BlueRocky

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK6CAMj9ZgHiNAdqXYi8Vow Instagram: 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. He’s got a decent following but it’s mostly videos of him working out, not really the twitter comments type.

So talks of reducing minor league teams from 160 to 120 is the likely happening to some extent. Rosters will be trimmed out so a lot fewer org guys, which produce higher quality competition and hopefully better wages down in the minors. Current Blue Jays minor league levels: Full season AAA: Buffalo Bisons (intl league) AA: New Hampshire Fisher Cats (eastern league) A+: Dunedin Blue Jays (florida state league) A: Lansing Lugnuts (midwest league) Short season A-: Vancouver Canadians (northwest league) Rk+: Bluefield Blue Jays (appalachian league) Rk: GCL Blue Jays (gulf coast league) Rk-: DSL Blue Jays (dominican summer league)

https://www.baseballamerica.com/rankings/2020-mlb-international-prospects-class/ New released IFA rankings, our boy is ranked 8th, which is a lot higher than Rikelvin de Castro last year. Based on signing bonus projection and BA ranking, we’re getting a guy who’s hype is somewhere in the middle between an Orelvis Martinez and Miguel Hiraldo/Rikelvin de Castro. This is a bat first prospect though, unlike Rikelvin and perhaps Estiven Machado. So that’s exciting. He’s also a social media star with his own youtube channel and frequent instagram posts.

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/kyle-glaser-free-for-all-chat-4320/

2019 signing bonuses: https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/draft/ Teams really don’t lose that much money extending the draft to ten rounds as the pools are heavily front loaded.

Some pitchers entering the draft will really benefit from this Rapsodo data release and it’s all voluntary. And juniors and seniors can rejoice not getting screwed over if they don’t get drafted, albeit they still have to go back to school another year, if they can afford it.

Not if they don’t have to. The Blue Jays were at the forefront of increasing wages for their minor league players, they understand the impact of that decision. They also spent millions to build a brand new training complex and baseball stadium down in Dunedin (granted it was long overdue). TD Ballpark costed them $102 Million+. They’ve also invested heavily in the high performance department & both psychology and nutrition. Not many other teams have lined up to do these things for their farm systems.

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/new-deal-saves-2020-mlb-draft-but-hurts-incoming-talent/ Pretty much summarizes all the tweet news from yesterday.

The draft is already the cheapest way for teams to acquire talent. Owners want to squeeze money due to the lost revenues of shortened season and delays. The draft basically turns into a free-for-all after the 5th round, where teams can sign guys max up to $20,000 signing bonus. The slot bonus for a 10th round pick in 2019 was $142,200 to $147,900. A 6th round pick slot bonus started at $301,600 in 2019. Many will bite the bullet and take the $20K, others will to back to school and try in 2022-2023 (prep) or 2021 (seniors). With less influx of new players in the minors, they can also reduce the MiLB teams and further squeeze the system. There’s also talks of eventually implementing an international draft instead of IFA, I guess having the MLB draft shortened is a stepping stone? Idk

MLB has the right to extend it at their discretion, some guys are arguing it should be at 10 rounds minimum. They’re apparently going to finalize and vote on it. Teams and scouts have enough data to do a regular draft, it’s not going to be perfect and inevitably some guys will be missed, but this is a purely financial decision. In this scenario, guys not taken in the five rounds can be signed as free agents for up to $20,000. They could also use this chance to get the ball rolling on reducing the minor leagues. Many prep prospects will have no choice but to goto college and wait another 2-3 years to get drafted. Most of them won’t sign and give up college for 20K. College seniors will have little leverage and basically sign for peanuts (more than most years). There will also be folks that just give up on baseball after college, guys that typically get a chance at the later rounds. MLB also has the ability to postpone the July 2 IFA signing to January, and cut the 2021 draft to only 20 rounds. The ripple effect is huge.

Thanks man! I just like to dig through stuff in my free time and share in case others find it interesting.

It’s likely to happen. This front office seems to put little value in industry consensus and lean towards guys that they like. They love bats with lots of power and potential solid hit tools, and large dudes that throw gas and high spin-rates. Lots of guys fit those profiles in this draft, they have options. Yeah Zac Veen’s bat has been comp’d to both Christian Yelich and Cody Bellinger. Massive 6-5, 200 and only 18 years old, serious pop from his swing and he’s athletic, potential to stay at CF. Not that far of a reach at no. 5. Might be a comparable tier of prospect as Jared Kelenic at draft time. Collazo has an article on Zac Veen here: https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/worth-the-wait-zac-veens-star-turn-was-years-in-the-making/

Doubleheaders galore + guaranteed full season of service time = inevitable Nate Pearson call-up?

That's perfectly reasonable. Given equally talented players I'd also take the best position player available. I've love to take any of Austin Martin, Spencer Torkelson, or Nick Gonzales. And I've had my eye on Zac Veen & Austin Hendrick for awhile. Even lower down on the list there are guys like Heston Kjerstad, Robert Hassell, Pete Crow-Armstrong, and some guys very high on Garrett Mitchell. If we were drafting our usual position (#11-12) I would've loved any of these guys. Out of the tier 1 guys my favourite would be Austin Martin, but you really can't go wrong with Torkelson or Gonzales, both are really special hitters. Nick Gonzales is probably the most realistic due to being in a lower conference where teams still wondering if his power is legit (despite being cape-cod MVP) while playing in altitude. He's also a second baseman (though he played SS this short season) which dings his value slightly compared to Martin which has played everything from 3B to CF. Out of the tier 2 guys it would be Zac Veen, I highly doubt he would drop outside the top 10 though. Hassell would probably be realistic, and I like him the same reasons I liked Corbin Caroll last year. Similar type of bat with a larger frame, perhaps more offensive value and less defensive ceiling. Kjerstad is like kinda like Trevor Larnarch or a Nolan Gorman type bat, advanced plate approach and lots of power. And some guys really love PCA, which was seen as the top prep-bat in the class not too long ago until his stock fell (His stock has climbed back up a bit recently). The pitching talent in the 2020 MLB draft is historically good though, especially the college side. Just in the first twenty-ish picks: We have guys with frontline starter ceilings with solid resumes like Emerson Hancock and Asa Lacy. We have guys with jaw-dropping stuff, but question marks due to limited track record or health issues with Max Meyer, Garrett Crochet, Carmen Mlodzinski & JT Ginn. High upside prep arms like Jared Kelley & Mick Abel. I haven't even mentioned Reid Detmers, very polished pitcher and best strike-thrower in the class with a nasty curveball and low-90s two-seam from the left side. 14 of BA's top 30 draft prospects are pitchers, and we might have a chance to nab either the best RHP or LHP available in the draft, and we don't get that chance often.

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/2020-mlb-draft-prospects-chat-32520/ Collazo also did a Q&A prospect chat today, it’s really long with lots of meaty stuff. I’ll post some relevant ones.

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/2020-mlb-draft-10-prospects-who-improved-their-stock-before-play-stoppage/ 2020 MLB Draft: 10 Prospects Who Improved Their Stock Before Play Stoppage Collazo has blurbs on all the prospects, and does a great draft stock watch column on guys like these every tuesday. It’s worth the cheap annual subscription if you’re into this kind of thing. There’s a bunch of interesting names, especially pitching to watch out for in the second and third rounds. The second round is especially deep this year with college pitching, they said on pod there’s potentially 50 names that are typically classified as second round talents, and with less scouting data this year there’s plenty of gems teams can get lucky in the later rounds. Gonna leave the blurbs out but if there’s a name someone is curious about just ask.