2019 Minor Leagues/Prospect Discussion Thread

[Schad]

Promote Vancouver.

[Michael Bradley]

Seriously, promote Barreto. His bat is for real. Or at least real enough for full season.

[dagger]

Promote Vancouver.

Reminds me of the scene in the Untouchables where the judge orders the Capone jury swapped for the one next door hearing a divorce case.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/LottOnBaseball/status/491220031918075905[/tweet]

[Avenger]

Seriously, promote Barreto. His bat is for real. Or at least real enough for full season.

Vancouver wraps up their first half today, they need to win today and have other outcomes go in their favor to win the first half title. Good chance Barreto gets promoted after that, Pentecost should be too but he's only had a few at bats there, A- is way too conservative for him, many other teams would probably have him in Dunedin.

[dagger]

Seriously, promote Barreto. His bat is for real. Or at least real enough for full season.

Vancouver wraps up their first half today, they need to win today and have other outcomes go in their favor to win the first half title. Good chance Barreto gets promoted after that, Pentecost should be too but he's only had a few at bats there, A- is way too conservative for him, many other teams would probably have him in Dunedin.

I guess promotions require multiple moves, as in what to do with Dawel Lugo if you are promoting Barreto to play SS. Lugo might well be suitable for promotion. Moving Pentacost up at least one notch seems easier, since Lansing doesn't have a catching prospect and he's a good DH as well.

They may also want to consider promoting McBroom, since his numbers at the midway mark (half season .315, 6 homers, 30 RBIs) are well ahead of the pace Danzler set at Vancouver last season (full season .302, 9 homers, 35 RBIs). Both had similar draft profiles (McBroom 15th rd, Danzler 14th round, age at time of their respective draft very close). That situation would seem to hinge on whether they would promote Matt Dean from Lansing to Dunedin. Dean seems to have edged ahead of Mitch Nay as the most reliable bat at Lansing.

[tecumseh18]

Promote Vancouver.

Reminds me of the scene in the Untouchables where the judge orders the Capone jury swapped for the one next door hearing a divorce case.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVz211iI26o[/youtube]

Oh man, speaking as someone who knows a bit of legal procedure, that is the most painful scene to watch in the history of movie making. Talk about stylized.

http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2011/10 ... x-evasion/

They didn't even get the green suit right.

[dagger]

Safe to say that Dwight Smith has rebounded from his awful June. He hit his eighth homer of the year, pushing his OPS for July above 1.000. Time for NH.

Actually, that was his 7th HR. He just hit his eighth this morning.

[PowerPlant1]

Seriously, promote Barreto. His bat is for real. Or at least real enough for full season.

Vancouver wraps up their first half today, they need to win today and have other outcomes go in their favor to win the first half title. Good chance Barreto gets promoted after that, Pentecost should be too but he's only had a few at bats there, A- is way too conservative for him, many other teams would probably have him in Dunedin.

I guess promotions require multiple moves, as in what to do with Dawel Lugo if you are promoting Barreto to play SS. Lugo might well be suitable for promotion. Moving Pentacost up at least one notch seems easier, since Lansing doesn't have a catching prospect and he's a good DH as well.

They may also want to consider promoting McBroom, since his numbers at the midway mark (half season .315, 6 homers, 30 RBIs) are well ahead of the pace Danzler set at Vancouver last season (full season .302, 9 homers, 35 RBIs). Both had similar draft profiles (McBroom 15th rd, Danzler 14th round, age at time of their respective draft very close). That situation would seem to hinge on whether they would promote Matt Dean from Lansing to Dunedin. Dean seems to have edged ahead of Mitch Nay as the most reliable bat at Lansing.

Ha I love the promote all of Vancouver wish. Problem is that Lansing has hitters performing above average as well. I think it would take a domino effect at this point or splitting time with/getting rid of trashy minor leaguers. Maybe from Dunedin to make room for the Lansing players? The Jays have had an absence of hitting prospects for a while. May as well aggressively promote the cream of the crop in Vancouver and Lansing as well.

But yeah, considering that some of these Vancouver guys are elderly in minor league terms, try going the Chung route and get them up ASAP so they have a chance to crack the organization at decent ages. Look hard at anyone born before 1992.

[-MetA4-]

A- is way too conservative for him, many other teams would probably have him in Dunedin.

Which teams are those? Schwarber is the only 1st round College bat who is already in High-A, and he's there because he was launching balls like Barry Bonds in his previous two stops (he started in the NWL just like Pentecost is at now).

Schwarber: High A
Conforto: Short Season A
Pentecost: Short Season A
Turner: A Ball
Gillaspie: Short Season A
Zimmer: Short Season A
Chapman: A Ball
Blandino: Rookie Ball

[dagger]

More Vancouver:

Leading 10-2 in the 9th.

So far, to be updated, Barreto is 2-3 with a double and 3 RBIs.
Pentacost is 1-5 with an RBI
McBroom is 3-4 with an RBI
Tim Locastro is 2-4 with a pair of RBIs.

Castro through 6 innings, 4H, 3BB, 2ER, 6K

[Avenger]

A- is way too conservative for him, many other teams would probably have him in Dunedin.

Which teams are those? Schwarber is the only 1st round College bat who is already in High-A, and he's there because he was launching balls like Barry Bonds in his previous two stops (he started in the NWL just like Pentecost is at now).

Schwarber: High A
Conforto: Short Season A
Pentecost: Short Season A
Turner: A Ball
Gillaspie: Short Season A
Zimmer: Short Season A
Chapman: A Ball
Blandino: Rookie Ball

You know more about this than i do obviously but are you telling me there aren't examples of college hitters beign sent to High A, not just this year but in general?

Isn't Yasmani Grandal a good comparison, he played 8 games in Rookie ball after he signed but he got sent to A+ in his first real season and finished the season in AAA

[Schad]

Isn't Yasmani Grandal a good comparison, he played 8 games in Rookie ball after he signed but he got sent to A+ in his first real season and finished the season in AAA

Most teams don't get terribly pushy in the short season post-draft. I'd move him to Lansing for the final few weeks of the season, and if he mashes in Spring Training you give real consideration to having him start 2015 in Dunedin, with an eye toward finishing in NH. Even if he starts next year in Lansing, that puts him on the cusp to be big-league ready in mid/late 2016, which is a fairly aggressive timetable...it'd have him debuting at age 23, and you don't see too many catchers hitting the majors earlier than that.

[-MetA4-]

You know more about this than i do obviously but are you telling me there aren't examples of college hitters beign sent to High A, not just this year but in general?

Isn't Yasmani Grandal a good comparison, he played 8 games in Rookie ball after he signed but he got sent to A+ in his first real season and finished the season in AAA

Sure, there are examples, but it depends on the prospect. Pentecost, being a guy that we actually want to stick at Catcher, is going to be pushed less aggressively because he legitimately needs time and polish behind the plate. You also have to consider that he came from a mid-major program (Kennesaw State) that faced much weaker competition than most of these College kids coming out of the SEC, ACC, or PAC12, so he's seen high caliber pitching at a less frequent rate than most of those guys that get immediately challenged.

As you mentioned, Grandal hit High A after his first full offseason with the Reds. I dont think its totally out of the question for Pentecost to do the same next year, so he's not really far from that comparison at all. I think you push him to Lansing to end the season if he continues hitting, with a possibility to hit Dunedin straight out of camp next year as Schad mentioned. The Jays however like to have their top guys experience Vancouver for a good amount of time because the team competes for Championships and it also gives the kids a chance to play in a packed stadium, so it wouldn't really surprise me if they just kept him in Vancouver and sent him to the AFL.

[Graham's Cracker]

Promote Vancouver.

Reminds me of the scene in the Untouchables where the judge orders the Capone jury swapped for the one next door hearing a divorce case.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/LottOnBaseball/status/491220031918075905[/tweet]

McBroom is basically having a mirror season of what Dantzler did last year. They were only about 2 weeks apart in age when in the NWL too.

[Graham's Cracker]

Jays' Cole enjoys career day with 12 K's
Right-hander takes over Minors lead with 134 strikeouts this season

There are a few notable names among the Minor League leaders in strikeouts.

There's Ben Lively (131 strikeouts), who dominated the hitters' circuit that is the California League and earned a promotion to his hometown team in Pensacola. There's Aaron Blair (125), who has moved up to his third level in Double-A Mobile during his first season since the D-backs drafted him in the first round last year. Tsuyoshi Wada (120) has used his big strikeout numbers to earn a big league start in his first year with the Cubs. Jose Berrios (118) and Henry Owens (117) were both top-100 prospects who could surge up the MLB.com rankings when they're next updated.

Then, there is Taylor Cole, who is notable for two things. First, he never averaged more than a strikeout per inning in his previous three seasons in Blue Jays farm system. Second, he, nonetheless, now leads the Minors with 134 strikeouts in just 108 2/3 innings.

Just as interestingly, the 6-foot-1 hurler relied heavily on sliders and changeups in the lower half to reach his dozen K's. Ten of the punchouts came by Marauders swinging at the third strike, and five of those required Nessy to throw over to first to record the out after the ball bounced in the dirt following the swing-and-miss.

"I feel like I've got three quality pitches in my fastball, slider and changeup," said Cole, whose heater sat around 91 and topped out at 94 on Monday. "But between the two offspeed [pitches], I think I used them 50-50 to get strikeouts today. I mixed both well with my fastball. It's just about keeping them on the same plane with the same arm speed, and that makes it difficult for hitters to pick up what's coming out of your hand."

Instead of relying on the slider and changeup to get outs, he started using the fastball again as a primary pitch to attack hitters early in counts, choosing to turn to the offspeed stuff more as complementary offerings than featured pitches. Ever since, the strikeouts have piled up.

http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20140721&content_id=85572928&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_milb

[Schad]

Couple more hits have pushed Rowdy Tellez to (by my count) a twelve-game hit streak. One of them was off a lefty, continuing his rather strange (small sample) reverse splits: great numbers against lefties, terrible numbers against righties, though the latter is improving.

On Cole, I'm surprised he hasn't gotten a promotion. He's pretty old for Dunedin at this point, and we might as well push him to see whether he can hack it against better competition.

[Raps_Swingman]

This thread could soon become the solace of beaten down Jays fans as it has come to be in past seasons. I hope that's not the case though....

Tellez was an interesting prospect to me early on, nice to see him finally having some success. The splits are quite odd though. I'll reserve judgement until his season his finished though.

[rarefind]

And Yankees get Headley. Solarte and Rafael De Paula to SD. De Paula is a 23 year old still in the FSL. I think this is best indication that Rogers is not letting the Jays increase payroll. We could have put together a better package if we really had interest.

[Graham's Cracker]

Not surprisingly Taylor Cole was BP's pitcher of the night:

Maybe this will be the start that gets Cole out of the Florida State League. At 24, he’s old for his level, but his strikeout numbers have spiked this season to almost double his career norms. He’s also throwing a ton more strikes. He doesn’t have a power fastball or overpowering secondary stuff, so his strikeout totals may be a bit of an aberration, but he’s kept them up all season, so there’s something there.

[Schad]

Evan Smith, a big, left-handed starter that the Jays drafted in the fourth round of 2013 -- and not to be confused with Egan Smith, a big, left-handed starter that the Jays drafted in the seventh round of 2009 -- is looking quite good. Still 18, he's posting well over a strikeout an inning, getting a tonne of grounders and walking few hitters. Could have a shot to make Lansing's rotation as a teenager.