King

Welcome back

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I know Ramirez career stats. He was a former top prospect with good stuff that excelled as a reliever in 2014 - thats the reason he keeps getting claimed by every team. Also, his strikeout numbers are elite this year. His career was derailed by shoulder issues in 2015 and 2016.

Romano is good

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Andrew Miller

They keep skipping prospects over the Florida State League which is weird. I could understand if they had a Cal League team with a run environment through the roof, but the FSL?

I don't get why he continues to pitch with his 80 MPH fastball. He's made 100 mil. in career earnings(without endorsements or agency fees). He'll be remembered as the Jered Weaver who was the recipient of all jokes from 2015-2017 rather than the Ace Weaver that put up back to back 5+ win seasons in 2010 and 2011.

They needed an outfielder and he was already on the 40 man roster.

Striking out "almost a batter per inning" is nothing when you're walking 4+ as well. He's just plain bad.

If Zeke is better than replacement level, it's certainly not by much.

There might be some sneaky upside with Ohlman too. The bar for offensive upside isn't very high at catcher, and he slugged it in AAA as a three true outcomes type.

Bolsinger has been good in the MLB in the past, has been lights out in AAA, and projects well. There is a chance he doesn't suck completely, but he could also bomb his start and never be heard of again.

The Braves have been ultra aggressive with their prospects. Soroka and Allard are working out though. Acuna, Albies, Soroka, Allard are all 20 or under and in the upper levels of the minors, and Swanson was clearly promoted too soon.

Zeke, Goins, Smoak and Tepera are all replacement level trash but have a roster spot firmly cemented. It's dumbfounding, but Gibby probably likes them or something.

It's impossible for anyone but the player development staff to know. I would guess June if you put a gun to my head.

Tepera should have gone before Ramirez.

Rick 12:25 What do you know about Dan Jansen in the Blue Jays System? He didn't make your list this year but is a prospect to note according to Mark Shapiro. Eric A Longenhagen 12:26 Definitely playing well and if it continues it's worth re-evaluating but scouts here were not on him during the AFL. J 12:56 How has the early season performance of Guerrero, Bichette, and Alford changed your opinion of their long term outlook? Eric A Longenhagen 12:57 Vlad and Alford, not really. I've always liked both of them. Bichette I've been skeptical about but early reports from scouts are that he just has incredible feel to hit, noisy swing be damned.

Top of the 7th in Clinton Bichette 2/3 + BB Olivares 3/4 (two doubles, SB) Vlad 2/4

Badler will have him top 50

Part of the issue was that the tweet said "He likes baseball, she likes jewelry. It's a win-win." Add that she doesn't like baseball implication on top of a Ladies Night which already gets people upset, and the backlash is huge. #triggered

Cardinals are hosting a Ladies Night and having a jewlery giveaway which has triggered a lot of people on twitter.

Chris Ryan‏ @wkxlnhchris May 7 More Blue Jays pitching prospect Connor Greene hit 102 MPH on the gun in NH last night. He says that's his personal best.

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Between injuries and struggles over the last several seasons – since he was selected in the 16th round of the 2013 draft out of Appleton West High School in Wisconsin – the 22-year-old felt as though he had gotten away from what made him successful in the first place, and is now returning to form. “Defence has always been a huge part for me,” Jansen said. “I’ve never been dissatisfied with the title of being a defensive catcher. That’s great. It’s really important to me. But I need to produce. I know I’m capable of swinging the bat well, it’s just been kind of a struggle the last two years, coming to the park, thinking about a new stance, and thinking about something that’s not me. “This year I said I was just going to do what got me here. Just be simple and be smooth, and see the ball and not worry about it too much. So it’s been awesome, and hopefully I can keep riding this wave as long as I can.” Currently tearing the cover off the ball in Dunedin, hitting .394/.439/.577 with five home runs, four doubles and 14 RBI in 26 games, Jansen has well surpassed the career digits he’s put up, batting .257/.350/.371 with 16 homers, 34 doubles and 104 RBI in 210 games over pieces of five seasons. “I’m having so much more fun this year,” he said. “This is a great group of guys. Last year, the guys were awesome, the staff was awesome, and this year it’s the same. They’re fun guys and hard workers, and you come in here every day and everybody is being professional and having a blast in the clubhouse. Then the lights come on and we’re ready to go. I’m relaxed at the plate, I’m not thinking, I’m just seeing the ball. And it’s awesome.” A big factor in the success that Jansen has found is that he is literally able to see the ball now, where he might not have been well-equipped to do so before. “That’s a huge part,” Jansen said. “I remember last year in spring training I was trying to read the scoreboard and I thought maybe it’s because I’m tired, I can’t read that. I couldn’t read it. Then the whole season I kept thinking I was tired for some stupid reason. It’s because I didn’t want to believe I needed glasses. “Finally, I went home right after the season and I went to get my eyes checked. It turns out I’ve got astigmatism and I can’t wear contacts, and I’ve never been good at putting anything in my eyes. My mom used to pin me down to put eyedrops in, I could never do it on my own. So I finally got glasses. Then I went to Arizona and I had success [in the prospect-laden Arizona Fall League], so I stick with the glasses now.” Jansen’s prescription was a -0.75, indicating nearsightedness and a struggle with seeing things far away. The backstop doesn’t believe his vision was terrible before, but he can certainly see much clearer with his glasses, and might be adjusting to wearing them so much that his sight is worsening without them. “It’s a big-time change,” Jansen said. “Now, I feel like my eyes are getting a little bit worse, because if I take them off I remember, that wasn’t blurry last year. I’m adjusting to wearing them, so it makes a huge difference now. If I didn’t have glasses right now, it would just be a big, fuzzy object coming at me, and I would just be swinging.” Jansen is hoping to make the most of his newfound ability to see the ball this year by staying on the field for an entire season. Sidelined every year, the 6-foot-2, 225-pound catcher is hoping this one is different. Just before the draft four years ago, he was knocked out of his senior season at Appleton West in the Terrors’ third game taking a foul tip off of his pisiform – the bone between the palm and the wrist – landing him on the shelf for two months. He returned for playoffs, with a cast on, to finish high school on the field. When he joined the professional ranks, he got into 36 games with the Gulf Coast League Blue Jays. In 2014, on the second day of August, he stepped on home plate and busted his knee while playing for the Bluefield Blue Jays, tearing his meniscus and partially tearing his ACL. He played 38 games in the Appalachian League that season. Returning the following year, Jansen broke his left hand with the Lansing Lugnuts, hit by a bat while catching. Last season, he broke the hamate bone in the same wrist while with the Dunedin Blue Jays, and had to have surgery to remove it. Between his two years with full-season teams, he got into 110 games. “It’s definitely gotten tougher,” Jansen said. “It’s been such a main goal for me just to stay healthy for a whole year. I haven’t even played a full season, it’s always been injuries. So last year in 2016, it was something that’s so small like a hamate bone that just randomly pops, but it took a while to heal. “I don’t want to say it’s devastating but when I first heard that I needed surgery to remove it, I thought about it and can I play on this every day and grind through it? It was a pretty good pain so I thought I can get the surgery, I can be in a good place, in my head, but when I found out, there were some tears. Because I want a full season. It means so much to me.” Despite not being able to stay on the field, there has been no shortage of evolution in Jansen’s game, something Dunedin manager John Schneider noticed right away when he reunited with his catcher after almost four years. “I had him when he was a baby in the GCL and to see where he is now compared to there is tremendous,” Schneider said. “He’s an under-the-radar dude but if he can continue to have the same approach and have his presence behind the plate, that’s something that’s so valuable being a catcher, when you can combine those things. He has defensive awareness and then if he can keep hitting too, he’s doing really well.” After spending time in rookie ball together with Schneider helping Jansen’s physical game, with duck walks and throwing a football around to adjust his arm path, in Dunedin the two have progressed and moved onto more aspects of the mental side of the game. “We all viewed him as the prototypical catcher,” Schneider said. “The sturdy, durable, catcher, catch, block, throw, but he’s really made some adjustments swinging and he’s leading the league in hitting. He’s that under-the-radar dude who people just assume is going to be good, and then he’s really taken his game to the next level. “Now we’re working on catcher things like reading hitters’ swings and trying to take some more advanced stuff into his game right now at the A ball level, and he’s just like a sponge.” Aside from staying healthy, being confident in his game-calling skills and handling the pitching staff are top priorities for Jansen, who is excited about what he’s been able to learn and implement so far. “Working with Schneider every day, and all the random times, and talking to him during games, I’ve definitely been developing and evolving,” he said. “I’ve gotten bigger, I’ve gotten more flexible, I’ve gotten stronger, and I’ve been able to block more. It’s been great. “Working on game-calling, the base of it is reading guys’ swings. It’s all about the next pitch. If I throw something here, and then I see what he does – if he dives, or he doesn’t look comfortable at all, maybe I do it again, or I change it up and do something else, mixing up different pitches. It’s a huge part, like a chess game. That’s what makes it really fun, when you can get all the blocking, throwing, catching, receiving to where it’s fine-tuning, then you can go into this chess game. It gets actually really fun. I’m still learning and trying to get better every day, but it’s a blast.” When the pitchers are throwing well, Jansen couldn’t enjoy his job more. But with the pressure he has instilled in his own game, he tends to get down on himself when his hurlers don’t find success. “Some guys really trust me, and that’s what I want,” he said. “And if something happens, if someone gets shelled one game, I take it hard because I feel like it’s all my fault. I know that’s baseball and sometimes pitches aren’t executed, but I do take it hard on myself. I feel some games I’ve failed. I could have made some better calls and if I did, maybe we’d have a better outcome. Maybe not, but it’s always in the back of your head.” Learning that there are always going to be high points and low points throughout every baseball season, each challenge presented to Jansen at the plate and behind the dish has made him a better player, and he hopes that continues as he keeps working his way up the ladder. “My struggles in the past years have made me stronger,” Jansen said. “I know what it’s like to start off 0-for-18. I did it in 2015, and it’s not fun. It’s a dark hole. So the struggles have made me stronger, because I know it’s going to happen. “You can’t ride this highway forever. It’s going to happen. There’s going to be a month where I struggle. Maybe even more, maybe less. I know what it’s like, so I’m not going to press. That’s the thing about it, you can’t press, and I’m finally figuring it out.” Bo Bichette makes Emily Waldons Prospect Notes https://2080baseball.com/2017/05/minor-league-roulette-prospect-notes-week-ending-may-7/ If we take a look back at our life at 19 years old, I doubt many of us could claim the achievement of a .602 slugging percentage, but then again, how many can? Just barely beyond his 19th birthday, the transition to Class A for Bichette has proven seamless. Following up last season in the Rookie Gulf Coast League, where the shortstop hit .432 with a whopping .732 slugging percentage, Bichette has managed to maintain his pace in 2017, sitting in the top two in six Midwest League offensive categories, all while holding his strikeout percentage at 18.8%, almost equal to his 2016 percentage. With the Blue Jays working to balance the workload of the youngster, Bichette, along with his teenage teammate Vladimir Guerrero Jr. are being held to a strict routine of four games on, one game off. While Bichette is still finding his footing defensively with six errors at the six-spot through 21 games with Lansing, his bat is speaking far too loudly to ignore. Ryan Borucki battles back https://www.milb.com/dunedin-blue-jays/news/interview-borucki-battles-back-to-brilliance/c-228478552/t-196097178 Blue Jays left-hander Ryan Borucki put together his most impressive outing in a Dunedin uniform on Tuesday night against the Tampa Yankees. He began the game by striking out the lead-off hitter. Then he struck out the second batter. Then the third. Batters were missing his slider by a foot in the first inning. In the second inning, it was more of the same. He struck out the fourth hitter of the game. Then the fifth. Then the sixth. Hitters were left lunging at his changeup as it fell away from them. It wasn't until the third inning that the Yankees put a ball in-play against Borucki, a weak ground ball to second base by the second batter of the inning and eighth of the ballgame (Borucki recorded the first out of the inning on, you guessed it, a strikeout). Borucki's excellence continued until manager John Schneider emerged from the dugout and removed him from his still-perfect game in the fourth inning when Borucki reached his pitch count for the game. "Never in my life," Borucki said when asked if he had ever started a game so successfully. "It was one of those days where everything from pitch one was working. I got into a zone that was hard to come out of. It was attack, attack, attack, attack. It was a fun one." Leaving during a perfect game wasn't easy for Borucki, but he stressed confidence in his coaches and trainers and their plan to maintain his health. "When you're locked-in in the zone like that, you don't want to come out. But you've got to trust the process. I knew going into it that I was on a pitch count and I had to do what I could." With Borucki, the pitch count serves as a quiet reminder of the injuries he has had in the past. He was drafted by the Blue Jays in the 2012 draft despite having a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow, the part of the arm synonymous with Tommy John surgery. "I partially tore my UCL my senior year of high school. I had a no hitter going in the fifth inning and felt a little pop in my elbow on a slider. I didn't think anything of it because I wanted the no-hitter. I finished the game, got the no-hitter, and felt real sore. The next game, in my first at-bat I hit a home run and I couldn't feel my elbow. My whole arm numbed on second base." Borucki had his arm examined following the game and found he had a partial tear in his elbow. Doctors told him he could continue to pitch on it if he could stand the pain. He finished his senior year of high school and was drafted by Toronto in the fifteenth round, the Blue Jays betting on his talent even with the concerns about his health. After the draft, Borucki pitched in the Gulf Coast League for the Blue Jays and then in Extended Spring Training. While pitching a live batting practice session in extended spring, the pain in his elbow increased substantially. He found out soon after that he had fully torn his UCL and would need Tommy John surgery. "I came back really fast. I was at full-go, my velocity was fully back, in ten months after the surgery. From the beginning of the throwing program, I was really letting it loose. I thought, if it's going to go, I might as well test it now and have it go now rather than babying it for fix or six more months then having it go again. I haven't had any problems with it. It's been feeling really good. It's felt strong the last couple of years." Borucki returned to the field in 2015 and threw just 5.2 innings before he felt pain in his shoulder. "That was tough. I remember I got sent up to Vancouver. I pumped myself up. The team was in a losing streak, and I'm a pretty competitive guy. When I'm out there, I want to win. I overexerted myself and aggravated my shoulder." Borucki would miss the rest of the season, but it wasn't a season lost. Despite how frustrating missing more time was, Borucki feels he learned from the experience. "It was a wake up call to myself saying 'Hey, my elbow is one thing. My shoulder is a different thing. I need to take care of my shoulder too.'" He's worked relentlessly since to keep both his elbow and shoulder strong, using his injuries as motivation to work extra hard to stay healthy in the future. "It's made me more conscious and made me work harder on my rehab, my arm exercises, my stretching. It's definitely made me grow as a person and as a player and take care of the little things I never thought of doing before. I do a trick to myself. I tell myself that if I skip a rep, if I cut corners, if I don't work hard, that I'm going to get hurt again. When I'm doing three sets in the weight room and I think to myself 'Should I do the third set?', I'm like 'Yeah, you better do it or you might get hurt again.' I play a little mind game with myself." Borucki returned to the field in 2016 determined to prove his health. The organization decided to challenge him by putting him on the Dunedin roster to begin the season even though he hadn't pitched at the full-season level left. "I got crushed. I use a lot of deception. My motion is real deceptive and doesn't let the hitter see the ball well. But last year when I came to Dunedin, I was showing the ball really early so hitters could time me up easily." After six starts in Dunedin, Borucki had a 14.40 ERA and little confidence on the mound. He was sent down to Single-A Lansing and began working diligently with Blue Jays pitching coordinator Jeff Ware to refine his mechanics to regain his deception on the mound. The Blue Jays had altered Borucki's mechanics during his rehabilitation from his shoulder injury to avoid stress on his arm and prevent future injuries. Working with Ware, Borucki developed a new motion that combined both the health-conscious mechanics recommended by his trainers and the pitching motion he had felt comfortable with prior to his injuries. The new mechanics worked. "I had two really good outings in a row and my confidence came up. It was a snowball effect. It kept going better and better and better. When you have confidence as a pitcher, that's all you need. Once it starts going, you could have your worst stuff but pitch a great game because you're confident that you're going to throw scoreless innings." It wasn't just Borucki that finished the 2016 season confident in his performance. After finishing second in the Midwest League in wins (10) and earned run average (2.41), Borucki received an unexpected phone call from Blue Jays Director of Player Development Gil Kim telling him that the Blue Jays had placed him on their 40-man roster. "It was unbelievable. When I got the call, I remember he told me and I just put my head down. To be honest, I blocked out what he said after he said 'Hey, we put you on the 40-man'. I don't remember what all he said. But he did say, 'We have confidence in you'. I got off the phone and I got to tell my mom and dad. It was an unbelievable feeling, probably the best I've ever had in a day in my life during baseball. It shows the confidence they have in me that I can succeed in this game for the Toronto Blue Jays." Borucki reported to Major League camp this spring, determined to take in as much of the experience as he could. He threw 4.0 innings for the Jays, allowing just one run in Spring Training before reporting to Dunedin to start the season. Following his stellar start against the Yankees this week, Borucki is pleased to put the adversity of previous years behind him and look forward to the season ahead. "I want to build off my last outing. I've been feeling good, and I want to give the team here the best chance to win and get into the playoffs. Whatever opportunities present themselves this year, I'm going to try to take full advantage of them."