Seattle Mariners

The focus of the Mariners is the players up the middle – Jeremy Reed, Yuni Betancourt and Jose Lopez. All three are good-to-great defenders, but their bats have not played well yet.

Yuni Betancourt will not hit enough in 2006, but his glove will play very well and keep him in the line-up every day. Did you like the pre-2004 Cesar Izturis? If so, go and get him, but do not wonder why your AVG won’t move up. 500+ ABs of .240 hitting is hard to overcome.

Jose Lopez is an interesting player. He was hyped as a top prospect after a great season in single A, which he followed with an equally impressive AA season in 2003 at the age of 19. But he has not lived-up to expectations in a 200 AB “audition” in 2004 or in 2005. However, he cannot be written off too quickly because he just turned 22 in November. That mean his first 200 AB audition was as a 200year-old, and his second (last season) was done as a 21-year-old.

I can see him putting up a mid-single digits HR total and a low double digits SB total. Not an anchor in the middle but a very nice complimentary player, and if you end up shut out of quality middle infielders near draft’s end, then he will be a very nice end game pick-up.

Jeremy Reed is another hyped prospect that did not live-up to his billing last season, his inaugural one. He hit .397 in a 58 AB trial at 2004 season-end. This, after tearing through the minors as a high AVG player with double digit HR and great SB totals, set expectations very high for 2005.

And he failed based on those expectations (3/45/.254/12 with 11 caught-stealing). He played Gold Glove caliber defense, though, and this will keep him in CF for 2006. As defense in not a Roto category, his 2005 numbers will determine his draft price. In no way do I believe he will be the .300/15/30 player envisioned a year ago, but I do believe he will improve, and that slight improvement will make him a viable 4th OF in a 5-man Roto OF.

The Seattle rotation will benefit from this up-the-middle quality defense and the pitcher-friendly confines of the home ballpark.

The bullpen has 2007 free-agent-to-be, Eddie Guardado, closing until he gets hurt. Right behind him are 2004 season-ending closer JJ Putz and in vogue closer-in-waiting Rafael Soriano. Right now, I’d say Putz gets first shot, but he could easily give way to Soriano. The question is how long Putz holds the role until doing so.

On the farm, I like Adam Jones to be a sleeper prospect. He is being moved from SS to CF and has made AA as a 19-year-old. Combined, he hit .297 with 15 HR and 13 SB. If he improves again, he will move into Chris Young territory, and as such, will become one of the most watched prospects in 2006.