Shamelessly stealing this question from Jacob Hausdorf in the Moose Tracks yesterday because once Star Wars comes up, that’s just like tossing a package of snausages into a kennel, but I thought this question merited some focused discussion:
Which non-Mariners pitcher and hitter are you most excited to watch this spring?
Bonus if they’re in the same division and would potentially face each other (why yes I am still in my Heated Rivalry era, why do you ask).
You can approach this question any way you like, but I specified this spring to include prospects who likely won’t make their clubs’ Opening Day rosters. I have heard so much about superprospect Konnor Griffin that I am going to deliberately subject myself to Pirates baseball in order to see some of his at-bats. I’m curious if Griffin will be sort of like Kyle Seager was in Seattle: an unbreakable talent, someone good enough to transcend whatever messed-up player development or organizational decisions or whatever has caused this long stream of futility in Pittsburgh. With Griffin and Skenes, does that feel like enough to make even the hapless Pirates a contender? (And also Bubba Chandler. And Seth Hernandez! Are the Pirates…good?)
For pitching, my homer choice is Ryan Sloan. I’d like to think that even if I weren’t a Mariners fan I’d like the guy whose teammate described him as a “centaur,” if the man part of the centaur was a fifth grader who looked like he wanted to talk to you about dinosaurs and the horse part was a Belgian Draught. But I liked Andrew Painter back in the 2021 draft, and am excited to what he can do now that he’s healthy, so he’d be a good second choice.
Also, feel free to take this as a petty pick. If you want to see how washed Verlander is as a Tiger, Round Two, this is a safe space to say that.