BlueRocky

We need more episodes in these trying times Good work fellas

Remember a long time ago our pitchers once had trade value? Good times.

I meant to say his K/BB ratio this year is ridiculous. But yes there’s at least one question mark with every pitcher, some more than one, hence it’s quite subjective to how they’re projected. I feel like Lodolo has an edge on some of the other guys simply because he’s a lefty and has the fewest question marks. The best pitcher in the first round might end up being picked end of the first round and it wouldn’t surprise me. Guys like Jack Leiter, Quin Priester and Daniel Espino could end up the best arms in this draft, yet none of them are considered top 10 picks. The way teams pick now have evolved and trending away from prep arms perhaps a little bit too extreme, for good reason. But some lucky team picking in the 20’s and 30’s could find tremendous value. At the end it’s all a crapshoot, and most of these kids won’t arrive until 2022-2025, might as well grab a kid you can dream on a little. Hence people want names like Carroll, Rutledge, or Baty.

Here’s some interesting stuff. RF Gabriel Martinez was our top 2018 signing from Venezuela, his uncle is a Blue Jays international scout. Supposedly has some pop and a decent glove and runner. Bonus amount not sure. We only had @ 1.4M left after signing Orelvis Martinez, and spent 200k on DR CF Amell Brazoban which batted 5th today. Reports say he’s raw offensively but has good frame (6-2) and plus runner and plus arm. All these kids are like 17 so who really knows. Catcher Javier D’Orazio is another one of the higher profile kids we signed from Venezuela. Interesting they put Emmanuel Sanchez and Leonel Callez as middle of the order bats to start the season. I wonder if this means Orelvis will start at the GCL which I would like to see.

Griffin Conine with another 3 hits, 2 RBI including a double and a triple

Must be fun to play at Coors

469 ft, 107.2 ev

C Riley Adams is now batting .307/.376/.520, .896 OPS and 161 wRC+ in double-A He’s on a 9 game hitting streak, batting .455/.486/.758, OPS 1.243 since May 21, Hello! And Captain Kirk had 160 wRC+ in rookieball, 169 wRC+ in Lansing, and now 197 wRC+ in Dunedin.

I find guys like Kirby very underrated on the college side, while Priester and even Espino are a bit underrated in the prep side. Kirby is a strikeout machine in college with 4 above average/plus pitches and a plus command, a rare combination. 2019: 107 K to 6 BB in 88.1 IP 2018: 96 K to 27 BB in 90.1 IP This year’s numbers are absurd, 2.75 ERA and 0.8967 WHIP but he’s been pretty consistent too. Even had 3 complete games this year in 14 starts. I remember being higher than most on Grayson Rodriguez last year with lots of college success despite reports of the lower velo, he was also projected in the late teens/20s before O’s snatched him at 11. He’s been a stud and showed better velo numbers after getting drafted. He’s now no 86 on BA’s top 100. We’re mostly linked to Manoah and Rutledge, and there’s a good chance one or both will go before 11, which would mean a bat sliding down. This could be very interesting after the 6th pick.

https://theathletic.com/1004087/2019/05/31/bowden-evaluating-the-top-10-pitchers-in-the-2019-mlb-draft/

Griffin Conine with 4 hits, 2 dingers and 2 doubles

Mickey mouse organizations would also never acquire contracts like Mark Buehrle, Jose Reyes, or flip him for an even longer expensive contract like Tulowitzki. They’ve also eaten significant money on many occasions to either increase trade value coming back or free up playing time for kids. Regardless which organization the player inks the contract, we still write those pay cheques when you acquire them. If Free Agents don’t want to sign on a dotted line printed in a Toronto office we can’t force them. Overpaying 30 yr old guys extra term and dollar just to come to here usually doesn’t bode well for said team. Example, would you really wanted us to sign David Price more term or dollar than what Boston paid him to keep him here, or do what we did and got JA Happ instead? There’s only a handful of contracts like that ever made sense in the end, in recent baseball history. The fact we had 150-170M payroll just three years ago speaks volumes how the payroll will be there when the time is right. Teams with half that payroll have made the postseason. Now whether Atkins is willing to spend all that money on two guys or spread it evenly around the roster is another story.

Many thanks for your help with the tedious editing work! Hoping to get part 2 polished and ready for later this week

A lot of guys are down on Hector Perez, and for good reason. But he actually has really good stuff. Command will always be an issue for guys that throw that many types of breaking balls with that much movement. Even his fastball has movement while sitting high velo. His FB misses high often, and could use some work. Aside from Pearson, I’m not sure we have another pitching prospect with four pitches, 3 of them plus, while also sits 95, dials 97 on the regular, T99. And he throws a freaky splitter to go with that, which happens to be the worst of his 3 breaking balls. His slider is nasty, and curveball plays well because his other stuff is high velo. If we’re going for pitching lotto tickets, you definitely want ones with upside like this. Whether he ever reaches that ceiling is another story, but the guy is still young at 22, there’s room to dream on. That Osuna for Giles+ trade is looking really good given the circumstances.

I’ll take the guy with upward trajectory playing for an amazing organization perennially in the postseason that also happens to be younger and plays better defence. Also not a Phillies fan.

I figured he would struggle a little bit skipping both Vancouver and Lansing. He's apparently a solid glove at CF with a bit of speed and potentially an OBP guy. Still not striking out much and walking a decent clip. I'd be happy with that + an average bat from a 10th rounder. If you put Mike Piazza in the Florida State League, shrink him by 5 inches, put him on a fast food diet, you'll get Alejandro Kirk.

Wooo Smoak and Rowdy!

Vlad? 85.5 mph, xBA .460

I think people just need to be a bit more open-minded. If we crap on guys before they get an extended chance, we would've never have found and nurtured gems like Halladay, Bautista, Edwin, etc. The extension might've been premature, but it's really not outside the realm of possibility this contract becomes surplus value 2 years down the road. Atkins wasn't going to spend any serious money this year anyhow, we're nowhere near our payroll ceiling and this won't hurt the team's financial ability to sign players next year. We literally have 40 million dollars of dead money coming off the books. Our real roster payroll is around $60 million, we spent $160 million two years ago. That far outweighs paying a slight positive WAR guy in a position we have no prospects.

I listen to his pod a fair bit, not surprised with this pick. Manoah went 9 to the Braves, Baty went 18 and Carroll went 32. This wasn’t a concensus or a top list, it was a The Athletic beat-writers collaboration mock draft. So take it as it is.

Why is everyone so down on Borucki coming back this year? I thought he started throwing and will begin rehab starts in June? Also the poll was for long term. Are we not supposed to assume Borucki is healthy? He had 1.6 fWAR in 97.2 IP in his rookie year and just turned 25. 6-4 lefty, with three pitches and a plus changeup. In 17 starts he had a 109 ERA+, 3.80 FIP pitching in the AL. He led all BJ starters in ERA+, the second was JA Happ at 100. Sanchez was 86, Stroman was 76, Gaviglio was 79 last year. In direct comparison, Thornton in 55 IP has a 99 ERA+, 4.72 FIP, 0.5 fWAR. He hasn’t been as good and I still conceded he has the higher ceiling based on stuff alone. But Borucki seems like he has a pretty solid floor to me, I’m not sure why everyone is taking a dump on him. Kid is 25 and will get better too, was finally healthy last year.

https://www.fangraphs.com/prospects/the-board/2019-mlb-draft?sort=-1,1&type=3 Fangraphs isn’t always accurate, but they have Alek Manoah as the only 45+ FV pitcher behind Lodolo. His stuff sits 94-97 and T98 with a 60/65 grade FB and SL, projected average CH and command. He’s also drawing notice in the college scene with much success, his team is now in the tournament as the 15th seed and he’s their Ace. If Manoah’s body type wasn’t a concern he’d safely be a top 10 pick. I’ve been reading up articles on Jackson Rutledge and he’s an interesting case. The kid is listed 6-8, 260 lbs so he isn’t your typical bean pole either. When he had his hip injury, he went to intern at P3 where he ran the Rapsodo machines and tracked data, there he learned to rebuild his pitch mechanics and tweaking the spin efficiency on his pitches. The result is he broke his slurvey breaking ball into two distinct pitches: A nasty slider with hard bite and a more tradional curveball. Fangraph says Rutledge sits 95-98, T100 with a 65 FB, 60 SL, 55 CB, 50 CH, and 45 CMD. The command part is probably factoring in to his reliever risk, but they also said that about Nate Pearson. He’s also coming out of a JuCo program and just turned 20. I would still go position player, but if you’re going to gamble on a stud pitcher you want the guy with the highest ceiling unless his health concerns are too much to stomach.

Otto Lopez has a ton of raw talent, the bat has some upside and he’s on an impressive multi-hit game streak. But he’s a bit of a bonehead sometimes, little league fielding and baserunning errors on the regular. The guy could use some seasoning in A ball and he’s still pretty young, I had him as my sleeper pick entering the year based on his flashes of strong tools down in Vancouver and Rookieball. Time will tell if the power can develop in his bat, he could be something a few years down the road. For those worried about Riley Adams after his double-A promotion, entering the weekend he’s been heating up the last 15 days: .389/.439/.722, OPS 1.161 in NH. He’s got a 232 wRC+ in that 11 game stretch. Looks like his Dunedin offence wasn’t a complete fluke. The 2017 3rd round pick should be rising in our top 30 list for the next update. If he keeps hitting like this, top 10 BJ prospect post-Vlad era isn’t out of the question. And yes Alejandro Kirk is still mashing in Dunedin. I’m planning to get an article up on some of these BJ prospects in maybe two week’s time, it will be based on their performance the first two months. Currently working on something that should be posted this week. Everything will be on the RadioScouts blog for your viewing pleasure.

Fans will need some patience with Biggio, he might be older than Vlad but he’s nowhere near a finished product. The guy is a bit of a late bloomer. Biggio has plus raw power, and his plate discipline is real. When he puts it all together, and it might take awhile, I can see an everyday player that absolutely launches in places like Yankee stadium. His strikeouts need to be kept down though, and defensively he is still a work in progress. But Biggio exceeding expectations could really help accelerate this rebuild.

Moving a guy away from the position they’ve played their entire minor league and college career is pretty last resort. Unless they absolutely become a pumpkin at their position you don’t want something dramatic like 2B -> RF as a permanent solution. (See Gurriel) You can give him a few games there over the season in emergency, but guys don’t learn a new position over 5 appearances in triple-A. Player development is not that videogame simple unfortunately, like MLB the show and take a 20% penalty to your fielding rating. Veterans would have a hard time doing it let alone a guy making his debut and just learning to hit MLB pitching. Bichette absolutely will get every opportunity to play shortstop. There’s no chance anyone will block him. If he proves he sucks then we find another way.