Mariners Moose Tracks, 7/18/22: Ty France, Cole Young, and Chris Sale

The Mariners have won 14 in a row, which is the second-longest winning streak in franchise history and the longest winning streak of any team ever heading into the All-Star break. What a crime that we have to wait four more days before the next game. At least we get to see Julio in the Home Run Derby this evening. To the links!

In Mariners news:

• If you somehow missed it, Ty France is an All-Star, stepping in for Mike Trout, who has declined to participate in the All-Star Game due to back problems. Here’s a live look at what I assume he means by “back problems.” And here is Ty France finding out he’s an All-Star:

• Tonight, Julio will participate in the Home Run Derby, representing the Mariners in the Derby for the first time since Robinson Canó in 2016. View the full bracket here. The contest airs tonight at 5:00 PT on ESPN, the Worldwide Leader in Sports. We’ll have an open thread up closer to the start time.
• My heart. It melts.

• Oh, by the way, the Mariners have won 14 in a row.

• The First Round of the MLB Draft took place last night, and with the 21st overall pick, the Mariners selected North Allegheny shortstop Cole Young. Early irresponsible comps include Chase Utley and Wade Boggs. Lookout Landing’s Kyle Gehler was on the scene and was all over this. He and the rest of our minors team will have more throughout the Draft.
• Cole Young apparently said “thanks, but no thanks” to an invite to attend the draft in LA. Relatable.

• Behind the paywall, the Athletic has an early profile of Cole Young.
• With the 58th pick, Seattle went with 1B/”3B” Tyler Locklear and with pick 74, took prep pitcher Walt Ford. The haters will suggest that Walt Ford log off, but I’m 100% here for what I’ve seen of his social media presence, where he’s branded himself the Vanilla Missile. Keep track of the rest of the draft with our Draft Tracker.
• Your thirst for Mariners content right now is crystal clear, so why don’t you check out this women/LGBT-run podcast/website.

Around the League:

• The Mariners Wild-Card rivals, the Boston Red Sox, took a pretty big hit yesterday, with recently returned ace Chris Sale leaving the game after taking a comebacker at 107 off the bat. If you’re squeamish, maybe don’t watch the video here, where you can see Sale’s pinky clearly dislocated/broken/messed-the-F-up.

• The other big injury news of the day was Tampa Bay’s Harold Ramirez going down with a broken thumb. He’ll be reavluated in two weeks.
• In Draft news, the Orioles went with shortstop Jackson Holliday with the first overall pick, but the big surprise was the Rangers taking Kumar Rocker at number three. Rocker is expected to sign for about $2 million under slot, leaving the Rangers in the driver’s seat for the rest of the draft.
• A welcome first.

• The Braves providing additional fodder for my thesis that Shohei Ohtani’s talent is not special—he just got lucky that someone allowed him to do this.

• Some pretty major news for once the Draft is over, as the League has removed the $20,000 cap on signing bonsues for the undrafted players. Combined with the recent legal victory getting backpay for hundreds of Minor Leaguers, labor is on a roll.
• The Minors news keeps rolling, as the Sod Poodles (Diamondbacks AA) Leandro Cedeno hit a ball 527 feet—the longest home run in Statcast history.
• Folk hero Hunter Pence trolled the Dodger Stadium audience as he unveiled a Giants shirt after hitting a home run in the All-Star Week’s Celebrity Softball Game.

Zach’s picks:

• Appropos of the Ken Jennings tweet above, did you know that he makes a weekly quiz where, upon figuring out the answer to five trivia questions, you have to find what the connection between the answers is. Like if the answers are all famous Johns or if the answers are all things that have benches. A Northwest treasure, that Ken Jennings. He published his latest yesterday.