Bad Wax

If you haven’t followed minor league baseball, one of the best stories of the year is the current hit streak of Mariner’s farm hand James McOwens.  As of today his hit streak stands at 39 as of Friday morning.  Since I right this the night before, I will update as to whether or not he made it to 40 consecutive hits.  He still has a ways to go to take the record, which stands at 69 games by Joe Wilhoit (Joe Dimaggio is second with 61) who did it in 1919.

McOwens is a former 6th round draft pick of the Mariners from the 2007 draft.  He played his college ball at Florida International.  Over the past few years, he has really transformed himself into quite a patient hitter.  This streak is not by accident, he has really developed an eye for the strike zone.  Last season he had over 50 strikeouts heading into the All Star break, this year he only has 34 so far.  Last season he also played at high A High Desert and hit a respectable 0.263/7/51/30.  This year, through Thursday night he is hitting 0.364/4/48/5.  Although his stolen bases have seemed to take a dip, he is hitting 100 points higher than last year and has really proved that he is ready for the next level (AA).  The Mariners will look to keep him in High Desert until his streak ends, but after that look for him to make the move to AA.

I don’t know what kind of player James is going to turn into, but anyone who can hit over 0.330 in the majors is a welcome addition to any team.  I hope he keeps up the amazing season he is having and continues his run at history.  I created a custom card for him, so that if you want to send him a TTM request you can have something cool for him to sign.  I plan to revamp this design later, but for now let’s root for James to continue hit hitting streak, 70 is a nice round number.