2012 Minor Leagues/Prospect Discussion Thread

[Randle McMurphy]

Snider 2 for 2 with a walk so far tonight, and continues to OPS in the 1.3 range. What a beast. I continue to be impressed by his newfound plate discipline. 6 K's vs 9 BB over ~60PA. That'll play.

If he keeps this up, I'm confident he will be up by the deadline.

He'll be up by May if Thames doesn't start hitting, I think.

[Michael Bradley]

Yeah, Snider killing AAA doesn't really mean anything at this point. He has done it before. He really needs to play everyday in the Majors. If Thames continues to suck, that opportunity may come sooner rather than later.

[Trilogy]

Snider dominating AAA doesn't mean so much, especially in the PCL, but I think the difference in his BB% and K% is worth noting, as they are both pretty different so far from his historical numbers in the majors/minors, even if it is only through 64 PA.

[Al_Oliver]

Good point, do you think that is that what happened?
Now that Hutch seems to be getting the start, I have no problem with the move they made...

Well now that it's Hutch it becomes harder to judge anything, 'cause I find the move borderline insane. I would say after using Carreno first that he was still the first option for 5th when needed, so if he didn't come back it was because they didn't like something about his performance either in that start or in the minor ones subsequently. That part seems like a reasonable assumption.

However, their willingness to burn Laffey seems to suggest they knew they weren't going to him (I don't think it was an oversight, nothing suggests they can't calculate this situation out a week or two in advance), which weirds me out about Carreno too. If they didn't like Carreno and knew they wouldn't need Laffey, then they'd already decided to use Hutch and I can't imagine how they'd come to that conclusion that quickly. Now, maybe they meant to use Laffey, hence the call-up, then something happened that made them decide to go with Hutch (this would still be a while back) so they called up Crawford for the help until they needed Hutch.

This is all kind of ridiculous speculation, but I don't understand what happened to make them decide Drew was the guy to get the slot, when he's got so little experience.

seems like burning through Cecil and McGowan has put everything on the fast track. which is a bit of an organizational shift with prospects to push them faster than necessary, rather than being patient to a fault. we'll find out tonight how smart or silly the decision looks...

[Lateral Quicks]

Yes Snider always kills the minors, but the big difference is that so far this year he's doing it while at the same time maintaining fantastic plate discipline. We need to see a larger sample, but that's been very encouraging so far.

[flatjacket1]

Snider is 1 for 2 so far in Vegas, but with 1 K

[Graham's Cracker]

Snider HR 2-3 so far 15-game hitting streak.

[Garmfay]

3-4. Its too easy. Get rid of Thames man he isn't doing much

[flatjacket1]

Snider with a K in this game so far, but also with a 1 RBI double.

So far D'Arnaud is 1 for 2 with a sac fly, coming up again soon. The one hit was a double.

[number15]

i mean if your a minor league player, why would u ever want to be in the JAYS system. With all that depth there are plently of guys ready to play at the next stage... but unfortunately many never had a chance from the start.

David Cooper is good enough to play in the MLB, or atleast he's proven that at the minor league level. Moises Sierra is hugely under rated and has no MLB starts list in his future. Travis Snider will make it to the MLB but he is literally taring up the minors but JAYS can afford to keep him there longer. Drew Hutchison will be sent down as soon as McGowan is ready. Chad Jenkins, Chad Beck, Deck McGuire and rest of the star studed pitchers have an uphill battle, while in any other system, they'd be getting MLB experience.

Would you really want to be a minor league player in this system?

[flatjacket1]

i mean if your a minor league player, why would u ever want to be in the JAYS system. With all that depth there are plently of guys ready to play at the next stage... but unfortunately many never had a chance from the start.

David Cooper is good enough to play in the MLB, or atleast he's proven that at the minor league level. Moises Sierra is hugely under rated and has no MLB starts list in his future. Travis Snider will make it to the MLB but he is literally taring up the minors but JAYS can afford to keep him there longer. Drew Hutchison will be sent down as soon as McGowan is ready. Chad Jenkins, Chad Beck, Deck McGuire and rest of the star studed pitchers have an uphill battle, while in any other system, they'd be getting MLB experience.

Would you really want to be a minor league player in this system?

Yes, because that would mean once I was ready to be called up, I would be winning, not losing. We are just at the end of "talent acquisition" mode and before the beginning of "condensing talent" mode. 2012 is a year just for us to give those players who need another year in the system another year (Hutch, Gose, Snider, D'Arnaud) and find out what we have in the MLB (If Lind can be a big league 1B, or if Colby can perform like he did in 2010 etc.)

We are just in between modes at the moment. We will start seeing more trades with blocked players shortly.

[Schadenfreude]

Cooper has not proven that he's good enough to play at the major-league level.

Moises Sierra has only just reached AAA; he hasn't been blocked.

Hutch will be a mainstay in this rotation, and honestly, he's reached the bigs with the Jays faster than he would have with just about any other team.

None of Chad Beck, Deck McGuire, or Chad Jenkins would be in the bigs with another organization. Well, Beck might be the longman with a truly terrible team, but nothing more. Remember, he's a guy that got released by the Diamondbacks at age 23, without reaching AA, and he didn't reach AAA until age 26.

[flatjacket1]

Cooper has not proven that he's good enough to play at the major-league level.

Sorry what? What else can he do to prove it? Get a batting championship? Wait he did that. Rank top 10 in the PCL in on base percentage? He did that too. How about rank top 20 in OPS? Did that too.

You can't argue he still needs to improve before being called up.

EDIT: It's worth noting nobody had more PA and did better, even though he ranked 7th in OBP everybody in front of him had like 250-300 PA...

[Schadenfreude]

You cannot prove that you're good enough to play at the major-league level until you've played well at the major-league level.

[flatjacket1]

You cannot prove that you're good enough to play at the major-league level until you've played well at the major-league level.

You can't argue he has something left to prove in AAA, which means he is blocked. He could even presently be arguably better than Lind.