Mariners Moose Tracks, 6/19/21: Home Run Derby, home run suppression, and Isaiah Campbell

This Saturday, a mixed bag of links for your perusal.

In Mariners news...

• The Seattle Mariners agreed to a minor league deal with INF Alen Hanson, who previously was with the organization in 2019.
• Promotion season continues in the minors, as LHP Brandon Williamson’s utter dominance of High-A Everett rightfully earned him a bump up to Double-A Arkansas.
• Less excitingly, the AquaSox appear set to be without another promising righty for some time, as RHP Isaiah Campbell appears to be sidelined with arm surgery.

• Julio Rodríguez is down in Mexico, playing for the Dominican Republic in Olympic Qualifiers once again this week. The Mariners put out a sleek profile video for him on his journey thus far.

• The Mariners ushers and management fell under scrutiny once again yesterday after a viral video of a local journalist and current Senior Producer at Vice News being harangued emerged from last night’s game.

Around the league...

• The Home Run Derby, held in Coors Field this year, will feature Shohei Ohtani.

• It likely will NOT feature Aaron Judge, however, who told a certain hard-working reporter he was uninterested at the moment in chasing another Derby title unless the All-Star Game was held in New York.
• Over at ESPN+ ($) Kiley McDaniel revealed his second crack at a mock draft, three weeks out from the real deal. He suggested OF Sal Frelick out of Boston College, who Joe wrote up here.

• Rob Arthur at Baseball Prospectus ($) has tracked the data behind many of the hot topics in the game over the past several years. His most recent article looks at the recent drops in spin rate among many pitchers, and how there seems to also be a gain in flight distance for balls in the air. In essence, have sticky stuff users also been gaining the benefit of suppressing contact?
• Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times revisited the infamous Chris Taylor trade with an interview of Zach Lee, who is still grinding away in Triple-A in hopes of figuring it out.
• I’m attempting to imagine the Seattle equivalent of this. J.P. Crawford’s face stamped on every Dick’s burger bun?

• Oh... oh dear.

John’s pick...

• This was... a journey.