Daniel Vogelbach and Jean Machi: Triple-A All-Stars

Rosters for the 2017 Triple-A All-Star Game were officially released on Wednesday and representing your Tacoma Rainiers/Seattle Mariners organization this year will be RHP Jean Machi and 1B Daniel Vogelbach:

It’s been a weird year for the Rainiers. Several members of their opening day roster have spent significant time with the Mariners, including several position players and just about the entire pitching staff. In the meantime, the roster has been a revolving door of players brought in from outside the organization, (Seth Mejias-Brean, Andrew Aplin, Ryan Jackson, etc...), brief call-ups of lower level players (Brayan Hernandez, Nathan Bannister), and other short-stint guys of varying backgrounds. As a result, the pickings for an all-star event are slim, but Machi and Vogelbach emerged from the mess, turning in consistently strong first half performances.

Machi, operating as the Rainiers’ closer this season, ran a 3.03 FIP over 26.0 innings (23 appearances), striking out 21 and walking just 6. The numbers aren’t overly dominant, but his 2.42 ERA and 9 saves (second-most in PCL) do more than enough to satisfy the more traditional side of All-Star voting.

Vogelbach, meanwhile, overcame a bit of an odd start to the season and has put together a typical Vogelbach triple-slash of .292/.398/.447 over 269 plate appearances with the Rainiers in 2017. In addition to his 14.9% walk-rate, he’s knocked out 9 home runs, 8 doubles, and 3 (!!!three!!!) stolen bases.

Also featured on the PCL All-Star roster is RHP Paul Blackburn, the player the Mariners sent to Oakland for Danny Valencia in early November. Blackburn has posted a 3.05 ERA (4.35 FIP) over 79.2 innings.

The 2017 Triple-A All-Star Game will be played on Wednesday, July 12th, at 6:05 pm PDT.