Mariners Moose Tracks, 6/1/23: Mike Blowers, Anthony Rizzo, and Barry Bonds

Hello everyone and welcome to June — and happy Pride Month! With the third full month of the MLB season getting underway, we head onto the latest news.

In Mariners news...

• It’s Felnin Celesten season!

• For the many of you who have been wondering what’s going on with Mike Blowers, Larry Stone at The Seattle Times got the exclusive story. The short of it is that he’s OK and we should see him in the booth again soon.
• Jack Allen spoke to Emerson Hancock about his pro baseball journey so far and how it feels to be on the precipice of achieving a lifelong dream of reaching the majors.
• David Johnson at Men’s Journal penned a profile on Mariners mental skills coach Stephanie Hale-Burkhart and her impact on players in the team’s organization.
• It’s not super surprising to see Julio on this list, but we see you too, J.P.!

Around the league...

• All-Star Game ballots are officially released, so go out there and vote for some Mariners!
• Mike Petriello at MLB outlined where he thinks the MLB All-Star rosters currently stand, in which he projects three Mariners are on track to make the squad.

• Petriello wrote about Anthony Rizzo’s fantastic start to the season, in which the first baseman credits the shift banning for some of his improvements — though there’s more to it than initially meets the eye.
• The cork has seemingly popped off with regards to players hitting homers around the league. Jay Jaffe at Fangraphs wonders what’s going on with the sudden power surge.
• A teenage A’s fan ran the bases after a game at Oakland Coliseum due to lackluster (likely underpaid) security.
• Michael Baumann at Fangraphs wonders what would have to happen for the league to force the A’s current ownership to sell ther team.
• HBO and Words + Pictures have partnered to begin production on a documentary about the life and career of Barry Bonds.
• This is super cool!