Right-hander Brandon Morrow looked solid in his first start for the Lara Cardenales, throwing five shutout innings and allowing just three singles and a walk against four strikeouts.

In the Fall and Winter Leagues, results are typically meaningless, and the same goes for Morrow with one exception: The walk totals.

He struggled on and off with his control so much last season that the bases on balls are actually a category to keep an eye on.

A scout sitting in the stands thought Morrow was “pretty sharp considering the layoff since the last time he faced live bats,” and added that he “was very aggressive with his fastball early and threw a few pretty good looking sliders.”

He sat in the 91-94 mph range, tagging 95+ a few times, and the scout believes he saw a few changeups - not necessarily the splitter, but a legit change.

Right-hander Stephen Kahn also saw his first live action in 14 months after missing the entire ‘07 season with a torn ACL. Kahn tossed a scoreless sixth inning, allowing one hit and striking out one. He sat in the low 90s as well.

Morrow is expected to get six more starts this winter before shutting it down and returning to Peoria in late January to start the process all over again.

I’m still on break, so to speak, and I apologize for that and the cancellation of the offseason plan pieces, but instead, I’m opening it up like Coach Holmgren has the Seahawks offense.

Within this thread, the following is what you can do:

- Post your well thought out ideas on what the Mariners should look to do

Explain your thoughts and ideas, and make sure you cover everything to avoid so many others disputing your plan being any kind of answer.

- Question, in a friendly manner, the thoughts and ideas of others

Any name calling will result in a permanent banning. You wanna join Edtrak?

- Discuss anything hot stove, Mariners or not.

- Make suggestion toward another poster’s plan

Here is what you cannot do here:

- Ask me questions

- Get an attitude with another poster. That’s the same as getting one with me.

- Ask me questions

- Ask me questions

- Ask me questions

Now…

Have at it.

November’s book of the month is the 2008 Baseball America Prospect Handbook, which has been a pretty solid addition to anyone’s collection of the best reference books in the game for several years.

BA has begun their team-by-team top 10 prospect rankings (started with the NL East this past week) and if you are missing out on their subscription-only coverage this winter, the best way to make up for that is to drop a few bones on the handbook, which goes 30 deep for each organization.

Along with the top 30s, BA also ranks the farm systems from 1-30, grades the draft, and my favorite, the overall top 100 prospects in baseball.

Typically the Baseball America Prospect Handbook’s sell at $29.95, but you can snag a copy Right Here for Just $19.97.

It’s a great gift, for yourself or your friends and family, and even though I do have a subscription, I get one every season and refer to it regularly.

And it looks great on my bookcase next to my copies of the Bill James Handbook, Minor League Analyst, The Fielding Bible and Hardball Times.

Click Here to Get Your Copy of the 2008 Baseball America Handbook, before Joe Kaiser buys them all and gives them away to the San Francisco Giants front office for Christmas.

Not only did the Seattle Mariners clean house at the big-league level, they have also made changes to the coaching staffs amongst their minor league affiliates. The club let go of minor league pitching coordinator Pat Rice during the season and replaced him with recent hire Dave Wallace who will also serve as a special assistant to the GM, Bill Bavasi on an “as needed basis.” Rice was always fantastic to both InsidethePark.com and Prospect Insider, so we certainly wish him well for the future.

But while the parent club has five new coaches - bullpen coach Norm Charlton, pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre, first base coach Eddie Rodriguez, third base coach Sam Perlozzo and bench coach Jim Riggleman - the club continues to make coaching changes, most notably to date, the apparent re-assignment Tacoma Rainiers hitting coach Terry Pollreisz as the manager of the Class A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, and High-A High Desert sending both skipper Scott Steinmann and pitching coach Scott Budner to Double-A West Tennessee for the 2008 campaign.

Steinmann replaces Rodriguez who spent just one year in West Tenn before being hired to coach first base in Seattle, while Budner takes over for Brad Holman whose contract was not renewed.

Pollreisz has tons of coaching and managing experience and is a good fit anywhere in the system and specializes in teaching young bats - he tutored Chris Snelling from day one and was instrumental in the development of Wladimir Balentien and Adam Jones.

Budner has a lot of fans in the organization, which normally might suggest that he may not be qualified and is still with the M’s because of the good ‘ol boy system, but that is not the case this time around. He’s well-liked by even the pitchers he coaches as well as the front office staff, and that’s actually fairly rare in this day and age.

“Yeah, he’s kind of a hard ass,” says relief pitcher Austin Bibens-Dirkx, “but I like him a lot. He’s great to work with and has helped me a lot.”

No word yet on who is replacing Pollreisz as hitting coach in Tacoma, bu both Darren Brown, manager, and the pitching coach Dwight Bernard are expected back next season. Hitting coordinator Alonzo Powell is due back as well, at least as far as I can gather.

I haven’t heard who is taking over the helm in High Desert, or who the new pitching coach may be, but I’d bet on Jim Horner, who managed the Rattlers a year ago, and Lance Painter, who spent last season as Horner’s pitching coach. It’s also possible that Pollreisz was re-assigned to High Desert, however. If and when I hear anything different, I’ll update on the sidebar.

Churchill on the Changes:
I think coaching means a lot more in the minors, so these can be somewhat critical changes, but I think they have done well in shifting things around. Rice and Holman, though, are basically being blamed for the injuries, and that’s a load of Pedro if you ask me. I can understand wanting to go in another direction; new ideas and different voices can make a positive impact, so even though I really like Holman and Rice, the org is going to be fine, and may be better off in the end.

Steinmann is a pretty good big-league managing prospect, as is Horner, and my bet is that they move up again this time next year.

And just in case I haven’t made this known, I love the Wallace pickup. Love it.

The reason why I was so amped up when it appeared Jim Colborn was the favorite for the big-league pitching coach gig is because he brings so much to the table, and Wallace is basically a clone to Colborn in that manner.

Wallace has major league experience as a pitching coach, has coached the kids a lot and has some scouting and GM experience as well, which comes in handy when Bavasi goes to his staff to ask whether Jason Jennings, Hiroki Kuroda or Randy Wolf can help the club, or if they are likely a waste of resources.

One former GM had this to say about the new staff in Seattle, too.

“You have to have good players to have a good team, but if you have enough talent, a bad staff can hold them back enough to make an impact. Adding Stotts and Riggleman are perfect compliments to an inexperienced manager like McLaren and if I remember Rigs’ ways, he’s not going to hold back when it comes to telling his manager that running the same veteran out there over and over isn’t necessarily a good idea. He’s a huge proponent of using the best available, and learned that lesson the hard way when he managed a few years back.

“Wallace is and under appreciated guy, too. He’s got so much to offer a club and will be great for their kids, and I’d bet he helps the Hernandez kid as much or more than Mel does, and we all know that if he’s on his game consistently, they could contend, provided they don’t take step back offensively.”

Seattle Signs Pitcher:
The Mariners inked right-hander Yao-Wen Chang of Taiwan earlier this month, adding to what is becoming a pretty solid corps of young power arms. Chang, who turned 17 two weeks ago, sits in the 89-92 mph range with a live fastball with natural tail, and compliments that with four offspeed pitches, including a split, slider, curve and change. The Mariners are expected to pare that down to three primary pitches, most likely fastball-curve-change, with the possibility that they let him choose between the slider and the curve.

Chang is much more advanced than your typical teenage kid from the Pacific Rim, especially considering that he’s already speaking english at a high level. Chang is a prototypical 6-feet, 3-inches and 190 pounds, and employs an intriguing, fluid delivery with great deception.

Minor League Free Agents:
The Mariners have 14 minor leaguers who are free agents, including right-handers Cibney Bello, Ivan Blanco, Juan Done, Justin Lehr, Roman Martinez and Juan Sandoval, left-hander Brad Thomas, catchers Luis Oliveros, Rene Rivera and Craig Hurba, infielders Jesus Guzman and Jesus Merchan (acquired from Philly in the trade for Julio Mateo), and outfielders Prentice Redman and Brandon McConnell.

I’d be a little surprised if any of the above returned with the possible exceptions of Thomas, Sandoval and Done, who are favorites of the current minor league staffs. One NL team has already asked Prospect Insider for information on Rivera and Guzman, so they will likely find jobs elsewhere.

Morrow Update:
Right-hander Brandon Morrow is set to head to Venezuela on Saturday the 17th to make 6-8 starts for the Lara Cardenales. The club’s 2006 first-round pick has been throwing extended bullpens in Peoria, maxing out in the 90-pitch range as the M’s stretch him out to prep him for a starter’s role in 2008.