Triple-A Takeaways From Thursday’s Media Event

The Mariners held their annual Pre Spring Training Media Luncheon yesterday at Safeco Field. Lots of major league news came out of the event and it’s all covered in the links down below, but for this post we’ll focus on the news involving the Tacoma Rainiers.

Because I’m feeling like a lazy writer today, let’s do this bullet-points style.

• The injury to projected Rainiers catcher Jesus Sucre is more serious than originally thought: fractured right fibula, sprained right ankle, out for six months. Don’t be surprised if the Mariners add another veteran catcher to the Triple-A mix via free agency.
• Mariners front office staff made it very clear that Mike Zunino will start the season with Tacoma, with General Manager Jerry Dipoto saying “the goal is to have Zunino open in Tacoma and watch him develop.”
• The team officially announced the signing of veteran first baseman Gaby Sanchez to a minor league contract. He, Jesus Montero, and Stefen Romero were mentioned as candidates to be the right-hand side of the first base platoon with Adam Lind.
• Despite all of the media reports, it doesn’t appear that the Mariners and Federal Way native Travis Ishikawa are going to come to terms.
• Improved communication throughout the organization was a major theme of the day, and it includes the minor leagues. The new front office has been in contact with many of the minor league players.
• One of the few holdovers from Zduriencik’s staff, Assistant GM Jeff Kingston had some interesting remarks about how communication breakdowns and mixed messages had a negative impact on players, particularly Zunino and Chris Taylor.
• The newly publicized but longtime organizational philosophy of “controlling the strike zone” impacted the major league spring training invitations: Kingston said that Double-A shortstop Tyler Smith and outfielder Dario Pizzano were rewarded with invitations to big league camp because of their excellent strikeout-to-walk ratios last year.
• Kingston lauded starter Adrian Sampson and reliever Paul Fry for controlling the strike zone from the mound. Both were invited to big league camp, and I have both penciled onto the Rainiers opening day roster for now.
• While some in the media are fascinated by new farm director Andy McKay‘s sports psychology background, my takeaway from his session was that he does not want to rush prospects through the minor league system. At one point he said “hopefully you have enough talent in the system, so you don’t have to rush prospects based on need.”
• VP of Player Personnel Tom Allison said that the Mariners have increased their scouting force. To wit, he mentioned that the team signed likely Rainiers pitcher Casey Coleman after scouts saw him work in an international tournament in Japan.

For the major league tidbits from the event, hit the links.

Links:

• General Manager Jerry Dipoto said that the Mariners are “well suited” to compete in the American League West.
• The Mariners new regime is all about communication and culture, Ryan Divish wrote.
• Divish has a notebook which leads with a section on the signing of Gaby Sanchez and one of the Mariners upcoming spring training positional battles.
• Bob Dutton’s Mariners Notebook includes an injury update and an item on Dipoto reaching out to D.J. Peterson.
• Larry Stone has a column on new farm director Andy McKay and his mental-skills coach background. John McGrath’s column is on the same subject.
• The Mariners invited 41 players to a minor league mini-camp prior to the start of spring training.
• Baseball Prospectus posted its Top 101 Prospects for 2016 and only one Mariners player made the list: outfielder Alex Jackson, at No. 94.
• The Hutch Award presentation was at Safeco on Wednesday, with Adam Wainwright the honoree.
• Former Rainiers pitcher Doug Fister signed a one-year contract with the Houston Astros.
• Big news for PCL broadcasters, centerfielders, and Reno fans: the Aces are making improvements to the worst stadium sound system in the history of stadium sound systems.

Have a nice weekend. When our next post goes up on Monday, we’ll be less than three weeks from spring training!

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Tacoma Middle Infield Candidates

The positional preview series continues with a look at Tacoma’s potential shortstop and second baseman for 2016.

This part of the Rainiers roster appears to be entirely dependent upon the results of what is shaping up to be the Mariners biggest spring training job fight.

The Mariners have an opening for a utility infielder on the roster, and it appears to be a wide-open battle with no clear favorite.

Shawn O’Malley, Luis Sardinas, and Chris Taylor will go to spring training and compete to be the Mariners reserve infielder. The reason these are the top candidates is that each has positional flexibility which includes the ability to play shortstop.

All three players have a minor league option for 2016. It figures that the two “losers” in the battle will be optioned to Tacoma, and take up spots in the Rainiers middle infield.

O’Malley had a terrific 2015 season for Tacoma, and then acquitted himself nicely in a September trial with Seattle. The switch-hitter from Kennewick hit .297 with a .346 on-base percentage for Tacoma last year, and then posted a .418 OBP in 57 plate appearances for the Mariners. O’Malley might be a shade behind the other two in shortstop defense, but he has an edge in positional flexibility because he can play infield and outfield.

Sardinas is new to the Mariners organization this year. Known for his smooth infield glove, the 22-year-old switch-hitter hit .282 with a .319 OBP for Colorado Springs in 2015, while also batting .196 in 36 major league games for the Brewers. Sardinas is generally considered the best defensive shortstop of the group.

Taylor is familiar to Rainiers fans, having appeared in 161 games for Tacoma over the past two seasons. Taylor is a career .313 hitter for the Rainiers – which currently ranks as the 14th highest batting average in Tacoma franchise history (minimum 500 plate appearances). Taylor hit well (.287) in his 2014 call-up, but last season was a very different story in Seattle (.170).

We can probably count on two of these three players being on the Rainiers opening day roster. But things happen in baseball – trades, injuries, etc – so let’s see who else is in the picture.

Ed Lucas was discussed last week with the corner infielders, since he’s played mostly third base in recent seasons. But he can also play second base, and even shortstop in a pinch.

Zach Shank opened eyes with his athleticism during an emergency call-up to Tacoma last summer – one which was expected to last just a few days, but was extended to over a month when he showed he belonged. A 28th round pick out of Marist College in 2013, Shank is primarily a second baseman but can play every position on the diamond including shortstop and center field. Shank could be the new Leury Bonilla.

Benji Gonzalez was signed in December as a minor league free agent. A former Pirates and Padres farmhand, Gonzalez reached Triple-A for his first time last season when he appeared in 17 games for El Paso. Gonzalez is 25-years-old, a right-handed hitter, and a shortstop. Last year was his first season playing above the Class-A level, so he could be a fit for either Tacoma or Double-A Jackson.

Tyler Smith was the shortstop at Double-A Jackson last season, where he hit .271 with three homers and a .361 OBP in 121 games. A right-handed hitter, Smith was the Mariners 8th round draft pick in 2013 out of Oregon State. Normally we would expect a natural promotion for him, but he’s probably a player the Mariners want to see in the lineup every day, which might not be possible in Tacoma depending on how the roster shakes out. If not on opening day, we’ll see Smith in Tacoma eventually.

What about Leury Bonilla? Everyone’s favorite multi-positionalist is currently listed as an unsigned minor league free agent. The Mariners have been re-signing him every year, and he’s appeared in a Rainiers uniform five straight seasons. The previous Mariners player development regime always viewed Bonilla as a future minor league manager or coach, once his playing days ended. With the shake-up in the front office, I’m not sure how things are looking for Leury. When I catch wind of any news, I’ll let you know.

Links:

• Bob Dutton’s Mariners Notebook mentions that a few minor league signings will probably be announced at the Mariners media event on Thursday.
• Former Rainiers slugger Carlos Peguero inked a minor league deal with the St. Louis Cardinals. He’ll make Autozone Park in Memphis look quite small.
• Say goodbye to PCL superstar Efren Navarro, who was traded by the Angels to the Baltimore Orioles yesterday. Navarro is Salt Lake’s all-time leader in nearly every offensive category, and was always a threat to contend for the PCL batting title.

Tomorrow the Mariners hold their annual pre-spring training media event. There are always a few good notes regarding the Triple-A club at this event – I’ll have a new post all about it on Friday.

Playing Poker With The PCL’s Past

Never expected to get a blog post out of a weekend trip to watch college basketball, but here we are.

I went down to Berkeley/Oakland this past weekend to watch my alma mater play a pair of (highly successful) basketball games, and somehow randomly ended up in a miniature Pacific Coast League museum.

Texas Hold ‘Em is an enjoyable pastime for me. For you non-cardplayers, this is a skill-based poker game, in which you play against the other players at the table (and not against the “house” or casino). I often will find a card room on the road and play for a bit if I have some spare time.

This weekend I had some time between basketball games so I decided to play a little poker at the Oaks Club, which is technically in Emeryville near the eastern base of the Bay Bridge. Little did I know that I was walking directly into the PCL’s past.

The card room – which claims to have been open since 1895 – sits directly across the street from the former location of Oaks Ball Park, which housed the PCL’s Oakland Oaks from 1913-1955. The stadium was demolished after the franchise was relocated to Vancouver in 1956, and now the Pixar Animation Studio sits on that plot of land.

The ballpark’s old neighbor has kept the memory of the franchise alive.

Covering the walls of the restaurant section of the Oaks Club are a series of terrific historical photos of this long-gone PCL franchise. I took some pictures of the pictures (the diners in there thought I was weird) and they didn’t come out real well – the lighting was as terrible as my photography skills – but it was cool to see this stuff on the wall in such an unlikely location. You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Aerial shot of Oaks Ball Park

The Oaks had some big baseball names. The DiMaggio brothers were from nearby San Francisco, and Vince played for the Oaks.

Vince DiMaggio circa 1947

Oakland won a PCL title in 1927, and then suffered through two decades of sub par seasons. The drought ended with a PCL championship in 1948 under the guidance of Hall Of Fame manager Casey Stengel.

Casey Stengel, Oaks manager 1946-1948

There are many more PCL photos on the walls, but as you can tell it was tough to get decent shots of them. If you like PCL history and are ever in Oakland, it’s worth checking out the Oaks Club – even if you have no intention of playing cards. And if you need to use their free WiFi, the password is “1927PCLchamps.”

Links:

• For more on Oakland Oaks PCL history, check out this website.
• Seattle Times columnist Larry Stone isn’t overly optimistic about the 2016 Mariners.
• Longtime Rainiers reliever Cesar Jimenez signed a minor league contract with the Brewers. If in Triple-A, he’ll play for Colorado Springs.
• From Baseball America’s latest Minor League Transactions, we learn that ex-Rainiers shortstop Gabriel Noriega signed with the Diamondbacks. He could play for Reno this season.
• ESPN has a Q&A with commissioner Rob Manfred which includes some updates on the business side of the game.
• Bleacher Report posted an article on the long odds minor league broadcasters face when it comes to reaching the majors.

New post coming Wednesday, when we look at the 2016 Tacoma Rainiers middle infield candidates.

Baseball America Ranks M’s Prospects

Baseball America released its annual Mariners Top Ten Prospects list today. Here’s what they came up with:

1. Alex Jackson, of
2. Edwin Diaz, rhp
3. Drew Jackson, ss
4. Tyler O’Neill, of
5. Nick Neidert, rhp
6. Luiz Gohara, lhp
7. Braden Bishop, of
8. Andrew Moore, rhp
9. Boog Powell, of
10. D.J. Peterson, 1b/3b

This list leans heavily towards youth and the low minor leagues.

Four of the players (Drew Jackson, Neidert, Bishop and Moore) were drafted in 2015 and will be making their full-season debuts in April – likely with Low-A Clinton.

Two more players (Alex Jackson and Gohara) were at short-season Everett last year and are also probably heading to Clinton.

There are three players on the list who we’ll probably see in Tacoma at some point this season – though not necessarily on Opening Day.

Edwin Diaz is the top starting pitcher prospect in the organization, and he pitched well for AA-Jackson last year. He could break camp with Tacoma but he’s only 22-years-old so it wouldn’t be surprising if they decided to keep him back in Double-A for a month or two.

Boog Powell is the one player on this list I feel will certainly start the season in Tacoma – heck, he might be batting leadoff on April 7 (that’s Opening Night, you guys). This will be his first season in the Mariners organization; he was acquired in a trade with Tampa Bay.

I touched on D.J. Peterson on Wednesday. I’m curious to see where he is assigned to start the season, it could be Tacoma.

Links:

• For Baseball America subscribers, we have the Mariners Top Ten Prospects list with scouting reports, and also a Mariners organizational chat.
• From The News Tribune, Bob Dutton shares his thoughts on the Baseball America prospect list.
• There are reports that the Mariners have signed first baseman Gaby Sanchez to a minor league deal. Keep in mind that the Travis Ishikawa signing is still not confirmed. I’m now taking a wait-and-see approach on both of these.
• BA’s minor league free agent tracker indicates that the Mariners have signed left-handed reliever Kraig Sitton, an Oregon State product who posted a 2.97 ERA in the Double-A Eastern League last year.
• John McGrath comes from the same place I do regarding the designated hitter. He offers a unique suggestion at the end of this column.
• MLB moved the trade deadline to August 1 for this year, because July 31 is a Sunday and the league didn’t want players getting traded in the middle of all of the afternoon games.
• In the PCL, the Albuquerque Isotopes announced that Glenallen Hill is returning as manager.
• We have a column from Las Vegas on the ongoing stadium issue. Stick around for the Danny Tartabull reference.
• A former PCL broadcaster is the new radio voice of the Boston Red Sox.

Have a fun weekend!

Who’s On First And Third?

Today our weekly spring training positional previews look at potential Tacoma Rainiers corner infielders.

The organization was not strong in corner infielders (especially after the trade of Patrick Kivlehan to the Texas Rangers), so General Manager Jerry Dipoto signed some veteran free agents to fill the void.

Ed Lucas, Mike Baxter, and (if/when the signing becomes official) Travis Ishikawa are all recently signed corner infielders who have lots of Triple-A experience and varying degrees of major league experience. Former top prospect D.J. Peterson is a younger player who may be in the mix.

Let’s take a look:

Ed Lucas is a veteran infielder who appears to be penciled in as the Rainiers third baseman – if he doesn’t make the big league club. Lucas hit .316 with six homers and a .389 on-base percentage for Round Rock last year, and he has a .255 career average in 163 major league games. He’s going to camp competing for a major league utility job, but the 33-year-old would likely be an everyday player if sent to Tacoma.

Mike Baxter plays first base and corner outfield. A left-handed hitter, Baxter played for the Chicago and Iowa Cubs last year. He’s typically a .280-ish hitter in the PCL, with doubles power. The 31-year-old has experience as a pinch-hitter and reserve outfielder in the majors. Like Lucas, if he doesn’t make the big league team he is likely to see lots of playing time in Tacoma.

Wrote a bit about Travis Ishikawa on Monday (scroll down), who plays the exact same positions as Baxter but has much more MLB experience. Ishikawa is considered to have a strong glove at first base. Because both Baxter and Ishikawa have flexibility to move into the outfield, it is possible that both could break camp with Tacoma.

D.J. Peterson was the Mariners first round draft pick in 2013, and he appeared to be on the fast track to the big leagues prior to his disappointing 2015 season (.223, seven homers, .636 OPS at Double-A Jackson). Despite his struggles in Double-A, Peterson was surprisingly promoted to Tacoma last August by former GM Jack Zduriencik (he played in four Rainiers games and then went down for the season with an Achilles injury). Where the Mariners assign Peterson to start the season will give us some insight into the philosophy of the new Player Development Department: will they promote a highly drafted player who hasn’t conquered Double-A ? Stay tuned. Peterson plays third base and first base.

We should mention Daniel Paolini, who made his Triple-A debut last August after two years at Double-A Jackson (where he hit .271 with a .725 OPS last year). Paolini plays first base and left field, and he could make the Rainiers opening day roster if spring training shakes out in his favor.

We’ll have more about this next week when the conversation turns to middle infielders, but the Mariners are going to have an intense spring training battle to see who makes the major league team as the utility infielder. The “losers” in this battle will be sent to Tacoma, and will primarily play second base and shortstop – but whoever they are, they’ll also be able to play third base as well. Tacoma will have some natural roster depth all around the infield.

You will notice that Jesus Montero is not on this list. Montero is out of minor league options – which means that if he doesn’t make the Mariners opening day roster, he must be offered to the other 29 big league teams on waivers before he could be sent to Tacoma. Someone would take a chance on him if this were to happen.

Links:

• The Mariners announced their promotional schedule, home game times, and ticket on-sale dates. We should have similar information coming for the Rainiers soon.
• Cross A.J. Schugel off the list of potential Rainiers starting pitchers – he was claimed off waivers by the Pittsburgh Pirates.
• Longtime Mariners scout Ken Madeja won a major award in his field.

We’ll be back with a new post on Friday, when Baseball America is expected to publish its Mariners Top Ten Prospects list.

Rainiers Could Have Local Star

Reports surfaced online Saturday that the Mariners are in the process of signing Federal Way product Travis Ishikawa to a minor league contract. The Mariners have not confirmed the signing, but both of the newspapers covering the team felt confident enough to run the story.

Ishikawa, 32, was The News Tribune’s Area Player of the Year after his senior season at Federal Way High School in 2002. He was drafted and signed by the San Francisco Giants.

He’s played in the major leagues for all or parts of eight seasons, seeing a lot of action in a reserve and pinch-hitting role.

Ishikawa also has lots of Triple-A experience, which includes PCL time with Fresno, Nashville, and in 2015 with Sacramento. He’s a career .279 hitter in Triple-A, with a .367 on-base percentage and a .485 slugging mark.

San Francisco Giants fans will always remember Ishikawa: he hit a walk-off three-run homer to end Game Five of the 2014 National League Championship Series and send the Giants on to the World Series. Here’s the video.

We should find out in the next few days if this deal is confirmed – he presumably has to pass a physical before any official announcement.

Hopefully the deal will be confirmed by Wednesday – that’s the day I have scheduled to preview the Rainiers corner infielder situation heading into spring training. Ishikawa plays first base and left field.

Links:

• Here’s the report on the Travis Ishikawa signing from The News Tribune.
• Potential Rainiers catcher Jesus Sucre suffered a broken bone in his leg while playing in the Venezuelan Winter League, and his status moving toward spring training is murky. Ryan Divish has more.
• The Mariners held a “hitting summit” for a collection of younger players down in Arizona last week, Shannon Drayer reports. Chris Taylor had some interesting things to say about it.
• Baseball America has an interesting story on the original scouting of Ken Griffey Jr.
• Former Rainiers pitcher Scott Atchison has retired from his long playing career – but he’s jumped right into a coaching/scouting role with the Cleveland Indians.
• More ex-Rainiers on the move, from Baseball America’s Minor League Transactions: Alex Liddi signed with Baltimore, and Mike Kickham went back to his original team the Giants.
• Ex-Mariners general manager Bill Bavasi is restructuring the Major League Scouting Bureau.
• In the PCL, we’ve got a new manager for the El Paso club: former catcher Rod Barajas is the new Chief Chihuahua.

Rainiers Catchers Preview

Today we begin our weekly look at potential Rainiers opening day players with an examination of the catching situation.

Like many of the other positions we’ll be writing about, the Rainiers opening day catcher is dependent upon what happens with the Mariners catchers during spring training.

Seattle has five catchers on its 40-man roster – and either two or three of them will make the Mariners opening day roster. Tacoma will presumably take the remainder.

The rostered catchers are Chris Iannetta, Steve Clevenger, Jesus Sucre, Mike Zunino, and Steve Baron.

Iannetta is certain to make the Mariners opening day roster (as long as injury isn’t a factor – which should always be a consideration with catchers). Clevenger is out of minor league options, so he certainly appears set for the M’s.

Zunino is the X-factor here. He really had a rough 2015 season, and the Mariners press corps have all suggested that Zunino will get some minor league time this year to try to get his offensive game back on track. He possesses a ton of talent and is still very young – he turns 25 in March.

There is a chance that Zunino has a big spring training, looks improved at the plate, and forces his way onto the Mariners opening day roster. He could also hit well in the Cactus League and get sent to Tacoma anyway. At this point it’s really hard to figure how this is going to work out.

Sucre and Baron are very similar players, but with different degrees of experience. Both are defensive specialists with limited offensive potential. Sucre has plenty of MLB experience from the last three seasons, while Baron got his first taste of the big leagues last September.

Often the Mariners sign a major league veteran to play for Tacoma early in the season, and serve as an available back-up if/when injury occurs at the big league level. Recent players like this have included Humberto Quintero, John Baker, and Guillermo Quiroz.

This year they don’t need one of these veterans: if both Zunino and Sucre are in Tacoma, that’s a lot of MLB catching experience in Triple-A – even though Zunino and Sucre are young players.

Looking down below, the Double-A Jackson catchers last year were Tyler Marlette and Marcus Littlewood. Neither put up numbers in 2015 the scream “promotion to Triple-A” but both could play their way up to Tacoma at some point this season.

In the end, we’re probably looking at a Tacoma opening day catching crew of Zunino, Sucre and Baron. Carrying three catchers would enable Zunino to get a lot of DH at-bats and still make enough starts behind the plate to maintain his receiving chops without getting physically worn down.

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Dealin’ Dipoto was at it again yesterday, making a trade that should benefit the Rainiers. The Mariners sent Class-A infielder Erick Mejia to the Dodgers for starting pitcher Joe Wieland.

Wieland made 21 starts for the Oklahoma City Dodgers last year, going 10-5 with a 4.59 ERA in the PCL. Included was a gem against the Rainiers on August 16th, when he lasted eight innings and gave up just one run with no walks and eight strikeouts.

The about-to-turn-26-years-old right-hander struck out 92 and walked 25 over 113.2 innings in the PCL. He allowed just seven home runs.

Wieland (pronounced WE-land) was considered a top pitching prospect before he blew out his elbow in 2012. Last year was his first completely healthy season since the injury.

He’s had a few cups of coffee in the major leagues. Right now he is pitching depth for the Mariners and we’ll pencil him in as a member of Tacoma’s starting rotation.

Wieland is on the 40-man roster (he has one minor league option year remaining, which will probably be used this season). To make room on the 40-man, the Mariners designated A.J. Schugel for assignment. He’s on waivers now – if no one claims him, he’ll be outrighted to Tacoma.

Links:

• Here’s a story with some stats on the Joe Wieland trade.
• A pair of Mariners players are performing well in the Dominican Winter League’s playoffs.
• New Mariners minor league manager Mitch Canham was introduced at Class-A Clinton. In the story, new farm director Andy McKay says some interesting things about winning in the minor leagues.
• Seattle added to its pro scouting staff.
• Grant Brisbee’s amusing but honest look at the biggest holes on American League rosters pretty much nails the Mariners.
• Monte Irvin was the second-oldest living Hall of Famer before passing away at age 96 yesterday. His New York Times obituary is quality reading.
• In the PCL, Salt Lake’s coaching staff is set.

Gearing Up For Spring Training

The Mariners had their big Ken Griffey Jr. media event on Friday night, and as part of the Hall of Fame celebration they announced that they are retiring his uniform number 24.

Not only are they retiring it in the major leagues, but they said that the number is retired throughout the minor league system. That means that no Tacoma Rainiers player will wear No. 24.

Tacoma had a No. 24 last year. Want to take a stab at guessing who the final Rainiers player to wear 24 is? I’ll give you the answer later in this post.

—

On Wednesday we’ll start our annual lead-in to spring training: the Rainiers position previews.

Each spring there are roughly 50 players in camp who could end up on the Rainiers opening day roster. Some of them are competing to make the big league team but will end up in Tacoma, while others may have been pegged for Double-A but impress in spring training and earn a Triple-A assignment. Over the course of six weeks, we’ll look at who those players are.

I divide them up by groups, and we’ll do it every Wednesday. Here’s the schedule:

• Jan 13 – catchers
• Jan 20 – corner infielders
• Jan 27 – middle infielders
• Feb 3 – outfielders
• Feb 10 – starting pitchers
• Feb 17 – relievers

The last one is always the worst. “Relievers” is usually just a list of like 20 pitchers.

Most of the Rainiers potential opening day players have been invited to major league spring training, which opens on February 19 for pitchers and catchers. Some of the younger guys won’t roll into Peoria until minor league camp opens on March 7.

—

OK, hopefully you had to scroll down on your screen by now. Catcher Steve Baron will go down in Tacoma history as the final Rainiers player to wear No. 24.

In a related story, what is Ashley (our Director of Baseball Operations) going to do with a suddenly useless set of No. 24 jerseys?

Links:

• Not only are the Mariners retiring Griffey’s number, they are also having a Ken Griffey Jr. Weekend.
• The Mariners signed right-handed reliever Ryan Cook, who has had success in the past but is coming off a down year.
• Ken Griffey Jr. will go into the Hall of Fame wearing a Mariners cap.
• Chien-Ming Wang signed with the Kansas City Royals. He finished the 2015 season with Tacoma, with the highlight being a complete game, three-hit shutout at Oklahoma City on August 15 which earned him a PCL Pitcher Of The Week award.
• In the PCL, New Orleans named its coaching staff with former Red Sox first base coach Arnie Beyeler the new manager.

Check back for a new post on Wednesday when we’ll take a look at potential Rainiers catchers for 2016.

Griffey Sets HOF Record

Five years after retirement, Ken Griffey Jr. set another record when he was elected to the Hall of Fame yesterday afternoon.

Griffey will enter the Hall with the highest percentage of votes from the Baseball Writer’s Association of America after being named on 437 of the 440 ballots – for 99.3%. Tom Seaver was the previous record holder, at 98.6% in 1992.

A veteran baseball writer told me that most of the few voters who didn’t cast a ballot for Seaver in 1992 did so because they mailed in blank ballots to protest the fact that Pete Rose was not listed as a candidate.

I can’t explain why anyone wouldn’t vote for Griffey – other than the natural difficulty in getting 440 human beings to all agree on something. But ultimately it doesn’t matter: he goes in with the highest voting percentage of all time, and that’s something.

For the second day in a row, we have lots of fun Griffey reading.

Links:

• We’ll start with the news stories on Griffey’s record-setting vote totals, from The News Tribune and the Seattle Times.
• John McGrath writes that Griffey is a trailblazer.
• Larry Stone has a column on the election results.
• The News Tribune posted a gallery of photos of Griffey – there are 240 of them, so settle in.
• Edgar Martinez made a big gain in the voting totals, moving up to 43% (75% is needed for enshrinement). He has three years left on the ballot.
• Jayson Stark has the big-picture takeaways from the Hall vote, including thoughts on the large percentage increases by Edgar Martinez and Mike Mussina.
• Baseball America posted a collection of its early scouting reports and notes on Griffey.
• Mike Piazza was also elected to the Hall, and he has one claim Griffey can’t match: he’s the only Hall Of Famer with an indie rock song about him.
• The Mariners made a move on Thursday, releasing reliever Anthony Bass so he can play in Japan (presumably for a lot more money). Bob Dutton updates the roster here – I think the M’s still need some bullpen upgrades.

Happy Griffey Day!

It’s Ken Griffey Jr. Day in the Pacific Northwest.

The former Mariners great will be announced as a new elect into the Baseball Hall Of Fame today at 3:00. There will be a live show on the MLB Network if you would like to watch.

Griffey will become the first true Seattle Mariners player to be enshrined. He was drafted by the Mariners, developed by the Mariners (not that he needed much minor league development), led the Mariners to their first playoff spot, and he’ll become the first player to wear a Mariners hat on his Hall Of Fame plaque. Heck, he still works for the Mariners in an advisory capacity.

A natural talent like no other, Griffey coasted through the minor leagues in a scant 119 games – which is beyond ridiculous for a player coming out of high school. A few months in Class-A ball, 17 games at Double-A, and he was ready the next spring. No Triple-A time needed for Junior.

Of course, Rainiers fans got to see him one time at Cheney: August 13, 1995.

He was coming back from the infamous left wrist injury suffered at the Kingdome, when he made a leaping catch up against the wall. He had been out for three months and needed to see some live pitching.

Griffey showed up on August 11, worked out, and didn’t play. Two days later he arrived and told Rainiers manager Steve Smith “put me in the lineup, I’m ready.”

In a Sunday afternoon against the Edmonton Trappers (R.I.P.), Griffey served as the designated hitter, went 0-for-3, and was activated from the disabled list by the Mariners for their next game.

We’re still a couple of hours away from the announcement, but congratulations are in order for Mr. Griffey.

Links:

• Ryan Divish wonders if Ken Griffey Jr. will set a record for highest percentage of Hall of Fame votes. Tom Seaver was selected on 98.84% of the ballots in 1992 which is the current record.
• Hall of Fame voter Larry Stone wrote about his selection process. Some good stuff in here about Edgar Martinez‘s future prospects.
• Here’s the Hall of Fame advance story from The News Tribune.
• ESPN’s Jim Caple produced 24 of Griffey’s most remarkable feats.
• Dave Cameron took a look at the statistical greatness of Griffey.
• Some cool footage of a teenage Griffey playing for the Bellingham Mariners of the Northwest League.
• Cincinnati Reds reporter C. Trent Rosecrans has a touching story about Ken Griffey Jr. and moms.
• Video from MLB with Griffey commenting on some of his favorite catches.
• From the Non-Griffey Department, former Rainiers shortstop and old pal Ramon Vazquez was named manager of Advanced-A Lancaster (Houston Astros – California League).
• In the PCL, Rainiers division rival Reno announced its 2016 coaching staff. Phil Nevin returns as manager.