The Mariners have signed Hersin Martinez to a 1.1 million dollar deal. Martinez is a member of the Dominican Prospect League. According to MLB Trade Rumors, he is an under average runner in the outfield, but has a decent arm. Martinez’s best skill is his power, which is reportedly amazing. In a home run derby type event, Martinez launched a ball 507 feet, and hit 5 homers in a row. His bat speed is reportedly pretty good, but their are some questions about his hitting mechanics. He had been linked to the Mariners for quite sometime. In a small sample size, he hit .444 in his league, which is, I think, 6th best.
David Cameron is not a huge fan of the signing, as he sees it as another signing by the Mariners of an outfielder with contact issues. Ben Badler’s scouting report at Baseball America makes mention that his power is as good as anyone’s. He should get bigger Badler thinks, but he may have some problems with big time velocity (back to the swing mechanics). He is going to be a pull happy hitter, and probably get some crazy shifts after a while. Badler also says that Phillips Castillo is much better than Martinez.
Kevin Goldstein is not a big Alex Liddi fan, calling him a power only guy with bad defense.
Tacoma (AAA) faced 31 year old Brian Burres, who had some decent stuff with okay speed differential and breaking stuff.
Triunfel (he pulled a decent line drive on an outside pitch) and Adam Moore had a couple lucky ground-ball singles. As usual, Carlos Triunfel made a really nice defensive play at short. Adam Moore left the game in the 2nd with a sore knee, and Guillermo Quiroz took over at catcher. Catricala seems to be laying off breaking pitches better and walked. He did strikeout on a fastball and looked bad on a breaking pitch in another at-bat. Luis Rodriquez with a broken bat single and then a ground-ball single. Mike Carp got jammed but still blooped it over the infield. In the next at-bat he mashed the ball, and it was an out. Savastano crushed a pitch but was absolutely robbed, but later chased a breaking ball to strikeout. Trayvon Robinson had an at-bat where he couldn’t get the bunt down twice and then struck out on a check swing on a breaking ball that wasn’t close. The game ended in a loss for the Rainiers when Trayvon Robinson missed a ball that he dived for (he also was caught trying to stretch a single into a double to start the game) and then Chance Ruffin made a throwing error.
Jeff Marquez was throwing about 90 MPH on his fastball with a bit of movement. He threw way too many down the middle in the 2nd inning. He threw some decent change-ups but his other breaking stuff wasn’t very good. Shawn Kelley got a strikeout to start his relief outing, but he also hung a breaking ball for a double (that hit the top of the wall, almost a homer). It was almost a carbon copy of the pitch that Yeonis Cespedes hit in the opening series, so it seems he is still having problems with breaking ball location. Another mediocre pitch he threw down the middle was crushed (for a single) by the scalding hot Justin Christian (who was available this off-season, and I suggested that the Mariners take a stab at him) to tie the game. The 3rd out of the inning was even hit hard. Kelley’s 2nd inning was much better, as he got a ground-out to himself, a strikeout on a hanging breaking ball, and then a ground-out to 3rd.
Brad Miller and James Paxton were named players of the week in their respective leagues. Paxton started for AA Jackson on Monday, and he wasn’t nearly as good as he had been. He threw 103 pitches, but only 48 of them were strikes. He walked twice as many batters as he struck out (8/4), but only gave up 2 hits and somehow gave up just 1 run. Joe Dunigan had a big day for Jackson, hitting a long home run with 2 other hits. Francisco Martinez also had 3 hits.
The High Desert Mavericks are currently leading the South Division, and are 2nd in the entire league in wins. Predictably (High Desert’s home park is extremely hitter friendly), they are leading the league in runs and are 2nd in walks and have the 3rd least strikeouts. James Jones and Mario Martinez have gotten off to really slow starts, each with an OPS under .650. Brad Miller, Mike McGee, and Stefen Romero have gotten off to the hottest starts.
The team’s ERA is 3rd worst in the league at 4.50, but they are about middle of the pack in home runs allowed and walks. They are 3rd worst in strikeouts, but are slightly better than league average on wild pitches. Other teams can’t run on them, as they have given up just 2 stolen bases and caught 4 runners. They have the 2nd worst fielding percentage in the league, most likely due to Brad Miller’s horrible defense in this young season.
The Clinton Lumberkings have struggled so far this year, with a record of 3-8 (Pythagorean W-L says they should be 4-7, so maybe there has been some bad luck). The team is last in the Western Division, and have the 2nd worst OPS in the Midwest League at .585. The team has only hit 1 homer so far (Guillermo Pimentel) and are 3rd to last in walks, and middle of the pack in strikeouts. Pitching wise, they are slightly below average in ERA and their pitchers are about league average in age (21.9). They are about league average in walks allowed, but they strikeout less than league average. Their WHIP is actually 4th best in the league, suggesting they are probably due for some regression to the mean (meaning they should get a little better ERA wise). Steven Baron is the only player on the team with an OPS of over .800, while Ambioris Hidalgo leads the team in innings pitched.
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Favorite general sports moment: The Texas versus USC college football national championship comes to mind, as does Gary Matthews Jr. catch on July 1st 2006.
Favorite Seattle Sports Moment: King Felix throwing a perfect game against the Rays
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