Darren Ford Sprints Headlong Into Mariners Organization

As many of you know, I work with Grant Brisbee from McCovey Chronicles. We both write for our own sites, and we both write for Baseball Nation. There exists a Baseball Nation editorial chatroom into which we're seemingly always logged*, and earlier this afternoon, in the chatroom, Grant passed along the following tweet:

* weird syntax

That would be Darren Ford ... trying to get confirmation RT @MrszBeautifull: BIG BRO JUS GOT TRADED TO THE MARINERS

Now, there was an issue. If you look at the original Twitter account, it...does not seem like a Twitter account that would report reliable and accurate baseball news. On the other hand, Darren Ford's sister is Darren Ford's sister. Why would Darren Ford's sister lie about Darren Ford's employment status? That would be weird and a dumb thing to do.

In the end, a compromise. Darren Ford did not get traded to the Mariners. Darren Ford did not get traded to the Mariners because he didn't belong to any organization, having been designated for assignment by the Giants a couple weeks ago. Darren Ford got signed by the Mariners, to a minor league contract.

Everything you really need to know about Darren Ford is summed up in the following line:

It's a limited sample, but it doesn't make much difference. The only additional bit of information you need is that he plays center field. Darren Ford is a 26-year-old center fielder. He doesn't walk a whole lot. He doesn't hit for much power. He doesn't make enough contact. But he runs. Oh, does he run. Ford is an absolute burner, and he carries that speed with him into the field, where he's considered an asset in the middle. He's also right-handed but given his offense that really doesn't matter.

Ford, then, is here as center field depth. He's behind Franklin Gutierrez, and, I don't know, roughly on par with Michael Saunders and Trayvon Robinson. His presence gives the front office better flexibility to move an outfielder or two, if they're so inclined. It's also worth noting that Ford was originally drafted and signed by - you'll never guess - the Brewers, the old organization of Tony Blengino and Jack Zduriencik. This seems to be a recurring theme although maybe I'm making that up. That would be a weird thing to make up.

As a Darren Ford fun fact, I present to you Darren Ford's Major League debut, on September 1, 2010:

Bottom 8th: San Francisco
- M. Fontenot walked
- D. Ford ran for M. Fontenot
- T. Lincecum sacrificed to pitcher, D. Ford to second
- D. Ford to third on wild pitch, D. Ford scored on M. Olivo's throwing error

That run won the game! Yay! And boo!