Prospect Insider - The Cycle: Spring Training

The Cycle: Spring Training

By Chris Crawford

By 03-19-2011

PEORIA, ARIZONA -- Last year, Prospect Insider gave you the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the 2010 Mariners season -- with an emphasis on the bad and ugly due to unforeseen awfulness.

This year, we're going to give you something similar, but we've pumped up the creativity volume. We call it "The Cycle," and it will take you on a magical journey through the comings and goings of the baseball season -- taking a look at the happenings of everything from the big league club down to players the Mariners could be targeting in the 2011 draft.

Two-out Walk
Any Mariners fan who has had the "pleasure" to watch the team since 2004 knows that patience hasn't exactly been Seattle's forte, at least at the plate. Seattle was dead last in on-base percentage last season, and over the last few drafts and international signing periods, the M's took what could only be called a lackluster approach to acquiring players that were willing to work the count.

These last few drafts, however, have been a different story, and over the last couple of days the game plan we've seen out of a few minor-leaguers has been impressive. Kyle Seager's ability to get on base was well noted in High Desert last season, but seeing him in person gives you a completely different perspective. While it's unlikely that the left-handed hitting infielder will ever hit for power, he showed an interest in making the minor-league pitchers he faced work.

There are a lot of reasons to worry that his statistics are High Desert inflated, the on-base skills should remain a tool throughout his ascension through the minors.
Defensively, Seager shows average arm strength and didn't struggle making any play hit directly at him.

Call to the Bullpen -- Again
The Mariners continue to win games in big league camp this spring, but the bullpen arms continue to flail away. Manny Delcarmen was sent down Wednesday after failing to throw a strike all spring (or so it seemed), Rule 5 draft pick Jose Flores has all but vanquished his chances of making the 25-man roster after his dismal outing Thursday night, and the rest of the non-roster invitees have been forgettable at best.

Outside of Josh Lueke and some impressive velocity showings from Tom Wilhelmsen, there hasn't been much to get excited about with the current bullpen. Once again, however, the statistics really are as close to meaningless as possible for the arms who are locks to make the roster, such as Brandon League. For those non-roster invitees, the numbers need to improve, and fast, or they'll end up in Tacoma or in the unemployment line.

Subscribers can check out the rest of the The Cycle that includes videos of four prospects by clicking here.

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Comments
The following 2 comment(s) for this article are shown below:

1. By: StandinPat on 03-19-2011 21:37:12
Jason,

What are your thoughts Saunders new swing? From the little I've seen, he looked remarkably comfortable for making the adjustment such a short time ago, and modeling your stroke after Hamilton and Mourneau seems like a pretty stellar idea.

2. By: Jason A. Churchill on 03-19-2011 23:47:23
Haven't seen enough of it, Pat, but the early returns are that he absolutely loves it, and that is a great sign.

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