Mariners Minor League News for July 25
I know that Ryan Divish reported that Bobby LaFromboise (Talk40 #34) had been designated for assignment, but I am almost certain that's wrong.
Indeed, LaFromboise pitched for Tacoma on Tuesday night, which would not have happened had he been DFA'd. Moreover, there would be no need to make that move, since Erasmo Ramirez was already on the 40-man roster. So no 40-man moves were being made.
So unless we hear otherwise, LaFromboise is still in the organziation and at Tacoma.
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Of course, we reported the first few dominos yesterday: Daniel Paolini (Talk40 #26) and Steven Proscia (26intheMix) swapping roles at Jackson/High Desert, and D.J. Peterson moving up to Clinton.
But there's more ...
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And this one is long-awaited: Jabari Henry (26intheMix) to High Desert.
Henry started the year blistering-hot, and, though cooling off considerably, is still hitting .269/.385/.435. Like Paolini, he's getting that high-walk, low-K combo going (48 walks or a whopping 15.3% of plate appearances vs. 50 strikeouts or 15.9%).
The .166 ISO isn't what you look for in a corner outfielder, but the low K% indicates upside there. And it was much higher earlier in the year. He'll be hard to get a good bead on at High Desert, but he needs to be moving up the ladder to stay on course.
And, now the Mavericks have the much-anticipated Twin-Jarbari Attack with Jabari Blash (Watch List).
Alfredo Morales, who was questionable at High Desert in the first place, will go down to Clinton. Morales also has a very high walk rate, but hasn't shown much else.
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Among pitchers, there is movement downward. This seems to all follow from LaFromboise going back on the Tacoma roster while Erasmo had been a rehab slot.
- Forrest Snow (Watch List) made a one-day stop on the Everett roster, but in effect was bumped from Tacoma to Jackson.
- Andrew Kittredge (Watch List) is dropped from Jackson to High Desert.
- George Mieses (26intheMix) descends from High Desert to Clinton.
- Cameron Copping goes from Clinton to Everett.
Each of those guys has shown promise at some point, but none has shown consistent value. Probably why they were the ones on the short end of the pecking order.
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Finally, 1b Kyle Petty, the 23rd-round draft pick from California University of Pennsylvania, gets a promotion to Everett.
Petty has been putting the rest of Rookie League a lap behind (yes, I promised to put the brakes on the NASCAR cracks, but ...) with 29 hits in his first 22 games for a .349/.386/.470 line.
Then again, he has a very high 25.8% K rate, and a very low 3.8% BB rate, and he's been riding on a .483 BABIP. And no home runs. So not as good as he looks at first glance.
But he's earned the promotion, and Peterson had just vacated an infield spot, so let's see what he's got.