brian moran
Let’s Talk Some Winter Meetings
We got the Winter Meetings going on this weekend and as you hear mentioned consistently by just about every media news source this is often a place where the ground work for the “big” off-season deals begins to be laid. JJ Putz, Cliff Lee both deals started at this point and while one was consummated here and one wasn’t both get their roots from here.
I’ll be honest and a bit of a buzz kill I really still am not sold that any “big” really happens this off-season. While it certainly is appealing considering the state of the roster it just doesn’t make sense with the large amount of question marks facing this team. From Justin Smoak and Mike Carp to Franklin Gutierrez and Casper Wells. Not to mention Alex Liddi, Trayvon Robinson, Kyle Seager and Adam Moore.
As I pointed out earlier Greg Johns highlighted a few Jack Zduriencik quotes he also made out a sort of shopping list for the team. I figured I’d throw out a few thoughts on the list.
Tags: Bobby LaFromboise, Brendan Ryan Luis Rodriguez, brian moran, Casper Wells, Cesar Jimenez, Dexter Fowler, erik bedard, kevin millwood, Michael Saunders, Munenori Kawasaki, nick franklin, Off-Season, Seth Smith, Travis Snider, Will Venable, winter meetings
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AFL Day 2: Snow Gets The Win!
Anyone that reads this blog should understand that acknowledge that wins are an irrelevant stat. So whether Forrest Snow gets the win or someone else gets the win it doesn’t matter to me. But, it’s just a flashy title.
I don’t have a lot of … [visit site to read more]
Tags: Arizona Fall League, brian moran, Forrest Snow, Steve Hensley
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Prospects 80-100, It Is Finished
Finally…. at long last. This list is finished. I know it took a lot longer to assemble this than what I had initial planned and I think next year I’ll be a little more prepared. But again this list is so fluid. It’s crazy.
Disclaimer: I have said it with all previous incarnations and of course I’ll repeat it now. This is an arbitrary list and there is room for argument just about everywhere and anywhere. But, we’ve done it enough internally and this is what we came up with.
This list is not done professionally. I freely admit that we are amateurs and that this has been done entirely in recreation and the majority of it was compiled by using information that has been posted elsewhere and is freely available for others to find themselves while incorporating their on field production. I, nor anyone else, is claiming this is a better product than what anyone else has done and it’s most importantly in an effort to give some of these players the credit and recognition they are due in this organization that we love.
Alright, if you need it here is review:
Tags: Bobby LaFromboise, brian moran, Denny Almonte, Efrain Nunez, Fray Martinez, Hassiel Jimenez, Jean Acevedo, Jharmidy De Jesus, Jonathan Arias, Jonathan Hesketh, Jose Leal, Jose Valdivia, Matthew Bischoff, Nathan Melendres, Nolan Diaz, Rafael Fernandez, Reynaldo Sabala, Richard White, Roenis Elias, Roman Morla, Top 100
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Arizona Fall League Announcements
Tags: Adam Moore, Arizona Fall League, brian moran, Chih-Hsien Chiang, Danny Hultzen, Forrest Snow, Minor Leagues, nick franklin, Steven Hensley
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Investing In The 2011 Mariners
Over the weekend I wrote an article about Investing vs. Selling in relation to the Mariners 2011 season. Last night the Mariners won again and there is a lot of enthusiasm being spread about as to where this season could go. Now, I’m cautiously optimistic and think that with the division issues the Mariners could be headed for a third or even with luck a second place finish.
But the reality is they don’t have the present pieces to win the division. REPEAT AFTER ME: “The Mariners don’t have a real shot to win the division this year”. But as I wrote yesterday there is an opportunity.
If the Mariners want to take advantage of the situation presented they need to act quickly. While the Mariners are returning some key pieces to the 25-man roster in Franklin Gutierrez (this past week), Shawn Kelly (sometime soon) and will eventually see the arrival of prized prospect Dustin Ackley this team is still in need of upgrades in order to have a legit chance to win the division this year.
Jason Churchill wrote about this late last night/early this morning. I agree with his premise in that there is a pretense that the Mariners aren’t 80+ win team right now. But, there lies the potential to grab a few pieces and in enough time those pieces could make the difference between the Mariners winning 77 – 80 games to 85+ games.
I like a few of the names on Churchill’s list (Kubel/Ludwick/Nix) for a variety of different reasons.
The problem that I see with going after the possible upgrades in left are that Carlos Peguero has been making good progression at the major league level. This season was suppose to be about giving the young guys a chance and he has been hitting things extremely hard, taking walks and not striking out too much. While it’s a small sample size and he has been swinging way (WAY) too much at pitches out side the zone there is still potential there. I’m more for giving it time than going for any .
As for upgrading third base and Chone Figgins there isn’t much out in the league that works here. Sure you could go for an Aramis Ramirez but he costs prospects and the Cubs aren’t going to give up one of their “perceived” big bats for nothing. That said I’d feel uncomfortable about acquiring him at this point. While he’s a fit for someone like the Indians, Athletics or Blue Jays (should they stay in the mix) his skill set isn’t very conducive to Safeco. It’d be a repeat of Adrian Beltre, only in my mind worse.
Instead of acquiring someone I would either attempt to trade Figgins or just bench him in lieu of Luis Rodriguez. I think Rodriguez could potentially offer some upside that is cheap being internal and he is also a switch hitter. There has been a growing “#FreeLuisRodriguez” hash on twitter and I suspect it will only continue at this point. It also allows the Mariners to use Adam Kennedy as a pinch hitter for Brendan Ryan/Jack Wilson.
As Jason Churchill explained in his article there are a few reasons to hold onto Jack Cust. While he isn’t hitting home runs he’s not a black hole either and is still producing. I personally hold onto him. Maybe he comes around and you don’t have to make a move.
After I said that the Mariners have to act quickly it doesn’t seem like I think there are a lot of moves to make, right? Well, if the Mariners wanted to make a move these are two that I support.
Prior to the jump understand that I preface this with that fact I’m in favor of holding pat seeing what happens. I’d prefer to get something for Bedard and try not to push guys like Pineda and Ackley too far or hard.
But if Jack’s job depends on it and they feel they have to go for the division this year this is how I’d do it.
… [visit site to read more]
Tags: Adam Moore, Adrian Beltre, Alex Gordon, alex liddi, Aramis Ramirez, Blake Beavan, Brandon Maurer, brian moran, Carlos Peguero, dustin ackley, Franklin Gutierez, gabriel noriega, Geovany Soto, greg halman, James Gillheeney, james jones, Jonathan Hesketh, josh fields, luis rodriguez, Luke Scott, Mariners General, Matt Kemp, mauricio robles, Michael Pineda, Michael Saunders, miguel olivo, nick franklin, prince fielder, rich poythress, Yoervis Medina
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Ryan Anderson Relief Squad:THE RETURN
I kind of fell away from completing this with all my traveling. But, I have sometime and wanted to finish it up.
You can see the previous posts here and here and actually if you haven’t noticed I’ve also created a tab for referencing all of the “Ryan Anderson Relief Squad” articles under the “The Minors” tab. The tab name itself is stupid … I just really couldn’t think of anything better and was just trying to make some thing useful for the site.
As a reminder the purpose of this team is to point out individuals within the Mariners organization that have posted impressive numbers that have gone unnoticed. They have achieved some cool little thing that I noticed and though “Hey, if X, X, X and X all went well for them they could be a major league player”.
Not all of these guys are prospects and in a few cases there is a 90% chance are future organization guys. But hey, you never know and they have produced something useful in the past to be here. Now again instead of just going with the obvious prospects I have my own little choices.
Anyways, without further ado here is the Bullpen Members for the epic “Ryan Anderson Relief Squad”
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LHRP – Edward Paredes
| Year | Age | Tm | IP | H | ER | BB | SO | BF | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 23 | 2 Teams | 4.75 | 55.0 | 59 | 29 | 31 | 47 | 256 | 1.636 | 0.3 | 5.1 | 7.7 | 1.52 |
| 2010 | 23 | West Tenn | 3.63 | 34.2 | 35 | 14 | 16 | 35 | 155 | 1.471 | 0.3 | 4.2 | 9.1 | 2.19 |
| 2010 | 23 | Tacoma | 6.64 | 20.1 | 24 | 15 | 15 | 12 | 101 | 1.918 | 0.4 | 6.6 | 5.3 | 0.80 |
| AA (3 seasons) | 4.98 | 47.0 | 49 | 26 | 28 | 47 | 217 | 1.638 | 0.6 | 5.4 | 9.0 | 1.68 | ||
| AAA (3 seasons) | 6.32 | 31.1 | 33 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 153 | 1.755 | 0.3 | 6.3 | 6.3 | 1.00 | ||
Edward Parades is a dirty engima that might confuse a few people on why he’s here. Paredes is a master against left handed hitters. His slider has nasty two plane break coming from the left side but from what is most commonly written about him he has no real change-up that can effectively get hitters out from the right side.
Last year in AA he pitched in 34 IP and struck out 35. His splits at West Tennessee last year made it obvious that he could potentially help the club. FIP 1.21 vLHB and a 14/1 K/BB ratio. However his 15/21 K/BB ratio a long with his 4.01 FIP suggest that he really needs that change-up to work for him to be an effective reliever.
After his promotion to Tacoma Paredes showed signs of struggling against all hitters, right and left, but he can down right dominate lefties and even with some of his bad appearances early this spring I suspect once he gets settled in and make adjustments he’ll be just fine…. against left handers.
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RHRP – Willy Kesler
| Year | Age | Tm | Lev | IP | H | ER | BB | SO | BF | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 22 | Everett | A- | 1.47 | 30.2 | 23 | 5 | 10 | 33 | 122 | 1.076 | 0.0 | 2.9 | 9.7 | 3.30 |
| 2011 | 23 | Clinton | A | 2.00 | 9.0 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 11 | 33 | 0.667 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 11.0 | |
| 2 Seasons | 1.59 | 39.2 | 29 | 7 | 10 | 44 | 155 | 0.983 | 0.2 | 2.3 | 10.0 | 4.40 | |||
I always feel bad for willy. He was one of the first of the 2010 draftees to really embrace the Seattle Mariner blogsphere and fans via social media. Ironically if you do a search for Willy Kesler on twitter the only options that come up are Willy Kesler or Charlie Sheen. True Story.
But, despite his fixture within twitter Willy seems often to be forgotten for his on the field accomplishments. He made a speedy recovery from Tommy John surgery that happened in 2008 and was back pitching within 10 month for 2009 but experienced more injury delays that side tracked him in his Junior year. Back for his senior year in 2010 at New Mexico he struck out 97 and walked 25 in 100 1/3 innings as a starter.
After the draft it seems the Mariners wanted to protect his arm a bit as Willy was converted to a relief/closer for everett where pitched another 30 innings and struck out 33 while walking only 10.
Obviously he has some swing-and-miss stuff. From what I understand he can touch 94-95 but sits in the low 90′s. A 23 year-old in Low-A he has a bit of an advantage on some of the younger hitters. Which has already displayed this year with 9 strike outs and 0 walks in 7 innings of relief. I don’t know if he’ll spend much time in Clinton but I’d like to see the Mariners give him an opportunity at High Desert this year.
Take a look at Boydwonder’s blog to see his written interview from last year. There is also the youtube video of him while with the Everett Aquasox.
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LHRP – Brian Moran