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.

[John_Havok]

35 minutes ago, max silver said:

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.

I'm legit curious as to the overall hierarchy.

Like, i can absolutely envision Walker having next to 0 input on a pitcher's develooment in the minor leagues since he doesnt see them everyday and he's probably got more than enough on his plate with keeping the 13 arms on the 26 man roster pointed in the right direction and dealing with their day-to-day. I very much doubt Walker knows more than 20 pitchers names off hand in the entire system below the 40 man roster. 

From the sounds of it Lehr is now the guy who decides the what and the why of each pitcher's development track and my guess would then be it's a combination of the pitching coaches at each level, the roving coordinators and the strength and conditioning that are responsible to put each plan into action on a day to day basis, at least from A+ and up. 

The Dunedin and Complex level guys probably get additional help from the pitching lab in addition to the above.

[Brownie19]

1 hour ago, max silver said:

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.

I'm not sure I see these strides.  Obviously Yesavage is the major one, but he was a near ready arm who only threw 110 innings in the minors. 

It's King and Perry - almost every prospect who's noteworthy has sucked this year.  

[Brownie19]

27 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

I'm legit curious as to the overall hierarchy.

Like, i can absolutely envision Walker having next to 0 input on a pitcher's develooment in the minor leagues since he doesnt see them everyday and he's probably got more than enough on his plate with keeping the 13 arms on the 26 man roster pointed in the right direction and dealing with their day-to-day. I very much doubt Walker knows more than 20 pitchers names off hand in the entire system below the 40 man roster. 

From the sounds of it Lehr is now the guy who decides the what and the why of each pitcher's development track and my guess would then be it's a combination of the pitching coaches at each level, the roving coordinators and the strength and conditioning that are responsible to put each plan into action on a day to day basis, at least from A+ and up. 

The Dunedin and Complex level guys probably get additional help from the pitching lab in addition to the above.

That's pretty sad if true.  A lot of people here could do it - and we're not getting paid to know the organization.

Do you think Lehr decides pitch shapes, pitch usage, changes to what they throw, etc.  Do you think they tell Pete what this pitcher is going to do and why?

Like with Soriano - is it Pete who's going to make the decision to scrap his 4 seamer?  Or is Lehr going to tell both Soriano and Pete - and tell them that's the direction the org wants?

[max silver]

8 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

I'm not sure I see these strides.  Obviously Yesavage is the major one, but he was a near ready arm who only threw 110 innings in the minors. 

It's King and Perry - almost every prospect who's noteworthy has sucked this year.  

Guerra has been making noise and appears to have taken a large step forward. Bloss was showing improved stuff but the results were rough in his rehab stint before the apparent shoulder injury. Barriera has had a bit of a rough road but he's coming off of elbow reconstruction and has suffered from further injury issues. At least he's back pitching again and hopefully can build a bit of momentum. The only real disappointment in my eyes who has been fully healthy has been Stanifer as he's appeared to have suffered from command issues and may be destined for the bullpen.

[Brownie19]

Silvano Hechavarria took enough steps back this year that he should probably try another sport.

Guerra doesn't look all that interesting.  More K's I guess - AA will tell us more.  I guess the bar is extremely low these days.

Barriera, Bloss, Ricky T - these guys are all broken man.  "Progress" is those 3 throwing 68 2/3 innings combined this year.  And the bright spot is simply that they pitched because the results have been horrendous - like a combined ERA over 6.  2 of the 3 broke under that overwhelming workload and the other guy has thrown 6 inning over the past 2 years and just 23 1/3 since 2023.  I guess Spencer Miles is a reminder that crazier things have happened, but the chance any of these 3 ever pitch meaningful innings at the ML level is like <5% IMO.

Sorry to sh*t on all of this.  I just don't view this as much progress from Lehr.

The best thing that happened this year was Spencer Miles, who just magically fell into our lap. 

[John_Havok]

45 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

That's pretty sad if true.  A lot of people here could do it - and we're not getting paid to know the organization.

Do you think Lehr decides pitch shapes, pitch usage, changes to what they throw, etc.  Do you think they tell Pete what this pitcher is going to do and why?

Like with Soriano - is it Pete who's going to make the decision to scrap his 4 seamer?  Or is Lehr going to tell both Soriano and Pete - and tell them that's the direction the org wants?

No idea, i'm sure Lehr gets input from literally everyone along with whatever data and metrics they use from the lab and doesn't just make arbitrary decisions just to make them. 

It's also probably a very different process for veteran arms than it is for high school kids that were just drafted.

 

[max silver]

22 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

Silvano Hechavarria took enough steps back this year that he should probably try another sport.

Guerra doesn't look all that interesting.  More K's I guess - AA will tell us more.  I guess the bar is extremely low these days.

Barriera, Bloss, Ricky T - these guys are all broken man.  "Progress" is those 3 throwing 68 2/3 innings combined this year.  And the bright spot is simply that they pitched because the results have been horrendous - like a combined ERA over 6.  2 of the 3 broke under that overwhelming workload and the other guy has thrown 6 inning over the past 2 years and just 23 1/3 since 2023.  I guess Spencer Miles is a reminder that crazier things have happened, but the chance any of these 3 ever pitch meaningful innings at the ML level is like <5% IMO.

Sorry to sh*t on all of this.  I just don't view this as much progress from Lehr.

The best thing that happened this year was Spencer Miles, who just magically fell into our lap. 

Guerra increasing his K rate by 10% despite pitching in a higher level is exciting to me but apparently you have different standards. Danny Thompson Jr. is another guy who has improved his stuff and is having a nice season in the minor leagues.

[Brownie19]

1 minute ago, max silver said:

Guerra increasing his K rate by 10% despite pitching in a higher level is exciting to me but apparently you have different standards.

His walk rate increased and was 4.42 as a 22 year old in A+ ball.  His xFIP was 3.97, which is a career high for him.  Those metrics dampen my outlook on him.

If he qualifies as the 2nd bright spot in our system (amongst pitchers) - I think that's pretty sad man.  

[max silver]

13 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

His walk rate increased and was 4.42 as a 22 year old in A+ ball.  His xFIP was 3.97, which is a career high for him.  Those metrics dampen my outlook on him.

If he qualifies as the 2nd bright spot in our system (amongst pitchers) - I think that's pretty sad man.  

I wouldn't say that Guerra is the second bright spot as I would rank both King and Perry well ahead of him. If you have to go to to the lengths of using xFIP to hate on a pitching prospect that seems to be grasping at straws. Stanifer has potential as a rotation arm as well but will need to improve upon his strike throwing if he's not going to find himself moved to a bullpen spot.

[Brownie19]

1 hour ago, max silver said:

I wouldn't say that Guerra is the second bright spot as I would rank both King and Perry well ahead of him. If you have to go to to the lengths of using xFIP to hate on a pitching prospect that seems to be grasping at straws. Stanifer has potential as a rotation arm as well but will need to improve upon his strike throwing if he's not going to find himself moved to a bullpen spot.

Sorry - you you're re right - 3rd bright spot.

I typically look at K's, BB's and xFIP when looking at any pitcher.  Those are the 3 main metrics I scan to get a feeling for how good a pitcher is.  What do you look at?