Archive for the ‘Prospecting’ Category

Prospecting: Layin’ Down the Law (And the Callis)

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Keith Law, Prospecting on Sep 28, 2012

Because it’s Friday and I don’t feel like doing anything more than some copy-and-paste work, here we’ve got all the Jays-related nuggets from yesterday’s Keith Law chat at ESPN.com– with added bonus nuggets from Jim Callis at Baseball America in his recent chat (er… from last week), and some stuff from BA’s latest top 20 prospects lists for the various minor leagues.

So… um… here we go!

KLaw

Grant (Toronto)
Gose and Hechevarria seem to have similar profiles in that they are plus defenders at premium positions with questionable hit tools. However, Gose is frequently referred to as one of Toronto’s top prospects with all-star potential, while Hechevarria seems to be known as John McDonald 2.0 unless he learns to hit. Not that either comps are necessarily wrong, but why is there such a disparity between their “prospect statuses”?
Klaw
Gose has a better swing with a little more raw power. He’s also 16 months younger.

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Layin’ Down the Sickels: Prospect Q’s A’d!

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Prospecting on Sep 17, 2012

 Not actually mentioned in the post. But what am I gonna do, find a picture of Matt Smoral?

Over the weekend at Minor League Ball, John Sickels played a little Prospectapalooza, answering as many reader-submitted prospect questions as possible, in not just one thread, but a second one as well.

A good number of the questions were Jays-related, and… um… here they are.

How much progress (if any) has Noah Syndergaard made with his secondaries this season?
by Super Bass Hallways on Sep 15, 2012 1:10 PM EDT

I didn’t hear anything negative about him at all. And I heard that his curve and change are coming along nicely. Not spectacular yet but substantial progress. This seems backed up with the numbers.
by John Sickels on Sep 15, 2012 1:47 PM EDT

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Adeiny Hechavarria We know the defense is very good. My question is will he put up at least league-average offensive numbers for a SS?
by lftyg33 on Sep 15, 2012 1:48 PM EDT

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Friday Prospecting and a Case of Classic Misdirection

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Prospecting on Jul 06, 2012

Jake Marisnick

A variety of prospect stuff has come across my desk (read: computer screen) over the last couple of days, and what kind of dickhole would I be if I didn’t share it?

Sam Dyson: Trade Bait?

According to a tweet from Kevin Gray of the New Hampshire Union Leader, Jays roving pitching instructor Dane Johnson, “The arm speaks for itself,” when it comes to the Jays newest call-up, Sam Dyson. “He gets late action in the strike zone, and you don’t see many good swings on him.”

Indeed, Dyson even managed a strikeout in his Major League debut last night, something he was able to accomplish only 8 times in 24 innings at Double-A. But still, some of the out-of-nowhere praise from within the organization for the first-year pro has made more than a few fans wonder if we’re seeing a repeat of the Nestor Molina situation.

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Sickels: Seven Jays Among Top 120 Prospects

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under John Sickels, Prospecting on Jul 03, 2012

As the MLB season heads towards its midway point, it’s time for a lot of the prospect evaluators out there to check in with an update on the minor league landscape, and John Sickels of Minor League Ball has done just that, updating his Top 120 prospects list, and posting an “All Questions Answered” thread related to the list.

The Jays, as you may expect from a club with such vaunted system– or, y’know, if you read the title of the post– placed a lot of prospects on the list, with not just seven among the ranked 120, but three more prospects among the additional 58 honourable mentions– aka “Other Players Considered for the list.” It should be noted that Sickels doesn’t include 2012 draftees here.

Travis d’Arnaud, as usual, tops the list among Jays prospects, though he’s way back in 18th– an improvement over his previous ranking on Sickels’ list, 26th, but perhaps a little farther back than we’ve come to expect.

There’s then a cluster of prospects in the 40 to 50 range: Noah Snydergaard at 40 (up from 67), Justin Nicolino at 45 (up from 68), the new-to-the-list Aaron Sanchez at 49, and Anthony Gose (pictured) holding steady at 51.

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Holiday Prospecting

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Marcus Stroman, Prospecting on Jul 02, 2012

MLB’s international free agent signing period opened today– the first of its kind, under the terms of the new CBA, which significantly, not to mention astonishingly ridiculously, curbs the amount of money clubs are allowed to spend– and the Jays went right to work looking to add the next maple-tingling firework-exploding laser-beavering Jacques-Rougeau-ing floating-poutining Justin Morneau to their organization…

Assuming, y’know, that said player is Venezuelan. And not at all in the mold of Morneau.

In that sense, or even a sense that doesn’t pointlessly shoehorn in a bunch of Canadian stereotypes as a nod to our national holiday, the Jays seem to have done well for themselves, signing the top rated international prospect according to Ben Badler of Baseball America.

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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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Smoral Signs, Alford and Davis Play!

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Anthony Alford, Matt Smoral, Prospecting on Jun 19, 2012

The Jays announced last night, via a team release, that they have signed 50th overall pick, Matt Smoral. Jim Callis of Baseball America reported that the deal is for $2-million, which is $1-million above the slot for pick number fifty, making him the fourth player to receive a bonus in excess of $1-million above slot, according to Callis.

It can hardly be viewed as a stretch, since we’d been hearing the $2-million figure on Smoral since the early reports that he’d already signed, and since Keith Law said of him on a Baseball Today podcast I quoted two weeks ago, that “he’s almost the perfect candidate to just go to school, to reestablish his value, and he comes out in three years and then he’s a top ten pick. That same guy, coming out of college, is in contention for the first overall pick.”

It does, however, take away from the limited funds left in the Jays’ bonus pool, with 22nd pick Marcus Stroman, and second-rounder Chase DeJong still to sign.

We know from Gregor Chisholm’s draft primer at BlueJays.com that the club began with $8.831-million in their pool, and there is an additional $441,539 available due to a wrinkle in the CBA. Clubs will lose future draft picks if their total spending exceeds the bonus cap by 5%, but if they’re above the limit by between zero and 5%, they simply incur a tax. It’s a hefty tax– 75%– but probably won’t be enough to deter a club like the Jays from getting a deal done. The potential loss of a draft pick, on the other hand, almost certainly will. I’ve added the $441,539– one dollar less than 5% of their $8,830,800 pool– to their total, which makes for $9.272-million they can spend safely.

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