ace3113

Baseball America on the Blue Jays' hosted Canadian prospect tournament.

Boxy got banned for telling a dink he's a dink? WTF

BA's latest report on Tanaka.

Brady Aiken Leads U.S. To 18U World Championship USA Baseball’s 18-and-under national team defeated Japan 3-2 on Sunday in Taichung, Taiwan, to win the 18U World Cup. Last year’s gold medal was the first for the U.S. at the 18U level since 1999, and now the Americans have won back-to-back 18U world championships for the first time since 1988-89. Lefthander Brady Aiken (Cathedral Catholic High, San Diego), one of the top prep pitchers in the 2014 draft class, turned in his second straight strong start in the championship victory. He allowed five hits and one run in seven innings, walking just two while striking out 10. He’d beaten Korea in his first start. “To have the coaches and my teammates have the faith in me to go out and start this game means everything,” Aiken said. “It was such an honor. Winning this championship means everything.” Japan had scored the most runs and allowed the fewest runs in the tournament and entered Saturday’s action undefeated in the tournament. The Americans beat Japan on consecutive days though, winning 10-4 Saturday to end the second round, then winning the title game. In two games against Japan, Team USA scored more than twice as many runs (13) as Japan allowed in its first seven games of the tournament (six). Japan scored the first run of the game in the top of the fifth inning when center fielder Ryuma Mori was hit by a pitch, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on a single by left fielder Takahiro Kumagai. Team USA answered with a run in the bottom half of the frame that started with a Cole Tucker (Mountain Pointe High, Phoenix) single through the left side of the infield, the first hit of the day for U.S.. Catcher Michael Rivera (Venice, Fla., High) singled to right-center field and Tucker advanced to third base before scoring on a fielder’s choice off the bat of left fielder Adam Haseley (The First Academy, Windermere, Fla.). An inning later Team USA took the lead when right fielder Jakson Reetz (Norris High, Hickman, Neb.) doubled on a line drive down the left-field line, his fourth two-bagger of the tournament, with two outs and scored on a Bryson Brigman Valley Christian High, San Jose) single to center field. First baseman Keaton McKinney, who attends Ankeny (Iowa) High, singled to score Trace Loehr (Putnam High, Milwaukie, Ore.) in the seventh to give USA a two-run lead. Sanger (Calif.) High righthander Luis Ortiz, who struck out eight without allowing a walk in four previous outings, entered in the eighth inning. Japan scored a run in the inning to shave the U.S. lead to one, but Ortiz struck out the side in the ninth to secure the victory. Ortiz was named the World Cup MVP for saving three games with 11 strikeouts against one walk in 8 1/3 innings. He appeared in five games and allowed three runs. “I’m not sure I can totally describe this feeling,” 18U national team manager Rob Cooper (Penn State) said. “What I do want to say is how proud I am to be associated with these 20 young men: what they’ve gone through, how they came together and how they stayed together. In this tournament you saw 20 guys come together for something far more important than themselves and play for the letter on their chest.” Haseley was the leading hitter of the event with a .484 average (.484/.515/1.128) and hit three doubles, two triples and an inside-the-park home run to go with a steal. He and Rivera were both named to the World Cup all-star team. Individual Awards XXVI 18U Baseball World Cup MVP: Luis Ortiz (USA) Leading Hitter: Adam Haseley (USA) Pitcher with best ERA: Tomohiro Anraku (Japan) Outstanding defensive player: Moises Esquerre (Cuba) All Star Team XXVI 18U Baseball World Cup Starting Pitcher: Tomohiro Anraku (Japan) Relief Pitcher: Taisuke Yamaoke (Japan) Catcher: Tomoya Mori (Japan) First Baseman: Byeong Wuk Lim (Korea) Second Baseman: Li Lin (Taiwan) Third Baseman: Michael Rivera (USA) Shortstop: Moises Esquerre (Cuba) Outfielder: Adam Haseley (USA) Outfielder: Tzu-Hao Chen (Taiwan) Outfielder: Tyler O’Neill (Canada) DH: Cheng-Tang Wang (Taiwan)

I bet we'll make one "whopper" of a bid.

1. Houston .331 2. Miami .379 3. Chicago W .397 4. Chicago C .426 5. Milwaukee .433 6. Minnesota .436 7. San Francisco .444 7. New York M .450 8. San Diego .454 9. Seattle .454 10. Philadelphia .458 11. Toronto (Comp) 12. Colorado .462 13. Toronto .465

I'm down for that.

Oh, I agree completely with not wanting to pay a steep price for anything other than a top-of-the-rotation type of starter. I just meant we need rotation upgrades, not simply depth which he seem to have a lot of. My preferred targets (if we have the money to do it) are Garza and Tanaka. They wouldn't cost us anything but money and would slot in nicely anywhere from 1-3 in our rotation. If we signed them then maybe we can offload some excess pitching for prospects that we could them trade for a guy like Lucroy perhaps.

Should have signed Russell Martin while we had the chance this past off season. He's done wonders for the Pirates 4.3 WAR so far and all for only 8.5mm per over 2 years. I remember about 70% of the board (maybe more) calling for this move last winter. Sigh.

I think we're fine in terms of depth Spanky. We have plenty of quantity in terms of starting pitching, what we need is quality. Rotation spots 3-5 could be filled by some combination of the following. It's spot 1 and 2 we need to seriously improve. Dickey Buehrle Morrow Happ Drabek Romero Rogers Redmond Hutchison Stroman Nolin McGowan Johnson*

Here are the voting results so far. 89.7 protected pick 10.3 meaningless wins Sanity and logic prevail!

1. Houston .331 2. Miami .377 3. Chicago W .406 4. Chicago C .424 5. Milwaukee .431 6. Minnesota .442 7. San Francisco .446 8. San Diego .446 9. Philadelphia .450 10. Seattle .453 11. Toronto (Comp) 12. Toronto .457

I would pay to see this happen. King's only in high school (I think) and still think I would have to take him in that wager.

We're now in 13th a win shy of 14th. Here's my tentative mock in this scenario. 1. Houston .326 Carlos Rodon 2. Miami .380 - Trea Turner 3. Chicago W .409 - Jeff Hoffman 4. Chicago C .420 - Tyler Kolek 5. Milwaukee .428 - Alex Jackson 6. Minnesota .445 - Tyler Beede 7. San Francisco .445 - Michael Cederoth 8. San Diego .445 - Nick Gordon 9. Seattle .449 - Michael Gettys 10. New York M .453 - Touki Toussaint 11. Toronto (Comp) Sean Reid-Foley 12. Philadelphia .453 - Derek Hill 13. Toronto .460 - Grant Holmes

More reports.

Here are a few reviews and reports from the summer showcase circuits. (I've only included the draft eligible names)

They're not. Currently 12th and counting.

Standings after last night's games. 1. Houston .326 2. Miami .366 3. Chicago C .422 4. Chicago W .418 5. Minnesota .433 6. Milwaukee .437 7. San Francisco .444 8. San Diego .444 9. Toronto .456 10. Seattle .459 11. Toronto (Comp)

Don't forget there's also the issue of slot values. The 10th pick was worth 2.9mm this year compared to 3.7mm for the 5th pick and 3.5mm for the 6th. That's a difference of up to 800k, which is close to what we signed a guy like Tellez for. Every little bit helps.

"Winning culture baby!" 1. Houston .328 2. Miami .368 3. Chicago C .418 (CHC 4 PHI 3 BOT 8) 4. Chicago W .421 (CHW 0 BOS 0 BOT 1) 5. Minnesota .436 (MIN VS TEX) 6. Milwaukee .440 (MIL 0 LAA 0 TOP 1) 7. San Francisco .448 (SF VS ARI) 8. San Diego .448 (SD VS LAD) 9. Seattle .455 (SEA 2 HOU 1 TOP 1) 10. Toronto .456 11. Toronto (Comp)

Holy crap! Crazy news. I personally don't think Rowdy's ready, but he's been hot and that lineup could use some lefty power for their playoff run. Can't hurt, and it should be a good experience regardless.

It never fails to happen. At least we're still in the top 10 for now. 1. Houston .328 2. Miami .368 3. Chicago C .418 4. Chicago W .421 5. Minnesota .436 6. Milwaukee .440 7. San Francisco .448 8. San Diego .448 9. Toronto .452 10. Seattle .455 11. Toronto (Comp)

Grant (Winnipeg): Dalton Pompey was "in the team photo". Is the upside there pretty high, or was this likely more of a little blip? Does it all turn on the hit tool? J.J. Cooper: He’s worth keeping an eye on, but there’s more reason to be skeptical than enthusiastic at this point. There is some pretty useful upside those if he figures it all out.

Nice. I'm surprised they haven't promoted DSJ yet. The guy has been Lansing's most consistent hitter all year.

That has been Touki's reputation this summer: poor command, nasty stuff. Sheffield reminds me so much of Ricky. Small lefty with good velocity, 3 pitches.