Welcome back to Baseball Instinct’s series: Chin Music. We’re taking a quick snap shot at key player’s in each organization’s major league club as well as their minor league system. This isn’t a “point out the obvious” elite players. We are taking a look at player’s in situations that could help your fantasy team or be a good addition to your fantasy farm. Having said that, it is a lot of fun to report on complete studs – like Cliff Lee.
Team: Seattle Mariners
Record: 32-44 (4th in the AL West)
Payroll: $98 million (9th in Baseball)
The Seattle Mariners are 12 games under .500 and last in the American League West. They are 14 games back of the Texas Rangers, and 14 games behind the Boston Red Sox in the American League Wild Card race. General Manager Jack Zduriencik wants to win badly. Despite the record, he reacquired 1B Russell Branyan, who signed in the off-season with Cleveland, to add some punch to his line-up. Everyone in baseball is ready for Cliff Lee to be traded, however Jack isn’t ready to give up the ghost yet.
Major Leaguer: Cliff Lee SP
Lee took matters into his own hand’s tonight, pitching a complete game in a win over the New York Yankees. He proved in last years world series that he can handle the Bronx Bombers, and tonight was no exception. Lee is now 7-3 with a 2.45 era, 78 k’s, and just 6 walks in in 95.2 innings. What’s impressive about that is he missed all of April while on the DL. Business is picking up in the Cliff Lee sweepstakes, but don’t expect his fantasy value to go up just because of a trade. Sure, a little more run support is nice, but Lee has fared well in low scoring games. To put things into prospective, he picked up a win in a game where he gave up 7 runs, lost a game where he gave up 2 runs and struck out 10, and had his only no decision on a 8 inning, 1 run, 8 k gem. The bottom line is that you can count on Lee to produce where ever he ends up, but don’t expect it to cause he to sprout a cape and grow a red “S” on his chest. Wait – he’s already done that.
Minor Leaguer: Carlos Triunfel SS
The 20 year old Dominican is hitting .285 with 5 hr’s, 29 rbi, 35 runs, and 2 sb in 274 ab’s in 2010. It’s good to see him running again, but the 6 caught stealing in 8 attempts is somewhat concerning. I feel though that he’s a player people should be watching and has really fallen off of everyone’s radar.
As I did in the previous Chin Music article, I would like to take this opportunity to turn it over to our Minor League Guru, Tom Belmont.
Tom: Triunfel was #2 on our 2009 Mariners Top 21 and #34 overall in our Top 100 as well. A broken leg after his 26th AB put his development on hold. But he’s healed and back at Double A West Tennesee as a 20 year old. His 2010 is good for a 20 year old but not much more than that. He still hasn’t grown enough as a hitter to take walks but his contact rate is good. He’s only posted a plus .100 IsoP in one season back in 2008 which was in High Desert. To put that into perspective, the only players who don’t post at least a .100 are pitchers who don’t get any ABs.
I still think that Triunfel is a top prospect but he’s going to need to really develop into a power hitter because he’s probably not going to stick as a SS. It’s tough to say because he’s only 20, but the clock is ticking on his development as a hitter.{+}
Major Leaguer: Erik Bedard SP
The Seattle Mariners gave up the farm – literally – after the 2007 season to get Erik Bedard from the Baltimore Orioles. After a break out season in 2007, where he went 13-5 with a 3.16 era, 221 k’s, and 57 walks, he’s only been able to pitch 164 innings for the Mariners, which took him 2 full seasons to do. Bedard has been on the DL since spring training, but has finally started a rehab assignment this week. He struck out 8 and walked none in 4 innings today for the Rookie league Peoria Mariners. Bedard is suppose to throw a bullpen session on Wednesday, and then join AAA Tacoma. There’s talk that he could be in the Mariners rotation at the earliest July 6th. There’s promise that he could be in the majors before the All-Star break. If he’s still around your league’s free agent list, now is the time to pick him up.
Minor Leaguer: Nick Franklin SS
The 19 year old from Altamonte Springs, Florida is having quite a season at Single-A Clinton in the Mid-West League. He’s hitting .290 with 14 hr’s, 38 rbi, 49 runs, and 11 sb in 276 ab’s. His 62 strikeouts on the season is a bit concerning, but with a .875 ops it just says that hes pretty much swinging at everything. Hopefully he can get this under control, as the pitchers in Double will make him look foolish without same plate discipline.
Let’s turn things back to Tom Belmont for a more in-depth look at the young shortstop.
Tom: Selected 27th overall by the M’s, Franklin, is playing like a first rounder. I didn’t see the power coming from Franklin and he’s a surprise to me. I thought Franklin would be more a doubles hitting middle infielder with some speed to chip in. But with 12 doubles and 14 Homers to date, Franklin is among the top in the system in the power department. At only 19, he’s showing an Isolated Power at .243. To put that into perspective, Albert Pujols, has a .236 IsoP this season. Franklin is still young so the low walk totals and striking out more than twice as much as he walks is still not a major problem. But he’ll to learn to control the zone better if he wants to continue to translate his raw power into the same type of current production or he’ll be exposed by more advanced pitchers.
Major Leaguer: Jose Lopez 3B
Lopez is frustrating a lot of fantasy owners right now. Where’s the power and the batting average that he’s progressively displayed over the past 2 seasons? He’s hitting .244 with 5 hr’s, 29 rbi, 26 runs, and 3 stolen bases. That’s simply not going to get the job done for fantasy owners. This is good news for those owners who don’t own Lopez. People have either dropped him or are really anxious to deal him for whatever they can get for him. Now is your time to act. Lopez may be hard pressed to hit 25 hr’s again this season. He is starting to heat up and 20 is not out of the realm of possibilities. The 27 year old is in the midst of a 12 game hitting streak, so he is starting to come around. If you are in need of a middle infielder, Lopez should be a productive one from here on out and should come reasonably cheap.
Minor Leaguer: Michael Pineda SP
Pineda has taken a lot of people by surprise, but not us. We knew last year that he had a chance to be something special. The 21 year old right hander is 9-1 with a 2.22 era, 94 k’s and 21 walks in 89 innings pitched. He hasn’t missed a beat in 2 starts since jumping from Double-A to Triple-A. If the Mariners decide to ship Cliff Lee out of town soon, You could see Pineda in the rotation right after the All-Star break. Regardless, chances are that you will see him in Seattle before the season is over.
Let’s do this one more time by pitching things over to Tom Belmont so that he can knock one out of the park with his analysis of Micael Pineda.
Tom: Pineda was ranked #7 on our Mariners Top 21 in 2009 which you can check out here:
http://baseballinstinct.com/2009/04/17/bi-presents-mariners-top-21-prospects/
I listed him as one of the system sleepers and he didn’t disappoint in 09 as a 20 year old striking out 52 and only walking 6 in 47 innings. But the gloves are off in 2010.
| Year | Age | Level | Team | ERA | WHIP | BB/PA | K/PA | GB% | HR/Air | FIP |
| 2007 | 18 | R | Mariners | 2.29 | 1.37 | 4.2% | 18.5% | 45% | 2% | 2.66 |
| 2008 | 19 | A | Mariners | 1.95 | 1.04 | 6.4% | 23.2% | 49% | 4% | 2.98 |
| 2009 | 20 | A+ | Mariners | 2.84 | 0.78 | 3.6% | 28.6% | 52% | 6% | 3.30 |
| 2010 | 21 | AA | Mariners | 2.22 | 1.09 | 5.4% | 24.7% | 44% | 1% | 2.32 |
| 2010 | 21 | AAA | Mariners | 0.00 | 0.66 | 13.6% | 22.7% | 54% | 0% | 3.37 |
Pineda tore up Double A West Tenn to the tune of a K per inning and only 17 free passes. I’d like to see his GB% higher but he kept the ball in the park and his ERA was a true 2.22 based on his 2.32 FIP.
A bump up to Triple A recently will be a true test for Pineda. Historically he’s been a good groundball pitcher and has dominant ways. So if he can get back to the good downward movement of his fastball he’ll continue to be successful. If not you can expect some hiccups with the longball in PCL against more advanced hitters.
But in the long run Pineda is going to be a solid mid rotation starter and if he adds some weight he’ll actually be able to kick up the velocity a bit more into the mid to high 90s. That could make him special.
Check out our next edition of Chin Music when we do a quick hit on the Detroit Tigers.
