Talking Points: Mariners are organization on rise

1

Baseball America has come out with its annual organization talent rankings and it contains good news for the Mariners. They have jumped from 18th a year ago to sixth this season among the 30 MLB teams.

The top five: Texas, Kansas City, San Diego, Arizona and Toronto — with Oakland coming in right behind Seattle at No. 7. The Astros, who join the AL West next season, are at No. 18, just ahead of the Angels at No. 19.

The rankings, determined by Baseball America’s editors, “evaluate the overall value of each system’s prospect-eligible players (no more than 130 at-bats, 50 innings or 30 relief appearances in the major leagues, without regard to service time).”The NFL draft is now less than a month away. The landscape has changed for several teams with the movements of Peyton Manning, Randy Moss, Matt Flynn, Mario Williams and Brandon Marshall.

Sportsillustrated.com sees the Seahawks taking Stanford guard David DeCastro with pick No. 12. Here’s columnist Don Banks’ take:

“The Seahawks are out of the quarterback market in the draft, having signed free agent Matt Flynn. With Robert Gallery released and Steve Hutchinson signing in Tennessee, DeCastro has emerged as an obvious candidate for the No. 12 slot. He’s the kind of tough, physical player that Seattle line coach Tom Cable prefers, and as the top-rated guard prospect, he’s a nice melding of value and draft slot.’’

Walterfootball says DeCastro is the “potential best NFL guard over the next decade.’’

Talking Points checked three other updates of mock drafts, which had Kansas City take DeCastro just ahead of Seattle, then the Seahawks getting Memphis defensive tackle Dontari Poe, Boston College inside linebacker Luke Kuechly or North Carolina defensive end Quinton Couples.