Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers
79-61, .564, Pacific Coast League Northern Division Winners
The clinching game for the Rainiers was a 14-inning victory over the Fresno Grizzlies on Thursday night. They were sixth of 16 teams in runs scored and third in the league in ERA. They take on the El Paso Chihuahuas for game one of a best-of-five Conference Championship series on Wednesday, September 7.
It’s official, the Tacoma Rainiers are 2016 PCL Pacific Northern Division Champions! #WeRThePlayoffs pic.twitter.com/m5vfS6V0xY
— Tacoma Rainiers (@RainiersLand) September 2, 2016
Players of note:
1B Dan Vogelbach (23 years old, .294/.417/.503)—Before being traded to the Mariners this summer, Vogelbach had been with the Cubs organization since the 2011 draft. He was their second round pick that year out of Bishop Verot High School (Fort Myers, Florida). He’s always been a good hitter, but he still needs work on his fielding and is not fleet of foot on the bases. He reached Triple-A this year and split his time between Iowa with the Cubs and Tacoma with the Mariners.
That trade that brought him to the M’s was a four-player swap. The headliners were Vogelbach coming to Seattle and Mike Montgomery joining the Cubs. Vogelbach was blocked by Anthony Rizzo in Chicago, but has no such impediment in Seattle, where the first base job should be wide open next spring. He just missed the cut for the Cubs’ midseason Top 10 list at Baseball America.
1B D.J. Peterson (24 years old, .253/.307/.438)—Peterson was a top 100 prospect on the Baseball America list prior to the 2014 and 2015 seasons, but an ugly .223/.288/.345 batting line at two levels in 2015 dropped him off the list. He was still #10 on the pre-season Mariners Top 10, but he really needed to bounce back this year. He hit well at Double-A Jackson, then struggled with Tacoma a bit before fracturing his finger in August. It’s not exactly the progress the Mariners were hoping to get from Peterson.
Next: Double-A Jackson Generals