Rosters expand, as do the Mariners

With rosters expanding today it was inevitable that the Mariners would call up a few minor leaguers. Sure enough, here they are:

#Mariners recall OF Stefen Romero & Jose Ramirez from AAA Tacoma; select INF Shawn O'Malley & RHP Tony Zych from AAA.

— MarinersPR (@MarinersPR) September 1, 2015

Ramirez and Romero you know, although probably to varying degrees of familiarity. O'Malley and Zych are relative unknowns, coming straight up from Jackson to join the team in Houston.

It has been pretty widely discussed that the Mariners' farm system has, like everything else about the organization, been largely a massive disappointment. From the perspective of a fan looking for hope for the future there is very little to get excited about here. There will certainly be another wave of additions (Jabari Blash, Mike Zunino, etc.) after the minor league season ends September 7th but today, this is what we have.

For myself, while I'm long past the point of feeling wins and losses in any tangible way there is always something cool about MLB debuts. I would imaging greater than 95% of the authors and readers of this website at some point fantasized about being a major league baseball player. Will Tony Zych have a long and productive major league career? Almost certainly not. But at least one day this month he will stand on the pitching rubber for the first time. In that moment what I think, what the minor league numbers or scouts say is irrelevant. He will have made it, and be firmly in control of his own destiny. It's something we'd all be luck to say for ourselves.