2019 Minor Leagues/Prospect Discussion Thread

torontoaces04 · Post #5221 » by **torontoaces04** » Thu Aug 1, 2019 3:50 am

In tonight's episode of that's so Blue Jays...

phillipmike · Post #5222 » by **phillipmike** » Thu Aug 1, 2019 3:56 am

Kay had some bad luck and some poor defense behind him.

2 errors and 4 infield singles.

bluerap23 · Post #5223 » by **bluerap23** » Thu Aug 1, 2019 3:00 pm

Schad wrote:Bichette probably has SS locked in, though it'll depend how we feel about his range after a year or two. He has grown by leaps and bounds defensively from someone who was thought to be certain to move off the position, but if a good defensive SS who can hit were to come up through the system, moving Bichette to 2B is certainly a possibility.

Smith is certainly playing better, and his K rate has been a bit better of late (though still not good). I'd leave him in AA to start next year; even with the HRs, his approach at the moment will get exposed at the major league level, and probably at the AAA level as well (though with the new ball, he could post gaudy HR rates).

Moving Bichette to 2B means moving Biggio to LF. The list of LF's on this team is strong.

I_Like_Dirt · Post #5224 » by **I_Like_Dirt** » Thu Aug 1, 2019 3:27 pm

bluerap23 wrote:Moving Bichette to 2B means moving Biggio to LF. The list of LF's on this team is strong.

Biggio has been used in RF when the team puts him to the OF. I still think there's a reasonable chance he winds up there, too, even though the team is going to leave him at 2B for as long as they can. Having Gurriel and Biggio in the corner outfield spots seems like a pretty solid pair. Eventually Vlad is going to move to 1B, too, though the Jays have no real reason to push him off 3B for the time being. It actually leaves the infield pretty wide open.

I'm not so sure Bichette is going to move off of SS. It would really take someone coming through in a major way to displace him. It's certainly possible as the Jays have a lot of SS prospects but even Kevin Smith isn't so amazing defensively that he's necessarily better than Bichette defensively regardless of his bat - he might be, but he also might not. There is a lot of competition at 3B in particular, as far as I can tell, even though some of these guys are still at SS and will stay there as long as possible. While I wouldn't call him a lock, I do think it's likely Bichette stays at SS and the guys around him move to 2B and 3B. It's worth noting that Smith has already played 18 games at 3B and 2 games at 2B this season in AA, too. Whether Biggio moves or not, I'm less certain but could see either possibility depending on which prospects develop how much and when.

polo007 · Post #5225 » by **polo007** » Fri Aug 2, 2019 7:02 pm

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Every year at this time, MLB Pipeline does a complete overhaul of all of its rankings, from the Top 100 to the Top 10 by position to every team's Top 30 list. All of those lists have been completely re-ranked to incorporate performance as well as to include 2019 draftees and 2019-20 international signees for the first time. Every list has been updated to reflect the flurry of Trade Deadline activity as well.

The new Top 100 will be analyzed on an MLB Network special, airing on Saturday at 6 p.m. ET. Greg Amsinger will host and will be joined by MLB Network analysts Harold Reynolds and Dan O’Dowd, as well as MLB Pipeline’s Jonathan Mayo. The hour-long show will do a deeper dive into the Top 50 of the list.

In addition, MLB Pipeline will use these new lists to inform an updated Top 15 farm systems rankings next week. Before finding out if your favorite team lands on that list, dig into the snapshot of all 30 organizations’ revamped top 30 lists below.

(Editor's note: Prospect Points are determined by assigning a numerical value to each spot in the Top 100, giving 100 points to No. 1, 99 points to No. 2, and so on. A team's total is calculated by adding the values assigned to each of its Top 100 prospects.)

vaff87 · Post #5226 » by **vaff87** » Sat Aug 3, 2019 12:04 am

Damn, in his debut in Dunedin, Woods-Richardson went through the first 3 innings — 0 hits 0 walks 4 k’s. Then in the 4th his control abandoned him: 3 runs on 4 walks and only 1 hit, before getting pulled.

augustine · Post #5227 » by **augustine** » Sat Aug 3, 2019 2:33 pm

Why is Alford in the GCL? Seems unusual.

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vaff87 · Post #5228 » by **vaff87** » Sat Aug 3, 2019 3:13 pm

augustine wrote:Why is Alford in the GCL? Seems unusual.

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Rehab assignment.

dagger · Post #5229 » by **dagger** » Sat Aug 3, 2019 6:30 pm

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Other recent or fairly recent promotions from NH to BUF have included relievers Jackson McLelland and Bryan Baker.

polo007 · Post #5230 » by **polo007** » Sat Aug 3, 2019 11:28 pm

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augustine · Post #5231 » by **augustine** » Sun Aug 4, 2019 5:18 am

vaff87 wrote:
augustine wrote:Why is Alford in the GCL? Seems unusual.

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Rehab assignment.

But why not Dunedin?

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phillipmike · Post #5232 » by **phillipmike** » Tue Aug 6, 2019 3:39 am

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-farm-system-rankings-2019

10. Toronto Blue Jays
Preseason Top 10 Rank: No. 5
Top 100 Prospects (3): SS Bo Bichette (No. 8), RHP Nate Pearson (No. 14), SS/3B Jordan Groshans (No. 73)
Prospects Points (MLB rank): 208 (11th)

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. no longer headlines this system, yet there's no shortage of difference-makers with the sweet-swinging Bichette and live-armed Pearson. The Blue Jays have built up their supply of pitching with premium Draft picks (Pearson, Alek Manoah, Adam Kloffenstein, Kendall Williams), international signings (Eric Pardinho) and trades (Anthony Kay, Simeon Woods Richardson).

dagger · Post #5233 » by **dagger** » Tue Aug 6, 2019 6:42 pm

Reggie Pruitt has been promoted to Dunedin which reunites the fastest trio in minor league baseball (with Chavez Young and Samad Taylor).

BigLeagueChew · Post #5234 » by **BigLeagueChew** » Tue Aug 6, 2019 11:37 pm

We’ve written a lot about the new Triple-A baseball this year and how it’s changing the game. But every time we write about it, we hear many of the same questions. With that in mind, here’s a simple explanation of what is proving to be the wildest season of Triple-A baseball in our lifetimes.

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/the-new-triple-a-baseball-has-made-2019-a-season-unlike-any-other/

BigLeagueChew · Post #5235 » by **BigLeagueChew** » Tue Aug 6, 2019 11:39 pm

Callis ranks us 10th right now and looks at the top 15

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-farm-system-rankings-2019?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage

dagger · Post #5236 » by **dagger** » Wed Aug 7, 2019 2:04 pm

BigLeagueChew wrote:
We’ve written a lot about the new Triple-A baseball this year and how it’s changing the game. But every time we write about it, we hear many of the same questions. With that in mind, here’s a simple explanation of what is proving to be the wildest season of Triple-A baseball in our lifetimes.

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/the-new-triple-a-baseball-has-made-2019-a-season-unlike-any-other/

This is interesting. If the ball creates such a difference between AA and AAA, it makes it really hard to evaluate how a good AA player would perform if promoted. For example, Josh Palacios of the Fisher Cats was the Jays' fourth round pick in 2016. He's hit above league average wherever he has played in the minors despite a tendency to lose time to injuries (after every injury timeout he drops some points on his BA, then recovers his rhythm, and adds those points back in). He's a strong three position defensive outfielder with good speed. He's stolen a dozen bases. In his last two games he's gone 5-9 and raised his average to .283. If he were to be promoted tomorrow, he might well add enough to his power numbers to warrant questions about a promotion to the bigs.

But Shatkins seems to have a different profile for outfielders, guys with loads of power but - from experience - end up as low BA, low OBP performers with average defence (I'll give Grichuk a bit of a break here, he can be slightly above average defensively, but no one would rave about his arm strength). Gurriel is a bit of an outlier, as he was signed as an infielder and only now converted to an outfielder. The rest: Drury, McKinney, Hernandez, Fisher along with Grichuk are all, well, disappointing and unlikely to ever be elite at anything. (JB Woodman was another such outfielder). They manage to use their power just often enough to raise expectations, but never for long enough to suggest they can break out of the mold. I'd like to see the Jays push different types of outfield profiles forward, but for Shatkins, that might require writing off a McKinney and seeing what a Palacios might do with the AAA/MLB ball. Drafting Brown this year is a hopeful sign that the team isn't, well, opposed to an athletic stud whose game is more than the occasional power swing.

SharoneWright · Post #5237 » by **SharoneWright** » Wed Aug 7, 2019 3:09 pm

Anyone care to speculate where Luciano would rank in our MLB Pipeline?

(Nice little move from Shatkins)

dagger · Post #5238 » by **dagger** » Wed Aug 7, 2019 6:37 pm

Woods Richardson was pretty good today. Gave up three runs in the first two innings (1st: single/SB/single; 2nd two run homer) then was perfect for the next four innings save for a hit batter.

Final line: 6 IP, 4H, 3ER, 0BB, 9K

phillipmike · Post #5239 » by **phillipmike** » Wed Aug 7, 2019 8:22 pm

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Post #5240 » by **Schad** » Thu Aug 8, 2019 12:34 am

Our 38th rounder Ryan Sloniger is off to a crazy start: 7 HRs between Bluefield and Vancouver in a little over 100 PAs, with an OPS over 1.000.

Obviously, not declaring him a prospect or anything here, but it does raise an eyebrow when a guy hits 2 HRs in his senior season (in the Ivy League, which isn't exactly top quality), and then suddenly becomes a slugging monster in pro ball.

Miguel Hiraldo has some pop: 6 HRs and 19 XBHs in 40 games to date. K rate recently is also really low of late: 8 Ks in 19 games, with an equal number of walks. He'll be ticketed for Lansing next year.