Prospect Insider - M's add four

M's add four

By Rick Randall

By 11-24-2010

The Seattle Mariners have been busy with some minor league signings that could affect the 25-man roster over the past few days. First by inking right-handed reliever Justin Miller and infielder Sean Kazmar last week, then they re-signed lefty Chris Seddon, right-hander Yusmeiro Petit and outfielder Mike Wilson yesterday, and finally they added four more today.

Miller has been in the NL for most of the last four seasons and put up a 3.76 ERA and 1.31 WHIP over 189 1/3 relief innings.

Kazmar had 46 plate appearances for the 2008 Padres and has primarily played 2B/SS in the minors. He's considered adequate at both spots.

We all know about the re-signings, here are the new guys to the organization: INF Luis Rodriguez, RHP Charlie Haeger, LHP Fabio Castro and RHP Chris Smith.

Each has big-league experience.

None of these nine signings are big grabs, but there are possible 25-man implications down the road.

Rodriguez, in particular, could be a factor as he is a switch-hitting infielder that can play second, third and shortstop. He's 30 years old, isn't dazzling with the glove and he's even less so with the bat (and doesn't have speed), but as a reserve middle infielder with 363 games of MLB experience, he is useful to some extent.

Haeger is the 27 year-old knuckleballer that struck out 12 Marlins in an April start last season and was a darling for a day in Dodgerland, then bounced back to reality and ended the season with an 8.40 ERA.

He has quite a bit of MLB experience with the Dodgers, White Sox and Padres -- but like we saw firsthand with R.A. Dickey a few years back (and after he left), you never not what you're getting with a knuckleballer.

Castro is a diminutive lefty (5-foot-7) has pitched in 30 bi-league games for the Rangers and Phillies starting in 2006 and split his time between the pen and rotation last season for Triple-A Pawtucket and posted a 4.93 ERA. He's pitched very well in the Dominican Winter League as a starter with a 1.61 ERA in five starts there this off-season. We all know that the M's have a lot of bullpen options in-house, but not many lefties.

Castro has held lefties to a .070 average in 45 at-bats, and has had success against them in the minors, too, although primarily in a starting role.

Scouts do see a bit of a play-up in Castro's stuff in shorter stints, and his control has been better in the role, too. Could be useful in Seattle.

Chris Smith is a 29 year-old righty with 50 relief appearances under his belt, primarily coming in 2009 in
Milwaukee where he was decent (4.11 ERA and .232 BAA). For his career he sports rates of 6.9 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9.

All of these guys may be organizational fodder, or one or four of them may spend time with the big league club this season. At the least you'll be able to catch most of them in Tacoma.

m\'s-add-four

Comments
The following 22 comment(s) for this article are shown below:

1. By: Lailoken on 11-24-2010 19:29:53
Smith is interesting. He converted to relief work in AAA & has a 9 K/9 there in 188 innings.

Too bad Rodriguez isn't much with the glove because his big uptick in power last year is interesting.

Miller is definitely nice for depth. Exit Shell & Villareal enter Miller.

Haeger sure had a rough 2010.

Consider me amazed that the Mariners signed someone with the first name of Fabio & that Lookout Landing has a thread with only two comments. There should be a gargantuan thread with many funny pictures on that. Sad, really.

Kazmar: bleh.

Glad that Wilson re-signed. He still has platoon potential as a corner OF. We just happen to have Saunders with a rough platoon split in LF & a RF who also swings a lefty stick. Too bad for Wilson, Ichiro never should have a day off unless he's injured.

2. By: rosterbatorextraordinaire on 11-25-2010 01:09:57
Saunders was the first LH bat to take Lester deep in 2010 and that was after a couple months of the season had gone by already. Long story short, if Saunders can go 2 for 3 with a HR, double, and a walk against one of the best LH starters in baseball, who happens to destroy lefties, than I think it's reasonable to assume that he could learn to overcome his platoon split if we'd actually just let him be a regular.

Platooning anybody under the age of 25 or 26 is stupid, unless the guys you are platooning have 4th OF ceilings. Saunders ceiling is a hell of a lot better than that and should be treated as such. Wilson is really a 4th OF/PH righty should he make the 25-man roster. He has limited to no value as a platoon partner because of his defensive limitations as an outfielder. Plus he has limited value because he kills breaking balls and struggles against fastballs. In today's game, you HAVE to be able to destroy a big fastball because almost every pitcher throws 93+ mph.

3. By: Edman on 11-25-2010 01:20:08
Small sample sizes mean nothing. There are bad players who tear up certain good pitchers.

Saunders is what he is, until he proves otherwise. It's now up to him to earn at bats, not up the the M's to give them to him for any other reason than he proves his can hit.

4. By: maqman on 11-25-2010 13:06:48
I like how Z shops in the bargain bin, you can never know what you might find there. The knuckleballer at least has some entertainment value. Wilson is worth keeping in the system in hope that he or Nelson, Halman or Carp ever figure it out.

5. By: rosterbatorextraordinaire on 11-25-2010 14:20:47
repitions = repetitions

6. By: rosterbatorextraordinaire on 11-26-2010 13:20:10
Comment deleted. User not adhering to previous warnings. Strike 3.

7. By: Chris Crawford on 11-26-2010 17:44:09
Guys, the reason comments like this get deleted are for two reasons (btw, was not me who deleted the comment).

1. People come here to read mostly Jason and somewhat me, but also to read the comments. When the comments are so long, we get MULTIPLE REPORTS from people -- not from Jason and I -- readers who complain about how long the comments are. Sure, I get annoyed when I see a page worth of stuff, but me getting annoyed means nothing to the emails we get saying can so and so stop with the long comments please. It's not a Jason and I thing, it's a you guys thing.

2. We appreciate wordpress, but it's limited. The long comments overlap and make the site look funky, and that leads to people not being able to comment, this just happened on a thread not that long ago.

I hate hate hate editing anything, whether you believe it or not (though once again, was not the one who deleted the comment, not that it matters, I probably would have). Censorship sucks. It really does. But it's a necessary evil when it not only makes the viewing experience less fun but it destroys our functionality.

Sorry.

8. By: StandinPat on 11-26-2010 18:00:46
Chris,

No need to apologize. I don't think I'm the only one that would say the posts in question were a pain, an annoyance, an didn't add anythig of note to the site.

9. By: dawgncarolina on 11-26-2010 19:45:54
Dude has been warned a million times to cut out the verbosity. Bottom line, this is Jason's blog (with major assists from Chris and other writers). If rosterbator or anyone else feels the need to spew 1500 words a night, he should start his own blog. I have zero problem with you guys enforcing your standards for the site.

10. By: Jason A. Churchill on 11-26-2010 19:46:11
It's been taken care of. The commenter was not happy and whined about it and cried censorship and basically tried to tell me that such events will kill Prospect Insider.

This commenter also said that there are 100 sites that offer the exact same thing PI does, so he will apparently be going to one or more of those to do his thing now, since he's been banned here.

But all of you should know this -- this commenter wasn't banned for WHAT he or she said, but instead for completely ignoring the request made by the site's administrator(s) to shorten the posts.

11. By: Jason A. Churchill on 11-26-2010 19:49:02
We aren't nazis here. We don't edit or delete comments because people disagree with us or have an opinion we don't like. There's ZERO evidence of that anywhere.

I do disagree with comments and express that disagreement, sometimes strongly, sometimes not-so-strongly, but the comments do not get deleted or edited.

If there is vulgarity or other clear violations, then we step in. And to be clear, I deleted the comments today, not Chris, not Paul, not Rick, not Douche Bag No. 4.

My house, my rules. End of story.

12. By: shortstop9 on 11-26-2010 20:10:24
Lets face it-we are the AL Pittsburgh Pirates.This team will do nothing this year and just go with what we got.It just sucks sitting back and watching all the other teams get better and we do nothing.Hey these minor league additions are our highlight.

13. By: Jason A. Churchill on 11-26-2010 20:25:03
What teams have gotten better thus far outside the Dodgers and Tigers?

The Angels have done nothing, the Rangers have done nothing, the A's may be wasting their cash on a No. 4 starter -- that is better for Seattle than the A's doing nothing -- the Yankees and Red Sox haven't done anything, either.

It's November 26, not January 26.

14. By: baseballman on 11-26-2010 21:38:13
Any news on Bedard? Is he "fully healthy" (as can be with him)? Any chance the Ms give him a minor league deal, or another incentive laden deal or has that ship sailed?

Of all the "bargain bin"/reclamation project SP's weve talked about, it seems like hes the best or has the ability to be the best available. If people can get over the trade (I can, and have, its not his fault the Ms emptied the farm) or him being hurt...

15. By: Jason A. Churchill on 11-26-2010 22:08:57
I haven't even heard about him throwing or anything, but he won't be pitching anytime soon anyway. I wouldn't guarantee him a dime in 2011.

16. By: Blowgun7 on 11-26-2010 22:22:18
Aww, tough news regarding the rosterbator..

I was so looking forward to hearing how we were gonna get Mike Trout given that he will be expendable when Anaheim signs Crawford..

Im sure it wouldn't take more than Moore and Triunfel.

17. By: micahjr on 11-27-2010 00:55:47
If I could rec up this comment, Blowgun7, I would do it.

Well said!

18. By: dawgncarolina on 11-27-2010 11:44:48
Godwin > Bator

19. By: Bionic_ben23 on 11-27-2010 17:34:47
JAC, Seattle needs a Lefty Specialist. One of which who is cheap, has expirience, and could bag a couple young players at the 31'st trade deadline. Any fit there in George Sherrill?

20. By: Jason A. Churchill on 11-27-2010 17:45:06
Only if he getd non tendered. Also could check in on Mahay. The rest are too expensive to make much sense.

21. By: bavasisabum on 11-30-2010 03:03:17
Not sure if this is the same Rick I know but this is Reese. Good to see your still involved with the game. Get ahold of me if you get a chance.

22. By: Rick Randall on 11-30-2010 14:34:07
I'm a North End guy, Reese. Snohomish County. Common name, it happens.

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