Obviously we don't know what the specific changes to franchise mode are for '13, but there's a good bet the potential system is reworked so for the mean time this will mostly be discussion on who to include since there is obviously not enough space to include every interesting prospect...
OK lets run down the list of interesting guys:
Denny Almonte OF - D/C
Taylor Ard 1B - D/C+
Logan Bawcom RHP - C/C+
Jabari Blash OF - D-/C+
Matt Brazis RHP - D/C+
Andrew Carraway RHP D+/D+
Phillips Castillo OF - F-/C+
Vince Catricala 3B - C/C+
Ji-Man Choi 1B - D/C+
Edwin Diaz RHP - F/B
Joseph DeCarlo 3B - F+/C+
Roenis Elias P - D/C
Anthony Fernandez LHP - C/C
Nick Franklin INF - C/B+ DONE
Luis Gohara LHP - F/B+
Gabriel Guerrero OF - D/B+
Jabari Henry OF - F+/C
John Hicks C - D+/B DONE
Danny Hultzen LHP - C+/A- DONE
James Jones OF - D/C+
Patrick Kivlehan 3B - D-/B
Bobby LaFromboise LHP - C/C
Leon Landry OF - D/C+
Marcus Littlewood C - F+/C+
Timothy Lopes 2B - F+/B-
Jack Marder C - C-/B-
Tyler Marlette C - F+/C+
Francisco Martinez 3B - D+/B- DONE
Brandon Maurer RHP - C+/B+ DONE
Jamodrick McGruder 2B - F+/C
Yoervis Medina RHP - D+/C
Brad Miller SS - C-/B+ DONE
Julio Morban OF - D+/B
Gabriel Noriega SS - F/D+
Jochi Ogando RHP - D-/C
Dan Paolini 2B/1B - D/C+
James Paxton LHP - C+/B+
Tyler Pike LHP - D/B
Guillermo Pimentel OF - F+/C+
Steve Proscia 3B - D+/C DONE
Stefen Romero 2B - C+/B
Victor Sanchez RHP - C/B+
Jordan Shipers LHP - D-/C
Carson Smith RHP - C/B-
Christopher Taylor SS - C-/B-
Taijuan Walker RHP - C/A+
Mike Zunino C - C+/A DONE
2 A
1 A-
6 B+
8 B
4 B-
14 C+
9 C
1 C-
1 D+
Plus a bunch of filler
Link to the ratings and info spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...JeW9KWkE#gid=0
Players in bold have seen significant time in AA or above, so I feel like they need to be included. Here are the players on the 40-man that do not have any MLB service time:
Anthony Fernandez
Danny Hultzen
Bobby LaFromboise
Brandon Maurer
Yoervis Medina
Vinnie Catricala
Francisco Martinez
Julio Morban
Players on the 40-man who did not play in an MLB game last year and probably have to be recreated:
Chance Ruffin
So barring any more moves this offseason, the Mariners org will have 59 open spots in the game, so now lets try to figure out how to divvy up those precious spots:
31 SCEA players
25 MLB
6 AAA
On the list of interesting players, at least 9 should be in AAA next year, which means ~10 filler players are needed at the AAA level. Here are the interesting players most likely to be in AAA next year:
Logan Bawcom
Andrew Carraway
Vinnie Catricala
Nick Franklin
Danny Hultzen
Bobby LaFromboise
Brandon Maurer
James Paxton
Stefen Romero
Other candidates include (not likely IMO):
Anthony Fernandez
Yoervis Medina
Taijuan Walker
Mike Zunino
AA is where the bulk of interesting players will be, which is good since we want the upper levels to be as accurate as possible while at the same time including as many top prospects as we can:
Denny Almonte
Anthony Fernandez
Roenis Elias
John Hicks
James Jones
Leon Landry
Jack Marder
Francisco Martinez
Yoervis Medina
Brad Miller
Julio Morban
Gabriel Noriega
Steve Proscia
Carson Smith
Taijuan Walker
Mike Zunino
Once again, ~9 fillers are needed, and we'll find out who once the rosters are set.
There are 26 interesting players left for 15 slots:
Taylor Ard
Jabari Blash
Matt Brazis
Phillips Castillo
Ji-Man Choi
Edwin Diaz
Joseph DeCarlo
Luis Gohara
Gabriel Guerrero
Jabari Henry
Patrick Kivlehan
Marcus Littlewood
Timothy Lopes
Tyler Marlette
Ketel Marte
Jamodrick McGruder
Jochi Ogando
Dan Paolini
Martin Peguero
Tyler Pike
Dario Pizzano
Guillermo Pimentel
Victor Sanchez
Jordan Shipers
Chris Taylor
Dylan Unsworth
Of course, some of the older guys who should be in High Desert next year can be mixed in with the AA guys as well:
Taylor Ard
Matt Brazis
Ji-Man Choi
Dan Paolini
Chris Taylor
Jordan Shipers
Which would leave ~20 players for 15 spots... Now who to cut from this list:
Here are my 5 proposed cuts:
Unsworth
Peguero
Marte
Ogando/Gohara (if the age limit is the same as last year
)Pizzano
I'll post grades once we get some more info on the changes to franchise, so in the meantime, Mariners fans (and even non Mariners fans) voice your opinions!!!
Edit:
So I projected that there would be about 13 filler players, but I forgot about the MLB players dropped from the 40-man, as well as the NRI's and the MiLB rule 5 guy:
Eric Ferris 2B
Jeremy Bonderman RHP
D.J. Mitchell RHP
Kameron Loe RHP
Jhonny Nunez RHP
Ronny Paulino C
So there's potentially 9 filler spots, which would come from this list:
Brandon Bantz C AAA
Jesus Sucre C AA
Rich Poythress 1B AA
Nate Tenbrink 3B AA
Leury Bonilla UT AAA
Scott Savastano IF AAA
Joseph Dunigan OF AA
Daniel Carroll OF AA
Forrest Snow RHP AAA
Jonathan Arias RHP AA
Danny Farquhar RHP AAA
Steven Hensley RHP AAA
Brian Moran LHP AAA
James Gillheeney LHP AA
Jandy Sena RHP AAA
Trevor Miller RHP A+
Tyler Burgoon RHP A+
Moises Hernandez RHP AA
Kurt Fleming OF A
Eric Niesen LHP AA
Brian Sweeney RHP AAA
Abraham Almonte OF AA

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