Mariners' focus is on the whole organization, not just the big leagues

"We want to play our organization against their team."

Words from Andy McKay that quickly jumped out from the podium at the Mariners pre-spring training luncheon to the reporters notebook page, surrounded by quote marks, underlined three times, with stars in the margin. While we have seen Jerry Dipoto spend the last three months reworking the big league team, one of the most intriguing questions has been "What about the farm system?"

How do you turn that into an effective conduit of young players to the big leagues and good currency for trade? We knew there were philosophies, but what were they? What would this look like? New director of player personnel McKay gave a picture of the endgame,…