Prospect Insider

26 days

By Rick Randall

By 01-18-2011

There are 26 days between now and the day pitchers and catchers report for spring training on February 13 -- the rest of the squad will report no later than February 18 with the first full-squad workout slated for the day after.

The M's first spring game is the annual charity game versus the San Diego on the 27th with their first Cactus League matchup the following day against the same Padres.

Minor leaguers won't report until the second week of March, though these dates are more of a deadline than the day most players show up for camp.

In any case, we'll be here daily to round up the thoughts and ideas as the club heads closer to the 2011 season, lending you all anything you might need to get yourself ready.

Non-Roster Invitees
There are a couple of interesting non-roster arms on their way to Peoria in the next few weeks that M's fans should keep an eye on, and although the M's have officially extended Spring Training Invites to these 15 players so far, they still haven't begun to really reach outside the organization with their invitations. As such, there could be even more interesting names by the time February 13 rolls around, but as of right now, at least a few of those guys have real shots at an Opening Day roster spot. One of Royce Ring or Fabio Castro could break camp as the LOOGY, Adam Kennedy should be looked at as the favorite for a reserve spot entering camp, and we all know how much the M's blogosphere loves one Ryan David Langerhans.

One name that I'm sure some PI readers have heard and will be curious about is the recently signed Keli'i Zablan, A Southern Utah product pictured at left, out of the Independent Frontier League. He recently received an NRI, too, but ... well, let's just say don't get too excited.

One scout gave PI this quick-hit scouting report on the 5-foot-11 righty: "He sits 87-89, fringy curveball and slider, 40 change." In other words, he's fodder.

Ring, Castro, Denny Bautista, Justin Miller or even the knuckleballer Charlie Haeger have more upside, so don't fall in love with the cool island name.

Marcus Thames (Dodgers) and Andruw Jones (Yankees) both appear to be off the board now, and weren't really on the Mariners' radar anyways, but you can certainly cross those two right-handed hitting outfielders off your wish list. Hey, Mike Wilson is on the NRI list.

Contract Details
Jason already nailed most of this info earlier in the offseason, but Greg Johns from Mariners.com confirmed some of those details of the last three M's brought on board.

Olivo's '11 figure is $2.75 million, his '12 salary will be $3.5 million and his '13 option is for $3 million, or a $750,000 buyout.

Adam Kennedy's deal becomes $750,000 guaranteed if he makes the big league club and can grow from there based on plate appearances, potentially all the way up to $1.2 million.

Josh Bard's deal is structured similarly, with a $750k ML roster contract, and up to $1m for 500 PA. Both Kennedy and Bard also have outs if they aren't won the MLB roster by the time April Fool's Day rolls around.

And while they are both nice pieces to have available, let's hope neither of those 2 reach their PA incentives.

The National Snub
Interesting that MLB.com's Peter Gammons broke down the AL West yesterday and made not one mention of the Mariners, primarily focusing on what the rest of the West did and didn't do in the offseason. That may seem like somewhat of a slight, but it just goes to show you that no one is expecting much out of the Mariners in 2011.

I'm sure everyone wants the M's to surprise in the coming year, and although they should be much-improved -- as I covered in detail here -- they will be hard-pressed to not lose 88-plus games. So don't lose any sleep when the likes of ESPN or Peter Gammons fail to mention the Mariners at all when covering the 4-team division of which they are a part. Better days are coming.

After all, we are all the way out here in South Alaska. Right?

Photo of Zablan courtesy of Frontier League Independent Professional Baseball

26-days

Comments
The following 3 comment(s) for this article are shown below:

1. By: maqman on 01-18-2011 13:23:56
Castro had a pretty good winter league, so he's sure worth a look. Would like to see what Wilson and Luis Rodriguez have to offer too. Sure to be a nice surprise in there somewhere. Z is good at shopping the bargain bin by and large, although he whiffed a few last year.

2. By: FWBrodie on 01-18-2011 15:42:10
Gammons has been a Mariner hater for as far as I can remember.

3. By: Jason A. Churchill on 01-18-2011 18:25:10
Gammons just doesn't connect with Seattle in the least. Even when they were good, he was out of the loop. He doesn't hate them, he just doesn't know them. The time to stop reading Gammons for analysis was, well, forever ago, because he's only a reporter -- once was a great reporter with connections, but still just a reporter, not an analyst.

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