Mariners Sign Preston Vancil

I know, I can't believe it either. Look out, Neftali Feliz.

Vancil, pictured here, appears to be a right-handed thrower of baseballs, which helps to explain why he's been signed by a baseball organization. A 23 year old starter who went undrafted out of Division 2 Abilene Christian University (alma mater of the unforgettable Bill Gilbreth), Vancil led the Lone Star Conference in strikeouts and finished #4 in ERA as a senior before advancing to the independent Frontier League for the summer, where he was bad. He did throw the Florence Freedom's first ever no-hitter, and he only needed 149 pitches to do it, so that says something about both Vancil and Vancil's manager. Just can't pull a guy when he's chasing that kind of history.

What we know:

• Vancil ran a 2.3 K/BB as an ACU junior
• Vancil ran a 3.4 K/BB as an ACU senior
• Vancil ran a 1.4 K/BB with Florence, but did manage to avoid many hits
• Vancil did enough to catch someone's eye and earn a team workout last week
• Following his workout, Vancil received both a contract and an invite to minor league ST

What we assume:

• Vancil throws a fastball in the 75-100mph range
• Vancil is at the very least aware of how the terms "breaking ball" and "off speed" are defined
• Vancil is not Yuniesky Betancourt

In all seriousness, while it's easy to snark about some complete unknown, the fact of the matter is that someone in the organization thinks he's interesting, and because of that Vancil's probably having the best week of his life. So there are your warm fuzzies for the night as we all take a little break from laughing at the Mets. Ha ha. Stupid Mets.