Ryan Braun and Hanley Rameriez are just the latest of the very young stars to ink long term contracts. With their signings the question becomes, why haven’t the Mariners locked up Felix yet?

The idea behind the new big contracts for young players makes a lot of sense. In a time when contracts for mediocre talent are spiraling out of control, teams should invest in the talent that comes up through their farm systems.

While the ends of these contracts seem so far off, by the time a player reaches the last few years of one of these mega-contracts he’ll be a bargain relative to other free agents.

The trend of teams wising up and locking up their young talent isn’t even limited to proven talent anymore.

For heavens sake, Evan Longoria had a huge contract to keep him under team control through 2016 one week after having been called up from AAA.

Felix is clearly a (if not the) key component to the franchise’s long term success. The Mariners seemed to have no problem giving Lopez and Betencourt long term deals even when they were far less proven (and far less talented) than Felix. Then again no one ever accused the Mariners of making the right moves for the franchise’s future.

Additionally, the longer the front office holds off on signing Felix, the more money they’ll be costing themselves. One of the reason these young players get locked up for reasonable terms is that they haven’t truly proven themselves.

Maybe they’ve had one successful season, or show tremendous potential, but they don’t have a history to point to. Felix is only getting better and has 2 1/2 seasons of MLB experience to back up that he can produce.

While his track record may be inconsistent, recent free agent markets have proven that consistency isn’t necessary when dolling out huge chunks of cash.

The more time Felix has to prove himself the more cash he’ll be able to demand. It cannot be that difficult to work out a deal (as proven by all these other contracts getting done). The holdup is probably a issue of years or dollars, but that’s ridiculous figuring the franchise has no problem dolling out 4-years, $48 million for Carlos Silva.

The front office needs to just cave already if they want to keep the future of the franchise happy.

So come on guys, lock The King up.

Jason may be taking a break from Prospect Insider — but he’s still got his gig at the P-I. This week’s Farm Report discusses one of my two favorite prospects in the Mariners’ system: Adam Moore.

Here’s some food for thought — where does Adam rank amongst the M’s current catching prospects, especially now with Clement in the bigs and Johnson only finding hits when I’m shooting photos in Cheney.  Here’s Jason’s take on this in the Farm Report:

Rare in baseball is a catcher with an above-average bat. Moore’s abilities in the batter’s box could thrust him past Clement and Johnson on the Mariners depth chart, perhaps pushing both to other positions.

As much as I’m a fan of upper-tier prospects like Clement, Triunfel, Aumont, etc., I’ve always been a bigger fan of the under-the-radar prospects that don’t get a lot of press.  First it was George Sherrill, and recently it’s been Austin Bibens-Dirkx and Adam Moore.  I don’t think Adam’s going to fly under the radar much longer.

Well, dang — I’ve rambled on long enough. You don’t come here to listen to me — go read Jason’s Farm Report on Adam Moore in the P-I.

Photo by Mike Andruski

In looking at a late draft of the handbook today, I recognized that a lot of the mid-tier prospects go unnoticed, whereas the top-tier talent gets most of the attention. Since I’m nowhere near the analyst Jason is, I’ll hold off on updating you all on how they’re doing. But I do have some photography skills, and Jason’s enlisted me for photographic coverage of Tacoma.

Consider this post a little bit of an update to the photo section of the handbook. You have purchased the handbook, haven’t you??? And, I’ll even throw in some interesting guys who probably aren’t on anyone’s prospect list (Tug Hulett, Andrew Baldwin (traded for Jamie Moyer), Bryan Lahair, Mike Kinkade).

Photos after the jump…

Read the rest of this report �

Just thought I’d pass on a couple of quick news and notes bits that might make for some interesting conversation. Jason actually passed on most of this information to me, so here it goes.

• Brad Wilkerson signed with the Blue Jays. Releasing Wilkerson saved the M’s about $300k. It looks like he might get a shot to platoon with Shannon Stewart.
• Former M’s minor league (short lived) Bronson Sardinha signed with the Indians. He was released by Seattle, rather than being suspended after conduct detrimental to the team.
• The Rockies released RHP Jose Cappellan, who refused his Triple A assignment and is now a free agent. Cappellan is a great arm and a former top prospect for the Braves. Should Seattle take a look at him?
• Jacque Jones was released by the Tigers and is available for FREE, should the M’s go after him?- Blast from the Past: Former M’s farmhand Shawn Estes will take over the fifth spot in the Padres rotation and will make his first start Tuesday.

• With McLaren’s statement yesterday that “we’ve reached the stage where I’m going to use the best nine guys I can to win the game,” and the subsequent benching of Kenji Johjima, how bad does that three-year, $24 million extension look now? Is this the end of Kenji? What about a Kenji for Junior trade (stirring the pot here)?
• M’s prospect Michael Saunders had a great week this week (.481/.500/.815), rising his stock as a prospect. Will the M’s continue their aggressive ways and promote the 21 year-old outfielder to Tacoma this year?
• Foxsports.com is reporting that the Marlins and shortstop Hanley Ramirez are nearing a six-year, $70 million extension.
• The Mariners signed Victor Diaz to a Triple A contract and he hit fourth for the Rainiers last night. Was this a good signing? Could he be a potential fit for the M’s or more of just organizational depth?