Promising prospects coming up in Seattle Mariners roster
The Seattle Mariners are looking at a hard season coming up in 2011. Much of their off season was spent in acquiring a few players and now it seems there may not be many other ball stars coming in from the free agency. The club
was especially quiet during the winter meetings, which was held at the start of December. Now with the spring training period around the corner, the team looks set to make their current roster ready for the regular league season which will start in April.
Nevertheless, that isn’t just the only issue at hand. Much of the team’s minor league roster was quite active during the winter season. Some of the players played winter ball in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. Pedro Grifol,
Seattle’s director for Minor League Operations, was a chief in explaining the tenure of some of the players during the off season.
Dan Cortes who played for a Venezuelan team, Lara, during the winter ball season made an impressive mark on the managers. The closer featured in 21 games, maintaining an earning runs Average of 2.79. He struck out 13 hitters while
allowing 11 hits in a blitz display of relief pitching. Hitters managed a .175 batting average against the 23 year old and in 19.1 innings, he conceded just 21 walks.
"The experience was phenomenal for him," said Pedro Grifol. "His numbers were high in walks, but nobody can take those experiences away from him as far as going in and saving those games in front of 30,000 screaming fans with pressure
and all that."
Johermyn Chavez was another prospect who gained a lot of attention during the off season. The 21 year old batter and outfielder, played well during the winter. During last year’s stint in the Class A California League, the player
amassed 32 home runs, 96 RBIs (runs Batted In) and a batting average of .315. This year the outfielder went over to Venezuela to play in a more challenging league.
He performed well as he topped the tenure there with a .267 batting average and a .373 on base percentage. Furthermore, he slotted 13 RBIs and pushed out 2 home runs.
"He's put up some nice numbers," Pedro Grifol said. "We happy to see that. He made some serious adjustments this last year and then hit well in what everybody calls a hitter-friendly facility in High Desert. But there's not much
people can say about Venezuela. It's tough to put up big power numbers there. If you do, you're doing some good things."
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