Official MiLB/Prospects Thread

[Terminator]

2014 best Cap in the minors competition. Not sure if they have done recent ones.

http://www.milb.com/milb/fans/caps/y2014/

 

Salt Lake Bees have a better bee hat than the Burlington Bees. Lakeland Flying Tigers are terrible, they should be near the bottom. Fort Myers Miracle is a stupid name but their hat is really well done IMO.

[Laika]

Albuquerque Isotopes has to be the best baseball team name.

[Terminator]

Albuquerque Isotopes has to be the best baseball team name.

 

Yeah that's a cool name and hat. They do a good job.

[KingKat]

Love that Grasshopers logo.

[Brownie19]

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/blue-jays-prospect-jake-thomas-is-an-obp-machine/

 

Interesting article on Jake.

[TwistedLogic]

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/blue-jays-prospect-jake-thomas-is-an-obp-machine/

 

Interesting article on Jake.

 

Unfortunately for him, he has basically no power. I'm not sure what his defense is like; offensively, he gets on base but he's not doing anything else. A one dimensional 24 year old in A ball is probably not the kind of guy you want to put your hopes in.

 

Now if we're talking about non-prospects who are forcing people to take a look at them, Jason Leblebijian has been very convincing so far.

[Brownie19]

Unfortunately for him, he has basically no power. I'm not sure what his defense is like; offensively, he gets on base but he's not doing anything else. A one dimensional 24 year old in A ball is probably not the kind of guy you want to put your hopes in.

 

Now if we're talking about non-prospects who are forcing people to take a look at them, Jason Leblebijian has been very convincing so far.

 

Yeah I know - he's likely nothing, but it was an article about a BJ prospect, so I figured I'd post it. 187 wRC+ right now with a 30+ BB% rate is cool for now. Maybe he revamps his swing at some point to generate some power (ala Zobrist). Personally I love batters with control of the strike zone.

[P2F]

This serves as a reminder that Luis Robert is eligible to sign with a MLB club as soon as next Saturday.

 

The White Sox are said to be the front-runners to acquire his services.

 

"Because he’s eligible to sign in the current international free agent signing period, Robert will have an opportunity to ink a deal that isn’t limited by the new caps that will enter effect on July 2nd. But the youngster will be subject to the existing international rules, meaning certain clubs can’t offer him more than a $300K bonus while others would need to pay a 100% tax on any bonus money"

[John_Havok]

Yeah I know - he's likely nothing, but it was an article about a BJ prospect, so I figured I'd post it. 187 wRC+ right now with a 30+ BB% rate is cool for now. Maybe he revamps his swing at some point to generate some power (ala Zobrist). Personally I love batters with control of the strike zone.

 

Yeah I hear ya. I mentioned him the milb threads about 2 weeks ago for his obp.

 

Its impressive for sure, but higher level pitchers with better command won't be as likely to miss their spots so his plan on attacking only pitches in the zone he wants ..., will become much harder. Its great that he feels comfortable hitting with 2 strikes, because he will probably be doing it alot.

[Ray]

[jays4life19]

BA did a little write up on the top 10 international July 2nd prospects. They projected Pardinho to the Jays who has been discussed quite a bit already.

 

Eric Pardinho, rhp, Brazil

 

Paying big money for pitching is a tough bet to make on kids who are still 16. Historically, the overwhelming majority of the top bonuses for 16-year-old signings out of Latin America go to position players, a trend that will continue this year. The highest paid pitcher this year will likely be Pardinho, a 5-foot-9 Brazilian righthander who lacks much physical projec

image: http://www.baseballamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/3ds_bluejays81.jpg

 

tion but has advanced stuff and polish for his age. His fastball already sits in the low-90s and he can put hitters away with a swing-and-miss curveball, something he showed last summer at the COPABE 16U tournament in Panama when he overmatched the Dominican team with 14 strikeouts and one walk in six innings.

 

PROJECTED TEAM: BLUE JAYS

 

 

Read more at http://www.baseballamerica.com/international/ten-international-prospects-watch-july-2/#sXUhLKYuYZ7m6vd6.99

Edited May 15, 2017 by jays4life19

[Dr. Dinger]

From BP this morning, I think the first Bichette write-up of the season:

 

Bo Bichette, SS, Toronto Blue Jays (Low-A, Lansing): 3-5, R, 2B, RBI, 2 K

Bichette is torching the Midwest League so far this season, hitting over .350, and all that’s managed to do is force his career batting average below .400; so much for being a success. Seriously though, all he’s done is rake since debuting last summer, and while he will likely spend the bulk of this year in Low-A, I would expect him to start moving more rapidly as a 20-year-old next season.

[KingKat]

From BP this morning, I think the first Bichette write-up of the season:

 

Bo Bichette, SS, Toronto Blue Jays (Low-A, Lansing): 3-5, R, 2B, RBI, 2 K

Bichette is torching the Midwest League so far this season, hitting over .350, and all that’s managed to do is force his career batting average below .400; so much for being a success. Seriously though, all he’s done is rake since debuting last summer, and while he will likely spend the bulk of this year in Low-A, I would expect him to start moving more rapidly as a 20-year-old next season.

 

That pick looks so insanely good.

[Maahfaace]

From BP this morning, I think the first Bichette write-up of the season:

 

Bo Bichette, SS, Toronto Blue Jays (Low-A, Lansing): 3-5, R, 2B, RBI, 2 K

Bichette is torching the Midwest League so far this season, hitting over .350, and all that’s managed to do is force his career batting average below .400; so much for being a success. Seriously though, all he’s done is rake since debuting last summer, and while he will likely spend the bulk of this year in Low-A, I would expect him to start moving more rapidly as a 20-year-old next season.

 

I would hope him and Vlad are both in high A by mid season, with an AA promotion at the start of 2018. I want the Jays brass to push these kids.

[Ray]

Interesting comments I found while browsing /r/baseball about Tellez

 

http://i.imgur.com/UWx0muh.png

[GreekFatAss]

Jansen promoted to AA

[Maahfaace]

Jansen promoted to AA

 

Nice, I wonder if Max will catch alot more now.

[THANOS]

Jansen promoted to AA

 

Great news!!

[metafour]

Interesting comments I found while browsing /r/baseball about Tellez

 

Tellez's power has been nonexistent in AAA so far. The worry I have is that he's just a brute-strength power hitter, which means that he can hit the ball a long way when he runs into it, but at the MLB level its bat-speed over brute strength always. There are a lot of huge guys with brute strength power who get neutralized by advanced pitching and increased velocity. Its much harder to stop a power hitter who's power is drawn from elite bat speed. The whole "he can hit the ball out of the stadium" thing doesn't mean much if he struggles to actually barrel up balls consistently.

[GreekFatAss]

It's hard to hit consistently with such awful swing mechanics.

[Jonn]

I think people forget Tellez was a 30th round pick. Obviously expectations has picked up for him but he's played himself into those conversations. If he turns into something great. But it was obviously a worthwhile gamble and he's still so young to already advanced this far.

 

Even if he has to repeat AAA he would still be one of the youngest players in AAA or AA. They have plenty of time to make the adjustments. Power usually comes last. Only thing I care about is consistent hard contact and getting on base. He's walking a lot and his strikeout rate is not alarming.

[Ray]

I think people forget Tellez was a 30th round pick. Obviously expectations has picked up for him but he's played himself into those conversations. If he turns into something great. But it was obviously a worthwhile gamble and he's still so young to already advanced this far.

 

Even if he has to repeat AAA he would still be one of the youngest players in AAA or AA. They have plenty of time to make the adjustments. Power usually comes last. Only thing I care about is consistent hard contact and getting on base. He's walking a lot and his strikeout rate is not alarming.

 

The whole 30th round pick is deceiving. Tellez was ranked as the 59th-best player available by Baseball America coming into the 2013 draft. He was one of the better bats available and a consensus Top 100 guy. He just dropped tremendously in the draft because everyone was convinced he was going to USC.

[Jonn]

The whole 30th round pick is deceiving. Tellez was ranked as the 59th-best player available by Baseball America coming into the 2013 draft. He was one of the better bats available and a consensus Top 100 guy. He just dropped tremendously in the draft because everyone was convinced he was going to USC.

 

That's true as well but we still stole him in the 30th round. Convinced him to sign. Obviously the draft is a little different now but they took advantage of a clear oversight. I wish they would have gave Kris Bryant what he wanted lol.

[metafour]

That's true as well but we still stole him in the 30th round. Convinced him to sign. Obviously the draft is a little different now but they took advantage of a clear oversight. I wish they would have gave Kris Bryant what he wanted lol.

 

It wasn't an "oversight"; we were able to sign Tellez (and Brentz) because we failed to sign Bickford, not because we executed some advanced strategy. Obviously it isn't a very sound strategy to fail to sign the 10th player drafted just so that you can get a ~fringe Top 100 guy or two later on. The fact that we ultimately didn't have a first round pick that year makes expectations for Tellez real as he quite obviously wasn't just a "bonus" player.

[Jonn]

It wasn't an "oversight"; we were able to sign Tellez (and Brentz) because we failed to sign Bickford, not because we executed some advanced strategy. Obviously it isn't a very sound strategy to fail to sign the 10th player drafted just so that you can get a ~fringe Top 100 guy or two later on. The fact that we ultimately didn't have a first round pick that year makes expectations for Tellez real as he quite obviously wasn't just a "bonus" player.

 

Well we got a first round pick the following draft for not signing Bickford so it's not all on Tellez.

[Angrioter]

Well we got a first round pick the following draft for not signing Bickford so it's not all on Tellez.

 

Brady Singer the next Strasburg

[Grant77]

Well we got a first round pick the following draft for not signing Bickford so it's not all on Tellez.

 

They had earmarked some over-slot money for Bickford and sandbagged the subsequent rounds to an extent in order to get some extra money. I think that's what he meant.

[metafour]

Well we got a first round pick the following draft for not signing Bickford so it's not all on Tellez.

 

Sure, but there is also a premium on present value (versus future value) when it comes to draft picks. Ultimately, failing to sign Bickford didn't turn out to be a huge mistake, I'm just saying that this was literally the reason why we were able to sign Tellez, and that he therefore shouldn't be seen as "a $20 bill found under the seat cushions". Teams draft throw-away guys like Tellez in the ~30th round every year; it takes special circumstance (like not signing your 1st round pick, which RARELY happens) to actually get those guys signed.

[43211234]

Interesting comments I found while browsing /r/baseball about Tellez

 

http://i.imgur.com/UWx0muh.png

 

Ball just reaching its peak as it exits the stadium.

 

Not remotely exaggerating though!

[Laika]

Ball just reaching its peak as it exits the stadium.

 

Not remotely exaggerating though!

 

literally 550 feet