Official MiLB/Prospects Thread

[Atothe]

Clutchlings ‏@Clutchlings77 10m10 minutes ago

#BlueJays prospect Francisco Rios promoted from Lansing to Dunedin.

 

http://clutchlings.blogspot.ca/2016/05/a-look-at-francisco-rios.html

 

The Blue Jays International Free Agent class of 2012 was a decent one. Not as good as the 2011 class, which featured Roberto Osuna, Jairo Labourt, Dawel Lugo, Jesus Tinoco, and Alberto Tirado, but a quality one just the same.

 

Led by top signing SS Franklin Barreto, who is now Oakland's top prospect after being the centrepiece of the Josh Donaldson deal, the Jays also inked SS Richie Urena (now one of Toronto's top prospects), and LHP Jonathan Torres to six-figure signing bonuses.

 

Lost in amongst the signings that year was one that took place several months later (and for far less bonus money) of RHP Francisco Rios, out of Monclova, a city of just under 200 000 in northern Mexico, not far from the border with Texas.

 

Late IFA signings are the guys who didn't have enough (or show enough) to warrant signing during the Teenaged free agent frenzy that is the July 2 signing date. They might be older, or not toolsy enough, or lacking in physical traits. In Rios' case, at 6'1", his height most likely led to him being overlooked.

 

The Blue Jays saw enough in Rios' athleticism to sign him. While his numbers have not been spectacular, the organization saw enough physical and emotional maturity in him to skip him over the GCL in favour of the Appalachian League when he made his stateside debut in 2014, and advanced him to Vancouver last year, where he was a regular in the C's starting rotation.

 

This year has been a huge coming out party for the righthander. Rios has been brilliant at Lansing in his first shot at full season ball, striking out 12.9 batters per 9 innings, to go along with a tiny 1.20 ERA.

 

After following Rios for much of last year, I wasn't expecting a great deal this year. After finally getting eyes on him during his May 1st start against Wisconsin, I'm now a believer.

 

Rios has a polished delivery which he repeats consistently, and throws from a three-quarters arm slot. He commands both sides of the plate with his fastball - his two seamer has good sink and some tailing action. He throws a four seamer up in the zone with two strikes on a hitter in order to get some swings and misses, but had trouble commanding it during this start. His slider is emerging as a potential wipeout pitch, starting out looking like a fastball, then diving for the outer half of the plate to barrel-dodging country at the last moment with good depth. Three of his 5 strikeouts on the day came on that pitch. Rios also throws a 12-6 curve, which is a work in progress, and threw one or two changeups on the day. His fastball is his bread and butter, however, and while he only topped 93 with it in this start, his ability to pound the lower part of the strike zone with it sets up that slider.

 

Rios breezed through the first four innings of this start against a Wisconsin team that is not loaded with top prospects, but does contain some mid-level bats like Jake Gatewood and Monte Harrison. Rios faced only one batter over the minimum through four, needing only 45 pitches to do so. He attacked the strike zone, consistently getting ahead of hitters over that stretch, never reaching a three-ball count.

 

In the 5th, Rios gave up his first hits and hard contact on the day, but left a pair of runners stranded.

 

Things came a bit undone for him in the 6th. Facing Rios for the second time, Wisconsin hitters turned more aggressive, and were going after his first pitches with regularity. Lansing SS JC Cardenas had to field a grounder on the second pitch of the inning on a short hop, and rushed his throw to first, where converted Catcher Juan Kelly was unable to come up with it for the out. A Rios wild pitch put the runner into scoring position, and he came around to score on a solid line drive base hit. Another single put runners on first and third, and Lugnuts C Ryan Hissey had a bit of a brain cramp, as he failed to check the runner on 3rd before throwing to 2nd to try to throw out the runner attempting to steal. The runner from 3rd came in to score easily. Rios was out of the inning a few batters later, having given up a third run. He gave up some contact in that inning, but his defence let him down a bit - two of the runs were unearned.

 

On the day, Rios threw 82 pitches, 59 for strikes. He had 9 swinging strikes, and was ahead in the count after three pitches to 22 of the 25 hitters he faced. Rios threw 7 ground ball and 7 fly ball outs - while he only gave up two fly balls that could be considered to be of the loud variety, he was helped by the strong Wisconsin spring wind blowing in from rightfield.

 

It was not televised, but Rios had an even more dominant outing on his 21st birthday, May 6th. Rios allowed only one hit in 5.2 innings, fanning 10. He struck out the side swinging, and K'd 6 of the first 7 hitters he faced. Chad Hillman, a Michigan-based prospect hunter, had him hitting 95 with his fastball.

I haven't seen a lot of Rios' fielding skills, but his fast-twitch reflexes were on display in an earlier start against Lake County:

 

Rios has struck out 43 batters (2nd highest total in the MWL) in 30 innings this year, and has walked only 8. After three seasons of only moderate success in the minors, it would appear that a bit of an uptick in velocity, more bite on his slider, and improved fastball command have made things look ridiculously easy for him - MWL hitters are simply overmatched when they face Rios. I'm as enthused as anyone about Rios' performance so far this season, but with lower level arms, you have to take a more patient approach, and see how they fare second time around the league, and after that, how well they make adjustments at the next level, where hitters can get around on a fastball better, and have improved pitch recognition. With Rios, Angel Perdomo, Sean Reid-Foley, and a rapidly improving Jon Harris in the rotation, Lansing is a must-follow team at the moment.

 

I thought the new regime was taking a slower approach in promoting prospects?

[Cyborg]

Perdomo was probably supposed to get promoted before his last horrid start.

[King]

Urena is 2/4 with a Dinger.

 

SRF 3IP 2H 0ER 4BB 4K

 

Tellez 0/4

[Sorrow]

The last time I looked at Tellez stats he was slashing something like .174/.390/.420 with a 152 BABIP and a 20% bb rate. Pretty funky season so far.

[nowayjose]

I listened to one of the minor league podcasts. They mentioned Urenas defence being above average now. If he maintains this type of season, with the improving low k rate and 15 hr power, he's a top 3 prospect in our system.

[gruber92]

LHP Tim Mayza continues to dominate the FSL. After making some adjustments in his delivery in the off season, the big lefty is off to a fantastic start after having a great spring with the big club. I'd like to see him promoted later this year and see what he can do in New Hampshire, although it might be wise not to rush him. Kid has a future..

 

Tonight's line..

 

1.1 IP 0 H, 0 BB, 3K

 

0.49 ERA after 18.1 innings of work with 4BB and 20K while only giving up 9 hits with a 0.79 WHIP.

[burlingtonbandit]

I listened to one of the minor league podcasts. They mentioned Urenas defence being above average now. If he maintains this type of season, with the improving low k rate and 15 hr power, he's a top 3 prospect in our system.

 

Especially with Alford and Greene's bad starts to the season.

[HERPDERP]

Hollon busted again

 

wasn't it weed the 1st time?

 

nvm: it was for PEDs. rip

[Trouba95]

Hollon busted again

 

wasn't it weed the 1st time?

 

Wow, again!?

[Angrioter]

Hollon attack again

[metafour]

wasn't it weed the 1st time?

 

nvm: it was for PEDs. rip

 

It was amphetamines.

[King]

This suspension was for drug of abuse so probably weed

[King]

The first positive test for drug of abuse is a warning I believe, so he would have had to have tested positive twice to get this suspension.

[HERPDERP]

this guy

 

[Trouba95]

So do we know what Francisco Rios ceiling is? Do we have any read on him whatsoever? Interested to see how his numbers will compare to Greene's this season in Dunedin.

[Cyborg]

So do we know what Francisco Rios ceiling is? Do we have any read on him whatsoever? Interested to see how his numbers will compare to Greene's this season in Dunedin.

 

Go back a few posts.

[King]

So do we know what Francisco Rios ceiling is? Do we have any read on him whatsoever? Interested to see how his numbers will compare to Greene's this season in Dunedin.

 

Hopefully better since Greenes numbers are pretty bad.

 

Borucki was demoted to Lansing, btw.

 

[King]

Pentecost update

 

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/blue-jays-minor-league-notebook-hopes-still-high-pentecost/

 

Catching prospect Max Pentecost is moving toward activation from the disabled list, and the Toronto Blue Jays still believe the 11th overall pick in 2014 has a promising future behind the plate.

 

The 23-year-old, working his way back from a third shoulder surgery, is currently playing in extended spring training games as he continues to rehab his shoulder and progress through his throwing program.

 

While the Blue Jays aren’t yet sure how much catching he’ll do upon his return – he could see some time at first base or designated hitter for a period to protect his shoulder – the priority will be giving Pentecost a chance to make up for lost time.

 

“The hope is that he’ll be able to get full season at-bats pretty soon,” says Blue Jays director of player development Gil Kim. “The main goal is that he gets at-bats since he has had so much time off. For now, it’s getting at-bats and building that throwing back up better than it used to be.”

 

Pentecost, highly regarded for both his bat and his defence, looked set to zip through the Blue Jays system before his shoulder woes hit.

 

The product of Kennesaw State University appeared in a combined 25 games with the Blue Jays’ rookie-ball Gulf Coast League team in Dunedin and short-season A Vancouver in 2014 before getting shut down to undergo his first shoulder surgery. He had another operation in the spring of 2015, but neither did the trick. He missed all of last season, and when his problems persisted during fall instructional league, he underwent a rotator cuff interval repair.

 

None of that has left the Blue Jays any less bullish on his long-term future.

 

“The best way to put that is we’re confident in Max’s ability and confident that he’s got a chance to be a major-league catcher, and a pretty good one,” says Kim. “He brings some things to the table that, looking throughout baseball, you don’t see very often. Sure it’s unfortunate that it has taken some time, but he’s doing catching drills and he looks great back there.

 

“In talking to some of our high-performance trainers and our physical therapists, the belief is that the arm is going to be back to full strength and play behind the plate. That’s what we’re thinking right now.”

 

—

Cardona returning to form:

The Blue Jays aren’t giving up on the possibility of Adonys Cardona starting again, but their priority right now is getting the 22-year-old right-hander through the season healthy. Returning from a second broken olecranon, the electric-armed Venezuelan has thrown 11 shutout innings in 10 games, all out of the bullpen, at single-A Dunedin.

 

More importantly, his stuff is back, with his fastball sitting mid-90s, along with a crisp changeup and slider. That repertoire gives him the weapons to start, but his injury history raises questions about physical capacity to handle the grind. “That’s probably still up in the air,” says Kim. “It’s good as a reliever, but he’s got three pitches and a chance for two of them to be plus. Right now, the main priority is to keep him healthy and then we’ll re-evaluate after the year.” Cardona received the second-biggest signing bonus for a July 2 international free agent in club history at $2.8 million.

 

—

Alford playing with brace:

Anthony Alford, widely regarded as the club’s top prospect, returned May 2 from a right knee injury suffered in Dunedin’s season opener, and has played in six games since. Blue Jays head trainer George Poulis said recently that the centre-fielder’s “ligaments did get stressed slightly,” and that the 21-year-old is playing with a brace to stabilize the joint.

 

Kim says since Alford’s return he’s looked “very good. Probably within a week of injuring it, Anthony insisted on playing and he passed every test that the high performance staff here in Dunedin threw at him and he’s had no setbacks whatsoever.” Alford has struck out in 16 of 25 at-bats with three hits since returning.

 

—

Ceciliani nearing return to Bisons:

Outfielder Darrell Ceciliani, who nearly made the Blue Jays’ opening day roster out of spring training, is playing in extended spring training games and is nearing a return to triple-A Buffalo. He suffered an injury to his left shoulder and clavicle. “He’s looking good and he should be ready to go pretty quickly,” says Kim.

[Jimcanuck]

^ the news on Cardona is the most encouraging

[King]

Greene is junking it up again

 

5IP 5H 1ER 6BB 2K

[Cyborg]

Alford

Reid Foley

Urena

Rios

Guerrero

Greene

Tellez

Harris

Perdomo

Pentecost

 

Top 10?

[Nafro]

Alford

Reid Foley

Urena

Rios

Guerrero

Greene

Tellez

Harris

Perdomo

Pentecost

 

Top 10?

 

Don't know if I completely agree with order, but I would probably put those 10 names in mine. Not really sure what I would change at this point.

[43211234]

Alford striking out 53% of the time, Greene walking the world. Borucki and Robson are both dumpster fires.

 

Rios and Perdomo are pretty much the lone bright spots so far.

[King]

Alford striking out 53% of the time, Greene walking the world. Borucki and Robson are both dumpster fires.

 

Rios and Perdomo are pretty much the lone bright spots so far.

 

Urena 133 wRC+

[King]

and Tellez was 3/4 with a HR, 2B and single tonight.

[glory]

The 2016 team better make the playoffs. Keeping track of the farm system this season has been depressing. Give us something entertaining to watch this summer, Jays.

[gruber92]

Tim Mayza with another 1.1 IP of scoreless ball with 0 BB and 2 K's.

 

The big hard throwing lefty is carving up the FSL.

[Laika]

Tim Mayza with another 1.1 IP of scoreless ball with 0 BB and 2 K's.

 

The big hard throwing lefty is carving up the FSL.

 

He's way too old for that league though

[John_Havok]

Tim Mayza with another 1.1 IP of scoreless ball with 0 BB and 2 K's.

 

The big hard throwing lefty is carving up the FSL.

 

I guess his stats are pretty shiny....

 

but when you consider the dude is 24 and a reliever in the Florida state league where there average age is between 22 and 23, and to be a prospect worth discussing you'd want to see at age 21 at the highest (preferably 20) and still be a starter... the shine wears off pretty quick.

[gruber92]

He's way too old for that league though

 

Just turned 24 and has just discovered new mechanics. Mid to upper 90's with a few decent secondaries while being a LHP will bode well moving forward. He also has size ( 6'3 220 ). He could work up through the system quickly if his control is maintained, which so far has been great. Sometimes ball players just bloom later.