Sodo Mojo’s Top 10 Mariners Prospects: Mid-Season Re-Rank Primer

Now that the MLB Draft has concluded, it is a good time to re-evaluate the Mariners farm system. These ranks are especially important this time of year, when Seattle could become buyers at the deadline, and deal from this group to improve its Major League roster.

Before we begin with our latest Mariners series, we will establish the basic ground rules in this, the primer. The purpose is to avoid a standard disclaimer at the top of the adjoining articles. To begin with, lets define a prospect:

For our purposes, a “prospect” is any professional baseball player who has not accrued more than 150 PA or 30 IP at the Major League level. Therefore, player such as Ben Gamel and Mitch Haniger, while still rookies, are no longer prospects.

These ranks are subjective. Some will rank based on their floor at the big leagues. Others will instead focus on their ceiling. We will be using a blended approach, that weighs the floor and ceiling equally.

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A big way to evaluate a prospect is by placing value on his “tools”. There are 5 main tools we will look at. They are; hit, power, run, field, and arm. We grade these on an old school 20-80 scale, where 20 is worst and 80 is elite. For example; Billy Hamilton has 80 grade speed, Kendrys Morales is a 20 grade runner. A 50 grade would be considered average. Do not scoff at a 50 grade. Remember, average means useful, not terrible.

For pitchers, we will use the same grading scale, but instead we will grade individual pitches. For example, Edwin Diaz fastball and slider both grade out at 70. But aside from grading pitches, we will also grade control. Diaz’s control would grade out at a 45 or 50.

Finally, comparisons between a prospect and a big leaguer are always difficult. There are no exact matches. That being said, I will do my best to find a “type of player” a prospect could be. Do not be discouraged if a comp is to a bench guy or bottom of the rotation arm, or a middle reliever. These are all important pieces on championship teams.

Next: Mariners Minors: Danny Muno - Third Baseman - AAA

The #10 prospect will be revealed in the next day or two. In case you have forgotten, here is what our final Top 10 List looked like at the beginning of Spring Training:

1. Tyler O’Neill
2. Kyle Lewis
3. Nick Neidert
4. Mitch Haniger
5. Drew Jackson
6. Daniel Vogelbach
7. Joe Rizzo
8. Andrew Moore
9. DJ Peterson
10. Max Povse