Blue Jays Minor League Highlights Thread

[max silver]

1 hour ago, Brownie19 said:

That helps, as Jake Cook is off to a brutal start.

I'm not terribly worried about Cook as he's just getting his feet wet as a first year professional and missed the first month of the season due to injury. I recall the goal with Cook was to unlock some impact with the bat and as such there are bound to be some growing pains as he adjusts to a retooled swing.

[Brownie19]

7 minutes ago, max silver said:

I'm not terribly worried about Cook as he's just getting his feet wet as a first year professional and missed the first month of the season due to injury. I recall the goal with Cook was to unlock some impact with the bat and as such there are bound to be some growing pains as he adjusts to a retooled swing.

Unfortunately, I think there's a high probability that Cook is a bust.  He seemed like a swing at upside, given his athleticism.  The athlete is so good that we'll "fix him" and make him a ball player.  Similar to Anthony Alford perhaps (although he was pre-occupied playing football and the hope was he'd become a ball player once he quit football).

I would have said this before he played any games.  Obviously far too early to declare he's a bust, but he's a high risk profile as someone who didn't have a ton of success in College.

Good news is he also has a relatively high floor as his CF defense alone might drag him to the majors ala Anthony Gose (who's still trying to make it as a pitcher - he's in AAA for KC at age 35, still trying to live the dream).

At least his name isn't Anthony.

[max silver]

1 hour ago, Brownie19 said:

Unfortunately, I think there's a high probability that Cook is a bust.  He seemed like a swing at upside, given his athleticism.  The athlete is so good that we'll "fix him" and make him a ball player.  Similar to Anthony Alford perhaps (although he was pre-occupied playing football and the hope was he'd become a ball player once he quit football).

I would have said this before he played any games.  Obviously far too early to declare he's a bust, but he's a high risk profile as someone who didn't have a ton of success in College.

Good news is he also has a relatively high floor as his CF defense alone might drag him to the majors ala Anthony Gose (who's still trying to make it as a pitcher - he's in AAA for KC at age 35, still trying to live the dream).

At least his name isn't Anthony.

I kind of hope you are joking as this is needlessly alarmist. Cook is a converted pitcher who only received 284 PA in a single season hitting in the NCAA. Despite the lack of experience with the bat he posted some impressive numbers including a 6.7% strikeout rate. He was more of a slap hitter at that point but despite the fact he just started hitting full time that season he displayed very impressive bat to ball skills on the way to a .905 OPS/131 wRC+. 

He's a bit of a project but I fully support the effort underway to unlock a little extra base power from his swing. This isn't a player who needs to be "fixed" as he's an elite athlete who can likely slap hit his way to something like an 80 wRC+ bat but there's a lot more potential if the club can unlock more juice. He has all of 52 PA as a professional and it's downright absurd to be musing over whether he's already a bust at this point.