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Seattle Mariners Spring Training 2006 Report

Hotel space in Arizona was difficult to come by this Spring, in part because the Marlins seemingly invited half of the world's supply of pitchers to camp.

Hurlers

Wunderkind Felix Hernandez (MLN FAB50 Baseball 2005 No. 1) now sports a little ear bling and the cover of another magazine, ESPN. With a 2.25 ERA, 100 strikeouts in 88 innings in Tacoma last season, and a 2.67 ERA with 67 Ks in Seattle after his call up, it is our assumption that he's a major leaguer from the get go. Bon Voyage, and may the Mariners fans enjoy you until the major market clubs come courting with the big dollars.

Fellow Venezuelan Cesar Jiminez will move up to the Tacoma Rainiers from the San Antonio Missions after sporting a 2.62 ERA on 68.2 innings of work. Former Giants prospect Jesse Foppert may be finding his footing in Tac after struggling a bit in Fresno last season.

Plate

Japanese import catcher Kenji Johjima looks good with a bat, but the transition to shepherding American major league pitchers may be something of a learning curve. Rene Rivera wasn't much of a wow in Tacoma, but he cranked it up in Seattle batting .396 in 16 games and 48 trips to the plate. For all that he had 1 home run and 6 RBIs.

Basepath

Jose Lopez got the call up last year after batting .319 with 31 RBI for Tac. He looked good this Spring as well. Shortstop Matt Tuiasosopo (MLN FAB50 Baseball 2005 No. 36 ) didn't make the NRI list, but, as one of the more gifted and well paid minor leaguers, we expect him to move up in the organization's depth chart again this Spring.

Deep Grass

T.J. Bohn batted .308 for San Antonio and then kicked it up to .321 for Tacoma, but we think he still has more time in Tac. We still see Shin-soo Choo (MLN FAB50 Baseball 2005 No. 38), as a stronger candidate. He popped for a .282 average with 11 dingers and 54 RBIs in Tacoma. His strikeout count edges the century mark, meaning that he'll probably be working on his plate discipline with the staff in Tac.

The Mariners have a solid farm system that is deep in talent from a very diverse pool. They have one of the best Asian & Pacific rim scouting systems that has produced talent from Australia to Japan.