With the No. 2 pick in the draft...

The Mariners take Dustin Ackley. Hands down Ackley is the best hitter in the draft. I'm very happy with this pick. Jack Z was on the phone during the MLB Network broadcast and he said Ackley will play in the outfield and will be in the big leagues soon. Obviously he won't be up in Seattle this year but watch out in 2011.

Number 27: The Mariners select Nick Franklin a switch hitting shortstop out of high school in Florida. Franklin is a very athletic, versatile player who fits the mold of players you've seen Jack Zduriencik bring onto the ball club. Obviously, Franklin projects to be a solid major league player but he may have been drafted to ease the concerns for the money the M's would be spending on Dustin Ackley at number 2.

There are rumors that the M's have agreed on a deal with catcher Steve Baron at number 33. The reason they can get away with agreeing on a deal with Baron is because he has been slotted to be picked much deeper than 33. Personally, I say watch for the M's to take a pitcher with their 33rd pick coming up here. Especially if pitcher Tanner Scheppers is available and they're willing to pay the money and risk the shoulder injury from the Fresno State pitcher.

*Update: The rumors are true. The Seattle Mariners select high school catcher Steven Baron with the first compensatory pick at #33.

First the birds, then the NL...

So I haven't written a post in a bloody fort night. Since the last time I wrote a blog article I have beaten the monster of all video game conferences, in E3, and I have also gotten engaged to my lovely fiance Natasha, so its been a wild couple of weeks. But the baseball season keeps chugging along, so lets get into this.

The M's seem to be on a bit of an upswing as of late. Winners of 7 of their last 10, they currently sit one game under .500, and 5 games out behind the Rangers. Looks like Beltre is figuring some things out at the plate along with Lopez, Branyan is still sitting balls into Lake Washington, and some kid who was a throw-in player in the JJ Putz deal refuses to let any one score when he's on the bump. Justin, err, Jason Vargas is currently a 2-0 pitcher, with a 1.93 ERA. and looking more and more like a solid number 4-5 starter. A very pleasant surprise, and he goes tonight against Baltimore, who he only gave up 2 runs against last time he faced them on June 3rd, in a 3-2 win, in which he got a no decision.

Looking ahead on the calender, after we finish the series in Baltimore, we then stroll into Colorado for three and then San Diego (I believe it means 'A Whale's Vagina' in German) for three. The M's have always seemed to play very well against the NL, going 116-96 leading up to this year, so if history tells us anything, it says we might be able to make some headway and be in the black, record wise, when we get home. For our next homestand, we get AZ, San Diego, and then off to Dodger land for the start of the following road trip.

If this team wants to make the playoffs, it needs to rip through this road trip, stay hot, and get home with some confidence and momentum. I personally think anything less then 5-4 record is a disappointment, with 6-3 being the goal. The three teams we are facing are a combined 19 games under .500, so its time to make a move. Either that, or go 3-6, and Bedard, Branyan, and Washburn better not be on the flight home. Instead, they should be flying out to their new teams because they just got traded. We are starting to get down to the nitty gritty here for this team. They are making a case that with the correct guys producing, they can win games. But if I were the GM, I would be expecting them to tear through the NL in this next month. June is going to be make or break, and I really don't think it could have lined up any better for us, given our history. 15 games this month against teams we have always done pretty well against in the past can't hurt a club looking to climb back into it. So here's to hoping!

Garbs

PS. As Noah mentioned in an earlier blog post, today is the first day of the MLB Draft. Strausberg is off to the Nats, he'll to warrant 40-50 million before throwing a major league pitch, and we could have had him if the A's wouldn't have purposely thrown the last series of the year, last Sept (my conspiracy theory, not proven). Instead, we get Dustin Ackley, who I'm happy with. Sounds like a decent amount of talent with some good upside, so we'll see I guess. I'll tell you what though, if Strausberg ends up being a bust for the Nationals (which crazier things have happened), that's it for that franchise. They need a shot in the arm, and this could be it, but if not, that's a mighty big motza ball to have to cover for a team that wins approx 60 games a year and has about 4 people watch their games.

First-year player draft starts tomorrow

Tomorrow, June 9th will mark the opening rounds of the 2009 first-year player draft or the Rule 4 draft. Our own hometown M's will be selecting 2nd. Now of course all you've heard of is this Stephen Strasburg kid, but forget about him. He's going #1 overall to the Washington Nationals and will probably become the highest paid draft signing ever.

So who does that leave us with? Well, the M's aren't going to end up with that bad of a player in the #2 slot. The University of North Carolina's Dustin Ackley is well regarded as the best hitter in the draft with plus speed and above average defense. I'd look for the M's to take Ackley #2. The only question is where will he play.

In Ackley's junior season at UNC he played first base. But, he's too good of an athlete to have him at first. Many of the experts see him roaming center field or possibly even second base. Either way, this is a kid you can really get excited about. Sure, he's no Strasburg...but who cares.

If you want to know more about Ackley, I encourage you to take a look at this feature written by Larry Stone at The Seattle Times.

Putting the game in motion

This weekend a reader of the blog explained to me that he felt Don Wakamatsu has changed the way he has managed the team. During the Mariners' very successful April we heard the term Wak ball invented as the M's focused on manufacturing runs by bunting runners over, using the hit-and-run and stealing bases.

The reader told me he felt during May the M's have abandoned their strategy of putting the game in motion. I had to think about it for a while, but it sounded like a good explanation to the struggles with the M's offense. 

Now there are some obvious explanations for why the M's would be sacrificing and stealing less. The first is the recent strategy to bat Russell Branyan second in the order. Obviously with the power Branyan adds to the line-up you don't want to take his power away with a sacrifice bunt. The M's have also seen a power increase the last couple weeks as Ichiro continues to drive the ball into the gaps and signs are showing of Jose Lopez turning the corner, offensively.

But I wanted to take a look at the statistics anyway just to see if Wakamatsu has in fact slowed the game down or if by chance we're just getting accustomed to Wak's style.

In the month of April, The M's stole 16-of-23 bases with Endy Chavez swiping a team high 5 bags. Of course the M's played the first half of April without one of their best runners, Ichiro, so that definitely has a bearing on the way they played the game. Additionally, the M's recorded 11 sacrifices bunts through April.

In comparison, during the month of May, the team converted 17-of-24 stolen bases, 5 from Ichiro and 18 sacrifice bunts, 7 coming from Yuniesky Betancourt.

Hmm...so looking at the numbers, the Mariners are actually attempting more stolen bases and sacrificing more often. So why is there a big difference in the way the team has played from April to May? The problem occurs when we get those runners on 2nd and 3rd base we can't come up with the big hit to score those runs. 

Offense is a streaky part of the game, when runs are easy to come by, the little things like moving runners over and stealing bases can get overlooked. But when the offense isn't producing it becomes a very important part of the game. Moving runners over and stealing bases can help manufacture extra runs that normally you normally wouldn't. 

Power was always a concern for the 2009 Mariners. Given the lack of power we've had this year it's encouraging to see Wak continue moving the runners and sacrificing outs for position.

There's cause for celebration

Plenty of good things happened today in the land of The Bush Leagues.

First of all...the M's win! Bringing their record to 25-28.

Erik Bedard pitched a hell of a game against the Orioles battling through 6 1/3 innings giving up a run and recording 7 strikeouts. He reminded me a lot of the way Rich Hill looked last night (or should I say, Rich Hill reminded me a lot of Erik Bedard). But the most significant accomplishment; he pitched well and stayed healthy.

The offense showed up! We finally start to see some production from the top of our lineup. Granted Ichiro has been producing all month but Don Wakamatsu shook things up a bit by throwing Russel Branyan in the 2-hole. Followed by Adrian Beltre, Ken Griffey Jr. and Jose Lopez. And the lineup produced. Branyan hits a home run, Griffey goes 3-for-5 with 2 doubles and a homer, Beltre goes 3-for-5 and Jose Lopez goes 3-for-5 with 3 doubles. Granted much of this offense came when the M's were already up by 3+ runs, it's still encouraging to see.

But the real cause for celebration, our own Nick Garbareno proposed to his girlfriend on Tuesday and amazingly she said yes! Everyone join me in giving Nick and truly his better half a Bush Leagues congratulations!

I'm already thinking of ideas of how I'm going to bring The Bush Leagues into this wedding. Let's open up the comment board for ideas. A baseball wedding with the officiant dressed as an umpire? Athletic supporters with cup for groomsmen gifts? Let's hear it everyone!

Rich Hill is the Greatest Pitcher in All the Land!

Well...Either that or he was just pitching against the Mariners and their anemic offense. Regardless, Rich Hill looked amazing last night, and given that he's a left handed pitcher who throws a low-90s fastball, a 12-6 curve and a change, I was pretty impressed he worked the M's to the tune of 7 IP, 0 runs, 2 hits and 7 Ks. This year the M's have held their own against this type of pitcher.

The thing I noticed about Rich Hill watching last night's game and was apparent by the way the M's hitters just looked confused was that he has a very similar throwing motion for both his fastball and his curveball. His release point is nearly identical and because of that you see the M's hitters watch a perfect strike 3 fastball go by or flail aimlessly at a 2 strike curveball in the zone.

This was a frustrating game to watch as the M's wasted another great pitching performance, this time by Jarrod Washburn, and especially on the heels of that Angels series where it looked like the bats might finally come around.

I guess we'll see what happens tonight against David Hernandez with Erik Bedard on the bump for the M's.

The Bush Leagues Podcast, Episode 5

Episode 5 is now posted for your listening pleasure. Our good friend Rob Rasmussen joins us for some friendly banter. We dive into trade possibilities and also run through our favorite baseball movies of all-time. Then we take those movies and build our all-star lineups from fictional movie characters.

*Please note: This was recorded on Saturday May 30th prior to the 2-1 series win against the Angels.

Episode 5

Enjoy!