Despite the rumors, Jarrod Washburn is still starting today for the Mariners against the Toronto Blue Jays. Speculation is running rampant that Washburn could be shipped off to the New York Yankees soon. Buster Olney from ESPN commented on the rumors this morning on Sportscenter saying that if the M’s are just looking for a salary dump then they will not get anything in return, but if they are willing to eat some money that’s where names like Melky Cabrera and Brett Gardner come from. Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times mentions something similar in his blog this morning.

Ken Rosenthal also added this morning that the M’s are pondering the Yankees offer of an average prospect plus the absorption of nearly all of the money on Washburn’s contract. Some have expressed questions about why would the M’s be looking for an outfielder in return for Washburn, my take, which has no basis and is just an off the wall idea, is that maybe the M’s are protecting themselves if or when a new GM comes in and decides it might be time to trade Ichiro.

If Ichiro leaves then the M’s outfield would be short until Michael Saunders or Greg Halman develop ahead of schedule, so adding someone like Cabrera would help address that if that situation ever arose. Again, the above statement is just an off the wall idea on my part, and I am in the camp of advocating a trade of Ichiro for younger pieces. Outside of the Washburn rumors, we’ve all heard rumors about Raul Ibanez, Adrian Beltre and Arthur Rhodes. Out of those three I would assume that Rhodes would be the most likely to go, followed by Ibanez and then Beltre. Like Jason has already mentioned, the Mariners do not have to trade Beltre, so unless they get overwhelmed with an offer he should stay put.

With the Dodgers acquiring Casey Blake from the Indians yesterday, it takes a team out of the running and I don’t feel like the Twins have the prospects it should take to get Beltre. Ibanez on the other hand should be someone that starts getting more play in the next few days. With Blake and Xavier Nady off of the market the only reasonably priced bat out there is Ibanez (Jason Bay and Mark Texeira don’t qualify as reasonably priced).

The Mets and Diamondbacks have been linked to Ibanez and if the Mariners can get a quality prospect for him they should make the trade in a second. They can always resign Ibanez in the offseason if they so choose.

Taking that into consideration, I will go ahead and say that Washburn, Rhodes and Ibanez will no longer be on the roster. Let’s go ahead and say that the Mariners trade Washburn to the Yankees for Cabrera. Rhodes gets sent packing to the Marlins, along with either Rob Johnson or Adam Moore, for Mike Jacobs (have not heard this rumor, just think that this makes some sense) and then Ibanez gets traded to the Mets for Jon Niese (Will the Mets panic to get a bat and overpay?) I also think that after the deadline the Mariners should release Jose Vidro.

Acquiring Jacobs also means the Mariners will send LaHair back to Tacoma. So that creates five spots on your big league roster, with two being filled by Jacobs and Cabrera, leaving three more spots, two in which I’d fill with bats, and one pitcher.

Your lineup now looks like this:

C: Clement

1B: Jacobs

2B: Lopez

SS: Betancourt

3B: Beltre

LF: Balentien

CF: Cabrera

RF: Ichiro

DH: Victor Diaz/Johjima

You then call up Ryan Feierabend or Ryan Rowland-Smith to take Washburn’s spot in the rotation.

While these changes would not make the Mariners contenders by any mean, it would jump start the rebuilding process and give the M’s an extended look at a guy like Diaz and then you’ve got building blocks for next year like Cabrera, Jacobs, Clement, Balentien getting an extended look.

Of course I would love to just blow up the entire team and say goodbye to guys like Miguel Cairo and Willie Bloomquist but that will have to wait until the offseason when both should not be resigned, but that’s for an entirely different post.

If the Seattle Mariners are serious about trading third baseman Adrian Beltre, they must ensure that they are receiving a minimum of one prospect with impact talent, plus the risk of another young talent or two.

Sending out a proven player that is signed through 2009, regardless of the $12 million salary, without getting a player with both a relatively safe probability as well as the ability to be a major contributor on the 25-man roster, would be yet another horrific trade for Seattle.

One they cannot afford.

While deals for Jarrod Washburn and Raul Ibanez are much easier to fathom, neither player is likely to bring back much in return.

The league, every team but the M’s, knows that Ibanez is bad in left field and belongs at DH. And trust me, the New York Mets and Arizona Diamondbacks know it, too. And there is no chance that the Mariners get two of the Mets’ top 10 prospects in return for Ibanez, despite the Mets farm system being very weak after the trade for Johan Santana.

They value Joe Niese much more than some may believe and aren’t valuing Ibanez the way the Mariners would like.

Ibanez is 36, declining slowly but surely, and is a helluva lot more likely to accept arbitration than your standard free-agent-to-be, classifying the chances at two draft picks for the team acquiring him as not-so-automatic, at best.

The offers for Ibanez have been middling thus far, as should be expected. Washburn is a salary dump.

But Beltre has enough value to return legitimate talent to the Mariners.

The only problem is, it’s the Mariners we’re talking about.

If the M’s are looking to make a deal with the rumored interested parties in Minnesota and Los Angeles (do not believe everything you read, the Dodgers have had two scouts at every Mariners games since the series right before the All-Star break - every single one), let the following serve as a guide as to what to look for in following any negotiations that may take place.

Minnesota Twins

Target Prospects
Tyler Robertson, LHP (21)
Robertson is a B-level prospect with No. 3 upside potential, using slightly above-average velocity to set up an average curve and solid changeup. The southpaw is likely around two years away from the majors.
Deolis Guerra, RHP (19)
Guerra is still very raw, but there is a lot of projection in the 19-year-old. Sitting in the 89-92 mph range with his fastball, the right-hander is at least three years from the big leagues. Guerra came over in the deal for Santana.
Ben Revere, OF (20)
Despite his stature, listed at 5-9 and 170 pounds, Revere is showing surprisingly consistent gap power and his speed and and natural instincts suggest he can stick in center field.

The 20-year-old is hitting .404/.456/.539 with 34 steals in 68 games in the Midwest League this season.

25-man
Denard Span, OF (24)
Span is an outfielder with average power at best, but physically there’s more in there if he can make the proper adjustments. He’s already 24, however, and is probably more of a fringy fourth outfielder than anything, but he does have plus speed and bats from the left side of the plate.

Potential deal-breakers for Minnesota
More than two of the above four players.
More than one of Robertson, Guerra.
Any major part of the current roster, particularly young pitching. Bonser might be available, but he’s awful.
Beltre’s 2009 salary of $12m. It’’s unlikely that Seattle is going to be willing to send any money in a deal for Beltre.

Los Angeles Dodgers

Target Prospects
Scott Elbert, LHP (22)
Elbert, 23 in August, had shoulder surgery last offseason and is returning to form in Double-A Jacksonville since returning in June.

Once one of the better lefty pitching prospects in the minors, Elbert has flashed the low-90s heat and bat-missing abilities he displayed prior to the shoulder problems he suffered in 2007, but there are still fairly major questions as to whether he’ll ever regain the durability to get deep into games as a starting pitcher.

Perhaps Elbert would make a lot more sense for teams as a player to be named later.

Jon Meloan, RHP (24)
Meloan is starting for Triple-A Las Vegas but many scouts still see his future in the bullpen. In relief, Meloan figures to sit at the upper range of his velocity, somewhere between 92 and 94 mph, to go with a curve ball, change and cut fastball. But the Dodgers just moved him into the rotation this season.

In a starting role, Meloan has sat in the 88-92 mph range this season, but has shown strong signs of sustaining his velocity from start to start. In relief, on back-to-back days, he was struggling to maintain his plus stuff.

He’s probably a C+ level prospect or so as a future No. 3-4 starter, and not a headliner in a deal for Beltre, but he could be a valuable second piece that Seattle should be interested in if they negotiate with Los Angeles.

Pedro Baez, 3B (20)
Baez is a bit of a poor-man’s Beltre in terms if bat speed and physical ability, but he’s a few years behind in development at the same age. He does have some upside power and would fit neatly as the third player in a trade.

Baseball America ranked Baez as the No. 10 prospect in the Dodgers strong system.

25-man
Andy LaRoche, 3B (24)

LaRoche is the antithesis of what the Mariners lineup has been about for far too long. The 24-year-old third baseman has well above-average plate skills, including strike zone judgment, pitch recognition and patience, and can spray the ball to all fields with 25-homer power and limited strikeouts.

He’s an average runner, maybe slightly above average, but has good feet and plenty of arm to handle third base long term.

Potential deal-breakers for Los Angeles
Any of their current five starting pitchers, including Derek Lowe and rookie Clayton Kershaw. According to Ken Rosenthal, Lowe is not being shopped.

Matt Kemp, OF and James Loney, 1B; LAD is looking to add offense. Trading either Kemp or Loney isn’t much of a net gain.

The Dodgers have absolute untouchables, too, including Kershaw, Martin, and Chad Billingsley. Hong-Chi Kuo has interested Seattle in the past and may still, but the Dodgers are trying to content and dealing away major parts aren’t likely.

A package including LaRoche and Meloan or Elbert is favorable to Seattle.

The best package the Twins might be able to justifiably put together may be a Robertson/Guerra + Revere package, and that’s probably not enough for the M’s.

That doesn’t mean they won’t make the deal, it just means I don’t believe they should even touch such a trade. Beltre is worth more than that and the club has a year to either convince Beltre to re-sign, or trade him. And in the end, two draft picks in 2010 and another year of Beltre might be worth more to Seattle than what Minnesota can offer.

Imagine supporting a team where four years of mediocrity means that the fans fire the general manager. Imagine supporting a team where the voice of fans is invited to sit on the team’s advisory board? Imagine supporting a team that has such a resonance with the community that it has sold over 16,000 season tickets with less advertising than a concert at the Showbox?

This isn’t a dream world. This is Sounders FC where season ticket holders, and others who so choose, are Members of the team. Members can select from amongst themselves individuals to sit on the Council and from the Council the team will select five members to sit on the Advisory Board.

I am Dave Clark. You may recall my work at Inside The Park, here at Prospect Insider, at Fanhome.com, baseballboards.com or as a commenter on a number of other Seattle Mariners blogs.

Currently I am running to be on the Membership Council so I can share my passion for the sport of soccer and help move the team in a direction that rewards long-term membership and works toward capturing the inefficiencies of the opponents’ and to fill the entirety of Qwest Field with Rave Green.

My one simple goal is for the most recent Sounders team to lift a championship banner, and to do so in its first few years in the top level soccer league in our country, and to support their vast efforts to share the sport of soccer with the Seattle area. The world’s game has in fact come to the Emerald City, and with Seattle’s greatest play-by-play voice, Kevin Calabro, bringing you the action you will see victories, Shields and Cups.

I am Dave Clark, and I approve this message.

Accept nothing less than victory

To vote for Dave Clark and help get the Seattle sports blogosphere properly represented in Seattle sports, click here. Seriously, the council’s advisory board can fire the general manager. I’d suggest voting, if for no other reason than to support the firing of bad gm’s in this town.

Click here to become a season ticket holder (as low as $288 for 18 games)
Click here to become a member without season tickets.

Even in this most horrific of seasons, someone has to be the Most Valuable. Even bad baseball teams have a most valuable player.

The Seattle Mariners International Scouting Director, Bob Engle, has easily been the most valuable member of the organization over the last several years, and maybe every individual season since he joined the M’s at the start of the decade.

He’s scouted and successfully signed big leaguers such as Jose Lopez, Yuniesky Betancourt and Felix Hernandez, and was highly influential and resourceful in the M’s signing of Ichiro and Kenji Johjima.

Engle and his scouting staff, which he put together himself, are also responsible for the majority of the top prospects in the farm system, including Carlos Triunfel, Juan Ramirez, Michael Pineda, Mario Martinez, Jharmidy De Jesus, Efrain Nunez and Gabriel Noriega, despite the fact that the Mariners rank in the middle of the pack when it comes to spending money on international talent.

Blah, blah, blah, you’ve heard me say it so many times before. Engle is incredible.

The point is, when one attempts to choose which individual is the most valuable in the organization, Engle likely wins hands down, and probably every year. That isn’t a good thing. Good organizations have front office people, GMs, scouting directors, etc, that are extremely valuable to the daily operations, that they easily prove more valuable than anyone that is responsible only for amateur talent, such as Engle.

So for Engle to be that guy for Seattle is both a testament to his skills as well as a shot at the rest of the organization since 2003.

But instead of naming Bob Engle as the most valuable member of the Mariners organization every season, we’ll just name the award after him, like baseball did with the Edgar Martinez Award.

So, I’m taking nominations until the end of the season. Do some research, ask questions of the right people, including myself if you think I might know, but since the club’s GM can’t win it, who might truly be a worthy recipient?

It’s a tough year for it, but it’s been a tough year five seasons in a row.

Could it be a scout that is credited for signing a few of the better draft picks from last month’s draft? Maybe it’s a player, for any number of reasons such as performance or marketing. Perhaps it’s a coach on the staff or someone else in the front office such as Bob Fontaine.

Fontaine has done a very good job in the draft, considering the “win-now” parameters he’s worked under, and he’s also the Player Development Director and should be credited for overseeing the successes of the aggressive approach the club has had with its top prospects.

I’ve disagreed with most of them, at least to an extent, but none of them have bitten the team in the rear. Tuiasosopo is just fine, Chris Tillman, the one I had the biggest issue with, is showing no signs of his development being stalled due to his first six starts in High Desert last summer, and Greg Halman and Michael Saunders are holding their own and then some.

Anyways, dig deep, check out the M’s Media Guide to get a look at the scouts and front office members, and the minor league player pages in the guide will list the scout who signed each player.

Maybe you think their marketing team is their most valuable, since revenues drive their business which ultimately pays for the players on the field - for the 25-man roster and each of the nine affiliates.

Send your thoughts and nominations to engle@prospectinsider.com between now and the end of the year.

I’ll remind everyone about every four weeks. But this should create some good discussions on who has value to this organization and who doesn’t.

Oh, and I’m taking suggestions for this year’s PI Party, which will probably be sometime in August, though I’m open to September as well - mostly to avoid having the main topic as trade rumors - and I think I’m willing to extend the invites to any and all, rather than limiting the turnout. I was a little gunshy last year.

Where?
Mulleady’s is terrific, and their ownership is a friend of the site’s, and I’d love to bring them as much business as possible, but if doing it somewhere south of Seattle makes more sense, I’m all for that, too.

Exactly when?
Mid August would be my preference, but I’m open.

What would you like there to be at the party?
I have tickets to Tacoma and Everett to give away again, two pair for each this time if we do this in August, and I do have a pair of decent tickets to the Mariners-Rangers (Way to go, Hamilton!) in my hands already.

How should those be given out? Last year we did a little trivia game, and winners got tickets and some great photos donated to the cause by Paul Marsh. We’ll work on Paul again, too, those were super sweet shots, particularly of Felix.

Send in your suggestions

Hope is alive and well in the Seattle Mariners organization, but it’s centered around a lot of talent that’s yet to reach the legal drinking age. So, while the M’s decide on a new direction for their franchise that may include both a new GM and a new ownership group, fans do indeed have something to look forward to.

But it’s important to be patient and to remember to not lose sight of the fact that the top talents in the farm system are a number of years from the big leagues, and some of them won’t pan out.

If you’re an avid Mariners fan, you’ve already heard and read plenty about their top pitching prospect, Phillippe Aumont, and if you spend any time here at Prospect Insider, you’ve also read plenty about right-handers Juan Ramirez and Michael Pineda.

All three are 19 and have shown very well in Class A Wisconsin.

With Jeff Clement in the big leagues, seemingly for good, and Wlad Balentien expected to be recalled soon, most of the top offensive prospects are raw, inexperienced players with unrefined skills and underdeveloped physical attributes.

In the upper levels where catcher Adam Moore, outfielder Michael Saunders and third baseman Matt Tuiasosopo are all viable big-league prospects, albeit it varying levels with varying risks attached to each player, there is very little starting pitching depth, with Ryan Feierabend and Justin Thomas the best bets.

There is also very little in the way of potential stars, until you scan all the way down to Class A High Desert where shortstop Carlos Triunfel is turning around his second full professional season with the best two weeks of his young career to start off July.

Triunfel enters play Tuesday night hitting .308/.368/.462 with two homers, four walks, only two strikeouts and three steals in 13 games this month, an major improvement over an eventful June.

The 18-year-old is mashing lefties for the year - .338/.390/.507 - but remains susceptible to hard stuff from a right-hander. Not due to a lack of bat speed or anything mechanical, but because of his inexperience, which produces less-than ideal pitch recognition.

He has made decent progress this season despite the off-field stuff (questionable attitude, illness, minor injury) and is starting to hit for more power, which may be the most exciting things happening in the farm system right now.

Continue Reading this Prospect Insider Report

If you did not watch Texas Rangers center fielder Josh Hamilton in the first round of the 2008 Home Run Derby, boy did you miss out.

I despise the derby, it’s lost its luster during the steroid era, but watching Hamilton shatter the single-round record with 28 big flys was one of the most incredible things I have seen in baseball. Of the 54 pitches he saw, he took 16, made 10 outs and hit the sweet spot 28 times. That is an amazing, amazing feat.

Not only did Hamilton hit the 28 long balls, but the distance in which he was hitting them electrified the crowd at Yankee Stadium, wowed his own teammates and induced dozens of shaking heads from the rest of the All-Stars in attendance.

I know it’s just the Home Run Derby, and it ultimately means very little to the baseball season at hand, but the Josh Hamilton story that is unfolding before our eyes, well, we’re extremely lucky to be able to watch a human being turn around his life and give hope to so many others in all walks of life.

Even 23-year-old Florida Marlins pitcher Jeff Allison, who is experiencing a very similar problem with addiction, is openly using the 28-year-old Hamilton as his role model in life, as well as in baseball.

Hamilton is a true inspiration to many, and to watch his star shine tonight like it did was tremendous.

“This has been my dream,” Hamilton said of his all-star selection this week. “I’m proof that hope is never lost.”

Baseball aside, you’re damned right, by Josh.