Yes, it's old

Look, I'll be honest. I got a little behind in my e-mail alerts during the last two or three weeks of the season. This one is from the Seattle Times Farm Report on August 19...and it's still worth posting

Tacoma's Rob Johnson caught in a squeeze behind plate

Catcher Rob Johnson could make an argument for being the hottest-hitting Mariners prospect of the second half. He could also make the argument for being the Mariners prospect caught in the worst position at the worst time.

Looking up from Class AAA Tacoma, Johnson can see Jeff Clement, the Mariners' catcher of the future; Kenji Johjima, signed to a three-year extension in the spring; and backup Jamie Burke.

Looking down, Johnson can see Adam Moore, the catching prospect in Class AA West Tenn who looks Tacoma-ready, hitting .312 with 11 home runs.

So Johnson has stopped looking. And started hitting.

"You can look at it a couple different ways," Johnson said. "You can be frustrated with the situation, and when you do that, you're not focusing on the task at hand. As of right now, I'm a Triple-A baseball player ... I need to focus on what I'm doing down here."

Well, he can focus on it "up there" now that he is with the Mariners.

Also, here is the M's Farm Report from August 26. This is mostly of note for a few paragraphs down at the end...After talk of Saunders and Halman and Triunfel and various other offensive prospects.

As for the team's top pitching prospects, most of them reside in Class A Wisconsin in the Midwest League. The Mariners resisted chances to move up a trio of prospects, led by Phillippe Aumont, the team's 2007 first-round pick.

Aumont showed he had a major-league caliber off-speed pitch, but a sore elbow derailed his season, and the Mariners don't expect him to pitch again this season. Michael Pineda, a 19-year-old right-hander, started the season in the bullpen but ended up a starter who has gone 7-5 with a 2.05 ERA. Right-hander Juan Carlos Ramirez is 6-9 with a 4.30 ERA, but that hasn't changed the Mariners' confidence in his potential.

"We get a lot of calls asking about him, because he's a nice-looking prospect," [Greg] Hunter said of Ramirez. "He's young, he has good size, and an ability to command the baseball and get it down in the zone."