The Seattle Mariners closed the deal for Erik Bedard solidifying their rotation. In return, they sent the Baltimore Orioles five young prospects.
A few of those prospects didn’t look too bad either. Adam Jones you probably already know about. Jones has been touted as “can’t miss” which is sometimes of kiss of death but with Jones, he might play through the hype. He’s had two very solid seasons in AAA Tacoma before being brought up last year.
Chris Tillman (left) is young (he’s still a teenager), tall (6 foot 5 inches) and boy, the word is he can pitch. He was Seattle’s Minor League Pitcher of the Year last year. He threw 139 strikeouts in 133 2/3 innings.
In George Sherrill’s case, “young” may be a misnomer. He’s 30 years old. For that matter, so might “prospect” though he did pitch his way to a 2.36 ERA last year.
Holy cow, Kam Mickolio is 6’9″! His minor league numbers are a drastic improvement over his college stats. That’s good, I think.
Finally, there is Tony Butler. No, not the British broadcaster. Tony, the starting pitcher, has been in minors for only a couple years seeing as he’s only 19 but again, he has some fire. He has 150 Ks in 141 plus innings.
As with the Twins and the Santana deal, we won’t know if this helps the Mariners for another year or two down the road. At least with this deal, they have one player that can play at the major league level and perhaps excel.
