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The Seattle Mariners have several players playing for their countries in the World Baseball Classic, including some prospects. That list is headlined by top catching prospect Harry Ford who is playing for Great Britain. He will get a chance to compete against the highly touted United States team this Saturday, March 11.

The former first round draft choice by the Mariners will be joined by Mariners minor league coach Brad Marcelino on the Great Britain team. Marcelino is the hitting coach for both Great Britain and the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers.

Playing for team Great Britain gives Ford’s father great pride, and he shared his sentiments and what it means to him to have his son play for Great Britain with MLB Pipeline.

Other Mariners prospects in the World Baseball Classic are Milkar Perez and Jose Caballero. Perez is playing for Nicaragua and Caballero is playing for Panama.

Mariners Draft Spotlight

One of the hottest players so far this college baseball season has been Wake Forest third baseman Brock Wilken. His stats are outrageous, as he is slashing .389/.493/1.037 through his first 14 games. He has been absolutely raking this year, and already has 11 home runs.

The team at Prospects Live praised his massive raw power, saying “His raw power is prodigious, and his batting practice displays frequently contain balls hit hard in a way that no one else on the field can replicate.” They also think he can stick at third base long term because of his big arm. “At third base, Wilken has solid enough hands and reacts well to batted balls, but isn’t very rangy due to below average foot speed. The big plus here is a rocket arm, and that helps mitigate skepticism about him sticking at third as a pro.”

The Mariners do not have a ton of experienced players in their upper minor league system, so adding a college hitter who has had big time success at the college level would certainly be a boost to the system. With three first round picks to play with, Wilken certainly may be an option.

Joe Doyle shared his current predictions for who the Mariners may select with their first four draft picks this summer on the Over-Slot podcast.

Mariners Prospects in the News

The team over at MLB Pipeline finally came out with their top 30 list for the Seattle Mariners prospects rankings, and they led off their list with Great Britain’s Harry Ford.

Jonathan Mayo of MLB Pipeline was on with Bump and Stacy on Seattle Sports to talk about the MLB Pipeline rankings.

MLB.com wrote about a Mariners righty who has impressed this spring on the mound.

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Curtis Christianson

Curtis Christianson is the Athletic Director at Concordia Christian Academy. He also works in the Tacoma Rainiers clubhouse during the baseball season.