The famous magazine Baseball America ranks the Dutch outfielder Greg Halman as the number one prospect and best athlete in the Seattle Mariners organization in its annual Top 10 Prospects list. He is also expected to be listed in the upper places in the Top 100 prospects in Baseball next month.
Halman, who is 21 years old and was born in Haarlem, Netherlands, finished the 2008 season in the Double A team of the Mariners, batting .277 (OBP .332/SLG .481) with ten homeruns, 43 runs scored and 30 RBIs in the final 61 games. He later was assigned to the Arizona Fall League, where struggled a little bit with a batting average of .217 (.244/.410) in 21 games. He also was added to the 40-man roster, which leads to an automatic invitation to Major League Spring training.
After finishing the season with 101 losses in last place in the American League, the Seattle based has switched into a rebuilding mode. This led to massive changes in the front office and the coaching staff. New GM Jack Zduriencik had a passive approach regarding the free agent market, but made a few moves with one blockbuster twelve-player trade with the New York Mets and the Cleveland Indians. The acquisition of outfielders Endy Chavez and Franklin Gutierrez could directly influence the future of Halman and his Dutch National teammate Wladimir Balentien, who hit seven homeruns in 71 big league games last year.
Obviously it wasn’t expected that Halman makes the Major League team out of spring training. But Gutierrez and Chavez both are proven players, which are still in the prime of their career. Together with Ichiro Suzuki they probably will form the outfield of the Mariners in 2009. This affects Balentien, who now has to fight for playing time. He batted .202 (.250/.342) with 23 runs and 24 RBI for Seattle and .266 (.354/.584) with 18 homeruns, 49 runs and 55 RBI for the Triple-A team. He now has hit at least 20 homeruns per season the past four years. At the age of 24 he has to prove that he can convert his success on the Minor League level into MLB. This might also mean that he decides to concentrate on spring training instead going to the World Baseball Classic. Halman could start the season in Triple-A.