Scouts with Mariners coverage come away buzzing every time they go in to see Double-A Jackson, where the Mariners have a troika of premium arms with righthander Taijuan Walker and lefties Danny Hultzen and James Paxton.

The three pitchers have all been brilliant, with Walker sporting a 2.06 ERA and Paxton striking out 51 batters in 43 2/3 innings. In terms of performance, Hultzen has outshined them all, and he took another step forward last night with a career-high 12 strikeouts in six innings with one run, five hits and one walk allowed. Hultzen, 22, lowered his ERA to 1.78 and, while he has had some struggles with his control at times, he's walked just two of the 47 batters he's faced in his last two starts.

Hultzen's ERA and strikeouts both rank second in the Southern League to Diamondbacks righthander Trevor Bauer (1.68 ERA, 60 strikeouts in the SL), who has already been promoted to Triple-A Reno. Given the level of dominance Hultzen has shown, we'll probably see him joining Bauer in the Pacific Coast League in the very near future.