Official MiLB/Prospects Thread

[goldbug103]

Can Spencer Horowitz be anything ? He bats left which is something the line up desperately needs.

[MikeM3]

Trading Groshans for a 1.35 K/9 reliever is something.

[John_Havok]

Can Spencer Horowitz be anything ? He bats left which is something the line up desperately needs.

 

TBD. He’s getting a good challenge at AAA after a hot first few games there. More of a doubles power guy right now with no defensive home other than 1b. They’re trying to get him more games in LF to see if that’s even a possibility, but…still playing the vast majority of games at 1b.

 

Good eye at the plate though, still taking a good amount of walks. Sucks vs lefty pitching. Kills RHP. From everything I’ve read on him he’s a guy who makes very good swing decisions and make solid contact a lot, just doesn’t get the ball elevated as often as he could. Line drive gap to gap guy.

Edited August 28, 2022 by John_Havok

[Krylian]

Trading Groshans for a 1.35 K/9 reliever is something.

 

It's too bad that's all they got for him.

[Olerud363]

Can Spencer Horowitz be anything ? He bats left which is something the line up desperately needs.

 

He seems to have stalled at aaa and is hitting for no power, so right now... no. You never know for sure but next year he will be 25.

 

Next guy up is Addison Barger. Sadly with all these second tier prospects it's just a game of attrition. Barger looks good right now but who knows if he can handle triple a and then the majors.

[Olerud363]

Groshans already has 2 HR in Jacksonville. What the f***.

 

Who knows. Regardless of what Groshan's is doing in the minors and what he was traded for the development of Martin/Groshans/Moreno/Pearson and Martinez has added to a frustrating year and a half.

 

If you told me last June that Martin/Groshans/Moreno's homeruns in 2022 + Pearson's major league innings would be like 6 and Martinez's average would be .198... that would be terrible...

 

At least we traded them just in time for valuable assets... lol.

[gruber92]

TBD. He’s getting a good challenge at AAA after a hot first few games there. More of a doubles power guy right now with no defensive home other than 1b. They’re trying to get him more games in LF to see if that’s even a possibility, but…still playing the vast majority of games at 1b.

 

Good eye at the plate though, still taking a good amount of walks. Sucks vs lefty pitching. Kills RHP. From everything I’ve read on him he’s a guy who makes very good swing decisions and make solid contact a lot, just doesn’t get the ball elevated as often as he could. Line drive gap to gap guy.

 

Bring him in. He can't be worse than Biggio offensively.

[John_Havok]

Bring him in. He can't be worse than Biggio offensively.

 

I think it’s decidedly possible he could be worse than a league average bat who can at least play a few different positions.

 

Either way, 1b and DH is taken, so unless you figure a gap to gap lefty who needs to sit on the bench all game and only get 1 pinch hitting appearance per game at best is an ideal solution to Biggio, who at least has some defensive utility and is already a league average bat with known upside…

 

Yeah makes total sense.

[The Cats Ass]

From Keith Law.

 

The Blue Jays took juco lefty Ricky Tiedemann with their third-round pick in the 2021 draft, their second selection because they lost their second-round pick for signing George Springer. Tiedemann went undrafted out of high school in 2020, went to Golden West College to try to improve his standing, and fared somewhat better. But it was only after signing that his velocity started to take off, as he would sit in the upper 90s in two-to-three-inning stints with a power slider.

 

Since a mid-July promotion to Double A, Tiedemann has worked in three-inning stints as the Jays try to manage his workload – and, I think, perhaps to help him deal with some fatigue. He threw three quick innings on Friday night at Somerset, but his stuff was down and his command was way off. Tiedemann topped out at 96 mph and was mostly 93-94 mph with a huge, sweepy slider at 78-81 mph that hitters couldn’t touch, as well as an 82-84 mph changeup that’s an above-average pitch when he finishes it properly, although he had several that got away from him. He threw 39 pitches, just 21 for strikes, and the Somerset hitters offered at several of those that weren’t actually near the strike zone.

 

Tiedemann’s delivery is rough for a starter. He starts on the extreme first base side of the rubber, and finishes on that same side of the mound, with a slightly low 3/4 slot that gives him great angle to the slider and makes him very tough for left-handed hitters to pick up, but that all makes it hard for him to locate his fastball to his glove side. He can sweep that slider down and in to righties and get a ton of chases there even from big-league right-handed hitters, but they’ll also be able to creep up on the plate because he’s not going to get the fastball or change to the inner third against them.

 

If Tiedemann’s velocity is down just because it’s been a long season for him, and he’ll get back to 97-plus next year, then this is top-of-the-rotation stuff, with three pitches you could comfortably grade as 55 (above-average) or better. The delivery works against him though, in control and command. His whole package on Friday reminded me a lot of when I saw Andrew Miller as an amateur, another lefty with a slightly lower slot and a wipeout slider that killed left- and right-handed hitters. Miller ended up in relief for a few reasons, but one major one was that he couldn’t land the slider for strikes enough to adjust when better hitters started laying off of it. I’m not consigning Tiedemann to the bullpen in the future, but I would like to see what happens if the Jays moved him more to the center of the rubber so he could utilize the whole strike zone.

 

• Orelvis Martinez set a New Hampshire club record this year with 28 homers, but it has come at a cost – the 20-year-old shortstop has a .277 OBP, and even that is boosted by 10 HBP. He’s a lot like Javy Báez was at that age … or, now, I guess … in that he has no apparent plan at the plate, and several times in the two games I saw it appeared that he’d decided whether to swing before the pitcher even released the ball. He swung at the first pitch three times in four plate appearances on Tuesday, putting it in play twice; and then did so twice in five plate appearances on Friday, along with a 3-0 hack where he grounded out on what I think was ball four. As I write this, he is 0 for 16 in the series against Somerset, with seven strikeouts and one walk, which came on five pitches with four nowhere near the zone. If you’re looking for a positive, though, he was better at shortstop than I expected (in one game, moving to DH in the second), with at least a 60 arm.

 

• Addison Barger was Toronto’s sixth-round pick back in 2018, signing for just $271,000 despite a commitment to the University of Florida, and he’s been one of the Jays’ biggest breakout prospects this year with a .304/.369/.546 line between High A and Double A, including 21 homers. He’s gotten much stronger over the last year-plus, and the power is legit, at least against right-handed pitchers (he has 19 of his homers off right-handed pitchers). He’s not a shortstop, but could probably fill in there as a backup, and is most likely a strong utility infielder with some chance he could develop into a starter at third or second, or at least the heavy side of a platoon at either spot.

 

• Right-hander Adam Kloffenstein was the Jays’ third-round pick in 2018, receiving an over-slot bonus just under $2.5 million. The high school teammate of now-traded first-rounder Jordan Groshans, Kloffenstein has seen his stuff back up so much that at this point I don’t think he’s a prospect even as a reliever. He’s down to 90-91 mph without life or movement on the pitch, and has a fringy slider in the mid-80s, which explains his 6-plus ERA in Double A this year.

[Ray]

Oof. That scouting report on Kloffenstein is brutal.

 

I remember he was touching close to 100 in Vancouver a couple years ago. Wonder what happened with his development.

[Laika]

hahahaha woof

[Spanky__99]

Oof. That scouting report on Kloffenstein is brutal.

 

I remember he was touching close to 100 in Vancouver a couple years ago. Wonder what happened with his development.

 

Yeah, that's about as rough as it gets.

[The Cats Ass]

Wonder if Kloffenstein gets taken in the rule 5 this year.

[Laika]

doubtful

[The Cats Ass]

Guess he was sitting 91-93 last year as well. So this isn't just a 1 year thing.

[Spanky__99]

Guess he was sitting 91-93 last year as well. So this isn't just a 1 year thing.

 

He's kind of always sat there now that I check on him in BA rankings, he's topped out at 96/97 last two seasons, but he's dropped off the top 30 from our team rankings, he's just simply busted it seems. He was 17 preseason.

[Terminator]

Future superstar Nick Frasso is now a 23 year old AA pitcher after being promoted. Congrats to him though he'll soon be a 24 year old AA pitcher after his birthday in a month and a half.

 

Anyway, the future first ballot Hall of Famer celebrated by walking 4 guys in 2 innings. Looks like 21-23 year old players lay off his sliders better than the 19 year olds he's been facing all year. I would also like to congratulate him on throwing for more than 40 innings this year. He hasn't done that since 2019 when he was a college sophomore. I don't think he'll set a new career high of 60+ innings as it looks like he still has his training wheels on. Regardless, it's going to be fun watching his career (fail to) unfold. Go Nick!

[BlueBaller]

Future superstar Nick Frasso is now a 23 year old AA pitcher after being promoted. Congrats to him though he'll soon be a 24 year old AA pitcher after his birthday in a month and a half.

 

Anyway, the future first ballot Hall of Famer celebrated by walking 4 guys in 2 innings. Looks like 21-23 year old players lay off his sliders better than the 19 year olds he's been facing all year. I would also like to congratulate him on throwing for more than 40 innings this year. He hasn't done that since 2019 when he was a college sophomore. I don't think he'll set a new career high of 60+ innings as it looks like he still has his training wheels on. Regardless, it's going to be fun watching his career (fail to) unfold. Go Nick!

LoL

[Blazeit420]

Doughty another HR. 6 on the season now.

 

.303/.418/.652, 6 HR, 22 RBI, 15/9 K/BB in 17 games

[Eat My Shatkins]

Small sample size of 62 ABs but Gabriel Martinez is putting up better numbers at high than low A so far. Had a double and a homer today, OPS over 1.000

[Spanky__99]

Small sample size of 62 ABs but Gabriel Martinez is putting up better numbers at high than low A so far. Had a double and a homer today, OPS over 1.000

 

He's got plenty of helium lately...

 

Ranked Toronto Blue Jays #14 prospect in-season in 2022

BA Grade: 50/Extreme

 

May Update: Signed out of Venezuela in 2019, the 19-year-old Martinez has impressed scouts with his bat speed and feel to hit. There's projectable power in his frame and good barrel control. He shows above-average bat-to-ball skills, but his approach can get aggressive at times as he's prone to expand the zone. He has enough bat-to-ball skills and power to get by with a certain level of chase, as he's able to make contact with pitches on the fringes of the zone. He's a corner outfield-only player with average defensive skills, and is most comfortable in left field. It's a profile where he'll have to hit but he has the baseline bat-to-ball skills and bat speed to make it work.

[Spanky__99]

Future superstar Nick Frasso is now a 23 year old AA pitcher after being promoted. Congrats to him though he'll soon be a 24 year old AA pitcher after his birthday in a month and a half.

 

Anyway, the future first ballot Hall of Famer celebrated by walking 4 guys in 2 innings. Looks like 21-23 year old players lay off his sliders better than the 19 year olds he's been facing all year. I would also like to congratulate him on throwing for more than 40 innings this year. He hasn't done that since 2019 when he was a college sophomore. I don't think he'll set a new career high of 60+ innings as it looks like he still has his training wheels on. Regardless, it's going to be fun watching his career (fail to) unfold. Go Nick!

 

[Deadpool]

He's got plenty of helium lately...

 

That profile makes him sound like a Teo replacement...

[Spanky__99]

That profile makes him sound like a Teo replacement...

 

If he makes the transition, of course, but similar, yes.

[Krylian]

Oof. That scouting report on Kloffenstein is brutal.

 

I remember he was touching close to 100 in Vancouver a couple years ago. Wonder what happened with his development.

 

I don't remember him getting close to 100. Yikes. 96 is the biggest number I ever remember hearing. But even that's quite a drop to where he is now.

[Ray]

I don't remember him getting close to 100. Yikes. 96 is the biggest number I ever remember hearing. But even that's quite a drop to where he is now.

 

I went to a couple games in Vancouver the year after he was drafted and the stadium gun flashed 100 a couple times. It was likely juiced, but he was definitely sitting 96 mph at that point.

[Krylian]

I went to a couple games in Vancouver the year after he was drafted and the stadium gun flashed 100 a couple times. It was likely juiced, but he was definitely sitting 96 mph at that point.

 

Wouldn't surprise me if it's announced he has some sort of surgery in the offseason. Dropping that much velocity I'm thinking is something wrong physically.

[keggy]

Saucedo is back to abusing AAA hitters. If he's healthy he might be a better fit for September than Merryweather or Pop.

[Jays333]

Is Pearson one of the biggest disappointments league wide in the last few years?

[Laika]

Is Pearson one of the biggest disappointments league wide in the last few years?

 

sure but there are lots of top prospects who don't produce

 

Bart, Adell, Kelenic, Whitley, McKay, Pache, Kieboom..... these are just a few examples of highly ranked players from Pearson's "class" who have been mostly useless.