So long Wash....

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At about 8:30am this morning, it was announced that Jarrod Washburn was traded to the Detroit Tigers for LHP Luke French and minor league LHP Mauricio Robles.

Sorry to see Wash go, but understand why it had to happen.

As the dust settles, seems most are thinking that Robles may be Jack Z's diamond in the rough. And, he seems to be collecting some other gems as he travels down "replenishment road" unlike Bill B who preferred "plunder parkway" ;-)

The Mariners need pitching depth, and the gem of this deal is Robles, who has emerged this season to become one of the Tigers' top-five minor-league prospects. And he is the second top-of-the-line pitching prospect Zduriencik has acquired this month. Earlier in July he traded Yuniesky Betancourt to Kansas City for Dan Cortes.

It is possible both Cortes and Robles could be in the Mariners' rotation sometime in the middle of 2011 or the start of 2012. They represent two giant steps up for an organization that was thin on quality arms.

The Mariners' scouts love Robles, a hard-throwing left-hander who has 111 strikeouts in 91-1/3 innings in Class A this season. Talent evaluation is Zduriencik's strength. If he says Robles is a diamond, believe it. Venezuelan baseball officials thought enough of Robles to put him on their World Baseball Classic roster, heady stuff for a 20-year-old.

And after struggling in his first two starts with the Mariners' Class AA team at West Tennessee, Cortes threw six shutout innings Tuesday.

As he promised when he got here, Jack Zduriencik is rebuilding the Mariners' fallow farm system. Sure, Friday's trade will hurt in the short run, but this is the kind of pain teams have to endure as they slowly get better.

Some thoughts on Robles from a Detroit perspective....

Mauricio Robles has a chance at being for Seattle what Jair Jurrjens has been for the Atlanta Braves.

Robles, a left-hander, is that good.

Fans don't pay much attention to the minor leagues, particularly to the lower rungs, but they should -- and for this reason.

Robles is 20 years old. He was promoted earlier this year from Single A West Michigan to Single A Lakeland. That's a big step for a kid who can't yet buy a drink.

And yet he has flourished. He has 40 strikeouts in 35 innings and only 14 walks. He had a 4-2 record and a 3.60 earned-run average.

And here's a collection of info on Luke French as compiled by Larry Stone...

Good luck, Jarrod.

You go, Jackie Z !

And the dealing begins....

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Apparently, I missed lots of excitement this morning...

Jack Z has been hard at work and the first of two deals was announced early this afternoon when it was released that the M's had acquired SS Jack Wilson and RHP Ian Snell from the Pittsburgh Pirates and then a bit later we heard that Wladimir Balentien had been traded to the Reds for RHP Robert Manuel.

Some thoughts after "catching up" a bit...

On Jack Z
~ His talent assessment acumen is definitely so far, so good (e.g., Gutierrez, Branyan, Aardsma)
~ He is consistent in his pursuit of solid "D" (obviously, that gets extra bonus points from me ;-)
~ He seems to be desirous of purging "all things Bavasi"

On what they got...

JACK
Seems Jack Z had been 'courting' Jack W since May. From all accounts he is a great defensive shortstop, who just may 'fill-the-bill' until such time that Truinfel is ready to come up (2012?). He sounded excited to be in Seattle with the chance to play for a team that has a chance to contend and (in the word's of a local sports talk host) "glad to be out of the purgetory that is the Pittsburgh Pirates." At the same time, he wanted to ensure he took the time to say goodbye and thank you to his teammates on the team he'd been a part of and leader for over the past nine seasons. Pretty classy.

IAN
Sometimes a change of scenary can make all the difference. We have certainly seen first hand this season how a change in attitude and atmosphere can make a huge difference. Hopefully, that will be the case for Ian. Will be interesting to see how Rick Adair et al will work with him - they have certainly worked some wonders with others so far...

On what they gave up...

JEFF
It became apparent fairly early on that catching wasn't his strong suit. Eventually, it also seemed that despite tearing up AAA, he was not able to hit major league pitching with any consitentsy. Those facts, couple with no room at 1B/DH at the big club, not to mention two bad knees made it obvious that there was really no place for him on this team. Hopefully, the change of scenary will do him good...

RONNY
What can you say about losing a .167 hitter. He had a very decent glove at shortstop and did seem to have some improbable homers and clutch hits, but everyone knew that he was just a stopgap between Yuni and whoever was next.

SINGLE-A ARMS
Nathan Adcock, Brett Lorin & Aaron Pribanic - admittedly, I don't know much about them. But, it would seem that Jack knows how to re-stock the farm cupboard since he was able to get 2 double-A arms for Yuni and a triple-A arm for Wlad.


Now, the team is off to Arlington and Jarrod is still an M...

Goodbye Mike ~ Welcome Ryan

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Well, looks like one of the proposed options for an Adrian "fill-in" is no longer an option.
Hopefully, this will be good for Mike and his career. He seems like a great kid - always giving 100%
Good luck, Mike!

Shannon's latest tweet...

Ms make a minor league deal sending Mike Morse to the Nats for Ryan Langerhans
3 minutes ago from TwitterBerry

Ryan's stats

OF'er likely to join the M's in New York (according to Shannon on the pre-game show)
... but still have the quandary at 3B

NOTE: today (not yesterday) will be Adrian's last game before surgery on Tuesday)


Rosy's off to the track for the afternoon (having a girls day with the ponies ;-)
But, will be keeping an eye on the game as much as possible.

Go M's ~ Beat LA!!