Mariners Prospect News for June 27
At least two Mariners prospects will be on the big stage (ESPN2, at least) on All-Star weekend, and a third is "in the running."
In other words: Taijuan Walker (Talk40 #2) and Brad Miller (Talk40 #6) have been picked to the U.S. team in the Futures Game on Saturday July 14. The game pits U.S. vs. International prospects.
No Mariners are on the initial International roster, but, for the first time there will be fan vote for the final spot on each team. And one of the five International nominees is our man Ji-Man Choi (Talk40 #19). Maybe a strong Korean vote will bring him across (Choi is the only Asian nominee, which might help). Among the other nominees is No. 1 overall draft pick Carlos Correa of Puerto Rico.
Voting is at MLB.com/futuresfinalists and #FuturesFinalists through June 30.
Vote Choi! and/or #VoteChoi
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Julio Morban (Talk40 #15) was the Southern League Player of the Week. Maybe that gets The Morbanwagon a special parking place?
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One normal promotion to High Desert and one odd one.
Grady Wood (26intheMix), a righty reliever who's been having a strong season (2.41 ERA, 1.10 WHIP), got the call to High Desert from Clinton.
And, for reasons not readily apparent, Alfredo Morales jumped to the Mavericks all the way from Everett (that's skipping Clinton). That means highly deserving Jabari Henry (26intheMix) and Dario Pizzano (26intheMix) were passed over.
The spot opened up when Jabari Blash (Watch List) went on the DL (his second injury of the year; one reason to have some doubts about him).
There's surely some rationale, since Morales' star is fading and Henry and Pizzano are showing pretty complete mastery of Low-A. I assume it's because they expect Blash back quickly.
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Faithful commenter Bat571 will be glad to hear that the "other" Brazilian/Japanese hybrid model -- Daniel Missaki -- has been assigned to Everett. ("Other" meaning not Luiz Gohara (Talk40 #21).) At least, that's what the organizational report says. But he does not yet appear on the roster.
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D.J. Peterson has played five games in the field, and all have been at third base. He says he's worked hard to stay there, though the scout consensus is otherwise. Looks like the organization is going to give him a shot there.