The Road Ahead

Our preview of the position-by-position battles for spots on the Tacoma Rainiers opening day roster will get underway this Wednesday, and will continue each Wednesday through the first week of March. Here’s the schedule:

• January 30th – potential Tacoma starting pitchers
• February 6 – Tacoma bullpen candidates
• February 13 – Tacoma catchers
• February 20 – Tacoma corner infielders (long list!)
• February 27 – Tacoma middle infielders (short list!)
• March 6 – Tacoma outfielders

By the time we’re done, we’ll be well into spring training. Looking further down the road, I’ll be in Arizona for spring training the final week of March, and will have daily reports on how things look for the 2013 Rainiers as we approach opening day.

In the meantime, I’ll continue to update the blog during the week whenever appropriate. We do have a few baseball stories of note today, so check ’em out.

Links:

• John McGrath caught up with Mike Morse at the Mariners FanFest.
• Ryan Divish visited with Michael Saunders and got his thoughts about playing in the World Baseball Classic.
• Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times returned from vacation and is suddenly intrigued by the Marinera offense.
• The Go 2 Guy, Jim Moore, also thinks that the Mariners new offense will be a lot better.
• The Baseball America Prospect Handbook is here – really, I’ve got it sitting on my desk – and as Larry Stone notes, the Mariners are ranked as the No. 2 farm system among the 30 MLB organizations.
• Former Rainiers shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt signed a minor league deal with the Phillies.
• According to ESPN’s journalism arm, MLB is teaming up with the feds to investigate shady “wellness centers” in Florida.
• If you want to read about baseball’s most famous non-baseball trade, the Palm Beach newspaper has an update.

That’s it for today – we’ll talk potential Tacoma Rainiers starting pitchers on Wednesday. It will be interesting, as there are more than five legitimate candidates.