Archive for the ‘Keith Law’ Category

You Don’t Know From Quotes: Prospect Miscellany

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Bob Elliott, Keith Law, Mailing in a Post on Aug 30, 2012

Though I already sent a link in Bob Elliott’s direction in the Afternoon Snack, his piece from today’s Toronto Sun on Lansing’s Aaron Sanchez, Justin Nicolino and Nose Snygen probably needs a little extra exploration, if only because– as I said at the time– it’s providing a nice bit of warm light in what’s been a dark and ugly week of a dark and ugly season.

Aaaaaand… also because there isn’t a whole hell of a lot to write about at the moment, and Keith Law didn’t include enough Jays-related tidbits in his latest chat with readers at ESPN.com to make a full post of it– though what he did say, I’ll provide below.

First up, however, is the key stuff from Elliott’s piece, which come, with one exception, from his most reliable source: his anonymous drinking scouting buddies!

“No wonder they didn’t trade Sanchez,” a ‘veteran evaluator’ tells Elliott. “We heard they had all kinds of offers for him at the deadline. They did the right thing holding on to him. He’ll be the best. You phone me if he’s not the first one of the three to make it.”

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Jays 5th in Future Power Rankings, Plus Other ESPN Miscellany

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Keith Law on Aug 27, 2012

While we were slightly distracted by something over here back on Friday afternoon, ESPN was trying to slip a bunch of Jays-related content past us. Or… at least that’s how I aim to view it (even if one of the items was most certainly posted on Thursday).

However it went down, I’m pretty sure it behooves me to point out that the Jays showed up in the top 25 of the Worldwide Leader’s Uni Watch Power Rankings, got some play in Keith Law’s weekly chat with readers, and most impressively, ranked fifth in baseball, and second in the AL East, in this year’s version of ESPN’s MLB Future Power Rankings.

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Layin’ Down the Law: Sanchez Vaults to 25 in KLaw Mid-Season Top 50

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Keith Law on Jul 12, 2012

Oh, hello. Anything interesting happen today?

Ho ho ho. Yes, yes, the Encarnacion deal– which I totally heard about, only… like, three minutes after Parkes had already taken the reins on that post. But it certainly wasn’t the only interesting thing to take place around here today (not that you’d know it based on my level of activity), because Keith Law published his mid-season top 50 prospects list at ESPN.com (Insider Only), and followed it up with a related chat with his readers, both of which were rich with Jays content.

First and foremost, there’s the list itself, which not only– as the title of this post kinda gives away– features Aaron Sanchez listed as highly as we’ve likely ever seen him, but also has Travis d’Arnaud way up in fifth, and Jake Marisnick rounding out the club’s contingent in the 32nd spot.

d’Arnaud’s qualities we know about, though Law gives word to our deepest fears about him, suggesting that his latest injury in a long string may indicate “it’s possible, even likely, he is always going to be an injury-prone player, one who is great when he plays but won’t average 140 games a year the way you’d want.”

Ouch.

But Sanchez is the big one for me, as he’s way up at 25 from being 96th pre-season. To contrast, he made his first appearance in John Sickels’ top 120 list at Minor League Ball earlier in the month, coming in at 49.

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Layin’ Down the Law – 06/22/12

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Keith Law, Prospecting on Jun 22, 2012

There wasn’t a whole lot of Jays content in Thursday’s Keith Law chat at ESPN.com, but fortunately there are a few more tasty nugs [note: sorry] from his Twitter and his piece on the Futures Game rosters (Insider Only) that I think I can cobble together a whole post out of it. So… um… I s’pose that’s what we should do…

From the Chat

AA (Toronto)
Is any of the available pitching on the trade market worth me giving up any of my big 4 pitching prospects (Sanchez, Syndergard, Nicolino, Norris)?
Klaw
Why would you do that?

Bill (Toronto)
Can you please try and explain to me why the Blue Jays do not trade for a starter that can get them through the season rather than filling from within with prospects going up and down their system? Or even sign a free agent, such as Livian Hernandez? This is driving all Jays fans nuts!!!
Klaw
If you think that’s a good idea, you were already nuts.

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Friday Prospecting

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Bob Elliott, Keith Law, Prospecting on Jun 15, 2012

Drew mentioned earlier that Bob Elliott often employs a classic trick where he turns some quotes from a scout into a column– and funnily enough, that’s almost exactly what he employed earlier this week at the Toronto Sun (here via Canoe, because the Sun’s website has been squirrely lately).

To be fair, Elliott actually tacked the quotes below a whole column’s worth of content that wasn’t based around what his scout-buddy was telling him, but… who gives a shit about that, amiright? Here’s how his RBI-loving source viewed some of the Jays’ top prospects, followed by more prospecty tidbits from Kevin Goldstein and Keith Law…

Now, I scoff at this evaluator’s anachronistic-seeming view of the game, and this would be the part of the post where I back off of that slightly, except that I’m pretty sure I have damn good reason for doing so.

“He’s an all-star shortstop with the glove, which everyone knew at the start of the season,” he tells Elliott of number two (no, really) prospect Adeiny Hechavarria. “Now, he’s starting to hit some, look at his runs scored and RBI.”

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Layin’ Down the Law, the Gold(stein), and More: Post-Draft Scouting and Strategy

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Keith Law, Kevin Goldstein on Jun 06, 2012

The damn draft is still meandering towards its merciful conclusion, but by Day 3 all of the good stuff has already happened– and this year a whole hell of a lot of it seems to have taken place during day two, as many teams, the Jays perhaps chief among them, started test-driving their strategies on how best to game the new CBA system in order maximize the amateur talent they’re able to acquire.

All that good stuff, and further scouting on the Jays’ top picks, was the subject of Mike Wilner’s chat with Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus during the pre-game show last night on the (audio here), as well as some gold from Keith Law yesterday, who spoke about Marcus Stroman and Matt Smoral on the Baseball Today podcast, and answered a number of Jays-related questions in his post-draft chat at ESPN.com.

Here are your highlights…

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It’s Draft Day!

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Keith Law, Kevin Goldstein, Prospecting on Jun 04, 2012

This evening, beginning at 7 PM, MLB will conduct the first round, and the first supplemental round of its Rule 4 Draft from gorgeous Secaucus, NJ. The Houston Astros are currently, technically, on the clock, as holders of the first pick, and after that, the real clusterfuck begins, as club will start making their selections, picking up the pieces of their draft boards, and trying to figure out how best to manage their money.

I’ll have a Draft Threat post up in time for Houston’s selection at 7 PM, and will keep updating it as the evening progresses, with an eye obviously on the Jays, and whatever information I can get my hands on regarding the players they pick. And it shouldn’t even be too insufferable, as the Jays should provide one of the evening’s more interesting story-lines– for all of baseball, not just for us– as they’ll be making five picks (17, 22, 50, 58 and 60), and have been viewed as quite aggressive in their selections– not to mention in their acquisition of extra picks– since Alex Anthopoulos assumed the GM’s chair.

It’s not an unrealistic expectation that they’ll be one of the clubs attempting to game the system and extracting as much value out of their multiple picks as possible. How they might do this remains somewhat up in the air. Anthopoulos has said, as I posted earlier, that it’s possible they’ll take guys who can be signed under-slot later in the draft, if they feel a player is available to them earlier who is worth going after, but the impression he left was that this was dependent on who is available to them.

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