Blue Jays Minor League Highlights Thread

[John_Havok]

6 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

Then who is?  It's been brutal across multiple GM's now and he's one of the few common denominators.  

Walker must have some role in it.  I appreciate Walker is traveling around to work with those coaches and minor league players during the season, but I would imagine he sets the organizational strategies and would be a resource for minor league coaches?  I'd imagine he has a hand in choosing who's hired to develop/manage pitchers in the minors too?

Maybe I'm wrong and this is why our development has been brutal.

 

Justin Lehr - Director of Pitching development and Joe Sclafani - director of player development would be responsible for the overall direction of the system and what to focus on broadly. 

As for how this gets executed at each level and for each prospect would be a little more conviluted of you were trying to identify the eaxct reason why player or pitcher X isnt improving the way they wanted or as fast etc. 

Lehr hasnt even been there for 2 full seasons yet. 

[Brownie19]

7 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

Justin Lehr - Director of Pitching development and Joe Sclafani - director of player development would be responsible for the overall direction of the system and what to focus on broadly. 

As for how this gets executed at each level and for each prospect would be a little more conviluted of you were trying to identify the eaxct reason why player or pitcher X isnt improving the way they wanted or as fast etc. 

Lehr hasnt even been there for 2 full seasons yet. 

I just read that the Director of Pitching Development was a new position, created for Justin Lehr in 2025.  Before that, Cory Popham was the Minor League Pitching Coordinator (2023-2024) and the Pitching Development Coordinator (2021-2022).  Cory was seemingly useless and thus fired.  Don't know why they keep renaming the position.

It says Justin Lehr directly shapes pitch design, pitching identity, and individual mechanical adjustments across all minor-league affiliates.  Surely to god, Pete Walker is involved with this and is supportive of the approach.  

Or is this some Art Howe / Moneyball situation, where the org just tells Pete what's going to happen and he can either accept it, or FO.

Whatever we're doing, it's been balls for well over a decade, across multiple GM's.  

[max silver]

1 hour ago, Brownie19 said:

I just read that the Director of Pitching Development was a new position, created for Justin Lehr in 2025.  Before that, Cory Popham was the Minor League Pitching Coordinator (2023-2024) and the Pitching Development Coordinator (2021-2022).  Cory was seemingly useless and thus fired.  Don't know why they keep renaming the position.

It says Justin Lehr directly shapes pitch design, pitching identity, and individual mechanical adjustments across all minor-league affiliates.  Surely to god, Pete Walker is involved with this and is supportive of the approach.  

Or is this some Art Howe / Moneyball situation, where the org just tells Pete what's going to happen and he can either accept it, or FO.

Whatever we're doing, it's been balls for well over a decade, across multiple GM's.  

I think the club has been making strides in pitching development in recent seasons as there has actually been a crop of legitimate pitching prospects working through the system. There was the rash of injuries a few years back that pushed the development back a lot but more and more of these guys are returning and starting to make progress again. I still tend to think it's scapegoating to blame the major league pitching coach for what's happening in the minor leagues as he wouldn't be directly involved in developing these players to any degree.