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Good morning everyone, happy Friday! There wasn’t a whole lot of action around the baseball universe yesterday, but here’s what you need to know for the day.
In Mariners news...
- Gary Hill, Jr. has been named the executive producer and engineer of all Mariners radio broadcasts for the 2018 season.
- Hisashi Iwakuma has started throwing again.
Around the league...
- Former No. 1 overall draft pick Mark Appel has decided to step away from the game for an indefinite period of time.
- Only seven teams have actually made improvements to their roster this winter, notes Jon Heyman.
- Every team in Major League Baseball has now agreed to extend the protective netting at their park.
- Pinstripe Alley thinks that the Yankees would be able to sign Yu Darvish if not for Jacoby Ellsbury’s massive contract.
- The Diamondbacks have hired former outfielder Jonny Gomes to serve as a hitting coach for their rookie-league squad.
- Travis Sawchik theorizes that baseball fans from small market cities have been trained to expect less action from their teams in the winter.
- Baseball Prospectus has finished the website’s “pitching week” with an in-depth article on pitch tunnels. If you want to check out their other stories from the week, which includes an analysis on robot umpires.
Anders’ picks...
- The University of Washington men’s basketball team continued its hot stretch of play with a close win over No. 25 Arizona State last night.