Mariners Moose Tracks, 4/3/18: Minor League Rosters, Michael Saunders, and Stephen Drew

Good morning everyone and happy Tuesday! We’re back to Mariners baseball today with a day-game against the Giants. Hooray for interleague play! Here are some stories to get your day started.

In Mariners news...

• Check out this cool new Ichiro T-shirt.
• The M’s minor league affiliates have announced their rosters for the season. Here’s Tacoma’s, Arkansas’, Modesto’s, and Clinton’s.
• Tyler Maun notes that staying healthy is going to be the key goal for many of the M’s top prospects.
• Jay Yencich at U.S.S. Mariner previews the Clinton Lumberkings’ upcoming season.

Around the league...

• Former Mariner alert...

• Blue Jays outfielder Kevin Pillar stole second, third, and home all in the same inning.
• As a whole, MLB Opening Day payrolls are slightly down around the league compared to last season.
• This is awesome!

• The Rays have two bullpen days scheduled for their upcoming series.
• Jeff Sullivan breaks down what went well and what went poorly for Shohei Ohtani in his first start.
• The Royals have agreed to a minor league contract with Tarik El-Abour, who is believed to be the first professional baseball player with autism.
• Edwin Encarnacion hit an inside-the-park home run yesterday.
• Infielder Stephen Drew has decided to retire.

Anders’ picks...

• The Villanova men’s basketball team cruised to a victory over Michigan in the NCAA national title game. Villanova won every game in the tournament by 12 points or more.
• Just, wow.