Comparing Seattle Mariners Prospects to Big League Players, Part 1

Whenever we ask for questions or topics of discussion on Mariners Twitter, we are undoubtedly overwhelmed with questions about prospects. And since the major league product is what it is, it isn’t hard to see why.

But after a while, there is only so much you can say about how awesome Jarred Kelenic is or how great Justus Sheffield‘s slider looked before the question comes up: what could that look like at the big league level?

Fans love comps. And in all fairness, so do scouts. One of the most famous draft blunders in all of sports happened when numerous teams passed on Russell Wilson, simply because they couldn’t compare him to any other successful QB. Instead of seeing this as a good thing, it scared teams away and the rest is history.

And therein lies the problem with comps. You attach a name to a player and that becomes the bar. If you can’t find a comp, it must mean the guy can’t succeed. After all, nobody looks like this guy and succeeds, so why should he? It isn’t that simple.

And if a player gets too much praise and fails to live up to it, he is a bust, almost regardless of how good he actually is. So comps aren’t perfect and falling in love with a player because he reminds you of this player from your youth is a dangerous game.

That entire intro is there to make this point: don’t worry about what the comps below end up being. They aren’t important. They are just for fun and conversation, not to actually declare anything about the individual player. Also, we are talking about statistical comps, not style. So chill out and have fun.

We put out the bat signal for the prospects in which you guys wanted us to find comparisons. Naturally, we got so many unique responses, we can’t answer all of them in one article. So consider this part one of a series. Today we will focus on 4 players: Kelenic, Evan White, Donnie Walton, and Noelvi Marte. With that in mind, let’s get started.