Mariners Minor League Recap, Week 19: August 12 - August 18

A really nice week down on the farm

A real humdinger of a week for the M’s farm system this week. Top prospects hitting the cover off the ball, team’s securing series victories, and so much more. Tacoma Rainiers, start us off strong.

Tacoma Rainiers

27-18, 1st in PCL West

It was truly a fantastic week for the Rainiers, easily exceeding any reasonable expectations from even the most optimistic fan. Snatching five of six from the league leading Space Cowboys, the Rainiers surged into first place and have positioned themselves in a playoff spot just a week after such a feat looked cloudy. With a (theoretically) more stable crew for the remainder of the season, let’s hope Tacoma can take this momentum and build on it.

The big prospect names on this Tacoma roster are the oft mentioned Ryan Bliss and Tyler Locklear, and both managed to come through against Sugar Land. Bliss (8-23) had a homer and a pair of stolen bases while Locklear (5-17) launched two home runs and collected five walks. Both players still have the swing-and-miss concern in their game, but to see them impacting the ball regularly is a positive sign. They’ll both need to continue that trend in the majors if they hope to be in serious consideration for next year’s big league club.

Shoutout Carlos Vargas. He’s having a really weird year and I don’t even know if he’s good but I rock with him. I like dudes that can throw a hundred, and he can do just that.

Arkansas Travelers

26-19, 2nd in Texas League North

The Travs managed to take the series from Wichita with a resounding 12-3 victory in Sunday’s game and have placed themselves just two games back of first place Springfield. There were some incredibly encouraging signs from this past week of play — perhaps an omen for an end-of-season run toward a deep playoff run.

This feels like the first time in a long while that both Harry Ford and Cole Young had tremendous weeks at the dish. Young has had the edge on Ford for a while now, but neither one was blowing people away offensively (not considering age, of course). Now definitively rolling, Young (11-24) is hitting for a bit of extra-base power and rarely striking out while walking consistently. The lefty-swinging shortstop is showing an advanced feel for the game and will certainly be a factor for the big leagues in the early months of next season.

Ford (9-24) was crushing the ball this series, a welcome sight after a span of two crummy months. I would absolutely abhor hitting in DSP as a right-handed hitter and I can’t imagine trying to adjust to the new level while simultaneously conquering that stadium’s challenges, but Ford appears to be coming out of his slump and looks much more like his old self. The strikeouts are still up a tick from his career norms, but the offense is an encouraging development to watch for the end of the season.

The rotation was again good, but not nearly as unhittable as they were last week. There appears to be some necessary inning limiting as we approach career highs for guys like Evans and Garcia, but both remain effective in their roles. It will be a bit of a balancing act for an Arkansas pitching staff who will likely require some additional bulk out of their ‘pen.

Everett AquaSox

23-26, 3rd in Northwest League

A near sweep from the AquaSox puts them in third place of the Northwest League, two spots higher than they were just seven days ago. They remain definitively out of the playoff picture at the moment, but crazier things have happened. Maybe Everett can pull off a historic run like last year’s Modesto squad and make some playoff magic happen.

It was a monster week for Lazaro Montes, who has officially arrived at the Hi-A level. The Cuban slugger went 10-19 on the week, launching two homers, two doubles, and mustering seven walks compared to six strikeouts (one walk was intentional). The young outfielder has made some plays out in right field and is getting his power straightened out at the plate, clubbing some impressive homers out to right field. Hitting a clean .400 in August, Montes is back to his true self and ready to take the Northwest League by storm.

It would be remiss of me to leave out Caleb Cali and his performance against the Dust Devils this week. Breaking the back of Tri-Cities pitching all week, Cali (8-21) sent three long balls out of the ballpark and managed 12 RBI on the series. The third baseman has had a hell of a season after being a later round draft pick last year and is looking to be yet another lesser-heralded player to climb through the Seattle system and carve out a big league role.

Modesto Nuts

22-26, 2nd in California League North

Just a split for the Nuts this week, the only affiliate to not outright win their series in the organization. They did close things out with a three game win streak, but neither Modesto nor their opponent Fresno quite has the same juice as they did in the first half of the season. Sputtering down the finish line, they’ll need to kick things into gear come postseason.

There were a handful of debuts this week, but perhaps most intriguing was that of fourth rounder Josh Caron, a catcher out of Nebraska. Much lauded for his prodigious power, it’s actually been his bat to ball skills thus far that have stood out the most. A three game sample size is about as irrelevant as you can possibly get, but it’s all we’ve got on his professional career. I’ll be following Caron’s season closely for the final few weeks; there’s enough athleticism and upside to surprise some people.

Hunter Cranton, another draft pick from this year’s draft, has been pumping high octane fuel down opposing hitters throats and has been borderline untouchable in his brief career thus far. It’s again a tiny sample size, but Cranton is yet to allow a hit and has only walked one while striking out five across 3.1 IP. There hasn’t been as many relief prospects in the system this year as there has in year’s past, so it’s nice to see a truly exciting option enter the ranks for the last little bit of the season.

DSL Mariners

16-37, last in Dominican Summer League Central

A mere two wins on the week for the DSL squad. They’ve got a -113 run differential, somehow not the worst in the league. There remains a small handful of arms that have performed (good work, Anderson Guevara), but I still don’t have much I can muster out of this team. Firmly waiting for next year’s team to provide some much needed intrigue.

That’ll wrap this week up. GOMS!