Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine
Chavez Young was picked in the 39th round in 2016 and is providing great hitting from the top of the lineup in Bluefield. He hit .500 over the weekend to bump his average up to .325. New Hampshire and Lansing had 14 hits on Sunday, Bluefield had 12. Dunedin had only nine but that was enough for a win. Buffalo and Vancouver's hitters were off their game. Andy Ravel and Sean Reid-Foley were the best of Sunday's pitchers.

Buffalo

Buffalo lost all three games over the weekend to continue their slide. The hitters take the blame, the Bisons scored two runs with 15 hits over all three games. The only hitter with a hit in all three games was Rowdy Tellez who totaled four hits in three games.

The poor hitting spoiled two good starts from Cesar Valdez and Luis Santos.


New Hampshire

New Hampshire, on the other hand, have some hot bats. They racked up 18 hits on Friday and 14 hits on Sunday. Lourdes Gurriel, freshly promoted to AA is off to a hot start. He was 4-11 with three doubles in three games. Richard Urena was 5-18 over four games. Danny Jansen was an on base machine going 4-9 with four walks. Tim Lopes and Harold Ramirez each had six hits. On Sunday Gunnar Heidt hit his eleventh home run and drove in four runs.

On the pitching side Francisco Rios had a good start, one earned run conceded on six hits over six innings. Sean Reid-Foley gave up three runs in six innings on Sunday but he pitched well. He only allowed four hits and three of those scored. One was a home run and in another inning the first two hitters singled and doubled. They both came around to score on outs. Carlos Ramirez pitched two shutout innings on Sunday, one hit and two strikeouts.


Dunedin

When your lineup includes Anthony Alford, Bo Bichette, Vlad Guerrero and Max Pentecost you expect runs. The Jays did score 20 runs in three games but it all wasn't down to the big four. Alford went 2-9 and was limited to three at-bats per game. Bichette was 4-12, Guerrero 3-11 with three walks. Pentecost played two games and was 4-9.

Cavan Biggio was 5-9 in two games. Michael De La Cruz also had five hits in two games. Conor Panas had five hits in three games.

Josh DeGraaf had another good start. He gave up an unearned run in the first and then cruised until the sixth when he gave up two more as he tired. Jordan Romano had a start to forget on Friday.


Lansing

Lansing have been trying to compensate for the loss of Bo and Vladdy. They played a couple of close games on Friday and Saturday and were in another on Sunday when they scored nine runs in the eighth inning. All eyes are on Edward Olivares, he had three hits over three games including his team leading 15th home run. Hot and cold Josh Palacios was hot again, going 5-12 with two walks and two doubles. Rodrigo Orozco had a hit in each game, while Javier Hernandez had three hits including a home run in two games.

Yennsy Diaz and Andy Ravel pitched well, Osman Gutierrez was average at best.



Vancouver

The C's won on Friday and then lost two in a row with an off weekend from both the offense and defense. Dalton Rodriguez did not have a good start and Juan Nunez pitched OK but took the loss. The C's used six pitchers in their win. Zach Logue, ninth round pick, pitched the first two innings and had five strikeouts.

Reggie Pruitt is showing signs of life. He was the only hitter to hit in all three weekend games. Pruitt had two hits in two of the games and was 5-13 overall. Pruitt is hitting .270 in July and thats progress for the 20 year old. Logan Warmoth was 4-6 on Friday but didn't play on the weekend. Kevin Vicuna picked up four hits in three games Brandon Polizzi had three hits on Friday, none on Saturday and sat-out Sunday. Riley Adamshad two hits on Friday and followed that with two 0-4's.


Bluefield

Bluefield were pounded 11-0 on Friday, Joel Espinal was taken to the woodshed. The Jays bounced back with 6-1 and 8-7 wins. The best pitching of the weekend came from Alvaro Galindo who pitched five shutout innings.

Chavez Young is on fire, he was 7-14 over the weekend and is now hitting .325. Chavez was a 39th round pick last season out of Georgia and is still 19 years old. Young is striking out 30% of the time and has only four walks so he is hacking. Hopefully he learns to be a bit more selective. Ryan Noda had a rare, "oh-for" on Friday but bounced back with a hit and two walks on Saturday and three hits on Sunday. Kevin Smith and Yorman Rodriguez each had a pair of multi-hit games. Those four hitters plus Ryan Gold are all hitting over .300.

GCL Blue Jays

The GCL Jays had started well going 10-3 but they lost both games to the Phillies scoring just two runs. There was a lot of rotation in the lineups between games so the hit totals were low. Dominic Abbadessa played in both and had three hits. In case you missed it, the Jays signed Brandon Grudzielanek, a 22 year old nephew of Mark. He picked up two hits in his first game on Saturday and then headed for Bluefield.



Three Stars

Third Star - Kevin Smith

Second Star - Gunnar Heidt

First Star - Chavez Young


Boxes


A 39th Round Draft Choice Leads the Way | 23 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Gerry - Monday, July 17 2017 @ 10:50 AM EDT (#345363) #
Nate Pearson will make his pro debut today in the GCL.
85bluejay - Monday, July 17 2017 @ 11:08 AM EDT (#345364) #
Continue to be impressed by Carlos Ramirez - has a Mychal Givens vibe, hope he gets a taste of AAA this year - definitely a contender for a 40 man spot.

Hate to see college guys beating up on mostly HS kids in short season ball - I'd like to see guys like Noda,Warmoth,Adams moved up a level.
ramone - Monday, July 17 2017 @ 11:34 AM EDT (#345370) #
Baseball Prospectus had a fair sized write up on Urena today, to paraphrase they said he has a ton of talent and has the tools to stick as a major league short stop. However they said he does tend to lose focus which leads to errors and his free swinging makes for hit tool evaluations that range from 45-60 on the 20-80 scale and that variance is due to his overly aggressive approach. They write that he has the ability to replace Tulo but has a lot of development left to get there.

Paywall link
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=32296
Gerry - Monday, July 17 2017 @ 01:15 PM EDT (#345387) #
Pearson's debut has been foiled by the weather. I assume he will play tomorrow now.
85bluejay - Monday, July 17 2017 @ 01:26 PM EDT (#345388) #
According to baseball America, 4 of the top 7 international prospects are coming to AL east teams - none to the jays.
PeterG - Monday, July 17 2017 @ 01:55 PM EDT (#345389) #
Jays signed 5 of the top 38. BY all accounts, they did extremely well.
bpoz - Monday, July 17 2017 @ 02:07 PM EDT (#345390) #
The intl FAs are so young and physically still growing. It must be extremely hard to accurately determine anything. So I would think that many good players can be had later on. Lowly or even unranked.

It would be interesting to see how our 2016 signings do as they would be under the radar types.
85bluejay - Monday, July 17 2017 @ 02:16 PM EDT (#345392) #
I would love for someone to do a study of whether spreading the money around or going for the top rated guys works out better - such young players, it's such a crapshoot especially with top rated pitching (as should be expected) - Ynoa,Cardona etc.
Mike Green - Monday, July 17 2017 @ 02:18 PM EDT (#345393) #
Jansen has a 22/16 W/K for his double A work (139 ABs), to go with medium range pop.  That's great for a 22 year old. 
jgadfly - Monday, July 17 2017 @ 03:10 PM EDT (#345394) #
Conner Greene ... I'll be interested to see if Greene can build on his Eastern League All-Star appearance where he pitched 2 innings, striking out four while hitting an 'easy' 100 mph on the radar gun and for his final strikeout, he froze Cleveland's Yu-Cheng Chang with a called strike on a 3-2 'off speed' pitch of 79 mph. Twenty of his twenty-eight pitches were strikes; four of the eight pitches called balls were recorded within the strike zone rectangle(as per Gameday, I'm not sure how accurate that may be)
Anyway, given the last two Jay's games with all of the low 90 mph walks, he might be in consideration for the bullpen as early as August and possibly get some starts in September and AFL in October ... 140 plus innings last year, 90.2 so far this season ... I will also be interested to read Sickles' thoughts of the game.
jerjapan - Monday, July 17 2017 @ 03:22 PM EDT (#345395) #
Uglyone was on board with Jansen from the beginning and I could never really see why ... this season is why.  Those glasses really, really seemed to help. 

Chavez Young is no ordinary 39th rounder .... he signed for 250K, outside of the top 6 picks, only Travis Hosterman got more.  If I recall correctly, he was one of the last players signed last year - you'll never have the money to get all those types of picks signed, but clearly he was worth taking a flier on.  I wouldn't have said this last year, but our minor league OF depth is looking pretty good right now. 

I'm stoked on Ramirez too.  Jay Blue scouted him in 2016 and had his fastball at 94, which is actually a bit lower than I had expected.  If he can continue to be even close to this good, he gets a 40 man roster spot for sure - minor league relievers have some pretty gaudy numbers, but when they are this gaudy, this early in his pitching career, they stand out. 

mendocino - Monday, July 17 2017 @ 06:55 PM EDT (#345407) #
Blue Jays sign SS Evan McDonald, senior out of Georgia Southern, assigned to GCL Blue Jays
Gerry - Monday, July 17 2017 @ 09:14 PM EDT (#345408) #
Chris Rowley threw six shutout innings tonight. Conner Greene was poor, Bo keeps on hitting.
85bluejay - Monday, July 17 2017 @ 11:08 PM EDT (#345423) #
Gerry, Does Chris Rowley have the repertoire to be a #5 starter in the AL east?
scottt - Tuesday, July 18 2017 @ 06:10 AM EDT (#345426) #
10BB/22SO in 23 innings. 0 HR. Looks borderline.

I see that Tim Mayza is up to Buffalo and has given up only 1 run in 5 innings.

Gerry - Tuesday, July 18 2017 @ 10:25 AM EDT (#345442) #
I am not sure if Rowley can be a starter. Rowley is a sinker, slider pitcher (plus change). He doesn't throw particularly hard. In some respects he is like Danny Barnes who isn't a hard thrower but who has a lot of movement on his pitches. Rowley does have good control and seems to have a repeatable delivery that works well. He could be a starter but most pitchers of his type end up as relievers. If his command is good enough he could be a starter, I just don't know if it is. He probably would be better served by some bullpen work to get acclimated to the majors and based on that the Jays could try him as a starter based on how he looks.
bpoz - Tuesday, July 18 2017 @ 11:17 AM EDT (#345443) #
We could end up with a bull pen that is both cheap and good next year.
ramone - Tuesday, July 18 2017 @ 11:59 AM EDT (#345445) #
"We could end up with a bull pen that is both cheap and good next year."

Enough perhaps to allow Osuna to start would be my preference, though I don't think Osuna wants to start.
uglyone - Tuesday, July 18 2017 @ 12:02 PM EDT (#345446) #
"We could end up with a bull pen that is both cheap and good next year"

well, we have that this year already.
bpoz - Tuesday, July 18 2017 @ 12:57 PM EDT (#345452) #
IMO Grilli, Howell and Smith at $3 mil each is not cheap. It is not expensive either.

If someone was to group the cost of every pen in the league, ie cost levels, I am sure that we would be in a low level. But that does not mean it is cheap to me.

Going further into this.... If we decided to compete in 2018 we need add only 1 arm, at $3 mil. A lefty.
uglyone - Tuesday, July 18 2017 @ 01:40 PM EDT (#345457) #
fair enough.

though grilli and howell being expensive and by far the biggest negatives in the pen only reinforces how good and cheap the rest of the pen has been.
bpoz - Tuesday, July 18 2017 @ 08:21 PM EDT (#345478) #
Very true uglyone. This is a great pen. Osuna will get his money next year because he is arb eligible and also very good.

The others will get their fair value. It should be quite cheap.

I am getting ahead of myself, but I believe that the 2018 pen can be cheap, deep and good. Add in wishful thinking and the Buffalo shuttle will also be good.
scottt - Wednesday, July 19 2017 @ 12:04 AM EDT (#345486) #
Barnes has been in the pen for a while now. Also Barnes is really a fastball/changeup pitcher with an occasional slider thrown in. Rowley would likely need a 4th pitch to be sustainable in a rotation, but it really depends on what the fastball looks like. Can he cut it? Sink it? Change speed?

A 39th Round Draft Choice Leads the Way | 23 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.