Mariners, Gilbert Vanquish Angels, Ohtani

It’s hard to know what to make of Spring Training, ever. So, with that said, here’s a series of notes, gifs, and images of today’s game, all freely presented for your enjoyment with the unspoken (oops) understanding between us that none of them mean anything whatsoever.

Jake Fraley

Fresh off today’s news that Jose Siri is gone and Braden Bishop is in the minors, presumed opening day RF Jake Fraley had a solid all-around game, ripping a double into the RF corner (and scoring a run on a Kyle Seager sacrifice fly) and manning CF quite capably.\

Dylan Moore

Moore had a short outing today, unfortunately, as he took a nasty fastball off the wrist from Dylan Bundy.

Fortunately, he escaped the worst, although you still wouldn’t call it good.

Jose Marmolejos

Marmolejos has quietly had an excellent spring. While you wouldn’t make much of this by itself, he has generally hit pretty well at every minor league stop and can reportedly at least fake it in the OF. This, combined with today’s roster news, leads you to wonder if he could find a spot on the opening day roster, especially after Dylan Moore’s injury. He also hit this tank off Angels #2 starter (lol) Dylan Bundy.

That’s-a spicy meatball!

Jarred Kelenic

Jarred got a little unlucky his first time up as he ripped a ball. Unfortunately he ripped it right to Matt Thaiss, who caught it and easily doubled Dee Gordon off of first. In his next at-bat, he pulled a very solid line drive single into right field off of major leaguer Ty Buttrey, but flew out weakly off Ryan Buchter for his final at-bat. His OPS sits at .721, which doesn’t mean anything other than that he’s held his own. He’s also faced opposing pitcher quality, prior to today, that sits somewhere between the A+ and AA level of quality per baseball-reference.com, so again, don’t make too much of it. But 1-3 off major league quality pitching (today) is nice.

Alen Hanson

Grounded out and carried his helmet to first base like a football.

Logan Gilbert

Do you know what burying the lede is? Putting Logan Gilbert here is burying the lede. Gilbert shone brightly in his two innings, striking out 3 hitters and allowing no hard contact. The fastball ran up to 95, and the slider and the curve look very difficult to pick up out of his hand. Good morning, Jo Adell:

Good afternoon, Shohei Ohtani:

Goodnight, Matt Thaiss:

He even eats sunflower seeds like an ace:

After posting incredibly consistent numbers across three levels last year, Gilbert absolutely looks like someone who should open the year in Tacoma (if that’s a viable place for pitchers this year) and earn a call to Seattle when it makes sense for the big-league club.

Ljay Newsome

While he followed a tough act, Ljay held his own, allowing just a single hit (a double by Brian Goodwin) with a strikeout of Jared Walsh. He got his fastball solidly into the 90s with his typical excellent command.

Erik Swanson

Swanson pitched a clean inning with nothing to really report, though he did strike out two.

Sam Delaplane

Delaplane didn’t allow a ball out of the infield, though he did allow a single on a grounder to short. He also struck out top-100 prospect Jordyn Adams.

Gareth Morgan

Miscellaneous

Our fearless leader was in attendance today, and had some tidbits to share.

Do you miss having high-upside pitching prospects? WELL NO MORE:

Juan Then is just barely 20 years old. He throws three pitches. I’m not much of an analyst, but many people I talk to in baseball are telling me these are all good things.

Kate also got to speak to bullpen coach Brian DeLunas, who says the coaching staff is the best he’s seen it and the team has had multiple coaches turn down good opportunities elsewhere to stay in Seattle. It’s what you expect to hear, but as we all know, Seattle has seen its share of front office turmoil (public and otherwise) over the years.