Mariners minors. Thread for interesting news and stats.

[GL_Storm]

Its like he lurches through the zone and then a quick upward swat at the ball. Yikes.

It's sort of slappy, like Ichiro. But even if that's the type of hitter he wants to be, it needs some work. He'll be another one, like Locklear, that I'll be keeping an eye open for any info on offseason swing changes.

[Donn Beach]

On Ford: "He makes good decisions at the plate, which has allowed him to get away with an unorthodox swing that’s very rotational and aimed at impacting the ball as hard as he can. He has way more work to do behind the plate, where he’s below-average at framing and receiving and only slightly better at throwing, even with some arm strength."

I don't know what Keith means by "very rotational". It's certainly unconventional though and you can see how it might not work at higher levels. All I can think of is the Mariners didn't want to fuck with his swing in his first professional year.

Here's some video on Harry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU00AAD ... Q3&index=1

You can skip through and find the open side footage. There's quite a lot of it. If you slow the playback down to .25 you can see how, frankly, non-MLB his swing is.

I don't believe they draft him if they feel the first thing they would have to do is change his swing. It's not mentioned in any of the scouting reports. The closest thing in "weaknesses" is he maybe should bring his hands down to get at high fastballs easier. My guess is they are comfortable with his swing

[GL_Storm]

On Ford: "He makes good decisions at the plate, which has allowed him to get away with an unorthodox swing that’s very rotational and aimed at impacting the ball as hard as he can. He has way more work to do behind the plate, where he’s below-average at framing and receiving and only slightly better at throwing, even with some arm strength."

I don't know what Keith means by "very rotational". It's certainly unconventional though and you can see how it might not work at higher levels. All I can think of is the Mariners didn't want to fuck with his swing in his first professional year.

Here's some video on Harry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU00AAD ... Q3&index=1

You can skip through and find the open side footage. There's quite a lot of it. If you slow the playback down to .25 you can see how, frankly, non-MLB his swing is.

I don't believe they draft him if they feel the first thing they would have to do is change his swing. It's not mentioned in any of the scouting reports. The closest thing in "weaknesses" is he maybe should bring his hands down to get at high fastballs easier. My guess is they are comfortable with his swing

So you think his swing is good as is? Did you look at the video? And to say that they wouldn't have drafted him if they thought he needed a swing change isn't really accurate. Almost all position player prospects have issues with their swings, especially prep prospects, but also college guys. That was one of the things that made JK stand out as an amateur, that his swing was already at this very advanced level mechanically. That was also I think why Jordan Lawlar and Marcello Mayer were so highly rated as preps, i.e., scouts could already see advanced swing mechanics that could translate to the major leagues. But with Harry Ford it really wasn't baseball skills specifically that had him rated so high, it was more about pure athleticism, like at a super elite level, combined with some baseball skills that they thought they could develop.

[Just to be clear, my mention of JK above should not be construed an invitation to argue for the 436th time what a terrible player he is, that he'll never hit at the MLB level, and that DiPoto is shitting on the entire fanbase for giving him one more chance.]

[D-train]

I don't know what Keith means by "very rotational". It's certainly unconventional though and you can see how it might not work at higher levels. All I can think of is the Mariners didn't want to fuck with his swing in his first professional year.

Here's some video on Harry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU00AAD ... Q3&index=1

You can skip through and find the open side footage. There's quite a lot of it. If you slow the playback down to .25 you can see how, frankly, non-MLB his swing is.

I don't believe they draft him if they feel the first thing they would have to do is change his swing. It's not mentioned in any of the scouting reports. The closest thing in "weaknesses" is he maybe should bring his hands down to get at high fastballs easier. My guess is they are comfortable with his swing

So you think his swing is good as is? Did you look at the video? And to say that they wouldn't have drafted him if they thought he needed a swing change isn't really accurate. Almost all position player prospects have issues with their swings, especially prep prospects, but also college guys. That was one of the things that made JK stand out as an amateur, that his swing was already at this very advanced level mechanically. That was also I think why Jordan Lawlar and Marcello Mayer were so highly rated as preps, i.e., scouts could already see advanced swing mechanics that could translate to the major leagues. But with Harry Ford it really wasn't baseball skills specifically that had him rated so high, it was more about pure athleticism, like at a super elite level, combined with some baseball skills that they thought they could develop.

[Just to be clear, my mention of JK above should not be construed an invitation to argue for the 436th time what a terrible player he is, that he'll never hit at the MLB level, and that DiPoto is shitting on the entire fanbase for giving him one more chance.]

No need to be a dick.

[D-train]

https://www.lookoutlanding.com/2023/1/3 ... lming-year

[D-train]

https://prospectinsider.com/mariners-to ... sten-izzi/

[GL_Storm]

I don't believe they draft him if they feel the first thing they would have to do is change his swing. It's not mentioned in any of the scouting reports. The closest thing in "weaknesses" is he maybe should bring his hands down to get at high fastballs easier. My guess is they are comfortable with his swing

So you think his swing is good as is? Did you look at the video? And to say that they wouldn't have drafted him if they thought he needed a swing change isn't really accurate. Almost all position player prospects have issues with their swings, especially prep prospects, but also college guys. That was one of the things that made JK stand out as an amateur, that his swing was already at this very advanced level mechanically. That was also I think why Jordan Lawlar and Marcello Mayer were so highly rated as preps, i.e., scouts could already see advanced swing mechanics that could translate to the major leagues. But with Harry Ford it really wasn't baseball skills specifically that had him rated so high, it was more about pure athleticism, like at a super elite level, combined with some baseball skills that they thought they could develop.

[Just to be clear, my mention of JK above should not be construed an invitation to argue for the 436th time what a terrible player he is, that he'll never hit at the MLB level, and that DiPoto is shitting on the entire fanbase for giving him one more chance.]

No need to be a dick.

Okay, sorry about. I won't add that in next time.

[D-train]

No worries. Believe me I will happy the happiest man on earth when I don't have to talk about him any longer.

[harmony]

Columnist Keith Law at The Athletic ranks the Mariner farm system 20th among the 30 MLB teams:

https://theathletic.com/4138444/2023/02 ... prospects/

subscription required

20. Seattle Mariners
Just since last year’s rankings, the Mariners traded for and traded away Jesse Winker, traded for Luis Castillo, and traded for Teoscar Hernández, giving up five guys who were in or might have been in their top 10 right now, two of them on the top 100, so, yeah, the system is down. There’s still some really interesting pitching and a couple of fairly high-upside teenaged bats, although at this point they’re risking becoming a bottom-five system — and one that can’t sustain the major-league roster — if they make another huge deal.

[D-train]

Columnist Keith Law at The Athletic ranks the Mariner farm system 20th among the 30 MLB teams:

https://theathletic.com/4138444/2023/02 ... prospects/

subscription required

20. Seattle Mariners
Just since last year’s rankings, the Mariners traded for and traded away Jesse Winker, traded for Luis Castillo, and traded for Teoscar Hernández, giving up five guys who were in or might have been in their top 10 right now, two of them on the top 100, so, yeah, the system is down. There’s still some really interesting pitching and a couple of fairly high-upside teenaged bats, although at this point they’re risking becoming a bottom-five system — and one that can’t sustain the major-league roster — if they make another huge deal.

3 first round picks probably jumps us up to the upper half again.