Mariners notebook: Thursday news, notes and links

Some news, notes and links on a rainy and gameless Thursday:

• Today is travel day for the World Series teams and interestingly enough, one of them actually traveled today. Teams usually fly right after games, which is exactly what the Royals did after they beat the Giants 7-2 to even up the best-of-seven series Wednesday. The Giants, however, elected to stay the night in Kansas City and fly today. Why? Well, according to a Tweet from Scott Miller of Bleacher Report, the “sleep doctor” told them it was better that way. More and more teams, the Mariners included, are looking into the impact that travel and sleep have on performance. Following their Monday night game against the Redskins earlier this month, the Seahawks returned to their hotel and traveled the next day instead of right after the game. If a team has the next day off, it makes sense to do so rather than disrupt sleep with an early-morning arrival. It will be interesting to see if the Mariners change any of their travel practices, particularly on west-to-east trips, next year.

• Speaking of the World Series, there are a couple of interesting Mariners connections with one of the better stories in the World Series this year. Royals outfielder Lorenzo Cain, who did not start playing baseball until he was a sophomore in high school, was drafted by the Brewers in the 17th round in 2004. The scouting director at the time was Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik.

“Our scout Doug Reynolds found him,” Zduriencik remembered when I caught up with him by phone recently. “He was so athletic, a great kid. He was an athlete and a classic case of a guy who continued to grow.”

The Mariners connection does not end with Zduriencik. Cain turned into a draft-and-follow selection – which is no longer allowed – for the Brewers and went on to play a year of baseball at Tallahassee Community College, where he roamed the outfield with future Mariner Michael Saunders.

• The annual coaching carousel this year features hitting coaches rather than managers. The Red Sox officially hired Chili Davis away from the A’s today. In the three years Davis was with Oakland, I heard plenty of praise for him and what he brought to the team. The A’s finished third in the American League the last two years in runs scored.

Davis also interviewed with the Yankees, who are looking for a hitting coach after letting Kevin Long go. Turns out Long didn’t go far, however, as he was hired today by the Mets.

The final stop on the hitting-coach carousel is in Milwaukee as the Brewers hired former Mariner (and one of my former Mariners Fantasy Camp coaches) Darnell Coles.

• From the “Oh how far they fall” category, Phillies CEO Pat Gillick admitted today that his team most likely will be in rebuild mode for the next couple of years and because of this, “everybody is on the table.” I’m not sure the Phillies have much the Mariners would be interested in, although Marlon Byrd could be a Plan C if they whiff on other outfield targets. But what jumped out at me about this turn of events – other than Gillick’s candor – is the amount of money the Phillies have spent to get to this point. Granted, they made five straight trips to the postseason from 2007-11 and won a World Series, but in the three years since they have spent over a half billion dollars to finish third, fourth and fifth in their division. The Phillies had the second-highest payroll in MLB in 2012 and third-highest in 2013 and 2014.

• Rainiers broadcaster Mike Curto gives a list of Mariners minor leaguers who are eligible to be free agents.

• Finally, some fuel for the hot stove. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News had an interesting item about a member of the Rockies who could be made available. Thoughts?

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