Official MiLB/Prospects Thread

[Pendleton]

Chad Dallas AA debut going really well.

 

6IP 1H 1BB 9K so far.

 

[John_Havok]

Nice tight slider there

[Olerud363]

Nice tight slider there

 

BIG UPDATE of all the new dark years players that will lead us in the mid to late 2020s

 

Buffalo

 

Rafael Lantiqa 25 - Reed Johnson/Kevin Pillar type - 4/5 .330 .444 .541 like .260 .340 .450 career

Schneider 2b 24 - 3 walks, .250 .340 .440 type career and this year

Howritz - 2/4 walk , .318 .440 .420 this year .300 .400 .440ish career LYLE OVERBAY TYPE POWER WILL COME

Clement 1/1 age 27 like .900 OPS and 2 strikeouts (maybe 4)

 

New Hampshire

 

Martinez - like 3rd 0/4 night in a row after some 2 homer games. f*** you. Only gets homers never singles,

Palmegiani 23 2/3 or something last night .252 .407 .430 this year .248 .363 .469 career

Dylan Rock?? 24 but 2022 8th round pick, already in aa .297 .343 .500 this year, bad last year, interesting thing is he got to aa real fast (though not real young)

 

Pitcher - Dallas, good game, good stats, know nothing about him other than that (Other smarter posters talk about him above)

 

Vancouver

 

Rainer 22 years old, .304 .388 .422

DeJusus 21 years old, .202 .266 .377, .262 .360 .424 career, at least he is not hitting .140 like Martinez (but wait til aa if he gets there)!

Tirotta 24 (elderly) .325 .418 .597, .256 .358 .416 career

 

Quick note - in my stats scouting opinion Dylan Rock is a way better prospect, maybe an actual prospect but Tirotta isn't despite impressive numbers.

Tirotta has lots of at bats to prove he sucks, Jays (presumably) saw something in Rock that they threw him right to aa and he's holding his own and

hasn't shown he sucks at any level (yet). Rock may suck soon but for now he's interesting.

 

Kasevich - no idea if he can play short well. 4/4 up to .283 .382 .304. No power at all. Hardly strikes out. Can he be a David Eckstein type?

 

 

Dunnedin

 

Peyton Williams .282 .382 .469 on the year big dude 22 years old

 

Tucker Toman - hitting .239 .371 .342 poverty class version of Jackson Holliday. Nice walk rate. I heard he has some warning track power.

 

 

Good news is Jackson Holliday doesn't have much room to get better, he's already a .400 .500 .800 hitter at about the level of Juan Soto and did Juan Soto ever get better after 19? Did A-Rod get better after his batting title at age 20?

 

So they could call Jackson up right now, and he'd hit .320 .420 .500 and the Orioles would win 110 games, and maybe he'll do that but Tucker, unlike Jackson Holliday, Tucker Toman could get better, could improve. So f*** you Jackson Holliday! In 2027 when you win the triple crown and become the first 50/50 guy andlead the Orioles to their 5th straight division title breaking their own wins record and becoming the first team to win 120+, I'm routing for a wacky 2027 'Dark Years' Jays team, to come back from a 68 win 2026, sneak into the playoffs with a 84-78 record and a 690-720 win differential, led by Roden, Dylan Rock, Horwitz and Lantiqua, and Tucker Toman who hit .238 .320 .391 but somehow gets the winning hit in a freakish playoff series and sends Jackson home sad

[gruber92]

Clement was pulled early today for some reason. Maybe Espinal to go to the IL and Clement gets called up?

[John_Havok]

Clement was pulled early today for some reason. Maybe Espinal to go to the IL and Clement gets called up?

 

Possible, but would require someone getting DFAd or outrighted. Clement is on a minor league deal.

[Spanky__99]

Possible, but would require someone getting DFAd or outrighted. Clement is on a minor league deal.

 

And they aren't doing that for Clement, it'd be Lopez or Barger.

[John_Havok]

And they aren't doing that for Clement, it'd be Lopez or Barger.

 

Well, I mean they could DFA Leo Jimenez or something, easily the biggest limp noodle bat in the system. He makes Espinal look like Barry Bonds

[Spanky__99]

Well, I mean they could DFA Leo Jimenez or something, easily the biggest limp noodle bat in the system. He makes Espinal look like Barry Bonds

 

Too young, he'd get claimed and dropped in someone else's system for free, nah.

[Terminator]

Well, I mean they could DFA Leo Jimenez or something, easily the biggest limp noodle bat in the system. He makes Espinal look like Barry Bonds

 

Yeah maybe not Jimenez but they can find room if they have to.

[John_Havok]

Too young, he'd get claimed and dropped in someone else's system for free, nah.

 

Probably, but is a guy who’s only skill is defense really all that much to lose sleep about?

 

Actually f*** that, Tampa would take him and turn him into Wander Franco with the bat with Ozzie Smith defense in a month.

[John_Havok]

Yeah maybe not Jimenez but they can find room if they have to.

 

Well, the only DFA options are Jimenez, Horwitz, Heinemen, Orelvis, Lopez and Barger if we assume the don’t want to punt any arms, which they shouldn’t. As much as Biggio has sucked, he’s not getting DFA but should absolutely be headed to Buffalo for a while just to get his head straight.

 

Orelvis and Barger would be idiotic to cut, and Heineman is our fat catcher insurance. Pretty much leaves Lopez, Jimenez and Horwitz to get the axe if they wanted Clement up.

 

Lopez would be silly to cut even with his current struggles, Horwitz…if he develops even average power could actually be useful. Jimenez would make the most sense honestly.

 

They’re probably just gonna bring up Lopez and sit him the entire time and maybe use him as a pinch runner occasionally.

[Terminator]

Why are you so hellbent on keeping all the pitchers? Surely Zach Thompson and his career ERA of over 6 in AAA (it's almost 8 this year) would warrant some consideration?

[John_Havok]

Why are you so hellbent on keeping all the pitchers? Surely Zach Thompson and his career ERA of over 6 in AAA (it's almost 8 this year) would warrant some consideration?

 

Pitchers break alarmingly often, so it’s usually smarter to keep them around just in case. But yeah, Thompson isn’t anyone to worry about losing either

 

Honestly I’m just bored, the entire topic probably isn’t worth the thought we’ve already given it

[Terminator]

Bowden Francis is back and threw 3 innings in a rehab start in Dunedin. Never did see what his injury was but he was interesting when we first traded for him, then he sucked in AAA but then had a really good winter where he seemingly saw an uptick in velo and stuff.

 

If one of our starters gets hurt he might be our best bet right now. Not on the 40-man though.

[John_Havok]

The cupboard is thin that’s for sure.

[Spanky__99]

Bowden Francis is back and threw 3 innings in a rehab start in Dunedin. Never did see what his injury was but he was interesting when we first traded for him, then he sucked in AAA but then had a really good winter where he seemingly saw an uptick in velo and stuff.

 

If one of our starters gets hurt he might be our best bet right now. Not on the 40-man though.

 

He had a decent 2nd half too.

[Terminator]

He had a decent 2nd half too.

 

You're right I just looked. His K rate went way up in the 2nd half of last year as well as in the Puerto Rican winter league. In the limited innings this year it's also up.

 

Maybe he caught on to the sweeper craze or something.

[Spanky__99]

You're right I just looked. His K rate went way up in the 2nd half of last year as well as in the Puerto Rican winter league. In the limited innings this year it's also up.

 

Maybe he caught on to the sweeper craze or something.

 

Velo's back, bro... he was hitting 97 in ST this year, remember?

 

https://www.sportsnet.ca/mlb/article...n-puerto-rico/

 

DUNEDIN, Fla. — Pitching in Puerto Rico this winter, Bowden Francis experienced some pretty wild stuff. There was a brawl in the stands one night. There were the hostile crowds trying to throw off his delivery with air horns. There was the mid-game delay when the mascot for Francis’s Criollos de Caguas got into it with the opposition’s dugout.

 

“There was always something crazy going on,” Francis says. “It was just another thing to work on — the mental game. Getting in your zone, getting in your Zen. Just finding success through those loud noises, those external things that are trying to knock you off your game. It’s just about staying inside and not letting those external factors affect the task at hand.

 

“You just try to breathe and be present. Because if you’re worried about all the stuff around you, you’re out of the game already.”

 

Francis has been thinking deeply about his game like this for some time. His pre-game routine includes mindfulness exercises and focused breathing. He’s been known to burn sage at his locker and walk barefoot into centre field on start days to meditate in the sun. On the mound, he utilizes breathwork techniques to control his heart rate when things aren’t going his way.

 

It’s all meant to help him remain stoic and poised in competition, performing with consistent mettle regardless of whether he’s striking out the side or giving up back-to-back bombs. But coming off a rough 2022 in which he ran a 6.59 ERA over 98.1 triple-A innings and was outrighted off Toronto’s 40-man roster, Francis wanted to delve deeper into the chaos. And the Puerto Rican Winter League provided a fitting environment.

 

Of course, Francis wanted to keep working on some mechanical things, too. Amidst his 2022 struggles, he’d gotten into the lab with Blue Jays developers to search for the tick or two of fastball velocity he’d lost from the time he entered pro ball in 2017. Using motion capture technology, the Blue Jays analyzed Francis biomechanically and found the issue. It was in his hips.

 

“We worked on it a lot during the year. I needed to stop being so linear. I wasn’t staying closed, I wasn’t coiling my hips towards second base,” Francis says. “I wasn’t using the slope of the mound. Now, I’m riding it down, getting into my hips at the right time. It’s all timing.”

 

To help instill the movement patterns he was trying to learn, the Blue Jays had Francis work with a Core Velocity Belt. The training tool uses a harness wrapped around the hips, attached to a long, kinetic bungee cord anchored to the ground, to force athletes to resist being pulled in one direction or another.

 

The more a pitcher practises their throwing motion while countering that tug, the more their muscle memory adapts to move that way without the external drag in games. It’s the same tool Lucas Giolito, Dylan Cease, and Carlos Rodon have credited for helping fine-tune their mechanics and juice velocity.

 

“I’d seen it before on social media. I know it’s really popular with the White Sox guys. So, I gave it a shot. And it definitely helped a lot. It let me find different ranges of motion,” Francis says. “It’s kind of like what a hitter would do as they coil and load up to swing. I used to be just up-and-down, straight to home. Now, my lower body is going towards second base a lot more. I’m just more collected over my back leg.

 

“It took a bunch of reps. Like, a bunch of reps. But I finally got to a place where I found that groove without thinking about it. You can’t think about it. You’ve got to just feel it.”

 

And once you feel it, velocity follows. Francis was operating in the 90-94 m.p.h. range last spring, topping out at 93 while making his MLB debut from Toronto’s bullpen in April. But towards the end of the season with Buffalo, he was consistently working between 91 and 95. And in Puerto Rico, that velocity range ticked up to 92-96.

 

In a short relief appearance last Tuesday against the Yankees, Francis sat 95 and reached 96.5. Four days later, facing New York again as a starter, Francis sat 94 but still hit 95 repeatedly over his three innings. Of the 48 pitches he threw, 36 were fastballs — 9 of which generated a swinging strike.

 

“His velo’s been really good the entire spring,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said after Francis’s start against the Yankees. “The way he was coming after hitters, getting through the lineup a second time — I just loved it. Loved the conviction he was throwing with.”

 

That fastball-heavy approach is one Francis honed over the winter in Puerto Rico, where he was determined to challenge hitters with his best pitch until they proved they could hit it. More often than not, they couldn’t. Francis pitched to a 1.51 ERA over 35.2 winter ball innings, striking out 47 while walking only 9.

 

“Confidence is a big thing,” Francis says. “Going out there, having fun, being myself out there was a great time. It just helped me gain confidence in my pitches, confidence in myself. Having feel. Not taking that time off in the off-season, I feel like I have an advantage coming into camp with feel for my pitches. Especially with the heater.”

 

Francis’s fastball gets decent ride and a good amount of vertical movement, which lets him run it up-and-in to right-handed hitters. And he releases it from a three-quarter arm slot — unusually low for a pitcher of his height — which creates deception and perceived velocity for hitters unaccustomed to seeing pitches flying at them from the lanes he uses. It’s similar to how Chris Bassitt has leveraged his own unorthodox release to generate consistently weak contact with his deep arsenal.

 

Organizationally, the Blue Jays are perpetually on the hunt for pitchers with unique fastballs. Downhill sinkers thrown from unusually high angles. Gravity-fighting four-seamers riding off back-spin. Ones that approach the plate on a weird plane, confusing the eyes of hitters in the two-tenths of a second they have to make a swing decision. That can be enough to move pitches off barrels and soften the high exit velocities that create damage.

 

But velocity helps, too. And now that Francis is putting some legitimate heat behind his unique fastball, the Blue Jays are hopeful he can put last season’s struggles behind him.

 

The organization has been experimenting this spring with using one-time starters like Francis — think Thomas Hatch, Trent Thornton, Nate Pearson — in hybrid bulk roles that see them pitching multiple innings at various points in ballgames. Opening for a couple frames; taking the third trip through a lineup behind a starter; maybe the occasional shorter stint in the sixth or seventh if matchups make it particularly appealing.

 

It's a valuable role in today’s matchup-driven game featuring shorter starts and more dynamic bullpens. And it’s one Francis could potentially fill at the major-league level if his fastball continues playing as well as it has. He plans to use it anywhere from 65-70 per cent of the time this season, working his big, mid-70’s curveball off of it. He has a high-70’s slider, too. But his fastball’s been so overpowering this spring, he hasn’t had much need for it.

 

It's the best weapon a pitcher can have — an effective fastball. Somewhere along the line, Francis lost what made his play best. But through biomechanical labs, countless reps attached to a bungee cord, and winter ball’s hostile environment, he feels like he’s discovering it again. No one would ever accuse Francis of not thinking deeply enough. But this season, he figures simplicity is the way forward.

 

“I feel it on the mound. I feel gathered. I feel slow. I feel relaxed. Until that last second, when I just exhale, and slap it down,” Francis says. “I’m just trying to challenge hitters, attack them. If I can throw with full intent, I know the outcome will be in my favour.”

[Daniel Labude]

Orelvis homered in the first inning of the double header, got intentionally walked twice in extras of the first game

[Jonn]

Orelvis homered in the first inning of the double header, got intentionally walked twice in extras of the first game

 

Intentional walks should be illegal in the minors. Players are there to hit in develop. Shits dumb lol

[Daniel Labude]

Intentional walks should be illegal in the minors. Players are there to hit in develop. Shits dumb lol

 

Yep

 

Also, 0-1 with a lineout to RF (HR was to RF in Game 1). and a BB in game 2. The walk came on 6 pitches....he didn't swing at any

[Krylian]

Intentional walks should be illegal in the minors. Players are there to hit in develop. Shits dumb lol

 

They're also there to learn how to win

[Jonn]

They're also there to learn how to win

 

Sure but I just don't really think you need to be intentionally walking dudes at the minor league level.

[max silver]

Orelvis has had interesting results at the plate over the last few weeks. His power has re-emerged but his offensive results are nearly entirely driven by the home run ball. Over his last 17 games results are as follows:

 

.220/.303/.729

1.032 OPS/159 WRC+

9.9% BB 24.0 K%

.118 BABIP (actually an improvement on his season's rate)

 

2 1B

1 2B

1 3B

9 HR

[Pendleton]

 

Found this sort of interesting. Harrison was drafted as an RP last year in the 9th round. Fairly highly regarded as a reliever having been ranked 175th by BA, but zero starts in three seasons at Long Beach State.

 

Made his first 19 pro appearances from the pen (nine last year and ten this season) but got stretched out to make his first career start on Sunday. Five nearly perfect innings allowing just one soft ground ball single.

 

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/devereaux-harrison/sa3020259/stats?position=P

[John_Havok]

 

Found this sort of interesting. Harrison was drafted as an RP last year in the 9th round. Fairly highly regarded as a reliever having been ranked 175th by BA, but zero starts in three seasons at Long Beach State.

 

Made his first 19 pro appearances from the pen (nine last year and ten this season) but got stretched out to make his first career start on Sunday. Five nearly perfect innings allowing just one soft ground ball single.

 

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/devereaux-harrison/sa3020259/stats?position=P

 

This seems to be something the Jays are doing as an org in the recent drafts. Picking up college relievers with big stuff and working to switch some of them back into starters. It's not a bad idea given that there's only so many SP positions in the NCAA and a lot of guys end up in the pen that probably could very well have been decent starters through college.

[AMS528]

Have not been paying super close attention so far this year, but having done a run through on each Jays affiliate, this has got to be the most depressing start to a minor league season in recent history? Tiedemann aside there's maybe a couple of guys having ok seasons. Horowitz and Palmegiani and outside of that it's complete misery out there.

 

Barger, Barriera, Jimenez, Lopez, Toman, Doughty, Kasevich, Zulueta, Robberse, Martinez (Gabriel and Orelvis), Santos, Dasan Brown, Macko. Practically every single name you could have considered in the top 20 Jays prospects are having anemic seasons. A couple of guys like Barriera are on small sample sizes, but it's crazy how there's practically no one you can point to that's impressing.

 

What is going on with the development? Another year of having one guy on the top 100 lists bodes poorly for the future. Especially when we're going to need to fill OF positions, and probably 3B.

[Orgfiller]

This seems to be something the Jays are doing as an org in the recent drafts. Picking up college relievers with big stuff and working to switch some of them back into starters. It's not a bad idea given that there's only so many SP positions in the NCAA and a lot of guys end up in the pen that probably could very well have been decent starters through college.

 

Yeah it's not a terribly unheard of strategy. Off the top of my head I can think of Tony Gonsolin of the Dodgers who was drafted and initially developed as a reliever from 2016-17, then they liked the stuff and stretched him out into a starter in 2018 and the results just kept coming, and I believe the stuff eventually ticked up too - granted, this is the Dodgers pitching/player development we're talking about, so it's not like every team can execute it this flawlessly.

 

I think you can do that if you didn't just draft some random power fastball/slider guy with no other offerings or feel to pitching. I'm sure most guys in college at the highest level, even relievers, have played around with 2 or 3 secondaries. The ones that don't probably throw 100 with a passable breaking ball as their secondary and have no idea where the ball is going but it's good enough to overmatch college hitters - guys like Ben Joyce would fall into this bucket.

[Terminator]

I think Brett Cecil was a college closer and the Jays turned him into a starter before turning him back into a reliever.

[Spanky__99]

I think Brett Cecil was a college closer and the Jays turned him into a starter before turning him back into a reliever.

 

Indeed.