Adding to the Noise

Some additional notes on an important day of draftees signing. The Seattle Mariners also signed Tyler Blandford their 5th round draft pick. The information that I have found is that Tyler is a fireballing right hander from Oklahoma State with some (okay maybe like HUGE) control problems. This year his college split was 97/45 – K/BB in 78 IP. His fastball only sits around 92-94 MPH but has been reported as high as 97, however it has little to no movement on it.

He profiles as a possible power reliever/closer, and with his stuff he reminds me alot of David Aardsma. He also has a below average curveball and slurve/slider that needs work but has been used to miss bats this year. Supposedly he has a change but rarely uses it as it also needs a lot of work.

Tyler currently needs desperately to work on repeating his mechanics. He has horrible consistency issues with his release point which leads to his lack of control, however should he correct these problems he has potential. His raw stuff is said to be better then his team Andrew Oliver who went to Detroit in the 2nd Round (58th overall) and some think his stuff overall profiles as a 1st or 2nd round overall draftee but due to his extreme lack of control and mechanical problems, he scared off alot teams.

Blandford should definitely be another guy to watch this season. This draft while I wasn’t really excited about the class has slowly begun to peek my interest with some of the guys we got this year.

Blandford should start next year in Low-A Clinton. I think to start him in high A with his control/mechanical problems and lack of movement on his fastball could really set him up for failure. I don’t know if they plan on using him as a starting pitcher to begin with or if they will move him directly to the bullpen. He did log 13 starts averaging approx 6 innings each start.