The night in the minors for the affiliates of the Seattle Mariners is as interesting as it’s been all season with right-hander Chris Tillman making his first start as a member of the High Desert Mavericks and SS Carlos Triunfel continuing his onslaught on the Midwest League at the age of 17.
In case you missed it, Tillman was promoted to the Cal League on Wednesday after just eight starts in Wisconsin.  His first start is tonight versus Lake Elsinore, and he’s tossed a scoreless first inning to get things underway.
Tillman displayed well above-average command with the Timber Rattlers and his stuff is good enough to get some outs in the Cal League, but I just don’t see how the risk of crushing his confidence is worth the reward of simply proving he can pitch in Advanced-A baseball, where the bats really aren’t all that great this season anyways.
The ballparks, altitude, warm, light air and the wind that often blows 20+ mph out from home plate are enough to tame any teen hurler and completely delete any momentum he’d built in the Midwest League.
[As I type this, Tillman walks a batter and then gets out of the inning with a strikeout-throw-out double play; he's gone two scoreless thus far]
Triunfel is hitting .322 through the seventh inning of tonight’s game versus Peoria, but has collected seven multihit games in his past 10 starts and has seven extra-base hits in his last 13 games. As a 17-year-old kid, that’s nothing short of special. You just don’t see players of that age group doing this, and though he hasn’t hit a home run yet, the power is clearly there, as shown by the doubles and triples he’s piling up the past 2 1/2 weeks. 
The kid they call Baby Tejada is 1-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout tonight, but keep an eye on Triunfel over the next few years. He’s going to start hitting balls really hard as he matures physically and his plus bat speed is only going get even better as he perfects his approach and learns to recognize pitches more consistently.
[Tillman has three shutout innings in so far... this is fun at least, eh?]
Another Sidenote: Tillman has a 1-0 lead thanks to a sac-fly by Jeffrey Dominguez that scored Adam Moore, who doubled and is hitting .282 on the season with 10 bombs. Time to challenge the catcher, fellas… send him to West Tenn where he belongs. Coincidentally, or not, I have a scouting report on Moore coming as soon as I get a chance to talk to Moore himself. Maybe this weekend.
And in case you’ve been watching American Idol on your DVR every night, Mr. Adam Jones is tearing the cover off the ball. He’s hitting .417 in May with six homers, four doubles and two triples. He’s slugging over .500 versus lefties and righties, is hitting over .300 at home and on the road and in 10 at-bats in successive games versus Vegas during this past homestand, the 21-year-old center fielder went 6-for-10 with two homers, a double and six RBI and even the singles and outs he recorded were scorched.
Jones is nearing the point in his development when it’s a bad idea to leave him in Tacoma.  The club might have to find a way to make a move this summer.
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Jason, couple of questions.
1. Would the release Rivera in order to promote Moore this season?
2. What are your thoughts about Limonta?
Tks.
1. Will they? Not this early, I wouldn’t think. Should they? Yeah. Rivera is eating up a 40-man spot that they’ll certainly be needing soon, too.
2. Limonta is on a similar level as Hubbard… very little room for error in his development, which means he has little chance to become a big-league regular.
Couple of things, JAC:
A. Where do scouts believe Triunfel will end up defensively? Looks like the sky’s the limit for him. 35 HR power potential?
B. What’s Tillman’s upside? #2?
C. What could we get for Wlad in a trade at the deadline?
Thanks.
A. In January one scout that saw him play before signing with the Ms said 3B… I watched about 5 minutes of video and thought to myself “left field, but he’d play it very well”…
Third is the spot I have heard the most. He has an absolute cannon.
He won’t stick at short, he’ll outgrow the spot. He’s 17 and 5-11 and 175 already… He could end up 6-1 or 6-2 and 210 pounds,which is prototypical for a corner man.
I have heard 40 homers from a few people, and I’ve heard 25 from a few. From what I have seen, he’s got enough bat speed to go 30+ and if his plate coverage ends up above average, he might go further than that.
B. I’d say Tillman’s ceiling is as a No. 2 yeah. He’ll probably settle in as a strong third guy or a decent 2, unless all goes right for him.
C. Not much, really, at least nothing exciting. You could make the 25-man a little better by dealing Wlad, but he’s not going to retrieve a ton by himself. If the M’s toss Wlad and another solid prospect together, or maybe a big leaguer of need to the acquiring team, the return could be pretty solid.
Hey Jason, I know this is a little off topic, but who do you think the M’s are going to call up to spot start for Ramierez? They called up Huber, does that mean they might start Morrow?
I think it’s more likely they called Huber up just to send him back down when they figure out who they’re gonna call up to start for Ho.
Whatever happened to Mike Wilson? I was never very high on him, but he seemed to make a splash this spring.
I believe Wilson has has been injured.
Jason,
At what point in the season do the M’s decide what to do with Ichiro? Most have concluded that we’re going to lose him at seasons end. Are we better off trying to trade him before the deadline? Who would be interested and what would be the return? Thanks in advance.
Jason, who would you call up for the HoRam start?
Re: Willmore
Me? Lehr, if it’s only going to be a start or three. I call up Feierabend if it’s going to be long term.
Campillo is probably going to get the nod, though. His start day is the same as Horacio’s… Woods is a candidate, but they’d have to hold him out of his start today in order to do that.
The good news is, they aren’t going back to Weaver.
Re: on Ichiro
I would send out heavy feelers to see what I could get for him regardless of whether it seems he’ll resign or not.
But if yer not going to get at least one premium talent back, you really have to keep him and hope he comes back.
re: Wilson
I remember reading somewhere that he injured a quad.
Yeah, Wilson hurt his hip and quadricep last month.
Chen is still out with a shoulder injury, too. No word on when either guy will return.
If Tillman struggles, is he likely to go back to Wisconsin?
No.
Just wondering the reason behind Feir pitching 1 inning Sat.? Possibly to be called up or did they just feel like using Feir for an inning?
He’s starting Tuesday in Los Angeles.
Nice. Is Lehr ever gonna get a look and any news on Lowe and his recovery?
Word is Adam Jones is ready but Balentien is not. However their numbers are similar this year with Wlad showing more HR power, better base stealing, less K’s and a higher average.
So there must be things outside of the boxscore that differentiate them. What do you see in these players? I think Wlad looks like a less expensive Guillen for next year but I suspect he will be traded for mediocre pitching.
Looking forward to hearing more about Adam Moore.
Jason,
What do you think of Joe Woerman’s 19 consecutive scoreless innings he’s pitched? He is getting strikeouts and lots of groundballs and he has only allowed 6 hits in that span, however he has walked 11 in that span also.
Woerman may have a career in the bullpen, but he’s not overpowering or anything.
Lehr should be starting Tuesday, he’s the guy most capable of helping immediately.
Jones v. Balentien
Wlad hasn’t proven anything yet. Jones has been REALLY good in AAA for more than a year now and has shown he can take what he learns in the cage into the batter’s box evryday. Wlad is still living off of his natural talents.
Balentien has been great this year and it looks like he has learned one thing at least; you don’t have to hit home runs when you’re down in the count — just put a good, quick swing on it and see what happens. Wlad is doing that on the 0-2 and 1-2 sliders.
How likely is it that Tillman struggles or loses confidence?
Well, they go hand-in-hand to an extent, and if I knew the answer to that question, I’d be making millions.
The reason I don’t like the move this early in the year is because there isn’t much reward to the risk.
If this was 2008 and he’d started off well in HD and it was nearly June and they sent him to AA, i wouldn’t have a problem with it since he’d be a year more mature and would be more prepared to handle things if they get tough.
Oh, and yeah, I think he’ll stuggle plenty in the Cal League. But in the end I won’t be judging his performance based on the numbers, since a few wretched outings can make longer stretches of good play look mediocre.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/baseball/318336_marisale04.html
Lincoln denies were for sale.