Slade

Kloffenstein with an absolute gem tonight. 7IP 5H 2BB 7K 78 Pitches 54 for Strikes

Travis Bergen was returned to us today, headed back to Buffalo.

Seems about right.

Ben Badler did his first 2020 International prospect preview. Jays are expected to sign Manuel Beltre. Manuel Beltre, SS, Dominican Republic Beltre, 15, is the most famous player in the 2020 class, as he has spent years documenting his daily training on his Instagram account of more than 35,000 followers. A baseball rat, Beltre has a simple, repeatable swing from the right side and is one of the top hitters in the class, with ample game experience and a baseball IQ well beyond his years. He's expected to sign with the Blue Jays. Beltre trains with Jaime Ramos. Here's his instagram account with a ton of video from him. He's wearing Jays gear in a lot of them lol. Badler didn't exactly rank them but Beltre was 9th of the 10 players he covered. Login • Instagram WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world. Ben Badler, Baseball America (@ben.badler) • Instagram video WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM 1,044 likes, 14 comments - ben.badler on January 28, 2018: "Manuel Beltre (@manuel_beltre09), 13, is a shortstop from the Dominican Republic in the 2020 international class. Follow @ben.badler for more videos. -- Snapchat: benbadler Twitter: benbadler FB: benbadlerbaseball -- #shortstop #shortstops #infield #infielder #youthbaseball #baseballyouth #baseballcap #baseballfan #baseballseason #baseballswag". Ben Badler, Baseball America (@ben.badler) • Instagram video WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM 2,555 likes, 32 comments - ben.badler on April 9, 2019: "Manuel Beltre (@manuel_beltre09) is one of the top 2020 international prospects. Shortstop from the Dominican Republic 🇩🇴 with a compact, repeatable swing, advanced hitter for 14 years old with high level game instincts. Defensive play at the end saved the game for his team to send the semifinal game of the @Iplbaseball Cup 🏆 to extra innings.".

The more I see the kids and John Schneider the less likely I think it will be that Montoyo gets to the end of his contract.

My god Bo is a monster!!!!!!

Here's the video. https://cuts.diamond.mlb.com/FORGE/2019/2019-08/18/71000e90-648e52fc-0809e075-csvm-diamondx64-asset_1280x720_59_4000K.mp4 Now that I see the video no issues pulling him. That might of been a triple.

Wall was also promoted to AAA. Didn't realize the Bisons are in a playoff race.

Nice glad to see. Should be able to get 3 starts in before the season ends, will be interesting to see how he acclimates to the new ball.

Lol because there are so many backup catchers that can hit? I always thought Maile was fine for his role. His days are numbered as a Jay though.

Clearly the stuff is there he just needs to work on his command.

I just don't think it's true. Guys like us who have found our way to learn about analytics are still few and far between. The general fanbase is still regurgitating whatever the trash commenters are saying.

Law did say his changeup is a lot further along than people think. Glad to see he's not wasting any time. Actually surprised they are giving him 3 innings each outing considering how much he has pitched already this year.

He had a good start today in AAA which can only help him. Maybe they want to get him more innings? There's a vacant spot in the rotation that it's hard to see what they are waiting for.

Jesus 50 pitches through 1.2 IP

Stress fracture in his foot. Seems pretty serious for SS/3B prospect, hopefully it heals well.

Absolutely you are right but he does have a problem communicating. His interviews are trash and doesn't know how to convey his message properly. I absolutely can see him having problems communicating internally, it already happened with Borucki seeing Dr James Andrews and when they needed Nikki Huffman to address the media regarding Giles. Look at all the dumb s*** Montoyo said in his interviews which shouldn't happen if the message is clear from the top. You can't deny that the guy needs to get better at this. I've even seen Shapiro do interviews to clarify the direction of the team cause Atkins does such a poor job at it. Usually when the casual fans don't get something I chalk it up to them being dumb but I don't think that's the case with Atkins.

Ross Atkins really sucks at communicating.

Nah Smoaks gone, I'm sure they are hoping someone picks him up on waivers too. They can get more flexibility in the lineup with Drury and Tellez. It just doesn't make sense to keep Smoak.

He was already offered to head up the Browns and turned it down.

I'm sure Drury and Gurriel can play it in a pinch if Bo is unavailable and Urena and Espinal in AAA.

I'm confused with the people confused about this move. Galvis served no purpose on this team anymore and there was no market for him at the deadline. I would actually like to see McKinney and Tellez start getting more at bats, they both started crushing after getting demoted. There's absolutely no reason a 29 year old backup SS should be getting DH at bats in a rebuilding season.

I'll take it, it's progress.