A few things of note regarding former and future LumberKings and this blog:

• The Seattle Mariners’ Organizational All-Stars list came out last week, and it’s finally up on LumberKings.com.  Nick Franklin (’10) was a natural choice as the All-Star shortstop after hitting .281 with a Midwest League-best 23 homers last year.  Kyle Seager (’09) makes the list at second base, while left-handers Anthony Vasquez (’09-’10) and Brian Moran (’09-’10) also show up as the top left-handed starter and top reliever, respectively.  Potential future King Kevin Rivers is amongst the three outfielders after posting a .332 average in Everett last year.

• Former Kings’ right-hander Maikel Cleto (’09) was shipped to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for shortstop Brendan Ryan yesterday.  The hard-throwing Cleto was recently added to the Mariners’ 40-man roster despite a rough go of it in the Cal League (4-9, 6.16) and a less-than-steady showing in the Arizona Fall League (2-1, 7.91).  This is Cleto’s third new organization since he signed with the New York Mets in 2006.  Revisit an interview I did with Cleto and an interpreter in 2009: 
  Maikel Cleto Interview 8.21.09.mp3

• Last Friday’s post on the 2010 Baseball Winter Meetings was my 500th on The LumberBlog.  That’s a lot of posts.  It appears that you’re still reading, as I finished #41 out of the Top 50 ProBlogs in November.  Thank you again!

-DL