Jump to content
Jays Centre
  • Create Account

2015 Blue Jays Draft | Signings, Bonuses and Rumors Thread

TwistedLogic
 Share

Recommended Posts

King All-Star

King

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

 

TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays and first-round pick Jon Harris are believed to be nearing agreement on a deal that will pay the Missouri State right-hander the No. 29 spot’s assigned value of $1,944,800, according to multiple industry sources.

The quick signing may very well be followed by contracts for the other players chosen in the first 10 rounds of the draft by amateur scouting director Brian Parker, who has a signing bonus pool of $5,411,000 to work with that made signability an important factor.

Before the draft started, Parker said in an interview that with the seventh-smallest pool, "you really need to bear down and make sure you’re getting the right player – but you’re also getting him at the right price."

After selecting Harris, Parker said, "we’re comfortable with where everything is with him and his advisers."

Harris was projected by some as a top-10 pick and the Blue Jays were thrilled that he slid to them. He sounded eager and ready to get going during a conference call with media Monday night, saying, "Toronto’s going to be a great fit for me, it’s going to be a new home for me and I’m going to do what I can to wear the Toronto blue proudly."

Harris throws from a high three-quarter arm-slot and features a fastball that sits 92-94, with an above average slider, a changeup and a curveball. Area scout Dallas Black plus several other evaluators were able to follow him right to the end of his season.

While there’s some polish to his game, Harris readily admits he still has some "quirks" to work on. He wants to improve his command to both edges of the plate, build on his confidence and add a few pounds.

Some believe he has the potential to advance quickly through the system.

  • Replies 259
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

sdyment College Ball

sdyment

Verified Member
Posted
Posted
Yeah. This year draft class isn't as strong as previous year, but with $5.6M we could get something. International draft could be our salvation (Guerrero Jr, Alvarez)

 

Is Guerrero still 100% Ang?

King All-Star

King

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

Found an article on Cardenas:

 

http://gobarrybucs.com/news/2015/6/9/BB_0609151137.aspx

 

MIAMI SHORES, Fla.—Junior shortstop JC Cardenas became the highest pick in program history on Tuesday as he was selected in the sixth round (182 overall) by the Toronto Blue Jays in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.

"It was always my goal to get drafted," Cardenas said. "My dream, since I was a little kid, has been to play pro ball. The Blue Jays were my first workout and they've been following me since high school. It feels really good to be going somewhere I'm wanted and appreciated."

Cardenas put together an outstanding junior campaign. He was second on the team with a .352 average and 57 hits. He led the squad with 46 runs scored, four triples, 24 stolen bases. He also led the team with a .519 slugging percentage and .457 on-base average. He had 17 multi-hit games and had a streak of 29 straight game reaching base safely.

Cardenas will report to the Blue Jays minor league facility in Dunedin, Fla., and from there be assigned in the system.

"I want to thank all the coaches at Barry University: head coach Marc Pavao, assistant coaches Alex Gonzalez, Kevin Howard, Chris Leon and Erik Busine for always pushing me to the limit to be the best player I can be," Cardenas said. "I can't thank them enough for the opportunity to play at Barry University and have a chance to live out my dream."

Cardenas tops the mark of 307 (10th round-Washington Nationals) set by right-hander Manny Rodriguez in the 2011 draft. Catcher Yan Gomes, the only Buccaneer currently in the majors, was tabbed 310 (10thround-Blue Jays) in the 2009 draft. He is the 16th player drafted from the Bucs since 2006.

King All-Star

King

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted
Cool. So Harris (slot), Maese (pre-draft deal)?, Wise, Bergen and Cardenas all have agreements.
King All-Star

King

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

Jose Espada

 

http://www.elnuevodia.com/deportes/beisbol/nota/joseespadaprimerboricuaescogidoeneldraft-2058123/

 

The right-hander Jose Espada, graduated from high school Jose Collazo Colon, recently became the first Puerto Rican selected in the amateur draft in the majors, when the Toronto Blue Jays claimed him in the fifth round, 152 overall shift.

 

Your selection is somewhat surprising because listeners patio did not expect any Puerto Rican was chosen in those first five rounds.

 

The coameño 6'0 "tall and 170 pounds, has a fastball that reaches 88 miles per hour as reported by the listeners themselves, his ball moves well in the area forcing batters to make many swings and fail .

 

Meanwhile, center fielder Nestor Muriel was the second choice, in turn 169 in the sixth round by the Houston Astros. Muriel is a graduate of the Carlos Beltran Baseball Academy. He is a player of 6'2 "tall.

 

http://recend.apextech.netdna-cdn.com/images/tn/0/294/3068/4386/473/618/2015/06/09/20150409_tusdeportes_prospectospeloteros_wlv_10.jpg

Angrioter MVP

Angrioter

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

Carl A. Wise

It's been an amazing day and thank you everyone for the congratulations texts/calls. Your support means so much to me!! Go Blue Jays!!! ⚾️

TwistedLogic Cooperstown

TwistedLogic

Old-Timey Member
Posted
  • Author
Posted

A bigger and better MSU Bear

Jeff Dahn, Friday, May 01, 2015

 

http://ac4fd038fb47e5bd57a1-ff847b6fa91c3461c76d26fad16823fb.r7.cf1.rackcdn.com/11141.jpg

 

The day veteran Missouri State pitching coach Paul Evans welcomed Florissant, Mo., right-hander Jon Harris into the program’s fold back in the fall of 2012, he was immediately reminded of a couple of former MSU hurlers now plying their trade in the major leagues.

 

Evans, who has been on 33-year head coach Keith Guttin’s staff at Missouri State for 27 seasons, first thought of the left-hander Ross Detwiler, an eventual first-round pick who arrived in Springfield in 2004 measuring 6-foot-4 and 175-pounds. He was also reminded of the right-hander Brad Ziegler, a 20th-round pick who was roughly the same size when he got on campus in 2000.

 

When Harris arrived in Springfield right out of Hazelwood Central High School, Evans thought he was looking at the reincarnations of Detwiler and Ziegler. All he could do was shake his head and smile.

 

“This guy was a stick-figure coming in. He was 6 (foot)-3, 6-4 and he was 160 pounds when he got here – very thin-bodied,” Evans said during a recent telephone interview. “We’ve had a lot of those guys come through here with the same build. He’s 190 (pounds) now and still looks like a pencil. He’s no longer a twig but he’s now a pencil.”

 

Harris may still resemble a pencil in Evans’ eyes, but the 6-foot-4, 190-pounder is also armed with an eraser that has been wiping away opposing batters during Missouri State’s resurgent 2015 season. The 19th-ranked Bears are 31-10 overall and leading the Missouri Valley Conference with a 9-3 mark while waiting for Wichita State to come to town for an important league series this weekend. As Guttin’s Friday night ace, Harris (4-1, 2.43 ERA) will make his 11th start of the season tonight.

 

There was a bit of a scare early in the season. Harris suffered a fairly severe sprain to his left ankle – the foot the right-hander plants after delivery – in mid-March and missed a nonconference start against Kansas State. There was speculation at the time of the injury that he might miss as many as four or five weeks, but Harris immediately went to work with Jim Penkalski and the rest of MSU’s training staff and was back on the mound 12 days later.

 

“It was quite a compliment to both parties – our training staff and Jon – that they put so much effort and time into getting him back,” Evans said. “I think it says a lot for Jon’s character. … (He) was hell-bent on getting back and he just wanted to pitch for the team and keep us going in the right direction that we’ve been going in all spring.”

 

The injury was a wake-up call for Harris. Since it was to his landing foot he knew one wrong step here or there could reinjure the ankle and send him back to the sidelines for an even longer period of time. He worked diligently with the trainers for every one of those 12 days to get back into shape physically, but the next step was dealing with the mental aspect of the injury.

 

“Once I was back on the mound it was a matter of overcoming the fear and thinking, ‘Holy cow, I can reinjure my ankle again and be done for the rest of the year,’” Harris said during a separate telephone interview with PG. “It was at that point in time I (realized) that I needed to be the junior upperclassman that I am and bust my butt to get back to where I needed to be.”

 

He’s back with a vengeance, and he and junior left-hander Matt Hall (6-2, 2.95 ERA) from Lee’s Summit, Mo., have given Guttin and Evans a formidable one-two punch to start off a weekend. Junior left-hander Andy Cheray (3-3, 5.36) and sophomore lefty Jordan Knutson (3-1, 2.91) have complemented Harris and Hall in the starting rotation.

 

“With both of them we have two frontend guys that are pretty damn good,” Evans said of Harris and Hall. “Matt might not be in the same draft hemisphere as Jon but certainly he’s going to get drafted … and it’s nice to have both of them on Friday and Saturday.”

 

The bullpen has also been very good, led by redshirt sophomore right-hander Bryan Young from Kansas City, Mo. Young is 6-0 with nine saves, carries a 1.29 ERA and has 34 strikeouts in 28 innings. Senior right-hander Zach Merciez from Bartlesville, Okla., (3-2, 2.70) has logged 30 innings in 23 relief appearances.

 

The staff has a cumulative team ERA of 3.21 and has avoided major meltdowns. The Bears won nine of 15 nonconference games to start the season but have gone 22-4 since, including an 18-game stretch between March 15 and April 15 where they went 16-2.

 

“The guys have just kind of grown comfortable in their roles,” Evans said. “… We’re doing it with eight guys and that’s not uncommon once you get into a season and the way college baseball is set up; you get roles and guys start getting comfortable. … The bullpen’s been good; it’s been real helpful.”

 

THE 2012 PERFECT GAME PITCHER/CATCHER INDOOR SHOWCASE held at PG’s original headquarters on the southwest side of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, featured some terrific pitching talent from the national high school classes of 2012 (seniors), 2013 (juniors) and 2014 (sophomores).

 

The sophomores on display that February weekend included Cedar Rapids right-hander Mitch Keller, a second-round pick of Pittsburgh and now a Pirates farmhand, and right-hander Alex Lange from Lee’s Summit, Mo., now a dominant freshman starter at No. 1-ranked LSU.

 

The class of 2013 pitchers at the event included Florissant, Mo., right-hander Devin Williams, a second-round pick of the Milwaukee Brewers who is still in their system; Cedar Rapids left-hander AJ Puk, a sophomore at No. 8 Florida; Muscatine, Iowa, righty Derek Burkamper, a sophomore at Nebraska; and Little Rock, Ark., right-hander Lawson Vassar, a red-shirt freshman at Arkansas.

 

Harris was one of seven senior right-handed pitchers named to the Top Prospect List at the event. Among the others were Mitchell Brown from Rochester, Minn., a second-round pick who is now a Cleveland Indians farmhand; Matt Jones out of Omaha, a 25th-round pick of the L.A. Dodgers; Alec Rash from Adel, Iowa, a second-round pick of the Philadelphia Phillies who is a standout junior at Missouri; and Calvin Matthews from Bloomfield, Iowa, a junior weekend starter at No. 20 Iowa.

 

Harris also attended the 2010 PG P/C Indoor in Cedar Rapids, which was another star-studded affair.

 

“When I was at the (event) as a sophomore it was kind of an eye-opener,” he said. “My senior year I felt more like a lot of these guys are similar to me and we all have similar attributes, whether we’re left-handed or right-handed, taller or shorter. Just seeing all these guys go everywhere (with their baseball careers) you know (they’ve) worked hard, (they’ve) been doing this all their lives leading up this moment, and we’ve all contributed in some way.”

 

Another player named to the Top Prospect List at the 2012 PG P/C Indoor was catcher Matt Fultz from Lee’s Summit. Fultz spent his freshman year at Seminole (Okla.) State College before transferring to MSU last year and quickly became the Bears’ starting catcher. He hit .252 with three home runs and 26 RBI as a sophomore and is hitting .287 with three home runs, four doubles and nine RBI this season.

 

There were also five PG WWBA tournament competitions for Harris, the last three – the 2011 17u National Championship, 2011 Kernels Foundation Championship and the 2011 World Championship – playing with the St. Louis Pirates. His fastball velocity increased every year, from highs of 84 and 85 mph at his three 2010 events, to highs of 88 and 89 at his four appearances in 2011-12.

 

Harris was ranked 446th nationally after graduating from Hazelwood Central in 2012 and the Toronto Blue Jays selected him in the 33rd round of the MLB June Amateur Draft. That slot couldn’t offer nearly enough dollars and Harris loaded up and headed for Springfield.

 

His velocity didn’t change much between his senior year in high school and his freshman season at MSU with his fastball sitting 89-91 mph most of the time and occasionally hitting 92. It was at about the mid-point of his sophomore season that Evans started to notice a jump, with the ball sitting 90-92 and touching 93; more importantly, he was maintaining that velocity throughout an entire start. He’s shown another increase this year, with his fastball hitting 94 and 95 mph.

 

Evans credited the people and coaches that worked with Harris before he even got to Springfield for helping him develop a good feel for four pitches. “He has a plus changeup, he has a true slider – it does what a slider is supposed to do – and he has a good overhand curveball,” Evans said. “You don’t see a lot of guys in college at this level that are what I would call true four-pitch guys, and Jon is.”

King All-Star

King

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

Keith Law Jays recap

 

The Jays landed two big prizes in their first three picks, grabbing two of the best right-handed arms in the draft.

 

Jon Harris (1A) was in consideration in the top 15 for much of the spring, but he faltered a bit down the stretch, including a bad outing in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament in front of a lot of decision-makers. He has two above-average pitches with a good body and delivery and reasonable (albeit not dominant) performance, good enough that he should have gone 10 picks or so higher in this thin draft class.

 

Meanwhile, Justin Maese (3) was a "popup guy,' coming from nowhere this spring in El Paso -- which is typically an underscouted area because of its relative isolation -- and emerging late enough that only three or four teams were really on him. He's up to 95 mph with a power breaking ball and a great delivery. He won't turn 18 until November and still has a fair amount of projection left.

Brady Singer (2) gets into the mid-90s with a violent arm action that almost certainly will push him toward the bullpen.

 

… Third baseman Carl Wise (4) has power, hitting 12 bombs for the College of Charleston this spring, but he's a well below-average defender at third base, and it's power over hit for him.

 

… Travis Bergen (7) is a six-foot left-hander with an average fastball and below-average secondary stuff. He gave up a homer every nine innings this year for Kennesaw State, which is not something you often see from draft-worthy college juniors.

metafour First Round Pick

metafour

Verified Member
Posted
Posted

http://www.dailycommercial.com/sports/article_74fd7ace-95f0-58c4-8f92-22d5759366f8.html

 

 

A University of Florida commit, Singer said he will forgo college and report to Toronto’s rookie ball camp in Dunedin.

 

"I’m going to sign with the Blue Jays," Singer said. "They were one of the first teams to show an interest in me and to come to my house. They knew what my number (dollar figure) was and they hit it by taking me where they did. I wanted to go higher — who wouldn’t — but, I went right around where I thought I would."

King All-Star

King

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

Geno Encina is signing with the Jays

 

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/hssports/2015/06/mlbdraftnotebook/

 

Geno Encina has been playing baseball in San Antonio for years.

The right-handed junior pitcher played for Brandeis before he signed to play baseball at UIW. After three years with the Cardinals, he has a chance to continue his career in another city.

Encina was selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 18th round of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft on Wednesday. The Canadian club took Encina with the 542nd overall pick. In a release issued by the school on Wednesday, Encina said he plans on signing with the Blue Jays. The Brandeis alumnus is the eighth UIW player to be drafted in school history.

“I was definitely eager to see my name on the board,” said Encina in the the release. “Toronto called around the 15th round and said they were going to draft me soon. It is a great feeling to get drafted.”

 

Last season, Encina tallied a team-low 2.57 ERA with the Cardinals in 73 2/3 innings. He also led the team with 59 strikeouts and allowed 13 walks.

Orgfiller All-Star

Orgfiller

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted
King, you, GD and North should take the success from your first big reporting breakout and use it to get yourselves some interviews with these kids being drafted.
GD MVP

GD

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted
King, you, GD and North should take the success from your first big reporting breakout and use it to get yourselves some interviews with these kids being drafted.

 

"Hey Kyle Tucker, do you mind following me back? I have a couple questions I'd like to ask you" the Chris Cotillo approach

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
The Jays Centre Caretaker Fund
The Jays Centre Caretaker Fund

You all care about this site. The next step is caring for it. We’re asking you to caretake this site so it can remain the premier Blue Jays community on the internet.

Become a Caretaker

  • Member Statistics

    20,997
    Total Members
    48,845
    Most Online
    Sarahh
    Newest Member
    Sarahh
    Joined
×
×
  • Create New...