SB Nation User Blog: marc w

New MiLB infielder acquisitions

marc w — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:12:21 -0000

GMZ continued his poaching of the farm system he built in Milwaukee by signing 2B Callix Crabbe, a 25 yo who'd been in the Brewers farm system.

Crabbe was selected by the Padres in last year's Rule 5 draft, but was returned to Milwaukee in May. He's a guy with great plate discipline, and little to no power. He's a poor man's Luis Valbuena, but with a much, much cooler name. A great guy to plug in Tacoma with the departure of Yung-Chi Chen.

And, since there's been so much talk about OTHER teams signing shortstops, the M's also picked up ex-Mets/Blue Jays SS Chris Woodward. I'm guessing Woodward fills the Mark Kiger/Oswaldo Navarro role as back-up to Tug, or as starter in West Tennessee.

Nice work Jack.

RIP Ed McMichael - the Tuba man

marc w — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:53:46 -0000

If you've been to a sporting event in Seattle, you've probably come across Ed McMichael, the guy with the beard and Tuba playing before (and after) each game.

Sadly, he's been murdered. Story here. Some kids beat/robbed him at a bus stop, apparently stealing his 1979 Sonics championship ring. Two have been arrested, but police are looking for more scum/suspects.

He was 53.

What are your favorite tuba man memories? Where did you first hear him? Have any other favorite buskers around Qwest/Safeco?

Benny Looper is now looking for a job.

marc w — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:53:09 -0000

M's press release noted that Looper (VP for Player Development) "declined an opportunity to stay" with the org.

The opportunity was apparently becoming a scout on the pro side within the M's. We'll have to see who fills the vacancy at VP. The director of player development, Greg Hunter, may be a candidate, but I'd guess Zduriencik may have others in mind for the gig.

I like this move. What do you think?

Fall/Winter League updates

marc w — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:34:57 -0000

The Hawaii Winter Baseball league started near the end of September, so the teams have played 10-11 games to this point. The Arizona Fall League started on the 7th of October.

The Caribbean leagues start next week in most cases - most high-level M's prospects/players end up with the Lara Cardenales in the VWL, but Wlad and a few prospects will be playing in the Dominican instead. J at Mariner Minors will probably cover these leagues, and has the wrap-up on M's representatives in the Baseball America top 20 prospects in each minor league.

The M's have several prospects in the prestigious Arizona Fall League this year, headlined by Carlos Triunfel and Greg Halman. Triunfel is the youngest player in the league by a wide margin, and Halman would vie for that spot if Triunfel wasn't around. Despite this, they're both off to hot starts. Halman has played every OF spot and is off to a 6-13 start with a 2B and only 2 Ks. Triunfel has played 2b and SS and is 5-13 with 3 2Bs, 1K and 1BB.

Rob Johnson is the injury replacement for Adam Moore, but has played only one game behind the plate, with one appearance as a DH.

The pitching 'spects in Peoria include Joe Woerman, Doug Fister, Stephen Kahn and Gaby Hernandez. Fister, Woermanand Kahn have each thrown 1 scoreless inning so far.

The HWL restarted a few years back as a league for low-minors prospects *and* advanced prospects from Japan (the NPB players seem older; I'd guess quite a few are corporate league vets). Given that the players weren't as advanced as AFL guys, expectations weren't terribly high. However, with draft hold-outs, injuries, etc., the league has managed to nab some of the better prospects in the game, often before they become household names. Ian Kennedy, Joba Chamberlain, Jeff Clement and Rick Vanden Hurk were all members of the original class in 2006, and Matt Wieters made his pro debut there last year. This year, the league's headlined by 1st round picks Buster Posey, Yonder Alonso and 2007 1st rounder (and TJ surgery veteran) Andrew Brackman.

The only M's name of any note is Cuban 1B prospect Johan Limonta. He's been old for his league in 2007 and 2008, but he's a 1B prospect who could take a walk, so he was at least moderately interesting. So far, he's uh... he's struggling. In 29 at bats, he's got 3 hits and has struck out a remarkable 14 times with 0 walks. SSS, sure, but... oww. He's also had some time in LF, so we'll see if he plays more OF in West Tennessee next year.

The other M's farmhands on the Waikiki Beachboys include Jamie McOwen, who's been batting leadoff and playing CF, and pitchers Rob Harmon and Steven Richard.

Arizona Fall League rosters taking shape

marc w — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:33:45 -0000

The Arizona Fall League kicks off in early October, and once again the M's will send several prospects to play for the Peoria Javelinas.

MLB announced some *preliminary* rosters today; often, one or two players will get substituted, and there are still several 'TBA' roster spots (two from the M's).

What we know now is that the M's are sending Gregory Halman, Joe Woerman, Adam Moore, Justin Thomas, and Gaby Hernandez.

Other big names on the Javelinas include CF Austin Jackson of the Yankees and "3B" Mat Gamel of the Brewers.

The battle for CF supremacy between Halman and Jackson will be great to see. Halman turns 21 today and Jackson is 21 as well.

The biggest name in the league is probably Matt Wieters of the Orioles, the likely MiLB player of the year. He and Jackson played in the Hawaii Winter Baseball League last year.

OT: Mobile/Smartphone advice

marc w — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 08:24:21 -0000

Matthew had one of these fanpost/diary thingies about a year ago, right around the time I was looking at jumping into the smartphone market.

I ended up getting a T-mobile Shadow, which was great for viewing LL on the go, or finding a restaurant, and all those nice things that smartphones are supposed to do.

It worked in the UK, or at least I think it did, because someone fucking stole it when I was there. (Graham, if you know anything about this...)

Basically, I'm under contract (T-mobile), and I really need a phone. For the purposes of this discussion, let's assume that insurance actually gives me something for the loss of the old one, otherwise it'd be too expensive to do much of anything.

Basically, have any of the new phones (iPhone '3G', LG Voyager, whatever) blown people away? Any 3G phones on a GSM network that people love or hate?

Also, has anyone bought a phone abroad to use here? Shopping for phones in the UK was cool, because the phones were about 1-2 years ahead of what you can get here. Seems like it'd be cool to grab an unlocked Nokia e75/76, but then I wonder why I'd do that when there's simply no way to take advantage of it.

Any advice, recommendations, complaints, etc. would be really appreciated.

Joe Blanton -> Philadelphia

marc w — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:20:33 -0000

Billy Beane tries to ram it home to the remaining 15 A's fans that no, they're not trying to compete this year.

Oakland gets much-hyped 2b prospect Adrian Cardenas along with moderately intriguing LHP prospect Josh Outman and OF Matt Spencer.

What do you think? Did the A's get enough? Cardenas and Outman really isn't a bad haul - this is more upside (though waaay more risk) than they got from the Cubs.

Is this enough to help the Phillies hold off the Mets?

2008 MLB Draft on Thursday

marc w — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:36:12 -0000

So I'd planned a little draft FanPost for the lunch hour, but I see Dave Cameron beat me to it .

Go read that first... ok, got it? Here are a few other possibilities - guys who may go from 12-25 or so:

1: Yonder Alonso - 1b, Miami. He was a consensus top 5 or 10 pick earlier, but seems to be dropping as prep 1B Eric Hosmer rises. Would be a great bat, and a guy who could hit the ground running, but the odds still aren't great he'll be around at 20.

2: Casey Kelley, SS, Fla HS. Sounds similar to the prepster Anthony Hewitt, albeit with more physical tools and less baseball skill. Kelley's signed a letter of intent to be U. of Tennessee's QB, so it'd take a lot to sign him, and at this point his hitting performance doesn't match his body type. Could be another Hanley type like Hewitt, but he also screams Mike Morse to me (he's 6'4").

3: Shooter Hunt, RHP, Tulane. Great power pitcher, has hit 95, good offspeed pitch, but so so command. He may go earlier, but this is a decent high risk high reward pick for a college pitcher.

4: Ike Davis, OF, ASU. Pure hitter, he's almost guaranteed to be around when the M's pick. His teammate Brett Wallace is a great pure hitter as well, but if you can't get Wallace (he'll go around 10th-15th), Davis isn't a bad consolation prize. Decent power, though not quite the plate discipline of Wallace. A decent value pick if they really wanted a safe guy or a signable guy.

5: Conor Gillaspie, 3b, Wichita State. Another great pure hitter, hasn't played quite the competition of Davis/Wallace, and lacks pure power. Did well in the Cape Cod league (led it in average), but that plus his meh power makes me think of Matt Mangini.

6: Jake Odorizzi, RHP, Ill. HS. Good FB/CB pitcher with a low-90s FB and a good slow curve. Also developing a slider. Some scouts like his mechanics/delivery.

7: Gerrit Cole, RHP, CA. HS. True power pitcher who touches the mid/upper 90s. Makings of a slider and change. A Boras client, and someone whose mound demeanor has drawn some criticism. Maybe a rawer but more projectable version of Chris Tillman. He'll likely be there at 20, but will the M's go with another HS pitcher?

What should the M's do? Do you draft for need, or is that silly talk? HS or college? Pitcher or position player?

Tonight: PDX baseball, beer and a rock show

marc w — Sat, 31 May 2008 21:45:29 -0000

Bummed that you couldn't go to the softball game because you live in portland? Don't worry. Tonight, I propose to drink up, walk to PGE park, then go to a show, and then drink some more. If this sounds like your cup of tea, let me know, or come by the Shanghai Tunnel in a few hours.

Other stops may include the B side, the Doug Fir, Satyricon and more. If you have nothing better to do than argue about Roman history, go see the beavs and try to get LL signs on tv or go to a punk show well, uh, yeah me too.

Bored? Watch the Beavers!

marc w — Fri, 30 May 2008 03:23:13 -0000

Please note, this is a non-pornographic suggestion....

With the M's off today, I've been watching the Portland Beavers game on FSN.

What's so interesting about the Hated Rivals' AAA club? Well, the starting pitcher for the Beavs is Dirk Hayhurst, who's moving out of the bullpen to get some starts. Who's Hayhurst? He's the guy who blogs at BA in the 'non-prospect diary.' His writing has really attracted some attention, and he's gotten writing gigs elsewhere.

You may remember Dave Cameron drawing attention to Hayhurst in this post.

In addition, the game features a number of A's prospects, from Travis Buck to Wes Bankston (an ex-Rays prospect...yeah Jeff, I said RAYS). All in all, it's a decent enough off-day distraction, and while the NBA game is close... it's baseball.

Fun fact: typing on an eee pc is next to impossible if you have big hands. I have mistyped every single word of this fanpost, but do not wish to encroach on JI's territory.