Archive for the ‘Travis d’Arnaud’ Category

Offseason Prospects Series: Catchers

Posted by Bradley Ankrom under Prospecting, Travis d'Arnaud on Nov 29, 2012

I spent about an hour trying to craft a beautiful introduction to our offseason prospects series, but nothing magical came to mind. You didn’t come here to a read long-winded introduction, anyway; you came for the prospects. Before we begin, however, I do want to touch on a few things:

1. I’m not going to bullshit you here: the capsule structure is very similar to the ones Kevin Goldstein used to do for Baseball Prospectus. I toyed with a few different ideas, but wasn’t able to come up with anything better.

2. The age listed is the player’s seasonal age on July 1, 2013 (the age at which they will play the majority of next year). After the stat lines, I list the level and league at which the stats were accrued (e.g., “SS-A/Northwest” for short-season Class-A Northwest League).

3. Finally, I decided to break this series up into ten chunks so that I could deliver more comprehensive information about each position’s players (also, I’m paid by the article). The tentative schedule:

Nov. 29 – Catchers
Dec. 6 – Corner Infielders
Dec. 13 – Middle Infielders
Dec. 20 – Corner Outfielders
Dec. 27 – Center Fielders
Jan. 3 – Right-handed Starting Pitchers
Jan. 10 – Left-handed Starting Pitchers
Jan. 17 – Relief Pitchers
Jan. 31 – Top 50 Overall: 26-50
Feb. 7 – Top 50 Overall: 1-25

With that out of the way, let’s get started. Read the rest of this entry »

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Breaking: d’Arnaud’s Knee Ligaments

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Injuries, Travis d'Arnaud on Jun 26, 2012

OK, so the plural “ligaments” in the title may be slightly misleading, but still… fuck me, Shi Davidi with yet another bit of good news for the Jays organization…

So… that’s rather fucking shitty– especially since the Jays have been getting so little (read: pretty much what’s expected) from JP Arencibia this year–  but… I don’t know, let’s not all go throw on the Cure’s Pornography and start making frantic calls to find a halfway decent opium connection. I mean, it’s easy get ungodly gloomy about it, and you certainly have to hate the thought of this injury kickstarting some kind of chronic knee situation for your catcher of the future, but we have no reason to believe this is anything more than a relatively minor setback. It just happens to kinda come at the most depressing fucking time possible.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Law: d’Arnaud is MLB’s Fourth Best Prospect

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Aaron Sanchez, Keith Law, Prospecting, Travis d'Arnaud on May 24, 2012

With a bunch of promotions, injuries and regressions already changing the nature of who is considered a prospect at this point in the season, ESPN’s Keith Law has decided to revise his rankings, publishing today an updated top 25 prospects list (Insider Only)– and Las Vegas catcher Travis d’Arnaud finds himself in fourth!

That ranking is up two spots from the sixth-place ranking d’Arnaud achieved in Law’s pre-season Top 100. There was actually quite a bit of shuffling required to get there, as Matt Moore, Bryce Harper and Mike Trout have all graduated from the list, Cardinals prospect Shelby Miller dropped, while Orioles phenom Dylan Bundy and Texas shortstop Jurickson Profar vaulted over d’Arnaud into first and second respectively– with another Oriole prospect (gulp!), Manny Machado, also ahead.

“Yes, it’s Las Vegas, which is a notorious hitters’ park, but he’s on a tear right now, hitting .341 with five homers in his last 10 games,” Law writes. “The combination of plus defense, power and enough OBP makes him a potential All-Star.”

The 23-year-old catcher is the only Blue Jays prospect to make the top 25, though Law also lists Lansing pitcher Aaron Sanchez among his honourable mentions/players to keep an eye on.  That’ll play.

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