A couple news items trickled in today with regards to Mariner relievers.  First, Shawn Kelley had a “partial Tommy John procedure” performed and will be set to throw in about four months, as reported by Kirby Arnold.  I don’t know what a “partial Tommy John procedure” is exactly, but I would guess that it means the surgeons repaired elements from Kelley’s previous Tommy John surgery rather than doing the entire thing over again, as is sometimes required.

Also, as mentioned yesterday, Dan Cortes will not be going to the Arizona Fall League as originally planned.  Since yesterday’s post focused on the man who will be taking his place, we didn’t really talk about the reasons why Cortes may have been bumped.  Perhaps the Mariners decided he had thrown too many innings this year, or that they were planning on giving him a September callup which wouldn’t allow for much of a break between the end of his season and the start of the Arizona Fall League.  But today we found out, again via Arnold, that Cortes is instead going to be pitching in the Venezuelan winter league to “better prepare him — or at least let the organization gauge how ready he’ll be — for what they hope will be a key bullpen role on the big-league team next season.”

“We want to get Cortes to Latin America in winter ball and get him in front of pressure situations and the fans down there,” [Pedro] Grifol said. “Maybe we can expedite his development down there.”

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The Mariners had already announced which prospects they were sending to compete in the Arizona Fall League, but the rosters posted today featured a swap.  Tacoma Rainiers reliever Dan Cortes has been removed from the Peoria Javelinas pitching staff and Clinton Lumberkings starter Tom Wilhelmsen will head to Arizona to take his place.

Wilhelmsen was originally drafted out of high school by the Milwaukee Brewers in 2002, but after a successful 2003 debut he saw his baseball career fall apart.  He tested positive for marijuana multiple times following that season, and was eventually sent to a treatment facility and suspended for the 2004 season.  Through all of that, Wilhelmsen’s interest in baseball began to fade and he left the game in 2005.

After a few years of bartending and traveling the world, Wilhelmsen got the itch again in 2009.  He cleaned himself up, started getting into shape and won a gig with the Tuscon Toros of the independent Golden League, where he showed flashes of what made him a good pitching prospect as a teenager with the Brewers while getting good results.  The Brewers called him back, but after a pinched nerve in his shoulder ended his season they released him. Continue reading »

Towards the end of the offseason, I started a series that was aimed at looking at what the Mariners might do with their 2011 offseason.  Obviously, things have not worked out anywhere near where anyone has expected, so a new look and new approach will be required now.

Just like the first time around, we’ll start off by looking at the free agents to be, with their positions and age at the start of the 2011 season in parenthesis: Continue reading »

I’m down in Tacoma for a week or so house-sitting for a friend of mine, and I decided to take in last night’s Tacoma Rainiers game as long as I was here, especially as it was a Michael Pineda start and he’s right near his innings limit for 2010.

Unfortunately, Pineda showed that he is indeed right at his innings limit, and that there are nothing but good reasons to shut him down for the year, and to do it right now.

The Rainiers were facing the Portland Beavers last night, the AAA affiliate of the San Diego Padres, and they were playing to extend their lead in their division as Salt Lake had lost earlier in the day.  With the Beavers’ middling talent (mostly broken prospects of varying types), this looked like a start that Pineda could breeze through to finish his season on a high note.  Such a result was not to be, however, as the Rainiers would fall 17-12 in what can only be described as an absolute slugfest. Continue reading »

So as anyone who follows me on Twitter already knows, I had a fair amount of difficulty getting a post for Saturday’s AquaSox game together.  I had the post mostly done, then a computer crash coupled with our blog interface apparently not working properly cost me the entire post.  Seeing as I was planning on going to Monday’s game anyways, I decided to just scrap it and do both games in one post.

Then Sunday’s game got rained out and a double header was scheduled for Monday, so, surprise! You get three games worth of scouting reports in one gigantic post.

First of all, I want to extend a massive amount of thanks to the Everett AquaSox organization (in particular Pat Dillon, Katie Crawford, and Tyler Krochmal) for having me out there and allowing me to use their press box, as well as letting me take in batting practice from down on the field. Continue reading »