Mariners Moose Tracks, 2/20/21: Yusei Kikuchi, Félix Hernández, and Brett Gardner

Some news and notes from spring training.

By Anders Jorstad@AndersJorstad Feb 20, 2021, 7:00am PST

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New York Yankees v Toronto Blue Jays

Hello everyone and happy Saturday! Here’s what you need to know as you get your weekend started.

In Mariners news...

I could eat up these spring training pictures all day.

Just a couple of guys BP. pic.twitter.com/c6ieLfYRKn
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) February 20, 2021

This will certainly take some getting used to.

James Paxton will wear number 44 for the Mariners this season. The familiar number 65 is being worn by reliever Casey Sadler, who wears the number for charity. Paxton last wore number 44 with Ladner Minor Baseball.
— Chad Dey (@chad_dey) February 18, 2021

To those who are interested...

Mariners Spring training tickets go on sale on feb. 24 pic.twitter.com/mEfb9Xbgjr
— Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) February 19, 2021

Best Shape of His Life alert.

Yusei Kikuchi lost 7-10 pounds this winter, and enters camp looking to build on some big improvements in '20 if you look beyond the 5.17 ERA.

He gave up just 3 homers, velo was up to 95 mph, ditched the ineffective curve for a much-improved cutter.

(Video courtesy: Mariners) pic.twitter.com/67yxnfqT1O
— Daniel Kramer (@DKramer_) February 19, 2021

Ryan Divish at The Seattle Times spoke to Ken Giles about his most infamous moment and how he’s moved on from it.

Around the league...

Check out this super neat graphic.

In honor of PitchCon hosted by @PitcherList, here is an interactive timeline I have created of the Top-10 Career Strikeout (Pitching) leaders since the beginning of the Modern Era.

Check out how different pitchers enter and exit through different eras of baseball #Pitchers pic.twitter.com/6afGPf6pdE
— Greg Harvey (@BetweenTheNums) February 20, 2021

And another fascinating look through history.

I thought it would be fun to animate a map of where @mlb players were born broken down by the year of their birth. Pretty awesome to watch the game slowly expand. pic.twitter.com/VufcdCS8M7
— Daren Willman (@darenw) February 18, 2021

Dan Szymborski released the top 100 prospects by ZiPS.
In the wake of Félix Hernández saying that his motivation for signing another deal was to make the Hall of Fame, Dan Connolly at The Athletic analyzes his chances of getting inducted. ($)
Such a wholesome response.

New Yankee Jameson Taillon on reporting to @yankees camp and taking a picture of his pinstriped pants. "My parents wanted an update. They wanted to know that I'm here, that I'm meeting people and making friends."
— Jon Schwartz (@jonlschwartz) February 19, 2021

We’ll see how the league is able to manage this in the coming month or so.

There have been 13 total positive COVID-19 tests of the 4,336 taken upon the arrival of players and staff to spring training — nine players and four staff members. That’s 0.3%.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 19, 2021

It would have been weird to imagine him anywhere else.

The #Yankees and Brett Gardner have agreed on a deal pending physical, etc, according to a source.
— Ken Davidoff (@KenDavidoff) February 19, 2021

It might be early in his career, but Jay Jafffe at Fangraphs is already talking about Fernando Tatis, Jr.’s odds of making the Hall of Fame.
Dr. Fauci has some confidence that fans will be able to safely return to ballparks this summer.