Two M’s to Futures, Int’l Signings a Week Away
Cheers to 3B Alex Liddi and CF Tyson Gillies, two current High Desert Mavericks who will be headed to the Futures Game during the All-Star Break next month. Liddi, who will be twenty-one in August, logged nearly 1200 at-bats in the minors with the M’s, most of which came in Wisconsin, before breaking out this year. While any gaudy numbers produced in the California League should rightly be met with some suspicion, he’s shown improvements in his batting eye off and on throughout the season and may be legitimately improving. The darling of the Mariners spring training camp this year, Gillies has handled the jump from Everett quite well and continues to show off solid defensive tools (despite being legally deaf) and the hitting potential of a future lead-off man. He hails from the Vancouver B.C. area and, after the season ends, he will also turn twenty-one.
If you’re fond of world baseball, you might also want to note that the international signing period opens a week from today. Currently, the M’s are rumored to be hot after Dominican OF Guillermo Pimentel, a sixteen-year-old outfielder who has plus power from the left side. The Rangers were originally the frontrunner for Pimentel’s services, but the M’s recently pulled away and have been keeping him active at their facilities for the past few weeks. The Mariners are also said to be scouting a Venezuelan outfielder pretty heavily, who is known to have impressive physical tools that haven’t transferred to games yet. I feel like we’ve heard that profile a few times before.
More information will come in as players begin to sign, but the M’s are expected to be big spenders yet again, likely eclipsing last season’s totals given to the likes of Julio Morban, Francisco Valdivia, Jose Martinez, Bertin Sanon, and Junior Nunez.
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18 Responses to “Two M’s to Futures, Int’l Signings a Week Away”
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We always seem to get guys on the World squad, credit to Bob Engle and crew. Not so much on the U.S. team it seems like, though.
Why are international signings kept separate from the draft? Basketball doesn’t do it this way, for instance; international players are lumped in with American college players.
It would be a logistical nightmare to have a draft that included the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Australia, Korea, Taiwan, the Netherlands, Germany, South Africa, Italy, etc and went for fifty rounds.
The facilities are also quite different from one to the next. While Australia and others have academies specifically dedicated to the pursuit of sports, the Dominican Republic has kids growing up with cardboard gloves and posts for bats.
This is the kind of question that could really take one hours to give a proper answer to and cover all the political, social, and economic bases, but that covers a good portion of it.
they do like An Athlete.
I’d pass some additional kudos the way of Wayne Norton, who has been getting us a pretty steady supply of interesting Canadian prospects, Saunders, Aumont, Gillies, Buckborough, and Nelubowich, should he sign. I bet Norton was crying on the inside when Paxton and Eliopolous (and Lawrie last year) got snatched up ahead of us.
You could just as easily ask why baseketball doesn’t do things the way baseball does (keeping in mind the historical way the two sports developed). And the answer, at least if you’re a former Nationals GM, is that MLB’s system offers far more opportunity for hands to dip into cookie jars. On a somewhat related note, I wonder what it is involved in luring a sought-after prospect from, say, the Rangers’ academy to the Mariners’?
Money, a close relationship to the buscone, money, getting to know the player’s family, spending time with the kid in a more personal environment, money.
Okay, I may be exaggerating the cash factor a bit, but this happens a few times every period where someone will scoop up a player at the last minute with some offer that comes a bit out of left field. I remember hearing that there were plenty of people who though Miguel Cabrera would end up with the Mariners due to A-Rod, but instead he signed with the Marlins for his own reasons. Usually the players targeted by the Yankees/Red Sox stay that way, but most everyone else is fair game.
I know I’d be mad if the Rangers turned around and did the same to us, but their system is so mighty as is, I can’t help but take some guilty pleasure in thinking that the return is double for us in this case (also, he he he, Neftali Feliz is a reliever!)
Aren’t “money” and “a close relationship to the buscone” synonymous anyway?
I don’t know if this is on topic or not. I had heard Woody Woodward was part of the new regime. Is that so? If so, is he in the domestic or international arena?
I differentiated the two mostly as a joke.
He’s a scout. I don’t know what his beat is.
Tyson Gillies reminded me of Kenny Lofton when I saw him spring training this year. dude is fast.
Tyson Gillies was on Mariners All-Access yesterday and seemed like a really nice kid and yes, like a deer on the basepads. That would be nice to see after years of thumping lunks of lard.
per Baker at the time, “Woodward lives between Daytona and Jacksonville and will likely scout the Florida State League, as well as major-league games in Atlanta, Miami and Tampa Bay.”
Thanks msb. I figured it was just something that he would be doing in his own backyard.
Have the Mariners signed 5 year old prospect Javier Escansada out of Nicaragua? I hear he’s been tearing the cover off the ball in the tee ball leagues, and has been flashing some glove on slow grounders to him as one of the shortstops on his team.
Does Escansada mean finch in Spanish?
Not so much on the U.S. team it seems like, though.
Now that I look at the full roster – Chris Tillman. Oh, well.
Yes, you noticed that too?
That ’06 draft of ours was pretty awesome, even at the time. We still have Morrow, Orta, Adcock, Moore, Fister, Souza, and Limonta, plus Williamson netted us Aardsma.