| 26 March 2010
Carp, 23, did all right for himself with the M’s last season by posting a .878 OPS in 65 plate appearances. That was sixty points better than the mark he had in Tacoma, and around the level of what he had in the previous season in double-A. Carp will probably be back at some point, but whether that’s with the M’s or not, I don’t know. I like Poythress better, personally, and Raben, if he ever gets healthy and back into playing shape, would probably outhit him. Given that, I don’t think Carp will have much of a career as a Mariner, but he could probably hold down a starting job on one of the lesser teams out there. On the plus side, Carp, Nelson, Everidge, and probably Ryan Garko will all be on the same Rainiers roster, which is hilarious, and there’s a small chance that one of them, one of these days, may end up playing the hot corner due to a lack of better options.
Alfonzo, 31, made his major league debut at the age of 27 and has since logged 155 games total, most of them with the Giants. He’s now headed back to the high minors, where he’ll probably spend most of the season, blocked by Moore and Johnson in the majors and Bard in Tacoma when he finally officially ends up there. Alfonzo has now spent parts of five seasons apiece in double and triple-A, posting a .845 OPS in the latter. The Mariners are his sixth organization, not counting a tour of the indy leagues. You want heartache, rare highs amidst years of feeling like you’re running in place? Be a quad-A minor league catcher.
Quiroz, 28, is a guy I don’t totally understand because he’s been a Mariner twice now, being picked up first from the Blue Jays, off waivers I believe, got two at-bats in the majors that year, became a free agent, joined Texas and got nine games in, joined Baltimore and got fifty-six, and then came back to the M’s where we gave him four games last season. Something about the Seattle Mariners attracts veteran backstops and convinces them to stick around even when there are probably better options elsewhere. I don’t know what it is, but I’m curious.
Burnett, 23, threw 96 in the Cape Cod League in 2007. He threw 86-91 in his final year at Louisiana Tech in 2008, looking stiff at times and showing decreased arm speed, though he had a clean bill of health otherwise. Last season, in Everett, Burnett threw 83-86. To give him a spot in Clinton this year would have taken one away from a better pitcher, both in terms of stuff and aptitude for it. He could turn up somewhere, for some team that wants to take a flyer on past potential, but with how he’s done so far, I’m not upset to see him go. It was an interesting pick at the time that didn’t pay off in any way.
Monzon, 28, has never played a single game in the Midwest League, or any low-A affiliate for that matter, since I don’t think you can really count the rookie complex leagues. He was fairly competent in the Cal League, but got progressively worse as he moved up, bouncing mostly between short and third while getting about over fifty games in here and there at second and first. I never thought he was all that good, though there were some kind of crazy people early on who were attached to him. I still see it as kind of the end of an era though. After all, he played in both Inland Empire and High Desert, and had been around since the earliest days of the Bavasi era.
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