Jays Minority Report: Gold Gloves predicted for Gose and Hechavarria
But the skipper of the Jays’ AA New Hampshire Fisher Cats sees something unique in shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria.
“Hech is outstanding defensively. He has talent that I’ve never seen. He can do anything with his glove,” says Fasano.
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“I see him as Omar Vizquel but with more range. He might have a little better arm. He’s built like Tony Fernandez with just as much ability if not more,”
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Last year, with Single-A Dunedin and with New Hampshire, Hechavarria combined to hit .242 with 57 runs, 4 HRs, 41 RBI and 13 stolen bases and a paltry .272 OBP. After a slow start this season — he had a six-game hitting streak snapped on Wednesday — Hechavarria is up to a .228 average and a .254 OBP, 1 HR and 7 RBI with 9 stolen bases.
The current plan has Hechavarria getting 500 to 600 minor league at-bats this season before re-assessing his development. In the meantime he has English lessons and the tutorial guidance of coach Danny Solano, hired solely to help the prospect adjust to professional baseball and life in the U.S.
“He’s got a lot on his plate,” Fasano says of Hechavarria.
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“He’s one of the, if not the fastest player in the organization,” Fasano says of Gose. “He gets tremendous jumps, you rarely see him out of position. He has a big arm that’s accurate. He has one of those arms that if you were to put him on the mound, he could be a pretty good No. 2 or No. 3 pitcher.”
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D’Arnaud, considered by some minor league experts to be the best defensive catcher in the organization, just returned from a stint on the disabled list and is batting .211 with 1 HR and 5 RBI in 16 games.
“Travis is highly talented behind the plate,” says Fasano. “If he can catch 110 games he’ll be pretty close to the big leagues.”
“I don’t want to sound like I’m his father,” says the former catcher. “I’m proud of what he’s doing behind the plate but I know he can get better.”
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Shin and wrist injuries wiped out most of 2010 for the 22-year-old [Moises Sierra] signed out of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic but he’s off to a great start.
“He has some of the most raw power in the organization. He’s a true five-tool player,” says Fasano. “He’s a still a little bit behind after missing most of last year but he’s a big-league talent.”
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Acquired in the Scott Rolen deal, the 24-year-old Stewart is in his second season as a starter with New Hampshire after posting an 8-3 mark with a 3.63 ERA in 2010.
“He’s learning how to pitch. In the past he was more of a thrower now he’s sequencing his pitches, setting up hitters well,” says Fasano. “He has four quality pitches.”
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In his first year in AA, Carreno struggled in his first start but has progressively improved. On Wednesday, the 24-year-old native of San Cristobal, Dominican Republic, fired a one-hitter over seven innings with three walks and seven strikeouts.
“He has one of the best sliders you’ve ever seen. With him, it’s not really how he starts (the season) but how he finishes,” says Fasano.
The Globe and Mail
Swing is the thing for Travis Snider
Anthopoulos said with Snider, fans have to forget about the minor-league average; it’s all about the player’s swing mechanics. And until Snider can learn to shorten up his stroke and stand more erect at the plate – among other things – Anthopoulos said, it makes no sense to return him to the big-league roster.
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“The numbers [in the minors] are there but no one sees the context,” Anthopoulos said, noting a “screaming line drive” to the outfield carries the same statistical weight as a bloop single to right.
In other words, Snider – who has yet to unleash a home run since he returned to play for the Las Vegas 51s – is still not hitting the ball with any consistent authority.
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There are those who would argue that if the 2011 season is considered a developmental one for the Blue Jays, wouldn’t Snider be better off learning to hit pitching the major-league level over the course of a full year?
David Cooper would agree to that, but he’s biased.
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“Of course, I’d rather be here,” the 24-year-old first baseman said. “I think if you’re going to have to figure things out you might as well figure them out at the major-league level. You’re going to have to make the same adjustments in the minors.”
Cooper said for the most part the pitchers don’t throw any harder in the majors than in the minors.
“You see some good fastballs down in Triple-A,” he said. “But the big thing I’ve noticed since I came up is the command of the fastballs is a little better. The pitchers up here can consistently put the ball where you have trouble reaching it.”
Toronto Sun
Davis kicks Jays up a notch
Rajai Davis is back to driving opposing pitchers to distraction. So, now what?
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“We’ll take a look at that. But the way Corey (Patterson) has swung the bat in the two-hole and Yunel (Escobar) continues to get on base and opens the hole as a dead pull hitter ...,” Farrell said, never actually getting around to answering.
Patterson has 10 multi-hit games this season in 23 starts. During his last 16 games, he’s batting .345 (19-for-55) with 11 runs and 10 RBIs.
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Having him in the lineup, says John McDonald, “does a lot of different things. It affects the pitcher because they have to change their game a bit. Defences have to shorten up. There’s a whole different dynamic to our club when he’s going. He brings an element we’ve battled against for years with teams like Tampa and Anaheim; how do we control their running game? We’ve been a station to station club for a long time.”
Everyone knows Rzepczynski now
A few months ago his chances of making the major league roster were hanging out on a limb; he’d been told he wasn’t in the plans to make the Toronto rotation and there was a logjam to get through the bullpen door.
But Rzepczynski did have one thing in his favour. He’s a lefty. “We had a lot of young starters coming into spring training and with the off-season moves the team made we didn’t have a lefty in the pen. So, I wasn’t totally shocked with the idea of becoming a reliever.”
After being a starter throughout a minor league career, some might’ve balked at the move. “I looked at it as an opportunity,” said Rzepczynski.
Six weeks into the season, he has become a vital cog in what has emerged as arguably the best bullpen in the major leagues. Rzepczynski leads the Jays pitching staff with 18 appearances, calling on him in more than half their games.
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“He’s on a steady pace to become one of the better relievers in the game,” said manager John Farrell. “His velocity has climbed and he’s got multiple weapons to get both left and right hand hitters out. We can put him in there against anyone.”
And, they have had to do so on many occasions because if not for the Toronto bullpen, this team would’ve lost all hope of being a pretender — let alone a contender. Rzepczynski is part of a relief corps tied for the major league lead with 127 1/3 innings — nearly half of the team’s 332.1 innings played.
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They have kept the Jays in games that otherwise would’ve been lost early. “There’s a quiet confidence (among the relievers),” Rzepczynski said. “We’re not going to be an out-going, cocky group. We all have confidence in each other that if one day one guy can’t do the job; the next guy will. Like the other day, I had confidence (Jon) Rauch was going to get me out of a jam; just like I felt (Jason) Frasor had confidence I’d get him out of a jam. Right now everybody just feels good about themselves and the guy next to them.”
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The best piece of advice? “Pat Hentgen (Toronto’s bullpen coach) told me to attack. Early on, I was trying to be too fine, trying to be too cute. As a starter you’re always saving something for the third or fourth time you face a hitter. I don’t have to think about that now. I just go out there and give ‘em everything I’ve got.”
And, while he might still be new at this job, he has already adopted the mantra of every successful relief pitcher: “I’m going out there not fearing anybody. You have to trust yourself.”
Japan quake hits close to home
We all saw the video on CNN. The devastating damage and destruction caused by the earthquake and tsunami, which hit northern Japan on March 11.
For Las Vegas 51s manager Marty Brown, if it felt like he was looking at his hometown, it's because he was.
Brown managed the Hiroshima Carp from 2006-09 and in 2010 the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in the city of Sendai, nearest major city to the quake.
"It was scary watching," said Brown, whose wife is Japanese. "My friends and acquaintances are fine, a lot of people left to stay with relatives elsewhere in Japan.
"I had concern for my players. They were at spring training. I didn't know the extent of the damage to their homes."
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You never had issues with players as a manager and no problem with practice," Brown said. "Not like issues you have in the States. The biggest thing was to try to get them to play the games themselves."
As the only American managing, Brown was held in high regard, almost placed on a very high pedestal.
He didn't have to throw batting practice or hit fungos.
"I'd watch hitters and do extra work with players," Brown said. "And the manager always stayed in the penthouse of hotels we stayed at.
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Mel Queen, senior adviser to the Jays player development system, is at home in California in ill health. Queen was the Jays pitching coach from 1996-99 and has been complimented for the development of some of the Jays minor leaguers since he returned to the organization in 2010.
MLB.com
Rzepczynski following path Downs paved
He has held left-handed opposition hitters to a paltry .129 batting average (4-for-31). Right-handers don't fare much better, hitting just .222. Rzepczynski has even been effective when pitching from behind in the count, coming back to strike out 10 of the 33 batters he's thrown first-pitch balls to.
But the figure that stands above them all is the fact that of the 65 batters he's faced, just one has mustered an extra-base hit off the southpaw -- Jed Lowrie's double in Tuesday's 7-6 Blue Jays win over the Red Sox.
"We have all the confidence in the world when he comes to the mound. He's been very good for us," Farrell said, noting that Rzepczynski has improved his velocity in 2011, beginning to touch 93 mph on his fastball.
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"If the need is there, I'm happy with whatever they have me do. I can't complain," Rzepczynski said. "With all the young starters we have, I know the best role for me is going out there and being that lefty in the bullpen. I want to help the team win."
It's the same path Downs took half a decade ago, when he arrived in Toronto from Montreal, where he had been a starter. The Blue Jays transitioned Downs into a middle-inning reliever, using his experience as a starter to utilize him for two or three innings at a time. Soon Downs became the club's primary setup man, dominating the eighth and posting an ERA of 3.09 or lower in his final four seasons with the Blue Jays. It earned him status as one of the most reliable lefty relievers in the big leagues, a reputation he turned into a three-year, $15 million contract with the Angels this offseason.
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"He wouldn't care what inning it is, if it's a tie ballgame, who he's got out there. He just goes out and attacks," Rzepczynski said of Downs. "He could walk two guys but the next guy is still going to get that sinker down in the zone like, 'Here you go, try and hit it.' I'm trying to do the same thing."
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"I give them the best of what I've got -- I'm not trying to set them up for the second and third time facing them," Rzepczynski said of facing batters in relief. "Get your two best pitches going and just attack from pitch one. That's the plan."
Rzepczynski doesn't bother playing coy with hitters, throwing over 60 percent of his pitches this season for strikes.
That's helped him strike out more than a batter an inning, using his sweeping slider to miss bats. But more than anything, it's been his sinker that has induced ground balls for exactly half of his outs on the season
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"I think he could throw three, four days in a row, to be honest," Hentgen said. "I think that he's already proven [his endurance] in his short career. It's just a matter of staying healthy and getting his work in. He could have a very long career."
And while Rzepczynski runs the risk of being labeled a left-handed specialist, both Farrell and Hentgen were adamant that there is little trepidation in leaving the southpaw in to face right-handers.
"There's no debate. Nobody even thinks about bringing him out to face the righty. He's very effective to both sides of the plate," Hentgen said.
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"He's made a hell of a career being a reliever. He's probably one of the top lefty bullpen guys, and he's been throwing the same stuff for six, seven years," Rzepczynski said of Downs. "If I end up being anything like him, when I finally hang up my cleats, I definitely won't have any complaints about my career."
Getting Blanked
We’re Better Than That
There are few ways to draw the ire of Blue Jays fans quite like insulting Toronto’s favourite baseball player, John McDonald.
You could probably set a Joe Carter jersey on fire or defecate on a picture of Dave Stieb, and it wouldn’t cause half the reaction among the Blue Jays faithful as a remark or two against the back up infielder. In a city that loves hockey, a sport in which visible effort counts for so much, McDonald’s enthusiasm despite a lack of talent has endeared him to the fan base in a way that not even the best player in baseball, Jose Bautista, could.
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McDonald is the first to organize visits to veterans hospitals whenever they play in Baltimore and he’s been known to quietly involve himself in charities and other hospital visits whenever he gets the opportunity. His actions off the field are the epitome of what fans want from a baseball player: a benevolent athlete who seems to understand how lucky he is to be playing a sport for a living and so he does all he can to give back to the universe for it.
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Anyway, this is why John Lackey’s comments following last night’s game seemed enraging to so many Blue Jays fans. The pitcher who gave up a home run and a double to the normally light hitting McDonald was obviously frustrated when he said:
Everybody’s had success with him in the past. You can’t give up hits like that to him when you have other guys in that lineup who can hurt you.
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Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe points out that during Spring Training, Lackey confirmed to media that his wife, Krista, was battling breast cancer. While personal problems aren’t an excuse to begin talking negatively about competitors, it should be remembered by Blue Jays fans eager to exact some sort of misguided payback on someone who made some dumb comments that Lackey has enough problems both personally and professionally that he probably doesn’t need our insults and mockery as well.
SS Girl
RGM Girl
That's it for now. I'm going to try to update this later on in the day as there isn't that much fresh content out there yet.
My favorite article today was the Star's Minority Report; it's always great hearing about the guys on the farm. I think we're all eager to learn all we can about Hechavarria and Gose, and while Fasano doesn't offer much in the way of in depth scouting reports or criticism, it is interesting nonetheless to read his impressions. I have to say that I am a little skeptical about whether or not these guys' bats will ever come around. They were acquired based on raw talent and athleticism, and while their defense appears to be top notch neither of them have ever had great success offensively. Only time will tell.
Again I've got to say that Davis has to be moved up. I guess Patterson is hitting well in the last few games, but Farrell can't honestly believe that he's a better option for the first two spots in the lineup. Patterson's career OBP sits at a ghastly .293, while Davis is coming off two pretty good seasons for Oakland. Moreover, Davis is obviously heating up himself between that 4 hit game and having stolen 10 bases in his last 11 games.
I know there's some overlap in the Rzepczynski articles, but I thought I'd post a bit of both since it's a good story and content is a bit scarce this morning as a mentioned.
Finally there's some good notes at the end of the Davis article in the Sun, one being that Carlos Villanueava is leading the AL in IP with 21 1/3, and he's holding opponents to a .134 average in that time.
Alright I'm out. I'll try to update this thing later on. Have a good one guys.
