No videos, but Asencio was an outfielder up until fairly recently and based off the Mariners track record with such guys, people are going to compare him to Rafael Soriano. He's not. He's taller, lighter (at this stage), younger, and left-handed. It's like you're not even paying attention.

Wait, what?

Here are some other names:

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT STAFF OF THE YEAR: Randy Roetter (AZL Mariners Athletic Trainer)

Level Team Player Pitcher

AAA Tacoma Alex Liddi (3B) Blake Beavan (RHP)
AA Jackson Vinnie Catricala (3B) Andrew Carraway (RHP)
A High Desert Danny Carroll (OF) Chris Sorce (RHP)
A Clinton Stefen Romero (INF/OF) Taijuan Walker (RHP)
Short-A Everett Jabari Blash (OF) Jose Campos (RHP)
Rookie Pulaski Jamal Austin (OF) Angel Raga (RHP)
Rookie AZL Mariners Phillips Castillo (OF) Yunior DeJesus (RHP)
Dominican DSL Mariners Janelfry Zorrilla (OF) Domingo Brazoban (RHP)
Venezuelan VSL Mariners Felipe Burin (3B) Isliexel Gonzalez (RHP)

I thought about feigning outrage, but these all seem defensible. Weird.

Matthew suggested that I fanshot this, so here we are. This is what I said in the other thread:

"This is what I'm able to manage at the moment. Halman’s a tough topic for me because he embodied so much of the ups and downs of watching prospects and was one of the first ones I really, seriously followed."

Over the past eight years or so, when I've been talking prospects with the people I know who are passionate about the subject, like JH, or marc w, or g_moneyball over at Mariner Central, or Churchill, even people I've met at USSM/LL events and fellow players (!), I think Halman's been the guy that has come up the most as a topic of discussion. That makes it all the more difficult to figure out what to say about it all.

@Ken_Rosenthal
New rules take effect next winter. Elias rankings gone. Top FAs subject to comp if teams make them qualifying offers north of $12M. #MLB

I don't know if Jeff/Matthew were planning on doing any sort of draft preview stuff, and the pieces that tarheels1 and Humbled Fan were posting seemed more focused on the mock draft at Minor League Ball, so this is what I have on the names in the first round. Nothing about it is groundbreaking, but I tried to be fairly comprehensive.

(toot toot)

There goes our plan to collect all the Jose Floreses in organized baseball. The Indians apparently could not stand to risk such a monopoly.

We now are just one Jose Flores away from world domination.

Also, Nate Adcock, who was part of the Snell trade, got picked too. Guess where he's going? The same place all former Mariners eventually go. Haha, Royals.

$2.9 million. Very good bat/pitch recognition. Probably moves either to second or third long-term. This is the fourth-highest bonus on record for an int'l player, but he was also regarded by some as the top player on the market.

By now, I think everyone's accustomed to me typing way too many words on prospects that are far from sure things, so I'll just let this one stand on its own. You may want to sit down though.

("toot, toot," as Jeff might say)

We all remember when Shawn Kelley went down in June, right? Well, maybe not given how many other things went wrong. At any rate, the loss of command was obvious and they rested him for a while before examining a second Tommy John surgery as a possible option. As it turns out they didn't really need to do that because there were only minor issues with the previous surgery to be fixed. This isn't exactly analogous to just clearing up the problem by removing scar tissue, but it probably will move up the recovery timetable all the same.

Fusco was the Director of Professional Scouting for the M's, and is getting the axe in part because no one in the front office did a Google search on Josh Lueke's charges.

Talk amongst yourselves, or talk over there?

Joe Dunigan! Alex Liddi! Carlos Peguero! Gratuitous use of numbers! Methodology discussions! Self-promotion!

Complete with pitch face, though Dickey's pitch face sans facial hair just makes him look like he's missing a chromosome or two.

Pravda reports.

Of course there are these quotes too...

"Third baseman Jose Lopez sent a text message to his friend and former teammate Adrian Beltre the other day.

It said, "Hey, give me the Gold Glove."

Beltre returned the text: "You can have one of the two I have."

Lopez laughed.

Hey, maybe he can get his own Gold Glove. "

------

""He is committed to being the best third baseman he can be," Mariners coach Steve Hecht said after a 30-minute session with Lopez prior to a Mariners game against the Royals. "Adrian would want you to hit bucket after bucket of balls at him in Spring Training, and Jose is doing the same thing.

"It's great. It really is. I just keep hitting balls to him until he says 'stop.'"

That has been about 100 balls on the days the Mariners take early batting practice. "

I think it's fantastic that he seems to care about it so much.

It's times like these I think that it's good to remember, in spite of injuries, in spite of various players seeming to underperform, in spite of all the questions I can ask about the construction of the 25-man, I still kind of love this team.

"Milton Bradly managed one team and wound up throwing first base. Chone Figgins managed the other team and engineered a late trade - catcher Adam Moore for 7-year-old Teven Griffey.

Ichiro Suzuki swung right-handed. Casey Kotchman played shortstop, Mike Sweeney left field and at one point Eric Byrnes stormed off the field calling the proceedings 'a mockery of the game!'"

-----

"The Mariners staged an odd ragball game on the half field in Peoria, with rules that included running from home plate to third base - not first - after a hit, batting from the opposite side and bribing umpire Josh Bard.

That last part was key: Bard ruled a Franklin Gutierrez home run did not count because Gutierrez hadn't stepped on home plate - after he clearly had. And, with Bradley's team ahead, 7-2, in the final inning, Sweeney hit a solo home run - then called in five pinch-runners and circled the bases for a six-run home run."

Someone cares, certainly, but no one should be surprised in this.

More cuts probably on the way after we get done with the last split-squad game of the Cactus League season.

Bryan Smith, reputable prospecting type, discusses Adam Moore and proposes that he could be a 2 WAR catcher, and has a 1 WAR "floor".

Incidentally, that was roughly what I was aiming for in the Annual, excepting the fact that I opted to use more traditional metrics in an effort to make it "accessible."

marc w, JH, and I spend 3500 words talking about breakout candidates and player development issues. I'm as overwhelmed by this as anyone.

Cue Matthew saying I write a lot in 3... 2... 1...

Meta!

He also lists Felix and Lee as the top two 1-2 in the division (not surprised), Figgins as the best third baseman, and Ichiro as the best right fielder, and Hunter over Gutierrez in center, which is, uh....