Mariners notebook: Minor-league honors plus news and links

Mariners prospect DJ Peterson has been selected to play in the Arizona Fall League’s annual Fall Stars Game, which will take place Saturday at Salt River Fields in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Peterson is one of seven minor leaguers representing the Mariners on the Surprise Saguaros of the AFL. While hitting just .214/.353/.357/.710 so far this fall, last season between High Desert and Jackson he hit .296/.360/.552/.912 and drove in 111 runs, the second most RBIs by a minor leaguer in all of baseball last season.

Prospect status has traditionally been a big factor in selection to the All-Star team, which most likely is why one of the more under-the-radar players, Patrick Kivlehan, was left off the roster. Kivlehan, who was one of the just 11 minor leaguers with over 100 RBIs last season, has hit .288/.383/.577/.960 in fall ball and is currently second in the league in home runs and RBI,.

The game – which will feature top prospects including Francisco Lindor, Archie Bradley and Corey Seager as well as Cuban defector Rusney Castillo – can be seen on the MLB Network or streamed live on MLB.com at 5 p.m.

Notes and links

• Sticking with the prospect/minor-league theme, the Clinton LumberKings’ epic 16-run comeback has been voted game of the year by the MiLB.com staff. Trailing 17-1 heading into the sixth inning, the LumberKings scored 16 unanswered runs to send the game into extra innings and eventually win it in the 12th on a Justin Seager groundout. The game was played the same day the Mariners had their no-rain rainout makeup doubleheader in Oakland and it caught the attention of a number of Mariners, including Kyle Seager, who followed the comeback on Twitter and MiLB apps.

• World Series Games 6 and 7 (if necessary) can be heard on 710 ESPN Seattle starting at 5 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday.

• Another Mariners World Series connection that has gone mostly unnoticed: Giants reliever Yusmeiro Petit, who has pitched 12 scoreless innings in relief this postseason, spent a year with the Tacoma Rainiers. You know all those extra arms that the Mariners add shortly before spring training to see if anyone pops? Well, he was one of them. Petit was claimed off waivers Nov. 5 2009, DFA’d on Feb. 6, 2010, sent to Triple-A on Feb. 9, released on March 17 and re-signed to a minor league deal 10 days later. He pitched in 24 games for the Rainiers in 2010 with a 4.85 ERA. He was released again by the organization in April 2011 and went on to pitch in Mexico that year. In January of 2012, he signed with the Giants.

A lot has been learned on his journey and Eno Sarris of Fangraphs has a great article on what appears to have been the difference maker for him.

• Coaching carousel update: If you can’t steal their players, steal their coaches or front office members. That seems to be a trend this early offseason. The Braves have hired Kevin Seitzer away from the Blue Jays. Seitzer has owned and operated a baseball training facility in Kansas City for years and has a history with a number of past and present Mariners, including Logan Morrison and Raul Ibanez. Morrison grew up in Kansas City and started taking hitting lessons from Seitzer when he was just 11 years old. Ibanez turned into an everyday player after he sought out Seitzer for help with his swing when he signed as a free agent with the Royals in 2001.

• An interesting note in the linked article – former Blue Jay Eric Hinske could be candidate for the vacancy in Toronto. He spent last year as the assistant hitting coach with Cubs.