picked Mike Garciaparra, soccer player, over David Wright, Captain America. No, they definitely were not helping things. Under Jack and Tom, the Mariners have done a great job at 3 things:
1) drafting high-quality bats in the first 3 rounds. Ackley, Seager, Franklin, Zunino and Miller are a fistful of hitting talent any team would like to have. The misses on Cron (unsignable) and Poythress (just never quite turned into a corner hitter) are completely understandable and were drafted in a place that doesn't hurt us. The same may be true of Austin Wilson, or maybe he'll be a monster, and DJ Peterson is starting his pro career off just fine. When they have hitters they want early, they're usually right.
2) Finding TOR arms. In '09 that wasn't the case (3 plus infielders in 4 picks is a worthy alternate plan) but every other year... Walker, Hultzen, Paxton and Stanek (didn't sign, but he was the right talent) are great arms. And we have teens who might also be in Diaz (throws 92-96, reworking his motion for incredibly increased accuracy) and Pike (unhittable, advanced pitcher, too many walks but is trying to find a Bedard path as he gets that curve under control to go with a nice sinker and change). We're hitting a LOT of marks here. It's kinda scary.
3) snagging a couple of good relievers in every draft. You'd think this would be easy, but a lot of teams can't do it. We have Capps, Pryor, Moran, Smith, Burgoon, Leone, Wood... add in a few potentials from this year and you get a self-sustaining pen offering a couple of new arms every year as grist for the mill.
But drafting the RIGHT hitters early, the high-upside arms when they're available, and the one-trick ponies for the pen who can immediately find their mark seems to be working out for us.
Easy, right?
~G
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