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Mariners Prospect Talk

Seattle Mariners Depth Chart: rickroll, part 3 (catchers)

Won't desert you behind the plate

Posted by

Spectator

11/6/13

By the way, thanks to all who took the time to respond to the survey. It was very instructive.

For now, just taking a couple of steps back, and will be just posting stuff here.

Here's the next part of the "rickroll" -- catchers.

	2014 age		2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	Thumbnail commentary
Mike Zunino	23	RH	PreArb1	PreArb2	PreArb3	Arb1	Arb2	Arb3	FA	He ought to stabilize the position for years to come. Not a Posey-level offensive weapon (not until his K% comes down a bunch), but the whole "team leader within four seconds" deal can't be ignored. At the plate, at worst, he can provide some Olivo-type pop with more walks, but there's a good chance that eventually he'll do more than that.
Jesus Sucre	26	RH	PreArb1	PreArb2	PreArb3	Arb1	Arb2	Arb3	FA	You may recall that in 2012 Zduriencik went to Jackson to see Franklin, Walker, Paxton and the guys, and he came back raving about Sucre's skills behind the plate. No surpise, then, that he got a shot at a backup role. But it only lasted 8 games before he got hurt. It seems doubtful that they'll go into 2014 with only Zunino and Sucre, so expect a veteran of some sort to appear here.
John Hicks	24	RH	AAA	PreArb1	PreArb2	PreArb3	Arb1	Arb2	Arb3	Not surprisingly, Hicks' 2012 power surge was High-Desert-asssited, and his bat looked much more tepid in Jackson. A big drop in BABIP makes it look worse than it was, though. And the organization loves his 50% gun-down rate for basestealers. Definite MLB potential, but, with Zunino there, it's not certain the team will want to go with two young catchers.
Steve Baron	23	RH	AA	AAA	PreArb1	PreArb2	PreArb3	Arb1	Arb2	Yes, he's still around. No, he wasn't drafted ahead of Mike Trout, but almost (25th vs. 33rd). No, he didn't even hit at High Desert.
Marcus Littlewood	22	SH	HighA	AA	AAA	PreArb1	PreArb2	PreArb3	Arb1	Tyler Marlette (see below) is the hot ticket (No. 12 in MLB.com post-season list), but the Spectometer loves Littlewood's walks-and-doubles combo and suggests he might love High Desert in much the way Seager, Miller and Taylor did. We'll see.
Tyler Marlette	21	RH	HighA	AA	AAA	PreArb1	PreArb2	PreArb3	Arb1	Don't get me wrong. Marlette put up very nice Clinton numbers as well (.304/.367/.448), and he and Littlewood are a great pair to have. Not easy to find backstops with offensive potential, let alone two coming along together. It will be interesting to see what they do in the desert.
Christian Carmichael	22	RH	LowA	HighA	AA	AAA	PreArb1	PreArb2	PreArb3	He was a 6th-round pick back in 2010, but injuries and a PED suspension slowed his career arc, and he still hasn't played above Everett. But a decent bat for a catcher.
Daniel Torres	22	RH	LowA	HighA	AA	AAA	PreArb1	PreArb2	PreArb3	The team must like his defense, since they moved him up and down and around when they needed catching help after Zunino and Sucre were hurt. He didn't hit anywhere, though.
Luke Guarnaccia	21	SH	SS-A	LowA	HighA	AA	AAA	PreArb1	PreArb2	Guarnaccia showed progress at the plate (.795 OPS) and seems to have the most promise among a thin crew in the lower levels.

Blog:

Mariners Prospect Talk

Comments

These tables are quality.

You may yet score a baseball job with these tables. In the baseball war rooms they probably use tables just like these, and incorporate 40 man roster issues as well. It gives a chance to put the whole organization in perspective. Before the Rick Roll, I heard about random minors players, but did not have a firm handle on who did what, and what their issues were. This is a professional approach to studying the Mariners.
After looking at this catcher table, it seems clear that the Mariners only have two catchers and need another one. Which is why you said that in Sucre's comment box.

Word!

I remember tables sort of like this in the old USA Today roto draft prep issue...
Sweet like ice cream :- )

How to publish your table to SSI

Spec's trick of publishing tables at SSI, and having them come out nicely as he sees them is aggravating because no one knows how to do it. Here is a test table that I made to show the problem: This was a table that I made on excel and saved as a html. On my screen, it is of reasonable size, and it takes up 1/4 of the page.

Animal
Order
Sex
Value

Dog
mammal
male
$250
Cat
mammal
female
$20
Ostrich
Aves
Male
$1,500
Sea Anemone
Actiniaria
Neither
$35
When it is published, it stretches across the whole screen and looks lame. Also, the nice highlight colors are gone.
My best guess about what Spec is doing is:]
The Excel Photograph Theory:
1. Saving his Excel workbook as a PDF
2. Cropping the PDF in Adobe photoshop and saving it as a JPEG
3. Cutting and pasting the photograph to SSI
OR
The HTML Editor Theory:
Maybe Spec isn't using Excel at all, but is instead making a table with Microsoft Frontpage or some other html editor, and those tables are expressly bound by pixel size. Spec makes the table, and adds borders and backfilled highlights to make it look like an Excel table and throw people off the scent of what he is really doing.
Scratching my head. . .

Pretty much option 2

You need a Google account.
If you create a spreadsheet in Google Docs (Google Drive now, I guess), you can then copy and paste it into a Blogger post, and it retains all the shading, etc.
Then I can copy the html code from the Blogger post and, after clicking "Disable rich-text" on Klat's platform, paste it into an SSI post.
I meant to convey that earlier when Jeff asked. Wasn't trying to be secretive.
Like mojo, I have tried many other ways on Klat, and this is the way that has worked best. I guess I had to get laid off to discover it.

Steve Baron

Well, that didn't go well. Did it? Anybody know off hand who we could have grabbed instead with that pick (or do we really want to play that game?) OTOH, Hicks still looks interesting, especially considering the 50 percent throw out rate.