Tacoma’s Done.  More Callups?

The Tacoma Rainiers lost tonight to a Sacramento Rivercats team that featured two of the better hitting prospects in all of baseball, Brett Wallace and Chris Carter.  This loss knocked them out of the playoffs and ended their season.

Tough break for the fellas, especially those who don’t have things like eventually starting in the big leagues to look forward to.  But this means the Mariners will be able to add a few more players.

Matt Tuiasosopo, Garrett Olson, Bryan LaHair, Robert Emanuel, Justin Thomas and Gaby Hernandez are all currently on the 40-man roster and could get the call.  All may be called up, if nothing else as a reward for a successful season.  Personally, I wouldn’t bother with LaHair or Hernandez.

The Mariners will be making some room on their 40-man roster so they can bring up some other guys.  Carlos Silva, who is on the 60-day DL and had been rehabbing with Tacoma, will almost certainly be added back onto the 40-man.  Room will almost certainly be made for Adam Moor.  Nick Hill is also a candidate to get a call if room is made, though Hill could be given a breather as he’s heading to the Arizona Fall League next month.

Candidates to be cut from the 40-man may include Marwin Vega, Stephen Kahn and perhaps even Hernandez.  I’m tempted to put LaHair in there, but I’ve guessed that he would be cut a hundred times before and yet he is always kept around.

Quick Word on Morrow’s Return

I missed the first three innings, which were apparently pretty ugly.  But he looked pretty good in his final 2 innings, especially after the 3-6-3 double play.  I was glad to see that he had confidence in offspeed stuff.  He threw some nice changups and split/changes (not totally sure what that pitch is.  Pitch F/X algorithm calls it a slider, but I’m pretty confident that he doesn’t throw one.  I don’t think it’s a true splitter either, but who knows), and had a few curveballs that were reminiscent to the ones he was buckling knees at the end of last season.

The conditions were terrible so I’m willing to give him a pass on the inconsistency tonight.  His next start will be a better opportunity for evaluation.