Official MiLB/Prospects Thread

[Krylian]

Adrian Beltre.

 

Without the elite defense.

[Ray]

After last nights outing, Joey Murray has a 3.54 FIP and 3.14 xFIP in AA.

 

I hope he becomes a guy in AAA next season.

[Krylian]

Nate Pearson so far tonight.

 

7IP, 3H, 0R, 0BB, 3K.

 

He's turned into TJ Zeuch in one week.

[glory]

Pearson inches closer to being in Pete Walker's guidance, but decided to pitch to contact beforehand so he's prepared for life in Toronto. Smart dude.

[Barkerfan23]

Any couch scouts that can break down Pearsons start

[THANOS]

I wonder who the pitching coach in AAA is? Most of the starters there seem to have lower K/9.

[KevinGregg]

Just be happy pearson didnt give up any home runs with the juiced ball

[Orgfiller]

I wonder who the pitching coach in AAA is? Most of the starters there seem to have lower K/9.

 

Can we not, after a one start sample? Our AAA rotation isn't the greatest, and one of the few decent pieces this year in Waguespack had a very respectable K rate there in his time in Buffalo.

[gruber92]

I think it's pretty obvious that the plan was to be aggressive early in the count against Pearson to try and avoid being behind early. The 88 pitches in 7 innings of work seems to support the theory.

[Orgfiller]

I've heard nobody say anything about Thomas Hatch, the guy we acquired for David Phelps, but he has a pretty impressive 19 strikeouts against 2 walks in 21.1 innings of work. He's 24 and in AA so obviously not a big time prospect, but a solid first impression, makes you hope he can become another Waguespack and show promise as a potential backend 5/6th starter or long man.

[Orgfiller]

Kyle Johnston, the guy we acquired for Hudson, on the other hand, yikes. 12 strikeouts and 14 walks in 16 innings at A+. Command was always said to be a problem for him and he's been said to be a future reliever. You hope at least the stuff has been there and maybe he's just trying out a new pitch or something, but often times you really don't hit on these fringe guys that you acquire for lower tier rentals at the deadline. It's also early of course, 16 innings is nothing.

[Krylian]

Manoah roughed up a bit so far tonight.

 

2IP, 4H, 3R, 3ER, 1BB, 1K

[Krylian]

Manoah's night is done.

 

4IP, 5H, 3R, 3ER, 1BB, 5K.

[THANOS]

Manoah roughed up a bit so far tonight.

 

2IP, 4H, 3R, 3ER, 1BB, 1K

 

Looks better now.

 

4IP, 5H, 3R, 1BB, 5K, 60P

[Krylian]

[Deadpool]

 

Why is that 8 year old kid facing Nate Pearson?

[z3r0s]

Stabbing his first AAA victim? That's some new baseball slang for me...

[Orgfiller]

Why is that 8 year old kid facing Nate Pearson?

 

That's 3 year MLB veteran Ronald Torreyes to you sir!

[Krylian]

That's 3 year MLB veteran Ronald Torreyes to you sir!

 

Beat me to it.

[Krylian]

I have to be honest. I don't know if it's the camera angles, but Pearson's slider really doesn't wow me from the little footage I've seen. It doesn't seem to have the break that I'd expect from a 60 grade pitch. Hopefully it's just my eyes deceiving me.

 

[Slade]

Ben Badler did his first 2020 International prospect preview.

 

Jays are expected to sign Manuel Beltre.

 

Manuel Beltre, SS, Dominican Republic

 

Beltre, 15, is the most famous player in the 2020 class, as he has spent years documenting his daily training on his Instagram account of more than 35,000 followers. A baseball rat, Beltre has a simple, repeatable swing from the right side and is one of the top hitters in the class, with ample game experience and a baseball IQ well beyond his years. He's expected to sign with the Blue Jays. Beltre trains with Jaime Ramos.

 

Here's his instagram account with a ton of video from him. He's wearing Jays gear in a lot of them lol. Badler didn't exactly rank them but Beltre was 9th of the 10 players he covered.

 

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Ben Badler, Baseball America (@ben.badler) • Instagram video

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1,044 likes, 14 comments - ben.badler on January 28, 2018: "Manuel Beltre (@manuel_beltre09), 13, is a shortstop from the Dominican Republic in the 2020 international class. Follow @ben.badler for more videos. -- Snapchat: benbadler Twitter: benbadler FB: benbadlerbaseball -- #shortstop #shortstops #infield #infielder #youthbaseball #baseballyouth #baseballcap #baseballfan #baseballseason #baseballswag".

Ben Badler, Baseball America (@ben.badler) • Instagram video

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---

2,555 likes, 32 comments - ben.badler on April 9, 2019: "Manuel Beltre (@manuel_beltre09) is one of the top 2020 international prospects. Shortstop from the Dominican Republic 🇩🇴 with a compact, repeatable swing, advanced hitter for 14 years old with high level game instincts. Defensive play at the end saved the game for his team to send the semifinal game of the @Iplbaseball Cup 🏆 to extra innings.".

[Brownie19]

Yeah that slider was a cement mixer. The velo difference helps though.

[RotatorCuff]

Ben Badler did his first 2020 International prospect preview.

 

Jays are expected to sign Manuel Beltre.

 

Manuel Beltre, SS, Dominican Republic

 

Beltre, 15, is the most famous player in the 2020 class, as he has spent years documenting his daily training on his Instagram account of more than 35,000 followers. A baseball rat, Beltre has a simple, repeatable swing from the right side and is one of the top hitters in the class, with ample game experience and a baseball IQ well beyond his years. He's expected to sign with the Blue Jays. Beltre trains with Jaime Ramos.

 

Here's his instagram account with a ton of video from him. He's wearing Jays gear in a lot of them lol. Badler didn't exactly rank them but Beltre was 9th of the 10 players he covered.

 

Login • Instagram

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---

Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.

 

 

Ben Badler, Baseball America (@ben.badler) • Instagram video

WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM

---

1,044 likes, 14 comments - ben.badler on January 28, 2018: "Manuel Beltre (@manuel_beltre09), 13, is a shortstop from the Dominican Republic in the 2020 international class. Follow @ben.badler for more videos. -- Snapchat: benbadler Twitter: benbadler FB: benbadlerbaseball -- #shortstop #shortstops #infield #infielder #youthbaseball #baseballyouth #baseballcap #baseballfan #baseballseason #baseballswag".

Ben Badler, Baseball America (@ben.badler) • Instagram video

WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM

---

2,555 likes, 32 comments - ben.badler on April 9, 2019: "Manuel Beltre (@manuel_beltre09) is one of the top 2020 international prospects. Shortstop from the Dominican Republic 🇩🇴 with a compact, repeatable swing, advanced hitter for 14 years old with high level game instincts. Defensive play at the end saved the game for his team to send the semifinal game of the @Iplbaseball Cup 🏆 to extra innings.".

 

I really like this kids swing. very fast hands.

[AintNoThang]

I have to be honest. I don't know if it's the camera angles, but Pearson's slider really doesn't wow me from the little footage I've seen. It doesn't seem to have the break that I'd expect from a 60 grade pitch. Hopefully it's just my eyes deceiving me.

 

 

If you were to slow down the footage, it starts out close to shoulder height and drops down just above his knees at 87 mph. If it started out closer to dick height and dropped to his feet, it would probably look a lot more impressive to you.

[Krylian]

If you were to slow down the footage, it starts out close to shoulder height and drops down just above his knees at 87 mph. If it started out closer to dick height and dropped to his feet, it would probably look a lot more impressive to you.

 

Well, starting out at dick height and dropping to the floor is something I'm familiar with so you're probably right.

[Ray]

John Lott did a great piece on Gabriel Moreno on the Athletic. I'll post it here.

 

The first time a Blue Jays scout saw Gabriel Moreno in Venezuela, he was playing second base and shortstop. The scout looked at the 15-year-old infielder and saw a catcher.

 

So the scout, Francisco Plasencia, asked Moreno to catch one day during a workout. Plasencia liked what he saw. But for the next several months, Moreno kept playing the infield. That’s what he’d always done. He was quick, he could pick it and he was flashy, a fun-loving kid who’d never thought of hiding behind a mask.

 

Then Plasencia brought Sandy Rosario, the Jays’ director of Latin American scouting, to watch Moreno at a workout in Valencia.

 

Put on the gear and get out there, they said. They liked what they saw. Moreno became a catcher. A year later when he was 16, Toronto signed him.

 

The Jays made it worthwhile for him to convert. They gave him $25,000, which is not eye-popping by North American standards. But it is in Venezuela, where the average annual salary, calculated on the black-market exchange rate, is roughly $80 (US).

 

Catching was not in Moreno’s plan. He still looks in the mirror and sees a shortstop, he says.

 

“The general manager for Toronto wanted to sign me as a catcher,” he said, with teammate Joey Pulido translating. “At first I felt uncomfortable. As time went on, I feel a lot more comfortable.”

 

Indeed.

 

This is Gabriel Moreno today, four years after that workout:

 

His batting line at Low-A Lansing is .293/.353/.514, good for an .866 OPS.

He connects on 88 percent of his swings, which is otherworldly.

His swinging-strike rate is around 6 percent, which is outrageously elite.

In 70 games – roughly half of a Low-A season – he has hit 12 home runs.

He has foiled 33 percent of stolen-base attempts, which is well above-average.

MLB Pipeline and Baseball America list him as the Jays’ No. 9 prospect and the top catcher in their system.

 

“Super-talented, physically skilled kid, very athletic, great hands,” said Lansing manager Dallas McPherson. “Physically, he’s got it.”

 

Moreno’s catching needs polish. He is working on improving his English, which will enhance his communication with pitchers. But he’s only 19. He has caught just 104 pro games. Defensively, he’s getting better. And he can hit.

 

“I’d be lying if I said I expected him at 19 years old to have an .860 or .870 OPS in Lansing,” said Andrew Tinnish, the Jays’ vice president in charge of international scouting. “But from the first time he walked in the door, you could tell he was very driven and very confident, and one skill set that stood out really early was his ability to put the bat on the ball.”

 

Another standout quality was his upbeat personality and its effect on teammates. Around the batting cage and during pregame drills, he jokes and banters, pokes and pesters, all the while wearing a big smile until it’s time to get serious.

 

“It’s tough, coming from Venezuela and having that language barrier,” said Lansing hitting coach Logan Bone. “But people are really drawn to him. He just has this aura around him.”

 

And Moreno has come to enjoy catching. I asked him what he likes about it. He smiled and bypassed his translator to answer in English.

 

“I like when I throw to second, the runner’s out,” he said.

 

It is not uncommon for teams to convert a Latin American infielder to catcher. Yankee great Jorge Posada started as a second baseman. So did Robinson Chirinos, who catches for Houston. U.S.-born players who switched include Pat Borders, Buster Posey and Kevin Cash. Last year the Blue Jays signed Venezuelan Javier D’Orazio, who had been an infielder. At 17, he’s a promising prospect, catching regularly in the Gulf Coast League.

 

It’s a premium position that affords greater advancement opportunity than many infielders might have. And Moreno fulfilled the criteria scouts look for.

 

“It comes down to a couple of things: good hands – you usually have that as a shortstop – and arm strength, and (a catcher’s) arm slot usually matches the shortstop position as well,” general manager Ross Atkins said. “And then range of motion through the hips, which can be learned but is extremely important. Being able to get in that position where it’s comfortable for them is pivotal.”

 

Added Tinnish: “Obviously, it’s a hard position to find. It’s not just one or two things that you need to be able to do to catch. You need to be tough. You need to have a certain mental makeup that combines that toughness with intelligence. You need to have good hands. You need to have the right sort of durable but flexible body. (Moreno) checked all those boxes.”

 

When I met Moreno before a recent game, I thought he looked like an infielder. He’s officially listed at 5-foot-11, 160 pounds, which is probably closer to his signing weight. When he reported to Lansing in mid-May, he weighed in at 185. Still a teenager, he will probably bulk up a little more with help from the Jays’ conditioning and nutrition staff. Already this year he has shown increased power after hitting no homers in his first season and four last year.

 

“I don’t see him wearing down,” said Bone, his hitting coach. “He’s really a put-together, strong guy. With everything we do here with nutrition and with our high-performance people, I think he’s going to be able to hold up even though he has that smaller frame.”

 

When Moreno arrived from extended spring training, he immediately impressed his coaches with the way he handled the bat. Pitchers found it hard to throw a pitch past him. Not only does he have exceptional hand-eye coordination, but he also extends at-bats by spreading his stance and shortening his swing with two strikes.

 

“There’s never a count where I think he’s going to be out,” Bone said. “I can remember about five of his home runs where just battled through counts, where he was 0-2 and then fought back to a full count and then fouled off a few more pitches, and then – boom! – home run. He has an incredible ability to fight off all types of pitches. He’s an incredibly tough out and he’s just not afraid of anybody.”

 

At rookie-level Bluefield, where he finished last season, Moreno had a strikeout rate of 20 percent. This year it’s 10.7 percent.

 

In the afternoon before a recent game against the Lake County Captains in Eastlake, Ohio, Lansing skipper Dallas McPherson put his troops through a game-like drill with players at every post. At one point a batter lined out sharply to the shortstop and Moreno, leading off second, hustled back safely.

 

His teammates erupted in cheers. Moreno responded with a sheepish grin. He knew what that was about. He’d been doubled off a base a few times this season.

 

He is a free spirit, popular with his teammates. English is a challenge, but he understands most of what he hears. His closest English-speaking friend on the team is power prospect Griffin Conine, whom he met in extended spring training this year while he was awaiting assignment and Conine was serving a PED suspension.

 

Many of the players waiting for assignments in Dunedin were from Latin America, which gave Conine an opportunity to practise his Spanish. He took Spanish for two years in high school and three at Duke University.

 

“I know the language relatively well, not close to fluent by any means, but well enough that I can talk to them and understand what they’re talking about,” Conine said. “I met (Moreno) there and we kind of bonded.”

 

Moreno reported to Lansing on May 15. Conine arrived two weeks later. They picked up where they’d left off.

 

“He’s really funny,” Conine said. “He’s got a ton of good energy. Hyperactive, almost. We have five or six Spanish-speaking players and the positive energy they bring is really good. They laugh a lot.”

 

Moreno makes it easy to laugh along with him.

 

“Griff is a leader and brings people together, and then Gab is a younger guy and he brings that youthful joy,” Bone said. “They’re always joking around with each other.”

 

The Jays hope Moreno can sprinkle more English into his joviality, and into the serious side of his game too.

 

The team provides English classes for Spanish-speaking players in the minors, but classroom instruction can take them only so far. For a Latino catcher, English takes on greater importance. Speaking the language is only part of the challenge.

 

When I asked Moreno how his English is progressing, he began to answer in English before Pulido could translate the question.

 

“I feel pretty good,” he said. “I think I learn some words. But I need to learn more words.”

 

How about communicating with English-speaking pitchers during a game? Again, no translation required, and again, an answer in English.

 

“I understand (what they say). I know all the pitchers here. They know I don’t speak English. But I try to speak my English. When I go to the mound, I say, just throw strikes, some words like that.”

 

As time goes on, he will need more fluency and, equally important, greater comprehension, says McPherson, his manager.

 

“That’s definitely where he’s got to grow – the mental approach to calling a game, handling a staff, all that it takes on the field and in the meetings in being able to dissect reports and dissect hitters,” McPherson said. “I definitely think the language barrier hinders him, especially when he’s got a staff that’s mostly American guys.

 

“But he’s getting better. He does English classes several times a week. He’s getting to a comfort level where he’s able to use that, not just in a class setting but with other players, with the manager and pitching coaches. It’s definitely going to be a process.”

 

Day to day, how do you manage that process?

 

“The biggest way we manage it is to not run from it,” McPherson said. “We really make it a priority. We try to manage our expectations of him in that area, but we also have to get him out of his comfort zone and try to get him to understand how important it is for him down the road. That’s all going to start with buy-in, and he’s not going to buy in if he doesn’t understand how important it is.”

 

Moreno was on nobody’s top-prospects list a year ago. Now he’s in the Jays’ top 10. Despite being two years younger than the average player in the Midwest League, he has not had a batting slump, his average staying close to .300 all season.

 

With almost every prospect, however, a good season at Low-A leaves questions unanswered, and Moreno is no exception. More answers should come next year when he moves up to High-A Dunedin in a traditional pitching-rich league. But certainly, for his level, he has shown he’s a legit hitter with advancing skills behind the plate and a solid work ethic. That bodes well for a teenager who has been a pro catcher for less than three years.

 

“Everybody understands how important he is,” Bone said. “Gab is such a special talent that he’s getting some attention, and he’s earned it. He works hard. He listens. And he has a great support system within the organization. He understands that he’s cared for here and that we think he’s important. That makes it easy for him to continue to work hard.”

[Ray]

Seems like a very mature, down to earth, and good natured kid.

 

This stat especially seems bonkers:

 

He connects on 88 percent of his swings.

[jaysguy44]

Solid write up on Moreno.

 

Last time I checked though, he isn't the top ranked catcher in our system by BA. Kirk is at #6, Moreno is at #9.

[Krylian]

Solid write up on Moreno.

 

Last time I checked though, he isn't the top ranked catcher in our system by BA. Kirk is at #6, Moreno is at #9.

 

Depends on where you look. MLB Pipeline has Moreno at #9 and Kirk at #13.

[Krylian]

Kay is getting s*** done tonight.