2019 Minor Leagues/Prospect Discussion Thread

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[Schad]

So the Hagen Danner-as-hitter experiment looks to be over. If he's working on a changeup, suggests that he expects that they'll try to develop him as more than a short-inning guy.

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[SharoneWright]

We all know this, but our minor league pitching prospects are HUGE. The fact that our rotation in 2 years can feature any and all of these top prospects is BIG!:

(Ryu 6'3")
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Pearson 6'6"
SWR 6'3"
Manoah 6'6"
Kloff 6'5"
Williams 6'6"
Zeuch 6'7"
Borucki 6'4"

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These are the rules, fairly negotiated.

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Top prospects in teams' 60-man player pools - MLB.com

Blue Jays: Nate Pearson, RHP (No. 1), Jordan Groshans, SS (No. 2), Simeon Woods Richardson, RHP (No. 3), Alek Manoah, RHP (No. 4), Alejandro Kirk, C (No. 5), Anthony Kay, LHP (No. 10), Patrick Murphy, RHP (No. 19), Reese McGuire, C (No. 20), Anthony Alford, OF (No. 21), Santiago Espinal, SS (No. 22), Kevin Smith, SS/3B (No. 23), Thomas Hatch, RHP (No. 24), Julian Merryweather, RHP (No. 25), Riley Adams, C (No. 27), Yennsy Diaz, RHP (No. 29)

A young team with an eye on the future, Toronto could see plenty of top talent on display at the Major League level this season. With four prospects who have already debuted and gotten a taste of the action in the big leagues, it would be no surprise to see Kay, McGuire, Alford or Diaz return and crack the Opening Day roster, with plenty of talent to continue stocking the prospect shelves for whenever it might be needed. The club has included 15 of its Top 30 prospects in its 60-man player pool with two spots open.

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Prospects to watch in Toronto Blue Jays' 60-man player pool - TSN.ca

TORONTO — When it came to setting its 60-man player pool Sunday, the only real question for the Toronto Blue Jays was how many spots they’d allocate to top prospects.

Considering it’s an either/or option of adding them to the player pool or leaving them at home to work out on their own for the rest of the summer, like most teams around baseball, GM Ross Atkins & Co. decided there were a handful of players in need of the development that a spot at the club’s alternate training site will provide.

It’s still far from ideal. The crucial reps these players are missing with no minor-league baseball season in 2020 cannot be replaced.

How the Jays will structure the work at the alternate site — intra-squad games, live batting practice, etc. — remains to be seen, but joining the obvious big leaguers at summer camp will be six of the team’s top 10 prospects from my top 50 ranking back in January: RHP Nate Pearson (No. 1), 3B/SS Jordan Groshans (No. 2), RHP Simeon Woods Richardson (No. 4), RHP Alek Manoah (No. 5), LHP Anthony Kay (No. 6) and catcher Alejandro Kirk (No. 7).

A little further down the list, RHP T.J. Zeuch (No. 14), SS Kevin Smith (No. 16), 2B/SS Santiago Espinal (No. 18), RHP Joey Murray (No. 19), RHP Thomas Hatch (No. 20), RHP Patrick Murphy (No. 21), RHP Elvis Luciano (No. 23), catcher Riley Adams (No. 30), RHP Hector Perez (No. 32), RHP Julian Merryweather (No. 35) and OF Forrest Wall (No. 39) were also included.

Thirty-nine of the 40 players on the Blue Jays’ 40-man roster are in the player pool, with the only exception being right-hander Yennsy Diaz (No. 33), who was placed on the injured list back in March with a right lat strain.

The goals over the next three months will be different for each of these prospects. Some are expected to play major roles with the big club, while others aren’t call-up candidates at all and should spend the entire summer at the alternate training site, which Mark Shapiro said is expected to be Triple-A Buffalo’s Sahlen Field.

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How Joey Murray quietly became key pitching prospect for Blue Jays - Sportsnet.ca

Question: Do you know who led the Toronto Blue Jays organization — major and minor leagues — in strikeouts last season?

Not Marcus Stroman, not Trent Thornton, not Nate Pearson. It was an eighth-round pick in his age-23 season who entered the year with only 25.2 professional innings under his belt. Not a name you’ll see on top prospect lists, not a guy with flashy stuff, not an athletic specimen. A business management major out of Kent State University — the only Div. 1 program to offer him a scholarship — who throws his fastball in the high-80s, maybe touching the low-90s on a good day.

It was unheralded right-hander Joey Murray who struck out 169 batters over 137.1 innings in 2019, starting at mid-A and finishing his season two levels up in double-A. Over 27 appearances he pitched to a 2.75 ERA with a 2.92 xFIP. Opposition batters hit just .210 against him. He had the best statistical season of any starting pitcher in the Blue Jays system and hardly anyone seemed to notice.

“It wasn’t surprising to us, knowing Joey,” says Blue Jays director of player development Gil Kim. “He’s intelligent, he has good stuff, he asks good questions, he constantly wants to get better, he takes advantage of every resource possible — and he’s a guy who just knows how to pitch.”

He better considering he throws his fastball slower than Pearson throws his change-up. And it’s not like Murray leans on wicked secondary stuff either. He figures he threw his fastball nearly 70 per cent of the time last season, and he knows there were days he was up over 80. And yet he put up a similar swinging strike rate (12.5 per cent) to Pearson (13.4 per cent) who’s one of the game’s best pitching prospects.

So, how does he do it? With an exceptional fastball spin rate, ranging between 2,500 and 2,700 revolutions per minute. An average of 2,600 RPM would have put Murray among MLB’s top-10 fastball spinners last season and compares with Mike Minor, who similarly relied on a low-velocity, high-spin fastball as he pitched his way to the all-star game.

All that spin makes Murray’s heater look like a cue ball coming towards the hitter, disguising the seams and making the pitch’s trajectory more difficult to track. The spin also fights gravity, keeping the ball elevated a little longer than hitters are accustomed to as it approaches the plate, and even giving it the illusion of rising. Coming out of his three-quarters arm slot, hitters think Murray’s fastball is going one place, but it ends up somewhere else.

Those mistakes commonly occur down in the zone, where the lack of drop leaves Murray’s fastball up for hitters to tee off on. But when he’s locating it up, Murray can get plenty of weak contact or outright whiffs from bats travelling beneath the ball. Think how Marco Estrada got swing-and-miss with elevated fastballs; or how J.A. Happ could move his heater just off the barrel of a hitter’s bat.

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[SharoneWright]

I wonder where Elvis ranks in our prospect pool now that he can go back to the minors.... 15th?? At least I would say.

That claim on a technicality was a stroke of genius. Dude is still so young. Add him to our future pitching depth.

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Toronto Blue Jays 2020 Midseason Top 30 Prospects Update - Baseball America

1. Nate Pearson, RHP

Pearson is a potential frontline starter, armed with some of the best pure stuff of any pitching prospect in the game. He's major league-ready right now and will be a key factor if the Blue Jays are able to sneak their way into a playoff spot during a shortened season.

2. Austin Martin, SS

The Blue Jays picked fifth overall in the 2020 draft and got the No. 2 player available, with Martin stepping in as a top 25 prospect in baseball already. The Blue Jays plan to develop Martin at shortstop, but he has the versatility to move around the infield or head to center field as well.

3. Jordan Groshans, SS

Groshans, who didn't play after May 13 last year due to an injured left foot, is in Toronto's 60-man player pool to get much needed development. He might end up moving to third base, but he has the combination of hitting ability and power to be an above-average regular at the position.

4. Simeon Woods Richardson, RHP

Acquired in last year's trade for Marcus Stroman, Woods Richardson is still 19 but likely would have been at Double-A at this point during a normal season. He's a polished strike-thrower with a chance for average to above-average stuff across the board.

5. Alejandro Kirk, C

Kirk is polarizing and unconventional, which is immediately apparent from his Pablo Sandoval-type body. Like Sandoval, Kirk has an innate ability to barrel baseballs consistently, along with a good sense of the strike zone. He has a chance to stick behind the plate if he can keep his conditioning and mobility in check.

6. Alek Manoah, RHP

The Blue Jays have a collection of extra-large pitchers, including the 6-foot-6, 260-pound Manoah, their first-round pick in the 2019 draft out of West Virginia. He has a power arm, sitting at 93-96 and touching 98 mph, with a slider that flashes plus.

7. Orelvis Martinez, SS

Toronto's big-ticket international signing in 2018, Martinez raked last year to become the No. 1 prospect in the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League and put himself just on the periphery of Top 100 prospect conversations. Yet while other top 2018 international signings like Marco Luciano (Giants), Diego Cartaya (Dodgers) and Noelvi Marte (Mariners) are in their clubs' 60-man prospect pools, Martinez is not in Toronto's pool.

8. Gabriel Moreno, C

Moreno was one of the big risers in the farm system a year ago after hitting .280/.337/.485 in 82 games for low Class A Lansing. At 20, Moreno is an athletic catcher with the excellent hand-eye coordination to make frequent contact.

9. Miguel Hiraldo, SS/2B

Hiraldo, 19, has shown why several scouts considered him one of the best hitters available in the 2017 international class, hitting .300/.348/.481 last year in the Rookie-level Appalachian League. His range probably fits better at third base, but he has the hitting skill and ability to drive the ball with impact to profile there.

10. Anthony Kay, LHP

Acquired with righthander Simeon Woods Richardson in the Marcus Stroman deal a year ago, Kay sits in the low 90s and can reach 96. He doesn't have a plus pitch among his secondary weapons, but they can flash average and should allow him to slot in as a back-end starter as soon as this year.

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Blue Jays Top 30 Prospects | MLB.com

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The Next Big Thing: Blue Jays’ arms - TSN.ca

TORONTO — About a 30-minute drive to the west of Houston sits Sugar Land, Texas, a city of 120,000 residents and one well-known independent league baseball team named the Skeeters.

Over the years, many a former major leaguer has shown up in Sugar Land trying to revive a career. The franchise has never been one to shy away from headlines, even allowing Tracy McGrady to take the mound back in 2014.

The uniqueness of the baseball landscape in 2020 has the Skeeters roster once again loaded with former MLB talent looking for a place to play this summer, with the newly formed four-team Constellation Energy League giving out-of-work professionals a way to stay sharp.

Despite still having a job, Toronto Blue Jays prospect Adam Kloffenstein is one of them.

For a brief moment, he was a member of the Skeeters, before an independent league trade sent him to Team Texas, a squad put together by Roger Clemens and managed by his son, Koby Clemens.

It’s a unique career chapter that never would’ve been written had it not been for a pandemic.

“I’ve always known about them and stuff, but obviously never dreamed I’d play for them or anything,” said Kloffenstein, who will celebrate his 20th birthday next week. “But I also didn’t think I’d get sent home from spring training due to a virus overnight.”

There’s only one goal for Kloffenstein, who the Jays selected 88th overall back in the 2018 draft and handed an over-slot bonus of $2.45 million to lure into the organization: Get some work.

Combining two appearances with the Skeeters and five more with Team Texas, a group of players and coaches made up of mostly former U of T Longhorns — “a lot of burnt orange going on,” Kloffenstein noted — the 6-foot-5, 243-pounder holds a 6.46 ERA across 15.1 innings.