Interesting Starts: High Desert

If you want an indication as to how poor a start the Mariners’ organization has gotten of to this year, you need look no further than this stat: despite a record of just 9-10, the Mavericks have the best winning percentage in the organization, and they’re tied with the Mariners in wins despite the M’s having a full week’s head start.

Yikes.

Anyways, on to the interesting starts for players, eh?

Daniel Carroll, OF
Stat Line: .324/.430/.507, 2 HR, 5 2B, 1 3B, 12 SB, 14 BB, 20 K’s

The High Desert Effect

If you’ve known me for very long, you’ve probably heard me comment from time to time on how deceptive High Desert is as an environment for evaluating prospects.  The Mavericks have a massively offense-friendly park in what’s probably the most offense-friendly league in professional baseball.  That has lead time and again to overly-inflated offensive numbers, and good pitchers putting up bad numbers.

High Desert plays their home games in Stater Brothers Stadium, located in Adelanto, CA.  Adelanto is in the Mojave Desert, which on it’s own would increase the offensive friendliness of the park thanks to the warm, dry air.  Making the place a ridiculous bandbox is the fact that the city’s elevation is approximately 2,870 feet above sea level.  The heat plus the thin air creates just a ridiculous environment for baseball to be played in, and unlike Coors Field, there’s no humidor to be found.

Minor League Week One Review

The first full week of minor league action is complete, and with it comes the first edition of MFR’s weekly recaps for each club.  For now, it starts simple; as things progress and time allows, the recaps will get more detailed.  For now, we start with what we have. Everything should be pretty self-explanitory; if not, ask in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer your questions.

Tacoma Rainiers (3-5)
Streak: Lost 1
Opponents: 4 @ Sacramento (OAK), 4 @ Fresno (SFG)
Notes:

High Desert Mavericks 2011 Outlook

Opening Day Roster

High Desert, and the California League in general, is always tough to judge because it’s a frankly ludicrous offensive environment.  The high altitude, dry air, and frequently mediocre pitchers combine to dramatically inflate the numbers that batter put out, and make even the few good pitchers that get assigned there looks far inferior to what they are.  I’ll be writing a fuller post on this in the near future; in the meantime, let’s see how things look for the Mavericks in 2011.

Prospects To Watch:

• SS Nick Franklin:

Mariners Recall Chris Gimenez

Sorry I couldn’t be more timely with this one; the announcement was made literally ten minutes in to my drive to SafeCo Field yesterday for the home opener.  Them’s the breaks sometimes…

Due to the knee injury of Adam Moore, the young catcher has been placed on the 60-day DL, necessitating the callup of Chris Gimenez to replace him on the roster.  Because Moore is on the 60-day DL, he’s temporarily off the 40-man roster, so no one had to be DFA’d to clear roster space for Gimenez.

The move came as a surprise to some people, as Josh Bard was widely expected to get the call to Seattle given his contributions in 2010.  However, Gimenez getting the nod isn’t that shocking.  Seattle Manager Eric Wedge knows him well from their days in Cleveland, and Gimenez offers some defensive utility, which could come in handy for the team in the coming weeks. 

High Desert Mavericks 2011 Opening Day Roster

High Desert was once again an offensive haven and a pitcher’s nightmare, as the team based in Adelanto, California saw three batters with at least 20 homers and six with at least 20 doubles, and a stunning 992 runs were scored in the 70 games played in their home stadium (fedora tip to Kevin Goldstein for that last tidbit).

Strangely though, the team fared better on the road than in their offensive paradise of a home park, with a 31-39 record at Stater Brothers Stadium, and a 44-26 record away from it.  Still, the Mavericks would earn a playoff spot, one of seven Mariners affiliates to do so, but they would fall two games to none against Rancho Cucamonga.

Final 2010 Record: 75-65, lost in first round of playoffs
2010 Batting Leaders: Johermyn Chavez 32 HR
Kyle Seager .345 BA | Rich Poythress 130 RBI
2010 Pitching Leaders: Andrew Carraway 11 W, 120 K
Anthony Vasquez 3.07 ERA