Blue Jays Prospect Report – May 24, 2012

Syndergaard hit hard, Hechavarria keeps hitting and a John Stilson gem.

Hitters:

AAA (CF) Anthony Gose, 1-4, .263, BB (21)
AAA (SS) Adeiny Hechavarria, 3-5, .321, 2b (13), 3b (2)
AAA (RF) Moises Sierra, 1-4, 1 RBI, .271, 2b (7)
HiA (LF) Marcus Knecht, 1-4, .206; tough start
HiA (CF) Jake Marisnick, 1-4, .261
LoA (RF) Chris Hawkins, 2-5, 1 RBI, .313, SB (6)
LoA (C) Carlos Perez, 3-5, 2 RBI, .263, 2b (12), BB (15)

Pitchers:

AA (SP) Deck McGuire, 5 ip, 6 h, 4 er, 3 bb – 1 k, 6.80
HiA (SP) John Stilson, 5 ip, 1 h, 1 er, 2 bb – 6 k, 2.75; firing bullets
LoA (SP) Noah Syndergaard, 3.2 ip, 6 h, 6 er, 0 bb – 5 k, 3.34

Blue Jays Prospect Report – May 23, 2012

Hitters:

AAA (CF) Anthony Gose, 2-4, 1 RBI, .264, 2b (7), BB (20); Rasmus can hear his footsteps.
AAA (C) Travis D’Arnaud, 1-4, .293
AAA (SS) Adeiny Hechavarria, 1-4, 1 RBI, .314, BB (17)
AAA (RF) Moises Sierra, 1-3, 2 RBI, .271, BB (17)
HiA (CF) Jake Marisnick, 2-4, .261

Pitchers:

MAJ (SP) Drew Hutchison, 4 ip, 7 h, 6 er, 0 bb – 3 k, 5.73; will need to have better efforts to stay in rotation.

Blue Jays Prospect Report – May 22, 2012

I hope everyone had a great long weekend. The hitting atmosphere in Las Vegas is keeping the daily prospect report busy!

Hitters:

AAA (1B) David Cooper, 2-3, 2 RBI, .308, HR (6), 2 BB (19)
AAA (C) Travis D’Arnaud, 1-5, 1 RBI, .294
AAA (CF) Anthony Gose, 2-4, .258, BB (19), 2 SB (16)
AAA (SS) Adeiny Hechavarria, 1-3, .315, BB (16), SB (6)
AAA (LF) Moises Sierra, 1-4, .270, BB (16)
HiA (LF) Marcus Knecht, 2-3, 4 RBI, .210, HR (7)
HiA (CF) Jake Marisnick, 2-3, .256, 2b (13), 2 BB (15)
LoA (RF) Chris Hawkins, 2-4, 1 RBI, .310

Pitchers:

HiA (SP) Asher Wojciechowski, 6 ip, 5 h, 0 er, 1 bb – 4 k, 5.53; bounces back from tough outing

A Quick Blurb On Vlad Guerrero

I really wasn’t planning on doing a full post on Vladimir Guerrero as I didn’t anticipate he would make that necessary.  Given that everyone is speculating Adam Lind’s demotion means fast tracking Vladdy to the Blue Jays I thought I would add my two cents.

My initial thought was why?  Does anyone think Vladdy is actually a worthy designated hitter?  He was awful last season, you don’t need to go further than his awful 0.0 WAR and 95 wRC+.  Yeah, that’s right a guy who was only used for his bat was actually 5% worse than league average. 

Basically he shouldn’t have even been in the big leagues – last year.  His slash line was 290/317/416 in a whopping 590 PAs, he had 13 HRs, a pathetic 2.9 BB%, .126 ISO, .318 woBA and again a 0.0 WAR.  The Orioles are sure struggling without him right?

They can’t get better production from almost anyone else in their system?  Keep Yan Gomes, call up David Cooper, hell bring back Brad Fullmer, any of them would probably out produce a well past his prime Vlad Guerrero.  ZIPS projects 284/316/429, which I feel is generous after seeing his hacks down in the minor leagues today (via television).

I don’t see how Vladimir Guerrero is better than any of our current DH options, because he isn’t.

Blue Jays Prospect Report – May 21, 2012

A ton of updates, including Dylan Bundy and Jurickson Profar.

Hitters:

AAA (DH) David Cooper, 1-3, .301, BB (17)
AAA (C) Travis D’Arnaud, 2-4, 1 RBI, .297, 2b (11)
AAA (CF) Anthony Gose, 1-3, .253, 2b (6)
AAA (SS) Adeiny Hechavarria, 2-4, 1 RBI, .315
HiA (CF) Jake Marisnick, 2-5, 1 RBI, .249
LoA (LF) Chris Hawkins, 2-4, .305
LoA (C) Carlos Perez, 1-3, 1 RBI, .250, HR (2), BB (14)

Pitchers:

LoA (SP) Justin Nicolino, 4 ip, 2 h, 0 er, 0 bb – 3 k, 1.16
LoA (SP) Aaron Sanchez, 4 ip, 1 h, 0 er, 1 bb – 5 k, 0.58; what a season

Bonus:

AA (TEX) Jurickson Profar, 0-3, .291, BB (16); saw 29-game hit streak end

LoA (BAL) Dylan Bundy, 5 ip, 1 h, 0 er, 0 bb – 4 k, 0.00.

Bundy now has 30 ip, 5 h, 0 er, 2 bb – 40 k

Blue Jays Series Recap – Two Game Sweep Of Yankees

The Blue Jays didn’t let a tough two-game sweep at the hands of Tampa Bay get them down and they cruised to a two-game midweek sweep of the New York Yankees.  Back-to-back solid pitching performances by Kyle Drabek and Drew Hutchison helped the Jays take it to the Bronx bombers.

Here are the boxscores and quick recaps:

Game 1 – Blue Jays 8, Yankees 1 – Blue Jays hit 4 homeruns, Drabek solid.

Game 2 – Blue Jays 4, Yankees 1 – Bautista and Arencibia hit homeruns, Hutchison pitches a solid game.

Blue Jays Series Recap – Tampa Takes Two

The Tampa Bay Rays are quickly becoming a real thorn in the side of the Toronto Blue Jays.  The Jays have been getting their butts kicked by Tampa for the past four plus seasons and are something like 25 games under .500 versus the Rays over the past three years.

The Blue Jays lost both games of the midweek series, here are the boxscores and quick recaps.

Game 1 – Rays 7, Blue Jays 1 – Jeff Niemann left game after one inning, but Jays bats dead.

Game 2 – Rays 4, Blue Jays 3 – Brett Lawrie gets ejected, Jays probably could have won this close game.

Primer On New Free Agent Qualifying Offers

Per Ben Nicholson-Smith over at MLB Trade rumours, here is an explanation on the new system:

A few months from now, when the season ends and players file for free agency, teams, agents and players will navigate a new system for determining free agent compensation. Here’s a brief primer on compensation under the sport’s new collective bargaining agreement:

• Type A and Type B designations have been eliminated. Instead, teams will have to make players a qualifying offer to be eligible for draft pick compensation. 
• The qualifying offer, which will be determined by averaging the top 125 player salaries from the previous year, is expected to fall in the $12-13MM range for the coming offseason. All qualifying offers are for the same duration (one year) and the same amount ($12-13MM). 
• Teams will have until five days after the World Series to make qualifying offers and the players will have seven days to accept.
• Once a team makes a qualifying offer, the player has two choices: he can accept the one-year deal or decline in it search of other offers. If he declines the offer and signs elsewhere, his new team will have to surrender a top draft pick to his former team. 
• Teams that sign free agents who turned down qualifying offers will surrender their first round picks. However, the first ten selections in the draft are protected. Teams with protected picks will surrender their second-highest selections. The player’s former team will receive an additional selection at the end of the first round. 
• If teams don’t make a qualifying offer, the player can sign uninhibited.
• Only players who have been with their clubs for the entire season will be eligible for compensation.

Break From Baseball – Awesome Cover

Check out this cool, insane, weird cover!

Blue Jays Prospect Report – May 18, 2012

A lot of solid games for Jays minor leaguers. Rangers SS prospect Jurickson Profar extends hitting streak to 27 games, also had two walks!

Hitters:

AAA (C) Travis D’Arnaud, 2-4, .277, 2b (10)
AAA (CF) Anthony Gose, 1-3, .241, 2b (4)
AAA (SS) Adeiny Hechavarria, 2-3, 1 RBI, .304
HiA (LF) Marcus Knecht, 1-4, 1 RBI, .211, BB (17)
HiA (CF) Jake Marisnick, 1-4, .258, SB (6)
LoA (C) Carlos Perez, 1-4, .256, 3b (3)
LoA (3B) Kellen Sweeney, 1-3, 1 RBI, .196

Pitchers:

MAJ (SP) Drew Hutchison, 6 ip, 3 h, 1 er, 4 bb – 3 k, 4.81; defeats the Yankees
AA (SP) Deck McGuire, 6 ip, 3 h, 1 er, 2 bb – 3 k, 6.75; much better outing
HiA (SP) Noah Syndergaard, 4 ip, 0 h, 0 er, 1 bb – 3 k, 1.88