Arizona Fall League Announcements

This is such an interesting mix. I like it a lot.

The first name that jumps off the list to me is Adam Moore. I’m really excited to see him back in action. With all the additions that have been made internally such as Jack Marder, John Hicks and Tyler Marlette, it’s easy to forget about Moore.

Moore in my opinion was a little baby’d by the organization over the years. I really wish that with his age, and in my opinion, his skills level the organization would have pushed him a bit more. But, that’s not something that we can go back and fix at very most we can just waste breath on it like I have in this past paragraph.

Moore has the hit tool to be an effective hitter for this team and while there is one person I’d like to the Mariners go after to improve the catching core that doesn’t mean I think less of Moore. In my opinion the most vital and important part of his involvement with Fall League will be behind the plate.

His value takes a huge hit if he has to move off position. Not that I’ve heard such rumblings yet. But that was a worry at the time of the injury and it’ll be important to see how much mobility has returned.

Hultzen and Franklin are both headliners. This is no surprise that either of them are on this list. I think some people will be disappointed that Paxton’s not included but to be honest he was shut down a couple weeks ago in a precautionary effort and considering how many innings he pitched this year versus the lack of what he threw last year, it’s probably just best he doesn’t pitch anymore in competition

That said, it remains a possibility that he gets added a couple of weeks into the Fall League. It happens every year and I wouldn’t be surprised if they chose to go that route as it would still limit his overall innings.

Chiang and Forest ‘Snowman’ Snow have both had breakout campaigns and whether or not you think either of them are “real” it’s a great reward for what each of them were able to accomplish over the course of the season.

Moran and Hensley are the biggest surprise of the bunch. I have something actually that I’ve been working on Hensley for a few weeks. Suffice to say I’m a fan of his, but I think that his chances at sticking the rotation are running out.

Moran is a soft tossing lefty who has quietly worked his way through the minor leagues rather quickly. He’s the third of the UNC trio taken in the 2009 mlb draft, a long with Ackley and Seager.

Moran profiles a curveball as well as a change-up and while a lot of people make the assumption that he is a prototypical LOOGY his splits this year say different.

Running a .214 batting average and a 3.56 era against right handed hitters and a 7.20 ERA and a batting of .369 versus lefties. Now this is just rough data as we can see that he had the opposite affect last year as he ran a sub 2.00 FIP against left handed hitters, while being somewhat affective against right handers with a FIP below 3.40.

Moran hasn’t ever been a future shut down reliever but he showed promise as being an very effective bullpen tool going forward. While he a short DL visit this season he’s not been the same pitcher this year. I’m sure Jason Churchill or even Conor Dowley could comment more as to whats been doing on for him this year. But, it’ll be interesting to see what he can put together against some solid hitters in the league.

Just a solid mixture of guys going to the fall league this year. Should be a fun thing to watch.