What the Future Holds: The Middle Infield

By: Anthony

This is part of a series of articles I will be writing on each position and the potential players who could play there next year and beyond. This will be an attempt to look at the present and future for the Mariners at each position. 

 He thinks he could punch a stegosaurus in the face

            Second base and shortstop are a little bit different than first base, strangely enough. Most middle infielders are smaller, lead-off or back of the lineup guys who are valued more for their defense than their bats. The really good second basemen and shortstops have powerful bats and play good defense but that is more a luxury than a necessity. Robinson Cano is ridiculous, Aaron Hill is surprisingly powerful, Troy Tulowitzki is super good, and Derek Jeter has managed to be super good at like 60, which is frustrating.

            Guess what is more frustrating, the Mariners giant clusterf@#$ at second base and shortstop. Many of you will say, hold on, Dustin Ackley is one of the building blocks of the franchise and he plays second base and Brendan Ryan plays incredible defense and is only a partial liability in the lineup. Well, your powers of observation are tremendous but your knowledge of the Mariners system is not. I will elaborate on that later.

            For now, the Mariners have Dustin Ackley, Muenori Kawasaki and Kyle Seager on the depth chart at second base. I am going to work backwards on the list because it makes life much simpler. Kyle Seager is supposed to be a more natural second baseman than third. But too bad, I like Seager at third and so that is where he will stay. I will elaborate on that when I write about the hot corner. Muenori Kawasaki is a great dancer, has an awesome mustache but cannot hit. He is a utility infielder and really doesn’t factor into the future. Sorry Mune.

            Brendan Ryan is pretty firmly entrenched at shortstop and I would like to see him resigned for a few more years. He is one of a few veterans and a leader in the clubhouse who is also hilarious. He is actually one of the more valuable players on the team right now because of his ridiculous defense. He can stay.

            Dustin Ackley has been getting a lot of attention this year because his offense has dropped off significantly. It is never good to have a future building block of your franchise hit .231 in his second year after hitting .273 in his rookie year. Recently it seems like Ackley has been hitting the ball hard and the major drop in his average can be seen in his large drop in his bating average with balls in play. I think Dustin turns it around and he plays really good defense. He will hang around there for now.

            Some of you may be wondering, hold on, why is there a clusterf@#$ at second base and short? That seems like a pretty simple situation. Well the clusterf@#$ forms when the minor leagues are examined. There are at least three guys who could realistically play second base or shortstop for the Mariners in the system and a few younger guys who could challenge these prospects. Nick Franklin, Brad Miller and Stefan Romero are all highly regarded prospects. And they all can play the middle infield. Miller and Franklin play shortstop now but many, including myself, have speculated that they cannot stay at short. Their defense isn’t very good and they would be more suited at second. Stefan Romero also plays second base.

Why must you be so good?

             

Brad Miller was drafted out of Clemson and is in his second year in the system. Last year he destroyed A ball, hitting .415 with an OPS of .986. He earned a promotion to High Desert where he dropped off a little bit. He still hit .337 with an OPS of over .900. So it wasn’t really that big of a drop off. I mean, I guess .327 isn’t too bad. He earned a promotion up to AA Jackson and dropped off again. Except this drop off was only .010 points on his batting average. For those who missed the day in kindergarten, he is hitting .327 and his OPS is still .849. These statistics mean a lot more in AA Jackson than in A ball. He is still striking out about 15% of the time and has a BB percentage of 13.7%. Did I mention he is also 23 and will probably start 2013 in Tacoma? So that’s one candidate for SS/2B.

You should eat a Big Mac Nick, or 5

             

Nick Franklin is closer to the major leagues than Miller and is in AAA Tacoma. For the few of you who follow me on twitter, you will know that he weighs probably 160 dripping wet holding a 50-pound dinosaur fossil. So besides the fact he is a stick, he somehow still can destroy the ball. He is only 22, is hitting .250 and has an OPS of .742. Something I am concerned about is that his K rate is 25% and his walk rate is 7%. We all know how high K rates in Tacoma translate to Seattle, (See Peguero, Carlos) so he absolutely must lower that number to be successful in Seattle. Franklin’s defense is not exceptional in the few times I have seen him in person so second base is definitely an option. That’s option number two and he could make an appearance in Seattle in 2013.

            The final middle infielder in the upper echelons of the farm system is Stefan Romero. Romero arrived on the scene this year and is putting up some crazy numbers. Scouts don’t seem to like him a lot, but he is still the best hitter on Jackson numerically. He started the year in High Desert, the hitter’s paradise, and took full advantage. He hit .357 in the California league with an OPS of .972. He earned himself a call up to Jackson and in 48 games there has hit .339 with an OPS of .997. Yes you are reading that right, he went from an extreme hitter friendly league to AA and his OPS went up, boosted by his slugging percentage of .607. Romero is a true second baseman and if he keeps hitting like this, room will have to be made for him in Tacoma or Seattle. He may be able to switch to the outfield, but then again so could Dustin Ackley.

            In the lower tiers of the system there is still some quality talent that could make some noise. Christopher Taylor is a very interesting name, and he is a very interesting player. He plays shortstop but as you can tell, that does not mean he will stick there. Daniel Paolini has a cool name and is pretty meh otherwise.

            So I will now lay this clusterf@#$ out in front of you. Dustin Ackley and Brendan Ryan play second base and shortstop respectively now in Seattle. Brad Miller and Nick Franklin each play shortstop now and should develop into much better hitters than Ryan. However, if they cannot stick at short, they will shift over to second base. Hoping that only one of them has to shift over, that would mean Ackley would have to change positions. Probably going to the outfield. Oh right, and then Stefan Romero also plays second base. So we have 2 positions that two players are playing at now. And three guys in the minor leagues who can fill in those two positions. Ryan can be put in a reserve role without too much fuss. Ackley may have to move to the outfield to accommodate Miller, Franklin or Romero. That’s some super complicated stuff that hopefully will be resolved in time and with the offense improved. Clusterf@#$ indeed.