[Hit and Run]

Carter Capps in his last outing faced three batters, threw a total of nine pitches and struck out the side. I still wish he was starting but if the M's are going to use him as a reliever, why waste his outings in AA? He gets it up to 99 MPH, throws strikes and has a decent change and at least a show me breaking ball. Thus far he has thrown 5.2 innings, given up 6 hits, walked none and struck out 9. I would much prefer him to what I saw out of Furbush in his last outing. Furbush kept throwing 90-91 MPH fastballs until one of them got hit out of the park. Don't get me wrong, I hope Furbush shows more, but let him polish his stuff in AAA while Capps helps us win games.

If Capps is a reliever, for me he's Leagues replacement. He MAY need to learn to throw pitches off the plate occasionally, but he's not going to do that in AA where hitters can't catch up to his FB anyway.

[AlMoStLeGeNdArY]

I think he waits until we trade off League for another bat. There's a lot of promising guys in our minors so there's really no need to do anything for no.

[MtGrizzly]

I don't know that 5 great innings in AA warrants an immediate promotion to MLB.

[wufners]

Bah.
He only got 2 of his 3 outs via strikeout today.
Ship him down to High Desert.

[Vidya]

Carter is doing very well. He was drafted in 2011 out of college at age 20, and is now at AA after only 4 starts at Clinton last year. He should be at home in Tennessee after growing up in North Carolina. I expect to see him later on this year at Tacoma, but he's not likely to arrive at the MLB level before 2013. Wedge has already replaced Sherrill in the bullpen with Furbush, and there are plenty of relief pitchers much more experienced at Tacoma, so there is no need to rush Capps.

I can't see any excess on the 40-man, so I don't see any promotions of players not on the 40-man until Zduriencik makes a serious trade. He won't be forced to add Capps to the 40-man until he is ready to make the move to the MLB active roster. I don't see that happening until after ST in 2013. I know many players at Tacoma more deserving than him of an immediate promotion to the MLB roster, but circumstances can and do change very quickly when discussing minor league players.

Carter Capps at The Baseball Cube.

This post has been edited by Vidya: 15 April 2012 - 10:13 PM

[Lonnie]

I'm more than a little surprised that this slipped past some of you guys. Yesterday, Stephen Pryor came in and pitched the eighth and ninth innings. Here's what happened in the eighth:

3-pitch strikeout
3-pitch strikeout
3-pitch strikeout

Here's how he did in the ninth:

3-pitch strikeout
1-pitch Flyout
3-pitch strikeout

Two innings, five strikeouts, 16 total pitches thrown. He hit 99 mph on the radar gun, but mostly hung out at 97 mph. Before anyone sees Capps with the Mariners you will see Pryor.

Lonnie

[wufners]

The Gameday summary also had Capps with a 3 pitch strikout, a 1 pitch flyout, a 4 pitch walk, and a 3 pitch strikeout. Me thinks the gameday apps are just being lazy and only reporting the necessary pitches, not the total pitches thrown.

Never the less, I will add Pryor next to Capps on my "to be excited about" list.

BTW, Lonnie. Back while you were down in spring G-Money made a comment over at Dr.D/jemanji's site about how you had some video of a new teenage Mariner pitching wunderkind. I can't remember the dude's name or what topic G made the comment in. But do those vague words ring any bells? You were the first to tip me off on Campos last year, so I'd be most curious if there was a new arm you noticed this year.

[Lonnie]

wufners, on 16 April 2012 - 11:31 AM, said:

The Gameday summary also had Capps with a 3 pitch strikout, a 1 pitch flyout, a 4 pitch walk, and a 3 pitch strikeout. Me thinks the gameday apps are just being lazy and only reporting the necessary pitches, not the total pitches thrown.

Never the less, I will add Pryor next to Capps on my "to be excited about" list.

BTW, Lonnie. Back while you were down in spring G-Money made a comment over at Dr.D/jemanji's site about how you had some video of a new teenage Mariner pitching wunderkind. I can't remember the dude's name or what topic G made the comment in. But do those vague words ring any bells? You were the first to tip me off on Campos last year, so I'd be most curious if there was a new arm you noticed this year.

Each year there are things that standout and things that don't (duh). Last year during ST Jose Campos stood out head and shoulders from his peers. He brought velocity and movement that was pretty much unequaled by those in his age group (Campos was just 18).

Now, let's jump forward to this last ST and look at the group of pitchers to see who stands out on an equal basis as Campos did.
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[/crickets]

Ya, that pretty much sums it up. The only fresh face was Victor Sanchez, and I swear to God that the M's were keeping him under wraps the entire ST! I knew he was there, but I never saw him. I didn't see him sitting in the stands or anything. He might have had the debut that Campos had last year, but it was like the M's weren't going to allow him to suffer through the hype. It was very weird.

Now, there were a few guys who showed some really good progress from 2011 to now. A couple of names to keep an eye on are Stephen Landazuri and Jordan Shipers. Shipers in particular stood out to me because it looks like the kid had grown. He is listed ast being just 5'10", but he sure seemed to be 6' or better to me. Also what stood out was he looks fantastic on the mound and his stuff plays well.

[Mariner Analyst]

Here's a little Scooby Snack for those who might have missed it. 950-KJR am's Mitch Levy had Chris Harris (Jackson's Play-By-Play Announcer) on his show this morning (Apparently this is going to be a regular feature). It was a good interview -- definitely worth your time.

Anyway, Harris said of Capps that he thinks that he's going to beat Paxton, Walker, and Hultzen to the Bigs (so totally agreed with Hit and Run's assessment). What amazed me though is that he relayed that Bobby Thigpen (who is the pitching coach for Birmingham) said that Capps is ...

[*wait for it*] -- THE greatest right handed pitcher that he has ever seen at the minor league level (WOW!) Is that a statement or what? [No pressure there kid. ]

Here is a link to that interview ...

950-KJR am's Mitch Levy with Chris Harris (4/16/12)

MA

This post has been edited by Mariner Analyst: 16 April 2012 - 05:50 PM

[Lonnie]

Mariner Analyst, on 16 April 2012 - 05:39 PM, said:

Here's a little Scooby Snack for those who might have missed it. 950-KJR am's Mitch Levy had Chris Harris (Jackson's Play-By-Play Announcer) on his show this morning (Apparently this is going to be a regular feature). It was a good interview -- definitely worth your time.

Anyway, Harris said of Capps that he thinks that he's going to beat Paxton, Walker, and Hultzen to the Bigs (so totally agreed with Hit and Run's assessment). What amazed me though is that he relayed that Bobby Thigpen (who is the pitching coach for Birmingham) said that Capps is ...

[*wait for it*] -- THE greatest right handed pitcher that he has ever seen at the minor league level (WOW!) Is that a statement or what? [No pressure there kid. ]

Here is a link to that interview ...

950-KJR am's Mitch Levy with Chris Harris (4/16/12)

MA

The ONLY thing that will slow Capps' ascension to the MLB level is his ability to acclimate to the professional baseball lifestyle. The kid has everything on the field working for him, now it is just up to his off-field maturity.

[Harrison_Crow]

No disrespect to Mr. Thigpen, who obviously had a solid bullpen career himself, we don't know what group of pitchers that really puts Capps in. Obviously he is well thought of, but nothing really more.

Capps I think is fine down in Tenn. He has things that are more important than just his physical attributes to work on. There is a lot about being in the minor leagues and being professional, as Lonnie has previously allueded too, that doesn't show up in the box score.

Give the kid time, its exciting to see how well he's doing but Ruffin, Kelley and even fellow teammate Pryor are much more likely to get the call at this point.

That said, its nice to see some shut the front door relievers in the upper minors for the organization.

[M's Watcher]

More likely, "How long can Jack wait?" Wedgie may only have Wilhelmson or League when the game is on the line, but that will become evident to Jack soon enough, if not already.