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-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.

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!

Will baseball recover?

*Please note, I wrote this blog post on February 10th for a public relations blog about how baseball needs to improve its image following A-Rod's steroid scandal. The only reason I have not shared it with anyone was because it was outdated and irrelevant. Because of the news that Mr. Alex Rodriguez may have been taking steroids as early as high school, it makes this story relevant again.

Thank you for the relevance, A-Rod!

***

These are dark times for America's past time. Clouded by scandal, baseball has fought to clear its name of alleged steroid use by some of recent times' greatest players: Bonds, McGwire, Sosa and now...Alex Rodriguez. Once pegged as the savior for Major League Baseball, A-Rod was supposed to pull his sport back to prominence as the premiere "clean" player. He was supposed to break the all-time home run record currently held by Barry Bonds without the aid of performance enhancing drugs.

That hope is now gone. With Alex Rodriquez admitting yesterday that he used performance enhancing drugs from 2001 - 2003 while with the Texas Rangers. The Seattle sports fan in me instantly thought, "Phew, at least he was out of Seattle during those times." But really this issue is bigger than local sports. Major League Baseball has a huge mess on their hands. Athletes are paid hundreds of millions of dollars to put up huge power numbers and many believe steroids are the answer or quick fix to produce.

How can baseball fix this? There is little doubt the sport has damaged its image from the steroid era. Is there any way for MLB Commissioner Bud Selig to save his sport in the eyes of the public?

If you look back at history there have been scandals in major sports before: The 1919 Black Sox throwing the World Series, Pete Rose's gambling, NBA official Tim Donaghy's gambling and several Olympic and Tour de France dopers. In each instance, the respective sport had to make an example of those caught. The Black Sox and Pete Rose were banned from baseball for life, Tim Donaghy fired, and Olympic medalist's were stripped of their medals.

Why hasn't this happened during the steroids era?

Baseball needs to make a statement that cheating will not be tolerated. They need to make a sacrifice to save their sport. Granted, Alex Rodriguez used these steroids when there was no official policy on banned substances and I'm not saying an example needs to be made of him, but what he did was still cheating. Bud Selig needs to bite the bullet on this one. Records need to be pulled from any player involved in steroids and subsequently banned from the sport. Harsh...maybe, necessary...yes.

For those of you who missed it...

Sure, people laughed at me when I said it. Hell, when asked after the podcast if I really thought it was true I recanted on my decision and said I didn't think it was possible. But let it be known that I did say Jarrod Washburn would have 10 wins by the All-Star break! If you don't believe me, have a listen here:

http://media.libsyn.com/media/bushleagues/blogcast4-18Final.mp3

Now this could completely blow up in my face but, after 3 starts, Washburn has 3 wins (2 of which came while he was experiencing the flu and cramps) and has looked impressive thus far. Come on, Jarrod! Seven more!

Home Opener in 6 Days!

This is the one day I anticipate more than any other! The home opener for the Seattle Mariners. Nick and I will be seeing the action first-hand on the first base line. But that's not what I'm going to write about in this post. Plenty of time to build up on that.

What I'm going to talk about is Garbs and my competition for each home game we attend. That's right, we challenge each other to see who can throw the fastest in the bullpen speed pitch! Historically, I believe I am up 2-1. But Nick pulled off an upset last year beating me at the end of the season. Personally I think he may have been using performance enhancing drugs.

Regardless, I am back and ready for domination this year! Much like Miguel Batista and Jarrod Washburn I've been able to make an adjustment in my delivery that will allow me to gain 2-3 miles per hour on my fastball. I can't talk much more about it but if initial tests of my discovery are consistent I can't see how I could lose this year. Stay tuned for our podcasts, I'm sure this will be a heavily debated topic.

By the way, this competition is much more than just bragging rights. The loser also owes the winner a beer. Get ready to pay up Nick.

Welcome to the Bush Leagues!

Welcome to the Bush Leagues with Nick and Noah. What was that? No, it's Nick and Noah, not even close to that movie Nick and Nora whatever.

Anyway, on this site we will dive into the life of Major League Baseball with our own analysis, opinions and overall meaningless fan-crazed rants.

What can be expected from this blog? A lot of heavily biased, little researched content that will be entertaining at least to the authors and those who know us. But fear not, it is our intention to make this an enjoyable site to visit, read about and listen to some baseball and at least have a laugh or two. So sit back and hold on tight, this is going to be a bumpy ride!