2019 Minor Leagues/Prospect Discussion Thread

Wally West · Post #2721 » by **Wally West** » Fri May 12, 2017 2:53 am

Baseball America released it's updated top 100 minor league prospects which features 6 Blue Jays prospects.

16. Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
34. Anthony Alford
68. Lourdes Guerriel
70. Sean Reid-Foley
89. Rowdy Tellez
93. Bo Bichette

vaff87 · Post #2722 » by **vaff87** » Fri May 12, 2017 3:12 am

Wally West wrote:Baseball America released it's updated top 100 minor league prospects which features 6 Blue Jays prospects.

16. Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
34. Anthony Alford
68. Lourdes Guerriel
70. Sean Reid-Foley
89. Rowdy Tellez
93. Bo Bichette

Bo should be higher, imo.

Post #2723 » by **JaysRule15** » Fri May 12, 2017 4:28 am

ex-prospect Franklin Barreto killing it in Triple A. .347/.396/.529 slashline and .924 OPS while playing shortstop. Will probably be called up this season too.

vaff87 · Post #2724 » by **vaff87** » Fri May 12, 2017 11:14 am

JaysRule15 wrote:ex-prospect Franklin Barreto killing it in Triple A. .347/.396/.529 slashline and .924 OPS while playing shortstop. Will probably be called up this season too.

Keep in mind he's playing in the PCL, though. He also has 39 strike outs in 31 games, which might be concerning.

Post #2725 » by **JaysRule15** » Fri May 12, 2017 11:57 am

vaff87 wrote:
JaysRule15 wrote:ex-prospect Franklin Barreto killing it in Triple A. .347/.396/.529 slashline and .924 OPS while playing shortstop. Will probably be called up this season too.

Keep in mind he's playing in the PCL, though. He also has 39 strike outs in 31 games, which might be concerning.

Yeah, true. There's definitely some PCL inflation to his stats. But, he's also been a career .297/.353/.469 hitter in the minors. The K's are a bit concerning, considering that he's never struck out at such a high clip before (his career K% in the minors is 21% compared to 31% so far this season). Maybe it's something that normalizes over the course of the season.

Overall, I think he ends up being an above average hitter in the majors (especially for a SS if he sticks at that position).

Was one of my fav players in our system and I was bummed that we traded him. Although I'm not complaining about what we got back lol.

Raps_Swingman · Post #2726 » by **Raps_Swingman** » Fri May 12, 2017 12:29 pm

vaff87 wrote:
Wally West wrote:Baseball America released it's updated top 100 minor league prospects which features 6 Blue Jays prospects.

16. Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
34. Anthony Alford
68. Lourdes Guerriel
70. Sean Reid-Foley
89. Rowdy Tellez
93. Bo Bichette

Bo should be higher, imo.

Guirrel hasn't played since April 19th. Haven't seen any update on him though since they said he left with a hamstring issue.

Agree on Bichette. He's crushing low A as a 19 year old (almost 2.5 years younger then league average).

BigLeagueChew · Post #2727 » by **BigLeagueChew** » Fri May 12, 2017 10:39 pm

Jake Thomas

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/blue-jays-prospect-jake-thomas-is-an-obp-machine/

Lateral Quicks · Post #2728 » by **Lateral Quicks** » Sat May 13, 2017 1:33 pm

JaysRule15 wrote:ex-prospect Franklin Barreto killing it in Triple A. .347/.396/.529 slashline and .924 OPS while playing shortstop. Will probably be called up this season too.

Graveman and Barreto both look pretty solid. If Lawrie hadn't self-destructed then you could make a case for the A's winning that trade. Not that I'm complaining about having a 7 WAR player for 4 years, mind you.

Post #2729 » by **JaysRule15** » Sat May 13, 2017 2:50 pm

Lateral Quicks wrote:
JaysRule15 wrote:ex-prospect Franklin Barreto killing it in Triple A. .347/.396/.529 slashline and .924 OPS while playing shortstop. Will probably be called up this season too.

Graveman and Barreto both look pretty solid. If Lawrie hadn't self-destructed then you could make a case for the A's winning that trade. Not that I'm complaining about having a 7 WAR player for 4 years, mind you.

Speaking of Lawrie, what happened to the guy. Haven't heard anything about him since the White Sox released him a few months ago. He's still good enough to get a bench job at least from some major league team.

I'll never forget the debut month Lawrie had with us. It'll go up there along with Bargnani's 13 game run lol.

vaff87 · Post #2730 » by **vaff87** » Mon May 15, 2017 11:29 pm

Not sure how Pentecost is doing throwing out runners in his games at catcher this season. But he has a caught stealing early in tonight's game.

dagger · Post #2731 » by **dagger** » Tue May 16, 2017 12:23 am

vaff87 wrote:Not sure how Pentecost is doing throwing out runners in his games at catcher this season. But he has a caught stealing early in tonight's game.

Plus a DP, plus his eighth homer. Danny Jansen was promoted today to NH, so that likely means Pentecost will be catching more if not most games going forward.

vaff87 · Post #2732 » by **vaff87** » Tue May 16, 2017 12:25 am

dagger wrote:
vaff87 wrote:Not sure how Pentecost is doing throwing out runners in his games at catcher this season. But he has a caught stealing early in tonight's game.

Plus a DP, plus his eighth homer. Danny Jansen was promoted today to NH, so that likely means Pentecost will be catching more if not most games going forward.

The DP was the caught stealing. I'm guessing it was on a full count.

dagger · Post #2733 » by **dagger** » Thu May 18, 2017 4:16 am

Need some hope? Alford was 4-5 today, raising his average to .328
Bo Bichette was 2-2 with two walks and 3 RBIs. Average to .373

vaff87 · Post #2734 » by **vaff87** » Thu May 18, 2017 4:25 am

dagger wrote:Need some hope? Alford was 4-5 today, raising his average to .328
Bo Bichette was 2-2 with two walks and 3 RBIs. Average to .373

Vlad has been in a bit of a slump lately. Hopefully, he can pick it up again soon.

Wally West · Post #2735 » by **Wally West** » Thu May 18, 2017 5:57 pm

Saw this in the most recent prospect chat by Eric Longehagen on Fangraphs. Thought I'd share.

Josh: How bout that Lansing Lugnuts roster?

Eric A Longenhagen: It’s unreal. Bo Bichette is raking, Vlad is one of the best prospects in baseball and I really like Palacios. Woodman is a prospect…a very fun roster.

Didn't realize how deep the Lansing roster was. Still miffed by the JB Woodman pick, though.

dagger · Post #2736 » by **dagger** » Thu May 18, 2017 6:22 pm

Wally West wrote:Saw this in the most recent prospect chat by Eric Longehagen on Fangraphs. Thought I'd share.

Josh: How bout that Lansing Lugnuts roster?

Eric A Longenhagen: It’s unreal. Bo Bichette is raking, Vlad is one of the best prospects in baseball and I really like Palacios. Woodman is a prospect…a very fun roster.

Didn't realize how deep the Lansing roster was. Still miffed by the JB Woodman pick, though.

Trouble is, the pitching is weak beyond Maese. You can say similar about all the farm teams. Maybe one good pitcher, a couple of guys who should be doing a bit better, and then a lot of non-prospects. The guys throwing occasional decency include Zeutsch and Reid- Foley.

vaff87 · Post #2737 » by **vaff87** » Thu May 18, 2017 6:39 pm

I am encouraged by the fact Anthony Alford has only struck out 24 times in 33 games so far this year. I think that was the concern about him this year, after he struck out 117 times in 92 games last year.

Of course, the guy blocking his way right now, just tanked his trade value, so...

vaff87 · Post #2738 » by **vaff87** » Thu May 18, 2017 11:49 pm

Including his first AB tonight, JB Woodman has 58 strike outs and 7 walks in 30 games and 2 innings.

Wally West · Post #2739 » by **Wally West** » Fri May 19, 2017 1:49 am

This is very impressive!

It’s no secret that Blue Jays righthander Conner Greene has a live arm. This year, however, he’s gone well beyond that designation. Now he’s chasing the title of the hardest-throwing starting pitcher in the minors.

In his start against Trenton on Wednesday night, Greene, the Blue Jays’ No. 5 prospect, hit 102 mph. That wasn’t the only time Greene touched triple-digits on Wednesday. He also hit 101 mph in an at-bat with shortstop Gleyber Torres, according to a scout.

To put that velocity in perspective, if Greene were in the major leagues, his 102 mph fastball would be tied with Boston’s Joe Kelly for the hardest thrown all season, and faster than any of Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman‘s fastballs.

Read more at http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/new-contenders-minor-league-velo-crown-emerge/#5AT6bZGhm5QUigQ4.99

vaff87 · Post #2740 » by **vaff87** » Fri May 19, 2017 1:50 am

Wally West wrote:This is very impressive!

It’s no secret that Blue Jays righthander Conner Greene has a live arm. This year, however, he’s gone well beyond that designation. Now he’s chasing the title of the hardest-throwing starting pitcher in the minors.

In his start against Trenton on Wednesday night, Greene, the Blue Jays’ No. 5 prospect, hit 102 mph. That wasn’t the only time Greene touched triple-digits on Wednesday. He also hit 101 mph in an at-bat with shortstop Gleyber Torres, according to a scout.

To put that velocity in perspective, if Greene were in the major leagues, his 102 mph fastball would be tied with Boston’s Joe Kelly for the hardest thrown all season, and faster than any of Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman‘s fastballs.

Read more at http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/new-contenders-minor-league-velo-crown-emerge/#5AT6bZGhm5QUigQ4.99

This guy is going to end up a reliever, right?