The Future, Conan?

Yes, indeed the Future and by all accounts the M’s have quietly put together one of the best farm systems in MLBD. In fact, the latest Baseball America ratings have the team rated as the number 1 overall farm system. It is a mix of not only quality, but also quantity.

Pitching

According to BA the Top Ten Prospects are dominate by hitters with only two Pitchers making the list and one of them is a mainstay on the MLB roster already in Johnny Cueto. The other pitcher is Lefty Starter Wilfreddy Van Slyjk , a Braziallian who was impressive last year in the minors, although the transition to AAA was a bit rough. Wilfredd got progressively better throughout the season and will start the season as the 5th starter for the M’s although he may return to AAA for more seasoning. He demonstates Plus stuff and slightly above average movement and control, but is a inning eating ground ball specialist who appears to have a solid future in Seattle. The only other pitcher who is making a push for the Major League Roster is MR John Johnson , another lefty with just above average stuff, control, and movement. JJ has had a solid spring and made the Opening Day roster.

Other Pitching Spects:

The team has a bunch of guys who have legit chances to eventually contribute at the big league level. This includes one MR the team is going to convert to a SP (Damian Gordy), a and a bunch of guys who projects as bullpen arms long term (Mickey Hat Sandoval, Sean M Salazar, Curt Sparrow, Bill Derryberry, Bill McNeice, Tadamasa Kobayashi, Carlom Aseccano, and Miguel Metter. All of these guys have a long ways to go developmentally, but Aseccano and Metter look like they could really become quailty big leaguers if all things go well in their development. Look for the M’s to making Starting Pitching a focal point in future drafts and in trades. The team did recently trade for a young starter who will play in AAA to start the year in Joaq Esponoza, but will need to make a concerted effort to build organizational depth in the rotation the next few years.

Positional Spects

Here is where the organization really shines. The team has an abundance of quality positional spects.

Two players considered spects by Baseball America will make the major league roster for the Mariners this year. They are Catcher Darby Mallory and RF Abera Espinol. The team also recently traded two spects that were MLB ready or close in Sean Ma Cepin and Ryan Adams. The team still has plenty of players in the pipeline including players who may be big league ready in the next year in 2B Luis Valbena, 1B Joe Guillein, 1B Erniee Quartez, and Utility Infielder Ricky Nolasc Mieva. While these players have the chance to be nice MLBers, the true future of the organization lies in the lower levels of the organization where potential plus players C Al Libby, IF Yasser Oracho, OF Caleb Shaw, OF Joe Cole, OF Bobby Dowe, C Win Easterwood, and OF Matt Watso.

Quite frankly, the team is loaded with hitting spects, including numerous other quality guys who did not make the cut for this article but have big league futures as bench players. What all this means is the organization has the positional depth to use some of them as trade bait to fill other needs, either at the big league level or to get spects in areas of weakness such as the aforementioned Starting Pitching. The team has a good present and an extremely bright future due to the diligence of it’s front office in scouring the trade market and waiver wire for potential talent. At the same time the team is not afraid to trade a guy at a position they have too many players at for a big need. The tean showed this when they traded a very nice infield spect, and a nice 2b spect in a deal that added OF Brent Johnson a former M’s spect to the team.