Carlos Triunfel : Futures Market

Carlos Triunfel : Futures Market

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1990. The Humpty Dance and U Can’t Touch this are in the top 10. Home Alone is the #1 movie. Of course 50 cents will always buy you a pack of red boarder Donruss baseball cards from the corner store.

Flash forward to 2008. Scan the 2008 Arizona Fall League rosters and you will find a player born on 02/27/1990. 18 years old and already in the top prospect league in all of baseball. Seattle Mariner prospect Carlos Triunfel could very well be a superstar in the making.

Bio

Born and raised in the Dominican Republic, Carlos Triunfel turned down higher offers from a number of major league clubs and signed a $1.3 million signing bonus to join the Seattle Mariners in September of 2006. Triunfel took part in the Mariners winter instructional league in late 2006 and early 2007.

At the start of the 2007 professional season the Mariner’s decided to push Triunfel, having him speed past rookie level after only three games. Essentially Carlos began the 2007 in the low A level Midwest league. At the time he had just turned 17.

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His 2007 collective season wasn’t anything eye opening from a statistical standpoint but for a 17 year old the results were pretty amazing. He ended up spending the first two months of his season in the Midwest League. While he didn’t hit for much power he produced a .300+ average and was selected to the mid-season all-star team, despite breaking his thumb in late May. This injury kept him on the shelf for six weeks.

Upon his return the Mariners decided to really push him, which led to a 50 game stint in High A High Desert. He did not manage to hit a home run, yet batted .288.

For the season his combined stats produced a .296 average, with no HR, 17 BB and 55 SO. Not too shabby for a 17 year old battling a thumb injury.

In 2008 Triunfel found himself back in high A. He struggled in the first half with only a .594 OPS. The second half was another story, where the youngster exploded for a .335 with 7 HR in 230 AB, along with taking 16 SO to only 25 K. He swiped 19 of 25 bases and had a .873 OPS. For the entire season his posted a line of .288/.336/.406, for an OPS of .742.

There has been talk in the prospect circles of the Mariners possibly moving Triunfel from short to third. This would require him to hit for more power in the coming years. As it stands now he has shown improvements in his plate disipline, power and base stealing decision making process.

As the youngest player in the AFL in 2008, the Mariners and the prospect community are watching how Carlos performs against older, advanced minor league level competition.

Update:

(As of Oct 26th)

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While not setting the world of fire, Carlos is certainly holding his own against older competition so far in the 2008 Arizona Fall League season. Impressively he has only struck out 6 times in over 50 plate appearnces. Defensively he’s spent time at second, third and short.

Youtube Video

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3 replies on “Carlos Triunfel : Futures Market”
  1. says: Callum

    Is it just me or does he seem slow as hell getting out of the box and running to first, yet he seems very quick from 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd?

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