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One of the best Mariner fan traditions, with all apologies to  Sean Kramer, is that when the Mariners are bad to mediocre, you can pay for seats in the nosebleeds and find a much better fan experience in vacant seats throughout different parts of the stadium.

Even in the Kingdome, where ushers seemed a lot more lenient, one could often make their way dozens of rows closer to the action.

At Safeco, the Mariners had (previously) worked very hard to create a better, more traditional baseball stadium experience than the dim and dreary Kingdome: a half-dozen stands serving garlic fries, a wide selection of Seattle craft beers and open access to the bullpen. A Mariners fan could conceivably buy $7 seats in the center field bleachers and watch the entire game from above the bullpen, obstructed only by a metal screen.

I’ve seen people get into fights there, I’ve seen people make friends there and I once saw a guy in a kilt, a mesh shirt, knee-high boots, a Scottish style plaid hat and a sign that said “Today is my bachelor party” hanging from his neck, spend two innings asking opposing pitchers if they thought he was sexy.

The bullpen was the best experience available at Safeco for the budget conscious. It was probably the best place to have a conversation or debate about baseball, and one of the few places you wouldn’t have your conversation supplemented with talk of the most recent gossip, the newest sale or best food at Starbucks. It was the only place in the stadium, by my estimation, where people spent their time for the sole purpose of watching the baseball game.

But when I heard that they’d lost the screen, I was really excited. When I saw that they’d mounted a bar-style table across the entire railing, I was thrilled.

Enter “The ‘Pen,” and exit everything good about Safeco field.

It used to be that you could walk from the bullpen to right field without having to hit stairs, and only when you got behind the center field beer garden did you have to take your eyes off the game. Now, you must drop down to the center field entrance to get to right field. Not that the game is completely out of site for the whole time, but there are actually restaurant-style booths along the way, completely out of view of the field or TV.

I witnessed four people sitting and talking, completely ignorant to the game, and none of them (not even the men) were even attempting to view the game on TV (if they had, they would probably have seen MMA on Versus instead of Seattle Mariners baseball).

Even their conversation was probably ruined by the loser (I’m sure he’s a nice person) playing cookie-cutter rap music so loud you can’t hear the crowd cheer, let alone the crack of the bat.

Eight-dollar mixed drinks that can’t be taken out of The ‘Pen and a crowded bar facing away from the field are no help. Root Sports has done a lot of great stuff to improve the fan experience for the broadcast, but to create a bar that is a magnet for the after-10, douchey sports bar crowd is an awful decision.

Check out North and South of Royal Brougham for articles like:

Is Michael Pineda better than Felix Hernandez?

A look at the new Blue Scholars video directed by the creators of Sonicsgate

When Seattle has Oklahoma City’s back

and Why Kyle Seager may be best served playing outfield

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Major League Baseball’s 2011 First Year Player Draft kicks off on Monday, June 6th, and the Seattle Mariners once again own the No. 2 overall selection. Teams can really set themselves up for a future of winning with the right draft choice: it is often the least expensive route for getting the best player available for a long tenure of team control.

Most teams have both struck gold and struck out with their picks over the years, but the key to success is limiting the bad and maximizing the good. With that in mind, let’s look back at the 11 best draft picks in Mariners franchise history.

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It’s no secret that a solid rotation is key for success. An offense, no matter how formidable, can be silenced by effective pitching, keeping the team in the game.

Closing in on two months into the 2011 MLB season, a distinct group of starting pitching staffs has risen to the forefront as being capable of taking their teams to the playoffs. 

To be a truly fearsome rotation, a team needs five established starters who can all deliver quality outings reliably. Looking back at the 2010 season, we saw the San Francisco Giants (who made this list with almost the same rotation) ride their starters all the way to their World Series title. 

Without further ado, let’s look at the top seven starting pitching staffs in baseball a third of the way through the season. 

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Even after extending Felix Hernandez, the Mariners were faced with speculation that they’d trade their ace at the beginning of 2011. In the past couple days there has been a ton of speculation in the media about the team trading Erik Bedard, Jason Vargas or Doug Fister.

The Mariners should trade one of these guys, if the package they get in return is right.

There are a ton of components that go into a decision to trade a starting pitcher, not the least of which is that starter’s talent. We talk a lot about years of team control, which is certainly important, but are years of team control as valuable for a pitcher, presumed to be a back-of-the-rotation starter, as perhaps a mid-to-upper-rotation starter?

Certainly not.

And in Bedard, Vargas and Fister, the team has guys who can easily be perceived by some teams as fits in any of their rotations slots.

Fister is a prime example of where years of team control hold less value. Fister is a guy who has ridden a low HR/FB ratio and lackluster peripherals to solid results. On talent alone, Fister is a pretty generic option in trade. He’s a poor man’s Kevin Millwood or Livan Hernandez. Sure, if a team traded for him, they’d have him under team control for four more years after 2012, but he’s a huge regression candidate, especially in a different home ballpark (4.16 FIP career on the road, compared to 3.81 at Safeco).

Even in Safeco, the chances of Fister’s high wire act continuing is pretty slim and could be pushed out of the rotation by present farmhands in the next couple years. If the Mariners can get something of greater value for Fister, they should jump at the opportunity. I’d look for someone like Seth Smith from Colorado or Drew Sutton from Boston.

The other two pitchers, Bedard and Vargas, probably haven’t reached the potential peak of their value yet. If either of them (or both!) keep pitching the way they are right now, a Cliff Lee-like package isn’t completely out of the question.

Bedard is probably the more talented pitcher. He has a viable breaking ball and a better fastball. His problems, obviously, center on his health. This may lead the team, or fans, to want to trade Bedard as soon as possible, since he’s a high injury risk, and an injury would destroy his value. However, because they’ve bought so low on the new version of Bedard, he seems like a solid value to keep around until at least the beginning of July. If he gets hurt the sunk costs are minimal, and if he’s healthy, his value is likely to be at its peak by then.

Besides health, Bedard’s limiting factor is his pending free agency. After missing all of last year, it’s unlikely that Bedard is a Type A or B free agent after this season, and there is no guarantee that he remains the kind of bargain he has been for the Mariners so far this season (obviously not in the past).

Vargas is perhaps the most volatile. Just two days ago I proposed that the Mariners should either attempt to extend Vargas now, or this upcoming offseason, or never.

Just like the Mariners are at a critical point for Vargas’ future with the team, they may be at a critical point for his future with another team. It makes sense for the team to explore a trade for him, but having a low-cost, under-30, effective pitcher in the rotation, makes a hell of a lot of sense too.

There isn’t a ton of precedent for trading a guy with two years of team control, who is recently effective after a career full of struggles. Maybe the best comparable is Bronson Arroyo, who after two solid-ish years in Boston, was traded to Cincinnati for Wily Mo Pena about two weeks before the 2006 season. Pena’s name may not inspire excitement, but he was a top hitting prospect, which is a pretty big return for a guy of that type.

Arroyo was a well-known member of the 2004 World Series champion Red Sox, an intangible asset (undoubtedly an overvalued one) that Vargas doesn’t have. However, Vargas has posted better season prior to that.

The Mariners should trade one of these guys if it can improve the offense. But, they shouldn’t trade Bedard or Vargas for anything but top prospects. While the market for starting pitchers is developing, it certainly isn’t fully developed, and the Mariners should wait to trade either of the latter, or they’ll be getting less than full value for the pitchers.

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North and South of Royal Brougham offers articles like this, as well as articles about things like:

Michael Pineda’s need for a nickname

The Seattle Sounders

The Seattle Seahawks Quarterback situation

Gary Payton’s Love for Seattle

and last but not least

Nate Robinson’s tweets, and how Seattle fans should receive them

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Jason Vargas has pitched his butt off this year, or his boobs as one Jeff Sullivan may say (Vargas really does look like Phil Mickelson in a baseball jersey). Nevertheless, Vargas is amidst his best season by far to this point.

For the record, I started writing this during the pregame show and thought I’d hold off to make sure Vargas didn’t drop the ball last night. Instead, he went out and posted perhaps his best outing of the year, with apologies to his nine innings of shutout ball his last outing.

But the biggest questions that need asking when a player suddenly starts posting better results are: Why? And are the results sustainable?

When Jason Vargas came to Seattle in the J.J. Putz trade, he looked like a sub-Quad-A throw in. A guy who’d had some success in the minors, none in the majors, and below-average peripherals. He’d just missed the entire 2008 season with hip labrum surgery, and had lost velocity since his college days while failing to develop his off speed pitches.

Vargas struggled again in 2009, but then something changed. Vargas went from a guy who threw about 70 percent fastballs and 20 percent changeups to a guy who threw about 60 percent fastballs and 30 percent changeups. Though the results were better, the peripheral stats didn’t really show improvement in 2010. His 4.60 xFIP was nearly equal to his 2009 4.61 xFIP.

Truth be told, it seemed like the only change in Vargas’ game was where he played his home ones. That worked for the Mariners, obviously, as Vargas was cheap and effective. Even if he never fully developed his repertoire, he may be overvalued by some other team and could ultimately still have value to the Mariners in trade once his salary increased in arbitration.

Basically, by throwing the two pitches at that rate, he’d made the fastball a little worse in terms of results but gained it back two-fold on his changeup results. With that, Vargas had gone from being a passable Triple-A starter to an average-to-below-average major league starter who had above-average results.

But perhaps something has changed for Vargas. According to PITCHf/x, Vargas has introduced a cutter this season. This could mean a lot of things. Anecdotally, Vargas has been throwing a cutter for a lot longer. As PITCHf/x improves and evolves, their thresholds for certain pitches become more refined. However, Vargas came into the league as a fastball-slider guy, and PITCHf/x hasn’t shown him throwing a single slider all year. They do have him throwing his cutter 22.6 percent of the time, which even if it had replaced his slider on Pitchf/x (which is nearly equal velocity), is nearly triple the frequency as he’s ever thrown his slider.

Whatever it is, it has been far more effective to this point than either his fastball or slider have ever been, good for 2.75 runs above replacement for every 100 times he throws it.

Last night may be the ultimate display of keeping hitters off balance for Vargas, as he threw 34 four-seam fastballs, 33 cut-fastballs and 32 changeups. There was a total of 7.4 mph difference in average velocity, 3.6 between the four-seamer and the cutter and 3.8 between the cutter and the change.

What this has led to, in whatever capacity one believes, is that this year Vargas has struck out more hitters, kept more batted balls on the ground, while posting what amounts to a career-low in terms of walk rate.

So when considering an extension during arbitration years, the Mariners have a few tough questions to ask themselves: Is Jason Vargas as good as his results indicate? Will he be in two years? Is a prospective discount worth the risk of guaranteeing Vargas two or three years? How much of his success has to do with Safeco Field, and how replaceable is Vargas? And how have Vargas’ contemporaries fared on the free-agent market?

The first two answers are highly debatable and fluid in nature until when the Mariners truly examine Vargas’ viability.

The rest of them may be due for some perspective. Vargas is making $2.45 million this year, he’ll have two more years of team control when the year is done, including two more trips to arbitration. If we subscribe to the 20-40-60-80 rule, Vargas would be due about $3.5 million in arbitration with equal production to last year, but a better 2011, which appears likely, and he’ll be headed for a much greater pay day. If we assume that Vargas compiles a full season better than 2010, which is probably the only outcome that leads to an extension, he’d probably be looking at about $5 million.

If we presume an accelerated $5 million mark for the “60” portion of the value schedule, we can assume that he’d be looking at about $6.5 million in 2013, the year before his first shot at free agency. Last year, Vargas was worth 2.6 WAR, or $10.4 million according to Fangraphs. He appears to be en route to much greater value this year, already compiling 1.1 WAR in 2011. About a quarter of the way through the season so far, it isn’t inconceivable to see Vargas post four wins this year, which would put his value around $20 million. If that happened, presuming a three-year deal which would buy out Vargas’ arbitration years and one free-agent year, you’re probably be looking at a contract range of $15-25 million.

Is any part of that a comfortable range? Vargas has essentially been good for the past about 250 innings, with only about 60 coming with supporting peripherals.

One of the major criticisms of Vargas is how heavily aided he is by Safeco Field. He’s pitched well at the home-ball park and not so well on the road. Though this year’s splits are much less defined (in a tiny road sample), there may be reason to believe that the gap between Vargas’ home FIP and xFIP, as well as ERA, are sustainable, as it logically makes sense for Vargas’ HR/FB to stay low in the power-sapping Safeco Field.

The hardest thing for Vargas to sustain, and ultimately the deciding factor for the viability and size of an extension, is his success on the road. So far this year, Vargas has a 47.8 percent ground-ball rate on the road, compared to a 35.5 percent for his career. If the cutter is doing it, there is something presently-unquantifiable that the Mariners may be able to look on as a building block for future success, but if it isn’t when Vargas regresses back to his mean, and his newly-found increased ground-ball rate go away, so will his positive results.

There really hasn’t been a great market set for pitchers like Vargas’ in the past couple years. His low walk and strikeout total are unmatched by the likes of Ted Lilly, Randy Wolf and Jorge de la Rosa. Each averages more strikeouts and more walks, while being skewed toward a fly-ball propensity. Each entered actual free agency, which Vargas won’t see for two more years. And each signed a three-year contract worth close to $30 million.

The best comparable is Wandy Rodriguez. He finished his fifth year of service time last year, a year that saw him make $5 million after a four-win season, which followed a $2.6 million season that was sparked by a 2.6 win season. Rodriguez posted a 3.6 win season last year, and at the age of 32, with one more year of team control, signed a three-year, $34 million deal.

The Mariners have a very tough decision to make with Jason Vargas, and on smell test alone, he doesn’t seem to meet the $10-plus million per year price tag. So if the Mariners want to extend Vargas ever, they should do it this season or offseason, otherwise, they’ll be paying a premium for highly debatable value.

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North and South of Royal Brougham offers articles like this, as well as articles about things like:

Michael Pineda’s need for a nickname

The Seattle Sounders

The Seattle Seahawks Quarterback situation

Gary Payton’s Love for Seattle

and last but not least

Nate Robinson’s tweets, and how Seattle fans should receive them

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Here it is: May the 14th, and now we must start getting serious about when Dustin Ackley will be called up.

There are, however, a few obstacles that have to be overcome in order to justify a call up for Dustin Ackley. First off, he has to be ready, and if you look at his current stats, you probably wouldn’t say he is ready, but lets take a closer look.

So far, Ackley is hitting .253/.382/.411. These numbers aren’t bad, but they are not what you would expect from the No. 5 prospect in baseball. Mainly, It wasn’t the start to the season he was looking for; he hit a meager .211/.336/.305 in April.

Dustin has finally found his groove in AAA Tacoma, and has been on a tear since May 1st. In May he is hitting .333/.462/.608. He has also shown impressive power with five HR’s so far. This recent explosion of hitting was definitely needed for him to have any shot at getting an early promotion. After all, his bat is what is going to carry him.

So now that Ackley is legitimately hitting, the next obstacle is “Super 2 Status.”

This is, of course, the rule that gives the the top 17 percent of players each year with more than two, but less than three, years of service time eligibility for arbitration.

The cut-off date is normally around late May, sometime after the 20th or so. This means it won’t happen for a least a week.

The last obstacle, or As I look at it, question that must be answered, is: Who does Dustin Ackley replace?

The obvious choice is Jack Wilson, since he is the current starting second baseman. The problem is that Jack Wilson is a decent fielder, and Ackley is not. Also, Jack is hitting .250 this year.

GMZ has already recently been quoted saying Ackley will be given every opportunity to stay at second base, but It might be in Seattle‘s Best interest to stick him out in left field.

That Spot has been in trouble since Raul Ibanez left in FA prior to 2009. Endy Chavez did well there until he collided with Betancourt in  2009. Recently, a hole has been created with the DFA of Milton Bradley, and Saunders has not shown the ability to hit after a couple of years.

I am not saying that Ackley needs to move off of second base, I am simply saying that for a team that preaches pitching and defense, they should want their best possible fielders up the middle.

Either way, Ackley may just be ready for his Major League debut within a few weeks.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

On May 7th, Brandon League had nine saves and a 2.08 ERA to his credit. He hadn’t lost a game or blown a save.

He was automatic.

He then gave up three runs in 1.1 innings against the White Sox on May 8th. He didn’t blow a save that day, but took his first loss of the season. His ERA jumped to 3.77.

Two days later, League blew his first save of the year against Baltimore, giving up two runs while getting just two outs. League’s ERA climbed to 4.80.

The once steady closer became shaky.

He didn’t have to stew on the first blown save long as he was back at it two days later, again against Baltimore.

The result was the same.

League blew his second straight save and lost his third straight game. He gave up two runs again while getting just one out this time. His ERA jumped to 5.87. What was going on?

The very next night, Eric Wedge gave him another opportunity. Like the previous three outings, League blew it. He gave up three runs while recording just two outs. It was League’s third straight blown save and fourth straight loss. League’s once petite ERA skyrocketed to 7.31.

Which brings us here. What to do, what to do? At least David Aardsma had a setback, which gives League some time. It’s crazy that only a week ago I wonder if Aardsma would have replaced League as effective as League had been.

Aardsma worries me. If he pitches at all in 2011 I’d be slightly surprised. Still, with a streak like League is on, the questions start piling up.

Should Chris Ray be given a chance? He has 51 career saves. He also has an 11.88 ERA and 2.16 WHIP.

David Pauley has a 1.16 ERA and a 0.77 WHIP, but has never been called up on to save a game.

Aaron Laffey is pitching well (1.35 ERA, 1.35 WHIP), but has just one career save.

Jamey Wright has also pitched well (1.96 ERA, 1.15 WHIP), but he is 36 and not likely to get his first crack at the closer position.

Where does that leave us? The M’s could raid the farm system, but that seems unlikely right now. He may just get a temporary break from the gig to clear his head. There is always a chance that somebody takes the job and runs with it, but more likely than not this will be a closer-by-committee system until League gets back on track.

Also check out:

• Help Is Coming:  Should You Add Brian Matusz?
• Is John Axford Over the Hump?
• Can Kevin Correia Sustain His Early Success?
• Is Brandon Beachy the Real Deal?
• Is Matt Joyce For Real?

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Through three starts (19 1/3 innings) in 2011, Seattle Mariners’ rookie Michael Pineda has certainly turned some heads. The 21-year-old boasts a 2.33 ERA, 1.03 WHIP and 16/7 K/BB ratio, which includes a start at Texas.

This begs the question: How good is Michael Pineda?

Baseball America ranked Pineda—who stands 6′7″ and weighs 260 pounds—behind Dustin Ackley as the Mariners’ No. 2 prospect this spring, and noted the following:

Pineda has the size, stuff and control to pitch at the top of a rotation. He throws a crisp fastball that sits at 93-97 mph and gets as high as 101 with explosive life and occasional heavy sink. He tightened and added more tilt to his quality slider this year, though he can still get under it occasionally, causing it to flatten out. He also did a better job of selling his upper-80s changeup with the same arm speed as his fastball, keeping it down and getting hitters to chase it. Pineda throws all three pitches from the same three-quarter arm slot.

Pineda had very little trouble in the minors, posting a 2.49 ERA in 404 IP over five seasons while totalling elite strikeout (8.8 K/9) and walk (2.1 BB/9) ratios.

Everyone, myself included, expected him to become a very good major league pitcher—just not this soon.

As I noted in this article—The Top 10 Rookies in 2011—Pineda is likely to experience many ups and downs this season.

Despite his ridiculous success thus far (72.9 percent contact rate, 39.1 percent o-swing rate), and his average fastball velocity of 96.1 mph, I still believe Pineda will send fantasy managers on a roller coaster ride this season.

Will he maintain his current 2.33 ERA? Of course not. Can he finish the season with a sub-4.00 ERA? Given his surroundings at Safeco Field, I’d say it’s likely.

Yet, somehow, Pineda is owned in just 56 percent of Yahoo! leagues.

He’s undoubtedly worth an add in any 12-team mixed league. You may have to monitor his matchups, but he certainly has a lot to offer. His next two starts (home vs. Oakland and at Detroit) work in his favor.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: FANTASY BASEBALL INSIDERS

Follow Fantasy Baseball Insiders on Facebook and Twitter

2011 Position Rankings: C / 1B / 2B / 3B / SS / OF / SP / Top 100

Previous articles from Fantasy Baseball Insiders: 

• Is Bruce Chen Worth a Waiver Wire Flier?
• Week 3 Closer’s Corner: Thornton, Franklin Nathan & More
• Cheap Steals to Replace Rajai Davis
• Is Chris Narveson Worth a Waiver Wire Flier?
• How Good is Cubs’ Starlin Castro?
• 2011 All-Breakout Team
• The Top 10 Rookies in 2011
• The Sub-2.50 ERA Curse: Why Five Elite Starting Pitchers May Regress in 2011

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

It’s no secret that the Seattle Mariners are struggling to start the season, but how does this year’s slow start compare to others in history?

Similarly, how did those slow teams finish the year? Does history provide any hope for the 2011 M’s?

I’ve attempted to answer these questions and more by looking at the worst 15 and 30-game starts ever for Seattle.

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For the past several years, the outcry among critics of the Mariners was that while the team could field viable rosters–think ’07 and ’09, of course–there was no home-grown talent outside of the dazzling Felix Hernandez.

AAA Tacoma was the breeding ground for players who would achieve little, if anything, at the major league level. Haunting memories of prospects who have failed to live up to their billing have come and gone with Rob Johnson, Matt Tuiasasosopo, Brandon Morrow, and Wladimir Balentien (some of you may go, ‘who?’).

The Jose Guillens and Russell Branyans of the M’s free agent signings have made their impact on the team, and so have the Carlos Silva’s and Miguel Batista’s. But the problem remained that while we could buy a few more expensive wins with a guy like Cliff Lee, we were left with Brandon Morrow while another team flourished with Tim Lincecum.

In order to win and to stay competitive for more than a couple years, a team needs to develop its own talent rather than relying on pricy free agents, and that was the issue with the Mariners. But today, I’m telling you that this era is coming to a close.

After watching Pineda bind the Kansas City Royals to one run in six innings and Justin Smoak go 2 for 4 to continue both of their remarkable seasons, it became clear to me that these two guys could be top contributors on the team for years to come.

First, let’s talk about every M’s fan’s current infatuation, Michael Pineda. He’s had less success facing left-handed batters and can get smacked around a bit if he gets behind in the count too much, but besides that, you couldn’t ask for a better start for Pineda.

In his first three starts, Pineda has combined for 19 1/3 innings pitched, striking out 16 and posting an extraordinary 2.33 ERA. Although Pineda will likely stumble at some point, all doubt has been removed whether the rookie can pitch at the major league level.

Said Toronto’s Jay Patterson of Pineda in an interview with Larry Stone (Seattle Times), “I think he has a chance to be something special, and I really don’t like complimenting pitchers that much”.

Pineda’s high 90’s fastball rivals that of King Felix and his breaking stuff is effective enough when paired with that fastball. His dominance and confidence exudes when he is on the mound and it seems to augment as a game wears on.

22-year-olds just don’t get this good, this fast. The Mariners struck gold when they signed him at the age of 17, and they are about to reap the immense rewards.

My prediction is that by the end of the season, Pineda and Felix will have become a formidable 1-2 punch that can anchor the rotation for the future and even draw fans to Safeco. When you talk about being a playoff contending team, you need those two studs who can give you a chance to win every outing, like Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum did with the 2010 World Champion Giants.

And next, we come to Justin Smoak. After being acquired in the Cliff Lee deal from the Rangers last year, Smoak disappointed and was even sent back down to the minors.

But this season, Smoak has hit for a .300 average, and to some that pales in comparison to some of the excellent campaigns other first basemen have been putting together around the league.

However, as a 25-year-old with limited experience in the majors and in a stagnant Mariners offense, Smoak has emerged as a top hitter in the lineup. His development since joining the M’s has been outstanding, especially his ability to stay patient at the plate which most young hitters don’t learn.

This is seen best by Smoak’s ability to work the count and draw a walk- Smoak has struck out ten times this season, but has walked eleven times. Those eleven walks are good for sixth in the AL and tied for 11^th in all of baseball.

Even his defense has been showcased this season, best seen in the outstanding play made against the Blue Jays in which he caught a foul popup and gunned Corey Patterson out at home trying to tag-up from third by a wide margin, a throw equivalent to one which an outfielder would have to make.

Smoak hasn’t fully developed yet and I expect some more pop from his bat as the season wears on, but there’s no question that after Richie Sexson and Russell Branyan have come and gone, the first baseman spot will be Smoak’s to keep. He’s shown an ability to get on base consistently and with mediocre bats in so many other positions, first base may be locked up for years to come.

And with the farm system featuring prospects like Dustin Ackley, Carlos Peguero, Alex Liddi, Josh Lueke, and Carlos Triunfel all developing, it may be only a matter of time before the youth movement hits the majors.

Is this the start of a great influx of young talent? Only time will tell, but Michael Pineda and Justin Smoak are an encouraging beacon of hope in a desolate wasteland of second-rate players. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com