Mariners go forward with youth

With Mike Carp up I think we are now looking at what could almost be called the second season for the 2011 Mariners. The plan was to have a season of “evaluation” rather than the “rebuild”. Well, they certainly are evaluating at a rate we haven’t seen before and in the process they are building.

Whatever it is, we have young players from the organization up with the big club right now and it is not September. Carp, Carlos Peguero, and Greg Halman are here to help the club win. Throw in Michael Pineda and Justin Smoak and you could almost call this a youth movement.

I think this is what fans wanted to see, and no doubt they want to see more. It is all about timing Eric Wedge said in Chicago. This no doubt became more complicated as the team started winning because that has to remain the number one priority.

There is a balance that needs to be struck and so far Wedge has managed to achieve that. The foundation needed to be set and the right environment established to bring in the young players and this has been done. Yesterday Wedge said that Carp and Peguero would play on a “semi-regular” basis. Sure we would like to see Carp every day but Wedge mentioned that it was important that you didn’t overexpose young players. I don’t think we have to worry that Carp in particular will be under exposed so to speak. If Wedge sees that he is comfortable and helping the team win we will see plenty of him.

I got it wrong with Carlos Peguero, assuming that his time would be limited with the arrival of Carp. Peguero will play and some of his opportunities will come at DH. This is part of the second season. Had this been a month ago or even three weeks ago I think Wedge would have been hesitant to pull Jack Cust. Two and a half months in is different. His veteran has been given a generous opportunity to find it out there and while he has progressed he has left the door open and Wedge is intrigued by the power potential he sees with Peguero. So in this second season, Peguero will play.

What next? Wedge’s most interesting comment yesterday was that he could continue to get creative with the playing time and that if they felt a need to switch things up they might.

It is looking like a little creativity and a switch up may be more and more necessary in order to call up Dustin Ackley. Wedge wants and needs Adam Kennedy in the lineup on an at least semi-regular basis. Some of those starts may need to be at third, where he has played 737 innings over the last two seasons. Wedge has options here. It would appear the last piece of the puzzle to the Ackley callup would be the timing and one would think we have got to be close.