To reiterate, the Watch List is for prospects who don't make the top 66 in the organization.
Using my oh-so-clever slick marketing labels, we have the Top 40 and the "26 in the Mix" that make up the Spec66, then "34 More" on the Watch List for an even 100.
We did outfielders here and infielders here.
For the pitchers, I had so many right-handed relievers (the Zduriencik-McNamara tap that never stops flowing ...) that I just put everyone else in the "other" category.
So this group has a mixed bag of RH starters (Snow, Muhammad, Schiraldi and A. Torres), a LH starter (Fernandez), and LH relievers (Hermann, Kiel, Moran and Olmos).
Guys in red were at or younger than their "MLB Track" level (on track to reach AAA by age-23). Guys in black were older than "MLB Track" level (which does not rule them out, as we say, but makes their stats less interesting).
| Name | Age | Age Arc | G | BF | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | HR% | BB% | XBH + BB% | ISO | K% | PSA+ | Conv+ | Comp |
| Goal < 1% | Goal < 6% | Goal < 14% | Goal < .100 | Goal > 20% | Strong prospect > 100 | |||||||||||
| A. Fernandez | 24 | 1 | 5 | 111 | 0.260 | 0.355 | 0.406 | 0.761 | 2.70% | 12.61% | 19.82% | 0.146 | 24.32% | 75 | 94 | 69 |
| It was not long ago that Anthony Fernandez was on the 40-man roster and was (maybe a bit) more touted than Roenis Elias. There was reason for this. He conquered High Desert as well as any Mariner pitcher ever has (0.6 HR/9 | 1.4 BB/9 | 8.1 K/9), and he initially carried that success into AA. But he faded down the stretch in 2012, regressed in almost every category in 2013 and missed all but five games in 2014 due to injury. So who knows what he has left or whether he'll be able to rediscover it. If the High Desert magic returns, he'll be a nice asset to have in reserve. Here's video of Fernandez getting Didi Gregorius to swing and miss back in 2012. | ||||||||||||||||
| Spencer Hermann | 20 | 1 | 11 | 163 | 0.228 | 0.290 | 0.369 | 0.659 | 1.84% | 6.75% | 15.34% | 0.141 | 23.93% | 116 | 98 | 114 |
| I've watched way too many "King of Queens" reruns to associate someone named Spence with athletic prowess, but maybe young lefty Hermann will change that. A 36th-round pick out of somewhere called Fisher College in Boston, he got a two-game cameo call-up to High Desert -- and was predictably quite awful there. But, before he got there, he'd gone 20.1 IP while giving up only one XBH and zero runs. He wasn't quite as brilliant after returning to Pulaski, but his non-High Desert season ended with 9.4 K/9 and a 1.37 ERA. | ||||||||||||||||
| Nick Kiel | 21 | 2 | 18 | 148 | 0.259 | 0.299 | 0.353 | 0.652 | 0.68% | 5.41% | 12.84% | 0.094 | 20.95% | 125 | 104 | 129 |
| Here's another young lefty -- this time a local draftee (18th round out of Bellevue Community College). Kiel utterly smoked the Arizona Rookie League in 12 appearances (1.33 ERA | 0.9 BB/9 | 11.1 K/9), and earned a promotion to Everett. The return to his home state was ... well ... nothing to write home about. But maybe he can rekindle the Arizona spark. | ||||||||||||||||
| Brian Moran | Did not pitch in 2014 | |||||||||||||||
| Moran has been around since he joined UNC teammates Dustin Ackley and Kyle Seager in the 2009 draft. Despite a strong record against LH hitters, the M's left him exposed in the 2014 Rule 5 draft and the Angels selected him. Before he could pitch for LAAA, however, he blew out his elbow and underwent Tommy John surgery. He came back to the Seattle organization at the end of the season, and it's not clear when he'll pitch again. The Angel confidence was not misplaced, as a healthy Moran can pitch in the bigs, though Lloyd McClendon seems to frown on pure lefty specialists. So there are too many question marks to do anything but wait and see what happens next. | ||||||||||||||||
| Jay Muhammad | 19 | 0 | 12 | 176 | 0.221 | 0.420 | 0.352 | 0.772 | 1.14% | 20.45% | 25.57% | 0.131 | 11.93% | -5 | 81 | -24 |
| On the surface, Florida teen Muhammad was epically bad in 2014 (7.82 ERA; 8.8 BB/9), but in his last five appearances in August he had a 1.02 WHIP (despite the walks) and a .172 ISO-against -- because he held hitters to only 6 hits and 2 XBH in those final 18.2 IP. Hitters weren't making solid contact against him by the end of the year. We recall Edwin Diaz struggling mightily in his first pro season, and now he's in everyone's top 15, so there's hope. Muhammad was picked in the 11th round, and under the new rules, there's a mini-rush on high school talent in that round (in other words, he was one of the first high school guys they wanted to get). | ||||||||||||||||
| Edgar Olmos | 24 | 1 | 50 | 318 | 0.245 | 0.317 | 0.383 | 0.700 | 2.83% | 8.81% | 15.09% | 0.138 | 18.55% | 86 | 94 | 80 |
| Olmos has had an adventurous off-season. First the Marlins designated him and Seattle picked him up; but when Rickie Weeks signed the M's needed a spot and Olmos was the odd man out. So then Texas picked him off waivers, only to return him to Seattle due to a shoulder injury. So the M's wanted him, but not all that much, but ended up with him anyway. He's lefty and was supposed to compete for the MLB bullpen, but, although he is reportedly recovering nicely from his shoulder problem, he's missed that boat. Presumably he'll be in reserve in Tacoma. He was a 3rd-round pick by the Marlins in the 2008 draft. | ||||||||||||||||
| Lukas Schiraldi | 21 | 2 | 8 | 108 | 0.263 | 0.333 | 0.421 | 0.754 | 2.78% | 9.26% | 16.67% | 0.158 | 26.85% | 106 | 101 | 106 |
| Schiraldi's dad Calvin was teammates with Roger Clemens both at the University of Texas and with the ill-fated Bill Buckner '86 Red Sox, and Lukas is a Longhorn product as well. He was taken in the 15th round of the '14 draft, and showed a big strikeout arm as a starter for Everett (10.7 K/9). And the Spectometer liked his ability to get outs better than traditional stats (5.18 ERA; 1.44 WHIP). | ||||||||||||||||
| Forrest Snow | 25 | 2 | 20 | 322 | 0.244 | 0.311 | 0.412 | 0.723 | 3.11% | 7.76% | 16.15% | 0.168 | 23.29% | 102 | 91 | 93 |
| The Mariners love giving chances to Snow. I mean, they drafted him in 2007, and, after he chose UW, they drafted him again in 2010. Since then, he's had all kinds of mixed results and hopped around all different levels, but he's not out of chances yet. The organization gave him an invitation to spring training after a decent year mostly at Tacoma. He's still a longshot, but he keeps lurking and running strong strikeout totals, so he still may make a Seattle appearance. | ||||||||||||||||
| Andres Torres | 18 | -1 | 10 | 175 | 0.183 | 0.234 | 0.232 | 0.466 | 0.00% | 4.57% | 8.57% | 0.049 | 24.00% | 151 | 125 | 176 |
| Torres has only one season of Venezuelan stats, so who knows what to make of them? But boy they're pretty: 1.39 ERA | 0.84 WHIP | 0 HR | 1.6 BB/9 | 8.3 K/9. Presumably he'll get a U.S. shot so we can get a better bead on him. | ||||||||||||||||
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