Yesterday Jerry Dipoto continued his obsession with Triple-A pitching talent with his trade to acquire Chase De Long from Los Angeles. With the deal, the M’s have a seemingly endless number of capable starters heading into next season.
While it’s definitely a positive to have a good amount of depth, it’s also a hindrance to the few pitching prospects in the high minors of the organization. As the Lookout Landing staff spoke about in our Slack thread yesterday, you have to imagine that at least two of Andrew Moore, Max Povse, and De Long will start the year in Double-A.
A projected Triple-A rotation looking something like Chris Heston/Ariel Miranda/Dillon Overton/Rob Whalen/De Jong will block guys like Moore and Povse from getting a chance to develop unless there is an injury somewhere above them.
The logical solution, in my mind, is for the M’s to convert one or more of Miranda, Overton, and Heston into a reliever of some sort. Miranda has vocalized his preference to start, and the M’s are currently stretching him out in spring training. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Seattle used him as a lefty specialist who could also serve as a long reliever and spot starter, sort of in the ilk of Mike Montgomery.
It’s going to be interesting to watch. For once the M’s have too many serviceable starters. Maybe Dipoto went too far this time.
Anyway, let’s look at the rest of the day’s headlines.
In Mariners news...
- Felix Hernandez is heading into the season with a chip on his shoulder. We’ve seen angry Felix before. Maybe we’ll see even more of it this year.
- It sounds like Boog Powell has lost a good deal of faith from the organization. I’ll say one thing: this organization sure loses faith in players quickly.
#Mariners manager Scott Servais on Boog Powell's place in the organization after last season's suspension. pic.twitter.com/3AzVeIvQNC
— Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) March 1, 2017
- Ryan Divish talked to Scott Servais and Mitch Haniger about the outfielder’s upcoming season. Haniger has gone from underhyped to overhyped very quickly. Hopefully he’s able to deliver on the expectations.
- Eno Sarris at Fangraphs wonders if Dan Vogelbach will be good enough for the Mariners this season. Sarris suggests that the M’s might have been better served to pick up Pedro Alvarez instead.
- Here is the baseball that will be used by the team to commemorate the franchise’s 40th year in existence.
Beautiful, @Mariners! pic.twitter.com/qIM2hTjrJk
— C&S (@cookandsonbats) March 2, 2017
Around the league...
- There’s a new website dedicated to highlighting Latino baseball players! It’s really cool.
- Travis Sawchik looks back at Mark Buehrle’s career, reminiscing on his ability to sequence pitches effectively.
- Jose Abreu claims that he ate a fake passport while on a plane from Haiti to to Miami. Uhh...alright.
- Christian Yelich is slowly turning into a Joey Votto-esque hitter, writes Jeff Sullivan. That Marlins outfield sure is good.
- David Ortiz has plans to publish a memoir in May. Considering he is one of the few nationally-recognizable faces in the sport, I’m very interested in his perspective.
- Jerry Dipoto isn’t the only hip baseball executive on the block. Theo Epstein took batting practice off of Ryan Dempster yesterday.
Anders’ picks...
- Former UW standout Isaiah Thomas joined a pretty exclusive list last night in a win against the Cavaliers.
IT4 is 1st player with at least three 30-pt games vs Cavs in a single season since The Answer and D-Wade (2005-06). pic.twitter.com/95IIYBYh87
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 2, 2017