the dish. However there are still concerns on whether he will be able to stick behind the plate.

So since the Mariners have decided to packed it up for the winter, I decided to take a look at the minor league system. A number of M’s minor leaguers are having outstanding years.

Coming into the 2008 season the Mariners’ possessed a lot of high risk/high reward type prospects with the ability to prove themselves this season at the higher levels. Many have succeed beyond their expectations and have proven to be legit ML prospects.

The most exciting and risky player coming into this season was Greg Halman. He showed flashes of brilliance in Everett after being demoted from Wisconsin last season. But like many prospects the M’s decided to challenge him in high A ball this season. It went better than expected. Halman showed that he not only belonged, but became the premier power hitter in the league. In 67 games Halman hit 19 dingers and put up a robust .892 OPS and that was all the M’s needed to see to promote the 20 year old to Double A. Halman responded by hitting at a .286/ .332/ .490 clip while continuing to play solid defense. Halman could go into 2008 as a top prospect in all of baseball if he continues his hot hitting down the stretch.

Another Mariner’ farm hand that has raised a few eyebrows this baseball season has been Adam Moore. Known mostly for his glove Moore proved that he could handle the bat as well. He excelled in High Desert in 2007, but the critics still weren’t convinced since the California League is a hitter’s paradise. But Moore has proven that 2007 was no fluke. He has continued to drive the ball (.496 slugging percentage) while being patient at the plate (.389 on base percentage). Now the critics are saying he might just be the best catching prospect in the M’s minor leagues and that includes Jeff Clement.

And finally one cannot talk about breakout candidates without mentioning our prized shortstop- Carlos Triunfel. Not many prospects came into 2008 as talk about as him and for good reason. He showed that he could handle high A pitching as a 17 year old and looked to be on the verge of breaking out. Then things went wrong; he got off to a slow start, got suspended, and had yet to hit a single professional homerun. But low and behold he began to get red hot. In the second half of the season all Triunfel has done is post an OPS of .950 while collecting 7 homeruns in 45 games.

Just like other top prospects before him the M’s have decided to promote him aggressively. He has recently been promoted to Double A and will play shortstop for the final 15 games and the playoffs. Triunfel was going to start the 2009 campaign in West Tenn. anyways so this will just give him a little taste and perhaps a few things to work on during the layoff.

All and all the Mariners farm system has had a good year. Many fringe prospects have legitimized themselves and already top prospects have graduated to the pro level and have started to turn things around. 2009 looks like there will be several other high risk/high reward type players in the lower minors for the M’s and they can only hope that they handle the aggressive nature of the M’s front office as well as these three did.

Notes:

• Baseball Digest Daily on Blog talk radio interviewed former M’s prospect Chris Tillman. Tillman has proven to be a real steal in the trade involving Bedard last offseason. He is now consider one of the top arms in the minor leagues.
• Vidro was released by the Mariners and is free to sign with any other team.
• Carlos Silva was placed on the 15 day DL and was replaced by Ryan Feierabend. Feierabend didn’t pitch too well, but he was on three days rest and Riggleman said he would cut him some slack.
• Washburn was in fact claimed on waivers as was Ibanez. However the Twins and the M’s couldn’t work out a deal for Washburn so he will be with the team for the remainder of the year. Ditto for Ibanez.

Washburn Cleared Waivers and Other Tidbits

If you were like most Seattle fans, angry and confused about Washburn not getting traded, then your likely to be pretty upset today.  According to Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times, Jarrod Washburn cleared waivers without a single team putting in a claim.  This means that Seattle is on the hook for the remainder of his contract, about 13.5 million dollars, and will be with the team in 2009. 

The local media is doing spin control saying that this is good news because now the M’s can work out a deal with any team they desire.  But in reality this couldn’t be worse news for the M’s.  No one is willing to take on his entire salary and the team cannot get a player currently on a 40 man roster.  Both of these were apparently what the New York Yankees were offering before the deadline.

This is another example of the M’s overvaluing their own players and not being able to pull the trigger when it comes to trades.  Getting Washburn off the books for the rest of this year and 2009 would have benefited the M’s more than getting a mid level prospect from the Yankees.  Seattle interim GM, Lee, is auditioning for the role and might have overplayed his card here to try to impress the front office.

There is good news however, Washburn has continued to pitch effectively and could be used as trade bait this offseason.  The free agent market for starting pitchers is again very thin outside of a few marquee names and Washburn could look attractive to a team that lost out on the Sabathia sweepstakes during the winter meetings.  In addition, he will be in the last year of his contract paying him about 10 million a year, which in today’s market is a bargain for an experienced lefty starting pitcher.

Other News

• Ryan Rowland Smith will be called up from Triple A Tacoma to make the start today for the M’s.
• According to the Tacoma News Tribune, the Mariners have told Kenji he is no longer the starting catcher for the Seattle Mariners.
• Bill Bavasi found a new job with the Reds front office.
• Shannon Drayer was let go by KOMO after they were outbid for the rights to broadcast the M’s next season.

Vidro DFAed, Morrow Sent to Tacoma and Ibanez is Really Good

It took the Mariners a long time to finally make the two moves all M’s fans wanted and most baseball minds agree with; DFA Vidro and send Morrow down to the minors to stretch out.  I’m not sure if the M’s were thinking that someone would actually give us a player for Vidro, but lets give them a little props for finally making the right call.  GM Lee has done exactly what every M’s fan has wanted expect for shipping out Washburn, which could still happen.  Lee isn’t going to get the Seattle GM job, but he is making it a little bit easier on whoever does take over by taking out some of Bavasi’s trash.

Morrow made his first start in Tacoma and was limited to 34 pitches.  He apparently looked solid, but got to deep into counts to throw more than 1 2/3 innings in his debut.  This is the reason they needed to do it last year or even this year.  His control and secondary pitches aren’t were they need to be to be an affective back end of the rotation starter.  He won’t provide the M’s with enough innings to be counted on.  But at least they are making a move for the future and not the present.  By the way, when was the last time they did that?

Ibanez has shown the fans why the M’s decided to keep him around for the rest of the summer and beyond.  He has gone off since the M’s decided against trading him to the Blue Jays.  Ibanez is 8-14 with 11 RBIs in the Twins series and opens the Rays series with another homerun and a walk-off at that.  He is the only consistent threat in the M’s lineup and provides pop.  This is one of the reasons I said to sell very high on Ibanez and make sure you net two top prospects.  He’s good and will net us to top picks or provide us with a solid DH for 2009- and trade bait again.  His skills don’t look to be diminishing like many have thought and with his work-ethic and looks like he has a couple of good years left.

Finally the M’s made another good move by moving Batista into the bullpen.  This was long overdue, but because of injuries to the minor league pitching staff and the M’s pitching staff the M’s were forced to keep him in the rotation.  It appears that he has finally shown his age.  Ryan Rowland-Smith who was sent down to stretch out like Morrow will replace him in the rotation.  In addition to Ryan, Feierabend is down in Tacoma and has pitched well since coming off the DL.  He could be another option for the M’s in September and 2009.

So far the M’s have done almost everything I have wanted.  Now just get rid of Washburn, Cairo and bring up Diaz and I will be one happy camper.