Mariners "Cyber" Prospect Talk for June 4
All the news that's fit for your digital computing devices

 

Every week or so we try to link you up with other goings-on in the digital world.

 

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Gotta start with Shannon Drayer's post with a recording of Dave Neihaus reading "Casey at the Bat."

 

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Do you remember that folks pointed out that Jack Zduriencik and Tom McNamara seemed a little downhearted that they "settled" for Mike Zunino in last year's draft ...  as if they had their mind set on one of the high school hitters who went No. 1 and No. 2 ahead of him?

Here's why:

Carlos Correa (Astros) .275/.383/.401 playing shortstop every day in the Midwest League at 18

Byron Buxton (Twins) .333/.435/.545 playing center field every day in the Midwest League at 19 -- and Buxton has 26 steals in 52 games.

Note:  teenagers playing in the Midwest League is a very good sign (see, e.g., Franklin, Nick circa 2010).

And you gotta love the reaction of the camera-person on this video.

 

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Speaking of Zunino, you may be aware of his massive home/road split (self-promotion [because somebody has to]: we were talking about it in Our Little Corner of the Internet before it became "buzzworthy").

Anyway, Tacoma resident Ryan Divish had some suggestions for how to get Zunino to warm up to hitting in his town.

 

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A tip-off from our faithful minor-league devotee Bat571: Mariners sign 17-year-old Brazilian.  His name is Daniel Missaki.

Bat was part of the conversation when we came to the collective realization (new to me) that baseball in Brazil is mostly Japanese in origin, and, not only are many of the players of Japanese anscestry, but apparently the coaching and training is Japanese in character.

Thus, the unique blend of Latin passion and Japanese precision (more details in the comments to our Luiz Gohara profile).

I know Bat passed along a link (which he might helpfully provide again [ :-)]  ), but here's one of Missaki pitching for the Brazilian national team at age 16.  Unlike Gohara, he obviously is more on the Japanese side of the ledger.

 

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The always-valuable Mike Curto of the Rainiers broadcast crew has some good tidbits from last week's 25-6 blowout game in Colorado Springs.

My favorite: the team raised its team batting average by eight points in one day.

 

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Jon Sickles had Nick Franklin as his Prospect of the Day last week.

 

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I'm not including draft links here, since we'll try to cover that separately.  But if you didn't notice in the Shout Box, Gordon has bestowed his Seal of Approval on D.J. Peterson of New Mexico and Hunter Renfroe of Mississippi State.

Comments

1

I wanted him badly, and he's Trouting the league right now.  Ah well. Zunino is a nice consolation prize.
This year I want Frazier.  The odds are bad that he gets to us, but at least there are other consolation options there too.  We'll see what happens - and we'll talk about it on some other draft thread. ;)
Thursday we'll have a couple of picks to discuss, and not just ramble about possibilities.
~G

2

http://www.cbbs.com.br/noticias.php?id=5660
It's in Portuguese and Spanish, but understandable if you have of a smattering of either. The videos show a Japanese-style pitcher, all right.
Missaki was actually born in Japan - apparently his family has gone back and forth. His Dad apparently played ball in Japan. Looking at his dad, he may fill out a bit as he grows. Maybe he'll get introduced to Chick-fil-A!
Other links of interest:http://www.japanball.com/news.phtml?id=24186http://baseballcontinuum.com......

3

The Mariners are apparently providing equipment for them - how about a full-scale academy? It would be cheaper than the Dominican, because the education system overall is better and wouldn't need as much supplementation (many of the Japanese kids go to private academies, apparently, that teach Japanese culture and language as well as the state-required subjects). Anyway - why not build one in the area north of Sao Paulo in association with one of the academies and see if coffee isn't the only crop to harvest.
If you have any interest, go on Google Earth to Tupa, Sao Paulo, Brasil (Luiz Gohara's home town) and zoom in on the area to the north of town where the baseball diamond is - many of the streets have Japanese names, and there's a school right there.

4

I seem to remember he had picked up Spanish as well as English. Maybe he can brush up on a little Portuguese and the Ms can send him down with Emilio Carrasquel to do a scouting trip/TV special for All-Access (and Shiggy can double it for his Japanese TV job) about Brasilian baseball and our ever-growing prospects list (Burin (no longer with Ms?), Viera, Gohara, Missaki, any others?)
Given how Yan Gomes is doing, it might be pretty topical and interesting - and saleable to other sports channels - and expert commentary by Barry Larkin (Brasil's WBC manager) would be icing.

6

If Sucre gets hurt, who is next in line to be the co-catcher on the big club? Zunino? Not much else out there!

7

He would have been my guess, and now Baker is confirming it.
But I wouldn't rule out a quick trade.
Usual suspects:
Guillermo Quiroz appears to be one of three catchers in San Fran
Adam Moore is at AAA in the Royals organization
They are already familiar with those guys, and they are already familiar with some of the pitchers.
My own view is that Zunino is more likely than Bantz, but we'll see.

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