Mariners Moose Tracks, 9/3/22: Austin Meadows, Munetaka Murakami, and Serena Williams

Some Saturday morning links.

By Anders Jorstad@AndersJorstad Sep 3, 2022, 7:00am PDT

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United States v Japan - Baseball Gold Medal Game - Olympics: Day 15

Hello folks and happy Saturday! Let’s check out what’s happening around baseball.

In Mariners news...

Perhaps this is a big reason why the Mariners found Edwin Arroyo and Noelvi Marte to be expendable.

The #Mariners have quite a development story in 19-yo SS Axel Sanchez. Slashing .343/.439/.686 in 123 PA at Modesto. Folks inside org. believe he's a surefire SS. Exit velos continue to grow. Untapped physicality. 55 glove+arm. "Reports and numbers are, frankly, over-the-top." pic.twitter.com/uYCqlVbi61
— Joe Doyle (@JoeDoyleMiLB) September 2, 2022

The Mariners 2022 first round pick got his first Single-A hit yesterday.

1st California League hit for Cole Young. Congrats @ColeYoung23! pic.twitter.com/7aTaTCYX0a
— Mariners Minors (@MiLBMariners) September 3, 2022

Luis Torrens getting some run at other positions is...interesting.

Luis Torrens makes his 1st play at 2nd base. pic.twitter.com/Q7vmzIJPz4
— Mariners Minors (@MiLBMariners) September 3, 2022

Around the league...

Tigers outfielder Austin Meadows opened up on Twitter and said he would be taking the rest of the season off while he addresses his mental health.
Aaron Judge isn’t the only pro baseball player chasing home run history.

A HUGE THREE-RUN BLAST FOR NUMBER 50!

Munetaka Murakami now becomes the youngest player to reach 50 HRs in a season!

Becomes the first Japanese-born player to hit 50 since Hideki Matsui back in 2002 pic.twitter.com/EH3JCV91dy
— Tom Mussa v2 (@tom_mussa_v2) September 2, 2022

Ben Clemens at Fangraphs took a deep dive into the sweeper, a new type of pitch that analytically-inclined teams are embracing.
Ken Rosenthal at The Athletic says the Red Sox need to get serious about contending this winter. ($)
Ben Carsley at Baseball Prospectus listed every team in the league by how watchable they’ll be this month. ($)
James Wagner at The New York Times wonders if Judge’s size is what leads to him being injury prone.

Anders’ picks...

In a major collaborative feature story at The Athletic, the staff recapped the awesome career of Serena Williams by the numbers, analyzing the wide variety of opponents she has defeated in her career. ($)