... per Baseball America.

This ranks The Mick ahead of cyber-Seattle matinee idol Alcides Escobar (#6), who the blog-o-sphere in turn ranks ahead of any Mariner prospect since 1977, possibly excluding ARod depending on the World Series game that night.   Saunders also ranks ahead of Cameron Maybin and Brett Wallace; the only other Rainier to make the top 20 was Adam Moore (#17).

The only three PCL'ers ahead of Saunders, per Baseball America:

#1 Buster Posey, the $6M man of the 2008 draft, going fifth overall to the G'ints ... an ex-SS compared roughly to a cross between Pudge Rodriguez and Johnny Bench defensively, and immediately to Pudge Rodriguez at the plate.  OK, we kid, but the tools scouts are madly in love with his intangibles behind the plate.

#2 Neftali Perez, who got promoted to Texas and then, we hear, to a higher league.

#3 Travis Snider, who was supposed to win the 2009 American League ROY but instead spent the year hitting a lefty .337/.431/.663 for Las Vegas.

Then it was Saunders, then Cameron Maybin and Alcides Escobar.  Ask one of the locals if Escobar-for-Saunders would be a reasonable swap :- )

.....

BA Flip:  Saunders is "an explosive player for his size."

SSI Chop:  They mean he has fast-twitch muscles and athleticism that you usually don't see in somebody who, standing still, looks like John Olerud.

....

BA Flip:  "Has the bat speed to turn on 95 mph fastballs."

SSI Chop:  That would be correct.  We noted several times, The Mick's surprising ability to read a pitch, SUDdenly whip the bat through and pull it hard, even at 97, even to RF.

You can't teach bat launch, and The Mick does have it.

...

BA Flip:  "Makes consistent hard contact."

SSI Chop:  They mean his HIT ability, the ability to square the ball up, is above average even by ML standards.

...

BA Flip:  "Some of his doubles should turn into homers."

SSI Chop:  Well, I s'pose.

He does hit with the correct hand in Safeco, and hit 13 homers in less than half a season in Cheney, slugging .544 (lots of doubles and triples also).  He actually dials it up pretty good, was on a pace for about 110 K's and 60 walks, prorated.  So, okay.

...

BA Flip:  "Doesn't have blazing speed, but intelligent on the bases, looks for chances..."

SSI Chop:  Part ways here.  I started calling him Michael "Blackout" Saunders because he literally covered more ground in LF than Franklin Gutierrez would have in LF, and as much as Ichiro would have.

I mean, Saunders doesn't have blazing speed next to Desmond Jennings or somebody, but he's got as much as Gutierrez.

...

BA Flip:  "Showed a solid arm in the past and has enough range to play in center."

SSI Chop:  This is such a huge advantage for Saunders in the M's current org, that he's a legit center fielder playing alongside Gutierrez and Ichiro.

The M's didn't particularly have a good all-around infield in 2009 before Jack Wilson got here, and yet as we all know, they won UZR by a mile or five.  The three CF's (Chavez/Saunders) were the main reason for the UZR.

..........

I'm into gloves if they're legitimately impact, as Jack Wilson's and Adrian Beltre's are.  As you know, we don't believe in playing backup CF's in LF, but in this case you've got a "backup CF" who packs a PCL Blue-Chipper developmental bat.  Saunders is a cross between Endy Chavez in the top half of the inning and Mike Carp in the bottom half.

If the offseason config leaves Saunders in LF, that's ho-kay by me.

Cheers,

Dr D