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When was last time M’s came up with a good hitter?

Greg Jayne: By the Numbers

The Columbian
Published: July 3, 2010, 12:00am

We are on a quest here at By the Numbers, the kind that could make Indiana Jones shudder as we hack through the jungles of mediocrity.

We are endeavoring to discover the last time the Mariners’ organization produced a good major-league hitter.

Think about it. How many decent major-league hitters have come up with the Mariners in the past 15 years? How many good position players have been drafted or signed by Seattle since the arrival of Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez? How many minor leaguers have the Mariners traded for who became productive major leaguers?

Searching for the answer is an arduous task. I mean, compared to this, unearthing the Holy Grail is easy.

If only Seattle could redo that 2006 draft

While the Mariners have failed to develop good major-league hitters in recent years, their recent draft history hasn't been much better with pitchers.

Overall, from 2001-06, Seattle selected 298 players in the June draft. A total of 25 of them have reached the major leagues, and they have been mostly unproductive players.

By far the best of the bunch has been Adam Jones, who is now with the Baltimore Orioles. The second-best player the Mariners have drafted during that time is pitcher Brandon Morrow, now with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Morrow showed some promise while with Seattle, before finally being labeled a disappointment. And his selection points out the shortcomings of the Mariners' drafting: After Morrow was taken with the fifth pick of the first round in 2006, the San Francisco Giants also took a right-handed pitcher with the 10th selection -- University of Washington product Tim Lincecum.

-- Greg Jayne

Let’s start with the current roster. This season, the Mariners have used eight position players who once made their major-league debut with the club: Rob Johnson, Jose Lopez, Ichiro Suzuki, Ken Griffey Jr., Michael Saunders, Adam Moore, Matt Tuiasosopo, and Mike Carp.

We’ll exclude Ichiro. He was a polished player when he came to the Mariners; they don’t get credit for developing him. And we’ll exclude Griffey, considering that he has retired.

So here are the numbers this season for other six:

BA OBP SLG

Johnson .203 .310 .316

Lopez .244 .271 .336

Saunders .217 .272 .462

Moore .193 .220 .298

Tuiasosopo .167 .211 .241

Carp .167 .265 .200

That’s a lot of bad baseball.

Add it all together, and you have 746 plate appearances with 75 runs, 16 home runs, and 59 RBI. In 746 plate appearances, the average AL hitter this year would have 89 runs, 18 homers and 85 RBI.

Seattle’s homegrown talent is devoid of, well, talent.

And don’t bother telling me that Lopez had 25 homers and 96 RBI last year. He also had an .303 on-base percentage and was barely average as an offensive player. His career Offensive Winning Percentage, according to baseball-reference.com, is .385, which makes him the Kansas City Royals of hitters.

If only Seattle could redo that 2006 draft

While the Mariners have failed to develop good major-league hitters in recent years, their recent draft history hasn’t been much better with pitchers.

Overall, from 2001-06, Seattle selected 298 players in the June draft. A total of 25 of them have reached the major leagues, and they have been mostly unproductive players.

By far the best of the bunch has been Adam Jones, who is now with the Baltimore Orioles. The second-best player the Mariners have drafted during that time is pitcher Brandon Morrow, now with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Morrow showed some promise while with Seattle, before finally being labeled a disappointment. And his selection points out the shortcomings of the Mariners’ drafting: After Morrow was taken with the fifth pick of the first round in 2006, the San Francisco Giants also took a right-handed pitcher with the 10th selection — University of Washington product Tim Lincecum.

— Greg Jayne

Nope, there are no good homegrown major-league hitters on the Mariners’ roster. And so the quest continues.

For the next step, we’ll explore the draft. Among all players who have appeared in the major leagues this year, 43 of them were drafted at some point by Seattle.

That includes Griffey and Rodriguez, who certainly count as good hitters. But Griffey was drafted in 1987, and Rodriguez was drafted in 1993. That’s not a ringing endorsement for Seattle’s scouting staff.

Consider this: After selecting Rodriguez in the 1993 draft, the Mariners took Jason Varitek and Jose Cruz in the first round the next two years. Good players.

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But since then, Seattle has drafted nine position players in the first round: Ryan Christianson, Michael Garciaparra, John Mayberry, Adam Jones, Jeff Clement, Matt Mangini, Steven Baron, Nicholas Franklin, and Dustin Ackley.

In other words, since 1995, Seattle’s first-round draft picks have yielded one position player who became a major-league regular — Adam Jones.

In fact, a check through the baseball-reference database reveals that, since 1995, Jones is the only position player drafted in any round by Seattle who has had a productive career. And the Mariners traded him away when he was 22 years old.

Not that the draft is the only way to acquire prospects. Players from outside the United States can be signed as free agents, and some top-flight players are picked up in trades while they still are minor leaguers.

But the list of good hitters who have been developed by the Mariners in recent years could fill a pamphlet as thin as “The Wit and Wisdom of Rasheed Wallace.”

Let’s compare. In 1987, Edgar Martinez made his major-league debut with the Mariners. In 1988, Seattle traded for Jay Buhner, who had 32 big-league games under his belt. Griffey reached the majors in 1989, and Rodriguez came along in 1994.

That collection of talent is extraordinarily strong, but it’s probably not as extraordinary as Seattle’s inability to develop position players since then.

And so the quest for a hitter continues. Through the jungle that is Yuniesky Betancourt and Wladimir Balentien. Through the swamp that is Jeremy Reed and Willie Bloomquist. Through the muck that is Chris Snelling and Mike Morse and any number of would-be prospects who never developed.

You need a machete to hack through all the dreck.

Sure, there was Bucky Jacobsen, who had one magical half-season in 2004 and, because of injuries, never played another major-league game. And there was Carlos Guillen, who was traded away at the age of 28 and went on to earn three All-Star appearances. And there was Shin-Soo Choo, who appeared in 14 games for Seattle and then was traded in 2006, at the age of 24, for Ben Broussard.

Since the start of 2008 season, Choo has batted .300 with a .394 on-base percentage and a .503 slugging percentage for the Cleveland Indians.

He’s a good major-league hitter, which makes him the Holy Grail of our nearly futile quest. And it’s too bad the Mariners didn’t reap any of the benefits of that talent.

Question or comment for By the Numbers? You can reach Greg Jayne, Sports editor of The Columbian, at 360-735-4531, or by e-mail at greg.jayne@columbian.com. To read his blog, go to columbian.com/weblogs/GregJayne

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