Mariners Moose Tracks, 9/12/21: Harry Ford, Julio Rodríguez, Vince Velasquez, Angels pitching updates

Happy opening day of the football season to those who celebrate. Here’s your annual reminder that you can find all the Seahawks news, analysis, and discussion your little blue and action green heart desires over at Field Gulls. As another reminder, as it is game day for the Hawks, the Mariners radio cast will be on 770 AM instead of the usual 710. It’s a pretty packed sports day so let’s get right to your daily serving of links:

In Mariners (minors) news:

• This is not a repeat; Julio Rodríguez homered again for the Arkansas Travelers. We discuss this some on the most recent podcast (in which we talk more at-length about a potential Julio call-up), but the Springfield Cardinals are, actually, pretty bad, and their park is tiny and very, very RHH-friendly, but still, it’s pretty impressive. Not as impressive: the Travs bullpen gave up A Lot of runs and the Travs lost, 14-7. George Kirby only gave up three of those runs in five innings of work, but got touched up for 10 hits and only struck out four while walking one.

• More good news from the farm: perhaps you heard that on Friday, Harry Ford hit his first pro home run? Well yesterday he did it again. He also hit a single, as did fellow 2021 draftee Edwin Arroyo. These are just stills, which is better than nothing, but you can see Ford’s attack angle (good!) and follow-through (also good!) here, as well as a big ol’ smile. Hooray for Harry!

Around the League:

• The Rays haven’t had much bad luck lately, but they did have to place rookie sensation LHP Shane McClanahan on the 10-day IL with a stiff back. It’s reportedly a minor injury and he’ll be back later in the month in time for playoffs. The news is less good for former Mariner Matt Wisler, who looks to be shut down with finger inflammation for the rest of the season.
• The Tigers are also dealing with an injury in their starting rotation; Seattle-area native Matt Boyd is headed to the 10-day IL with a left elbow strain. LHP Ian Krol will take his place in the rotation.
• The Angels are shutting down injured RHP Chris Rodriguez for the rest of the year, but expect to get Alex Cobb back soon, with Dylan Bundy hot on his heels, so when the Mariners see the Angels again six times in the last ten days of the season, it’ll be with a full-strength rotation again. Sigh.
• The Phillies DFA’d starter/reliever Vince Velasquez, acquired in the trade that sent future Mariner Ken Giles to the Astros. Outside of a couple solid seasons, Velasquez never quite hit his stride with the Phillies, and has struggled with a finger injury this year. He could be a solid minors/low-risk signing in the off-season if you believe that a) the 29-year-old’s still got some gas in the tank; and b) the Phillies aren’t good at pitching development.
• Hector Santiago is no longer the only pitcher to suffer punishment for the sticky stuff enforcement; the Diamondbacks’ Caleb Smith’s 10-game suspension was upheld, so you won’t be seeing him during today’s game.
• More COVID updates, which are getting depressingly frequent: INF/OF Danny Santana of the Red Sox heads to the COVID-IL, and Zack Greinke, despite being fully vaccinated, has tested positive and is symptomatic, along with his wife and two small children.

On a personal note: this past weekend a close friend of mine was exposed to someone who, despite being vaccinated, felt symptoms, but went to take classes at the gym where my (also vaccinated) friend works anyway, and then later tested positive for COVID (again, AFTER working out in an enclosed space with other people for hours and hours). My friend, thankfully, tested negative, as the gym where she works requires masks at all times and six feet of distance. Just a good reminder that even being vaccinated isn’t 100% a defense against this disease, and safety nets like masks and distancing really work, so keep doing them. And for goodness’ sake, stay home if you’re feeling sick. These variants are no joke.