Clutchlings Minor League Award Winners

Rich Miller - Vancouver Province photo

     The Blue Jays farm system ended the season on a positive note.  As President Mark Shapiro had noted in late August, much of the depth in the organization is still working its way up the ladder, and as if to reinforce that point, 4 of the team's 5 short season clubs made their respective league's post seasons, while three of the four full season teams fell short of .500.

    In the minors, development supersedes winning. Teams do like their top prospects to move up and learn to win together, so making the playoffs is viewed as a positive thing.  It can be also be a chance for tired players to injure themselves.  The Blue Jays executives I have spoken to over the years don't necessarily see the minor league post season as a bad thing, but their lack of enthusiasm in noticeable.

    At the bottom of the ladder, the Dominican Summer League's DSL Blue Jays won their division, only to be beaten in the first round by the Dodgers.  Top IFAs from 2016 like Hugo Cardona, Naswell Paulino, Elixon Caballero, and Kenny Mauricio played for the club, which was piloted by veteran Blue Jays minor league Manager John Tamargo.
     One of the realities of minor league ball is that many of the players plying their trade for an organization are roster fillers.  Teams will tell you that they believe that every player they sign has a chance, and while I think the Blue Jays sincerely believe that, the truth is that since only a handful of minor leaguers even get a cup of coffee in the bigs, roster turnover is a fairly frequent thing.  Case in point: DSL Jays OF Andres Martinez, a late 2016 signing who was the club's best hitter, and our pick for Player of the Year.  Martinez was among the team leaders in Average and OBP, but at 19 (he just turned 20), he was a little old for this level.  IF Rafael Lantigua had comparable numbers, and a higher Slugging %, thanks to 6 Triples.  He was also 11-23 in Stolen Bases, negating much of the value he created by getting on base.  Martinez provided little pop (only 7 extra base hits, all Doubles), and that plus his age probably made the Jays feel he wasn't a candidate to move stateside next year.
   The DSL Jays Pitcher of the Year race was a tight one.  LHP Paulino, a converted OF who can dial it up to 96, fanned 52 in 55 innings, and had a couple of outings where he was all but unhittable. Caballero, a Marcus Stroman-sized righty with an advanced feel for pitching, worked mostly out of the bullpen, striking out 36 in 32 frames.  But the award goes to Righty Nathanael Perez, who K'd 55 and walked only 7 in 57 IP.  Paulino and Caballero are only 17, while Perez is 19.  All 3 will start in the GCL next year.  The former two may move fast at some point.

   The next rung on the ladder would be the Gulf Coast Jays, who were tied with the Phillies entry for first in their division with 10 games left in the schedule.  The GCL Jays stumbled to a 4-6 finish, ending up two games behind the Phils and out of the playoffs.
   The GCL is where high schoolers and lower round college players from the June draft begin their careers.  Rehabbing minor leaguers from upper levels also return to action via the GCL.  CF Dominic Abbadessa, a 2016 23rd rounder whose debut season was limited to 15 games, was the team's top player (.340/.402/.408), and our Player of the Year.
   The GCL Jays Pitcher of the Year choice was fairly obvious.  Even on a fairly deep pitching staff, Maverik Buffo stood out.  A 34th round choice out of BYU, Buffo's elbow issues of last year likely caused teams to pass on him, and even the Blue Jays seemed reluctant to let him leave the confines on the minor league complex, where the team's medical staff is located.  Buffo dominated GCL hitters, allowing only 28 hits and all of 2 walks in 34 innings, striking out 36.  His performance earned him a selection to the All Rookie-Level team by Baseball America.  The wraps should come off Buffo next year, and he should be headed to full season ball.

   Another BA All-Rookie Choice, 1B Ryan Noda, gets the nod as Bluefield's Player of the Year. Noda was an Advanced Triple Crown winner - Average, OBP, Slugging - in the Appy League.  The 15th round pick from Cincinnati flirted with .400 for much of the summer, before finally finishing with a line of .364/.507/.575.  Described by a source who saw him with Bluefield as, "very patient, bordering on passive," at the plate, he will see more advanced pitching in full season ball next year.
   Southpaw Randy Pondler is our Pitcher of the Year for Bluefield.  The Nicaraguan formed an effective 1-2 punch with 18 year old Venezuelan Maximo Castillo, and both (along with Buffo and several Vancouver arms) should lead an upgraded pitching staff at Lansing next year.  Pondler is a long and lean lefty with a live arm who throws low 90's heat, and his best secondary is an 11/5 curve that flashed solid depth and bite,  according to reports.
   Appy League voters obviously felt the same way about the pair;  Noda was named Player of the Year, while Pondler took hom Pitcher honours.

   Vancouver returned to the Northwest League finals for the first time since 2014, and didn't disappoint, defeating the Cubs' Eugene affliate 3-1, and capturing their 4th NWL crown in 7 years as a Blue Jays farm club.  SS Logan Warmoth (1st), and C Riley Adams (3rd) were two June picks who stood out in leading the C's to victory.  There was not a lot to choose between the two offensively, but Adams played 52 games at a demanding position, and helped guide a pitching staff that got better as the season progressed, and takes the award as a result.
   The C's Pitcher of the Year was an easy selection:  RHP Nate Pearson, the team's 2nd first round pick (28th overall).  Pearson tired a little at the end of the season, but he consistently sat 96-98 with his fastball, hitting 100 a number of times, and NWL hitters were no match for his heat.  Through his first five innings-limited starts with the C's, Pearson did not allow a runner past 2nd.  In the playoffs, he dialed his fastball up, fanning 10 in 4 innings vs Spokane in the division final.

    SS Bo Bichette and 3B Vladimir Guerrero Jr entered the 2017 season as teenagers with considerable promise. They ended it as two of the top prospects in the game.  Bichette was above .400 as late as June 28th, and finished his time in the Midwest League a week later with a .384/.448/.623 line before joining Guerrero in a promotion to Dunedin.  Vladdy Jr may be garnering more prospect acclaim, but there is everything to suggest that Bichette profiles as an impact MLB bat as well, with above average base running skills and Baseball IQ to go with it.  The numbers he posted in Lansing earned him league MVP honours, as well as our POY.
    Lansing's Pitching staff caused some long nights for its fans, finishing at the bottom of the MWL in most stats.  There was promise at the beginning of the season, with Justin Maese and Patrick Murphy fronting the starting rotation, and Zach Jackson and Jackson McClelland anchoring the back of the bullpen.  With the former pair injured for a good chunk of the season, and the latter two promoted to Dunedin, the Lugnuts allowed a considerable number (1.56 WHIP) of base runners. Maese missed all of June and half of July before returning from a shoulder fatigue shutdown. Murphy missed a similar amount of time, but was much more effective than his rotation partner upon his return, earning a late-season promotion to the D-Jays.  His tidy 2.94 ERA over 15 starts,  48.7% groundball rate, and 35.5% opposite field rate speak to a lot of weak contact.  And that earns the Arizonan, who returned last year after missing almost two years due to injury, our Pitcher of the Year nomination for Lansing.

   In the shadow of some more illustrious teammates at Dunedin like the Lansing Bash Twins and Max Pentecost, was Toronto native Connor Panas.  The 1B/DH/OF started slowly, but was one of the Florida State League's most dangerous hitters in the second half.  Panas led the FSL in Home Runs and Fly Ball%, no mean feat in a well-known Pitcher's league, and earns the Player of the Year title.
   Dunedin's opening day rotation was one of the best 1-4 in the minors.  Ryan Borucki, Angel Perdomo, TJ Zeuch, and Markham's Jordan Romano formed a rotation that promised to lead the D-Jays to the post-season.  And while Zeuch and Perdomo missed most of the second half of the season, and Borucki was promoted to AA in August, Dunedin did indeed make it to the playoffs, and captured league co-champion honours in an Irma-shortened playoff format.  Last man standing Romano was a large part of that.  His 138 K's in as many innings were second-best (behind Borucki) in the system. His 10.1% swinging strike rate indicates that he missed a lot of bats.  Romano did not miss a start this season, and with Panas forms an all Greater Toronto Area Player and Pitcher of the Year combo for Dunedin.

   It was a long season for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.  In a sign of things to come, their first two games were postponed due to the wet Northeastern spring, and after losing 4 of their first 5, the weather continued to play havoc with the Fisher Cats' schedule.  They finished 21 games under 500, losing 14 in a row to the Yankees Trenton affiliate over several series.
    The shining light of the New Hampshire season had to be the play of OF Anthony Alford, who regained his top prospect status after a sideways 2016.  Called up to the big club, he broke his hamate bone, forcing another long stay on the DL.  When Alford came back, he was sent to New Hampshire until the final weekend of the season.  His final line of .310/.406/.429 for the Cats more than proved he will be in contention for a big league job next spring.
   New Hampshire's Pitcher of the Year was a difficult selection.  At the season's outset, the Fisher Cats had three top prospects fronting their rotation in Sean Reid-Foley, Conner Greene, and Jon Harris.  All three had their struggles, even with Greene hitting 100 numerous times this season.  New Hampshire's bullpen likely kept their season from being a complete write off, and it's from the pen that we bring up Chris Rowley.  The RHP spent all of last year pitching in relief for Dunedin after receiving an exemption from his military commitment, but was pressed into starting duty this year when fatigue and inconsistency hit the rotation.  Rowley did not miss a beat, and used his success in a starting role into an eventual start for the Blue Jays.  Although he threw only 52 innings before being promoted to Buffalo, Rowley allowed only 33 hits and 9 walks, pounding the bottom half of the strike zone.  Rowley is our New Hampshire Pitcher of the Year.

   AAA rosters have become more like temporary holding pens full of major league insurance. Rosters at this level are often in flux, depending on the state of affairs with the big league club. 69 players suited up for the Buffalo Bisons this year, 37 of them pitchers.
   On the player side, one would have thought entering this season that 1B Rowdy Tellez would be a safe bet to be the team's MVP.  Tellez suffered through the worst season of his pro career in 2017, held to a .222/.295/.333 line, with only 6 Home Runs.  OF Roemon Fields was a revelation in his fourth pro season, however, setting career highs en route to a .291/.355/.352 season.  Fields is all about putting the ball in play and getting on base, which he did at a decent rate this season.  His career-best 21.8% line drive rate also suggests that he's making better and more consistent contact. On the bases, he swiped 43 while being caught 12 times (a 78% success rate).  His defence is without question, and he was a fixture in CF and at the bottom of the lineup.  Fields is a fringe major leaguer at this point, with 4th OF potential, but he raised his offensive game this year.
   Buffalo's Pitcher of the Year was a difficult choice.  TJ House, Brett Oberholtzer, and Jarret Grube all logged about 130 innings as starters, but their numbers were fairly mediocre.  Murphy Smith gave the team a lot of valuable 7th and 8th innings, and made 8 starts when the rotation was thin.  That versatility was important for Buffalo, and gives him the nod.

     Since the most successful players in any organization tend to be the ones who play at several levels, they don't necessarily get to stick around to post huge numbers at any one stop.  In recognition of this, it's worth choosing an over all Player and Pitcher of the Year for the Blue Jays organization.
 
   For Player of the Year, two players share the award.  C Danny Jansen was healthy for the first time since his debut in 2013, and the results were very impressive.  Jansen started wearing sport glasses last fall in the Arizona Fall League in order to help him pick up the spin on his Pitcher's pitches better, with an added bonus that it helped him tremendously with pitch recognition at the plate. Jansen started the season at Dunedin and ended it at Buffalo, with the Blue Jays wisely opting to shut him down at the end of the season rather then place him on the 40-man and promoting him on September 1st.  His .323/.400/.484 line for the season was one of the best in recent memory for a Blue Jays minor league Catcher, in addition to his prodigious receiving and Pitcher-handling skills.
 
    Vladdy Jr more than held his own as an 18 year old at Lansing.  While other players his age were preparing for the draft or college last spring, Guerrero was adding to his growing reputation in full season ball.  He put together a line of .316/.409/.480 and played solid if not spectacular defence before being promoted to Dunedin.  Against more advanced Florida State League Pitching, Guerrero built on those stats, hitting .323/.25/.485, earning Player of the Month laurels.  Vladdy Jr now has to be considered the top prospect in the game.
 
    Borucki's performance at three levels this year earns him the Pitcher of the Year award.  After fanning 109 in 98 innings for Dunedin, the possessor of the best Change Up in the organization tossed 7 shutout innings in his Eastern League debut.  His August work for New Hampshire (limiting hitters to a .187 BA) earned him a promotion to Buffalo for his final start of the season, where he tossed another six scoreless frames.  Borucki's 157 Ks led the system and he was among the FSL leaders in Swinging Strike% and GB rate.  The tall southpaw, who is one of the grittiest players in the system after losing two seasons to injury since being drafted in 2012, is on the verge of competing for a Major League job next spring.

    If there was a Manager of the Year award, Vancouver's Rich Miller would be a cinch to win it.  After taking over from John Schneider in 2011 part way through the season to lead the C's to an NWL title, the baseball lifer (Miller has been in the game for 44 years as a player, instructor, scout, and Manager - John Gibbons played for him) had served as a consultant to the Blue Jays for the past several years.  Miller returned to helm the C's this year, and led them back to the league championship.  Managing a short season team is a unique challenge.  Skippers have to blend players who have been at Extended, chomping at the bit for three months for an opportunity to play real games, and recent draftees who have had a whirlwind experience after their collegiate seasons (there was a shorter than usual gap between the MLB draft and the start of the NWL season this year).  Throw in playing in a new country, often far from home, and Miller had a huge challenge in harmonizing his roster and coming up with a winner, coaxing the best from his players, many of whom had never experienced large doses of failure in the game before experiencing it in the Pacific Northwest.  One can only imagine the amount of patience it took.  So now maybe we have a MOY award as well.  Northwest League voters agreed with this choice in naming Miller the league's Manager of the Year.

   ****************************************************************************
   "You're hired to be fired," is another baseball truism.  Baseball is above all else a business.  Clubs make personnel and roster moves that are in what they believe are the long term best interests of the organization.  I was stunned to learn from Miller yesterday that he had been let go by the Blue Jays after bringing a title back to the Lower Mainland.  To his credit, he was still willing to grant the interview request I had made despite this.  I suspect he will be philosophical about his departure, and I'll reserve judgement about it until I speak with him.  He's a good baseball man, and if he chooses to stay in the game I have no doubt he'll find another job quickly.

A Look at the Van Cs

Logan Warmoth - Clutchlings Photo

  People in the eastern half of the country may not know it, but the country's most successful baseball franchise of the decade has been based on the West Coast.
 
   The Short Season Vancouver Canadians of the Northwest League captured three consecutive league championships (and just missed on a 4th) from 2011-13, and have consistently been among the leaders in attendance, leading the loop for the third season in a row in setting a NWL record by attracting over 239 000 fans this year (an average of 6 303 per game).  And after capturing the first half division title, they are off to the playoffs again this week.

   A fan who was visiting the Lower Mainland and area last week stopped by to catch a couple of games, and came away impressed, which had been the case on his previous visits.  The C's home of Nat Bailey Stadium is located minutes away from downtown Vancouver in an otherwise quiet mid-town neighbourhood.  The Nat, which hosts the University of British Columbia Thnuderbirds in the spring, was built in 1951, and the stadium does show its age.  The Canadians have made a number of improvements and upgrades to the stadium, but the concrete grandstand from 1st to 3rd is still the hub of the park.  Comfortable field level chairs grace the lower half of the stadium, but good old fashioned hard-backed benches are found in the upper level.  Several pillars make for partially obstructed views, and the setting sun down the 1st Base line can make for steamy conditions in the upper reaches along the 3rd Base line in the early innings.  Family friendly entertainment can be found down the LF line, and a new seating area just beyond the LF wall opened last year.  If you're booking more than two tickets, be sure to do so months in advance.  The Nat is also only a short walk away from Vancouver's Sky Train, which may pale a bit in comparison to Toronto's subway system, but is a quick way to get around the city.

   Northwest League rosters are populated by college players taken in the recent June draft, as well as a sprinkling of players who have worked their way up from the lower levels.   The Blue Jays like to have Vancouver as a stop along the way to a major league career for their top prospects - players have an incredible home atmosphere to play in, plus it gives them a taste of living in Canada, learning to deal with issues such as the currency, and going through Customs on road trips.   Several high draft picks from this past June, including SS Logan Warmoth, P Nate Pearson, and C Riley Adams were sent to the Pacific Northwest this year.

   Warmoth is a player the Blue Jays have been following for several years, and Amateur Scouting Director Steve Sanders said the club was thrilled that he was still available when their turn to pick in the 1st round came up.  Unlike many drafted Short Stops, Warmoth is projected to stay at the position. While he didn't have a whole lot of balls hit to him in the games I saw him in, he shows good footwork and reactions to the ball.  He did skip a throw to 1st that bounced down the RF line on a throw from the hole that he may have been better advised to have eaten the ball on.  At the plate, Warmoth has a balanced set up, and an excellent approach.  He barreled up several balls over the series I took in. Smart on the bases, and the possessor of high make up and baseball IQ, he looks every bit an MLBer in the making.fpdde

  Adams, Toronto's 3rd round choice, had a reputation as a bat-first Catcher coming out of San Diego U.  At 6'4", he's somewhat big for the position, but he is athletic (Adams has a Black Belt in Karate), and presents a low target.  His work last week in terms of blocking and handling Pitchers appears to be at least adequate, but his framing needs a bit of work.  He showed a rifle arm in cutting down a runner, but his arm has been described as inconsistent. He will no doubt be going to Catching Finishing School with Roving Catching Instructor Ken Huckaby at Instructs later this month.  At the plate, Adams shows a good approach, and uses the whole field.  He posted a good .305/.374/.438 line in the Northwest League this summer.  Although he needs some work with his receiving skills, Adams too profiles as a major leaguer one day.

Riley Adams - Clutchlings Photo

  We detailed Pearson in a previous post.  After fanning 10 over 4 innings in the C's first playoff game against Spokane, he further cemented his status as a rising Pitching prospect.

   The C's had a solid group of next level prospects as well - guys who may not profile as Major Leaguers just yet, but are worth following.  9th rounder LHP Zach Logue and 10th round RHP Justin Dillon formed an effective piggyback duo over the last half of the season.  White Rock, BC native Brayden Bouchey was very strong out of the C's pen.  He topped out at 90-91, but the 6"6" righty has a funky, over-the-top delivery that can be tough on right handed hitters. LHP Travis Bergen, who has missed considerable time since being drafted in the 7th round in 2015, was lights out in relief, sitting 92, but with excellent fastball command and secondaries.  If he were to stay healthy and perhaps add a tick or two of velo, he could move quickly next year.

Brayden Bouchey - Clutchlings Photo

  1B Kacy Clemens, son of Hall of Famer Roger, showed good defensive skills at 1st, but his bat speed seem to be wanting.  Vancouver press box regulars suggested that he's worn out after his first pro season, which is not unusual for a college player; between college and the pros, he's played over 120 games this year.

  CF Reggie Pruitt is among the fastest players in the system, and covers a tremendous amount of ground in the outfield.  He's progressed at the plate, but his strike zone judgement is still in need of further development - a 26% K rate won't cut it for a player with his game-changing speed.  His offensive numbers were better in the second half, so maybe he's on an upward trajectory.

Reggie Pruitt - Clutchlings Photo

   The C's swept Spokane, and face the Cubs' Eugene affiliate in the Best of Five League finals.  The series starts in Eugene this weekend, then shifts to Vancouver for the remainder of the series.

 

 

A Look at Nate Pearson

Clutchlings Photo

   The first thing you notice about Nate Pearson when he's on the mound is his size.  At 6'6"/245, he looks more like a Tight End than a Pitcher.  When hitters come to the plate to face him, they know that triple digit heat is on its way.

   Pearson faced the Rockies' Northwest League affiliate Boise Hawks in Vancouver's last home game of the regular season on August 30th.  Coming into the game, NWL hitters had been entirely at Pearson's mercy over his previous six starts since coming north in late July.  In 16 innings, the righthander had allowed only 5 baserunners, with none advancing past 2nd Base.

   Pearson was not highly scouted as a high school senior, with his fastball sitting in the 92-93 range. He enrolled at Florida International, and pitched 30 innings as a freshman.  Pearson weighed 225 entering college, but it was at FIU that he became serious about adding some bulk to his frame.  He transferred to Central Florida JC in order to be closer to home, but he continued to commit to getting stronger.  He used a long toss program, weighted balls, and the teachings of Kyle Boddy of Driveline Baseball, a Washington-based training program to add velocity.  While at Central Florida, he also worked on his secondaries.

   Things began to come together in a big way for Pearson last fall, when he hit 100 in a Florida college showcase.  Scouts began to follow him closely this past spring, and he didn't disappoint.  While he seldom approached triple digits, he did consistently sit 93-94, touching 97.  The biggest difference was the quality of his secondary pitches:  his changeup began to grade as a plus pitch, and he showed a slurvy slider with good shape.  His fastball itself was noted for its late run, as well as his command of it. As the spring progressed, his change and slider developed from "show me" pitches to legitimate strike-inducing complements to his heat.  Pearson had a screw inserted into his pitching elbow in high school, but all reports the Blue Jays had received said that he was healthy, and after taking North Carolina SS Logan Warmoth with the first of their two 1st round selections, the Blue Jays selected Pearson with their second, 28th overall.

   There were suggestions among some scouts that Pearson could move quickly through the minors as a reliever.  In short stints, he certainly can dial his fastball up.  But the Blue Jays felt he had the build, mindset, and repertoire to turn a lineup over, and sent him to Vancouver after one start in the GCL.  His pitch count and innings have been closely monitored since then.  Against Boise on a hot late August afternoon at charming Nat Bailey stadium in the shadow of the Coast Mountains, the shackles were likely going to be loosened a bit more on Pearson after throwing 60 pitches in his last start.

    In his first inning, Pearson came out firing, hitting 100 with his third pitch.  In a sign of things to come, however, he walked that first batter on 7 pitches.  Pearson was squeezed a bit, but he also struggled to command his fastball to both sides of the plate.  He settled down after that leadoff walk, getting the next hitter on a called 97 third strike fastball, and getting the third hitter on a weak flyball to CF.  On his next pitch, a 97 called strike to Boise's clean up hitter, C Riley Adams fired a cannon to 2nd to cut down an attempted steal, ending the inning.

  Pearson's 2nd inning was his longest of the afternoon.  A 9-pitch AB by the leadoff hitter resulted in a weak groundout to 1B Kacy Clemens, but it was a sign of things to come.  Pearson was still sitting 96-98, and tried to get swings off of a pair of off-the-plate curves, but Boise hitters didn't bite.  With two out and ahead in the count to the third batter of the inning, Pearson tried to sneak a change up past the Boise hitter, who drove it down the 3rd Base line for a double.  The next hitter grounded a single up the middle, and CF Reggie Pruitt charged hard and came up throwing.  His throw appeared to arrive in plenty of time to C Riley Adams at the plate, but Adams bobbled it, and Pearson had given up his first run in pro ball.  He struck out the next batter looking to end the inning after having thrown 28 pitches.
   Pearson was back to his more dominant former self in the 3rd inning, striking out the side swinging, using his change and curve more effectively.  He was touched 98 with several pitches, and topped out at 99.
    By the fourth, though, Pearson's velo and command started to flag.  He was now sitting 94-96, and while his offspeed pitches were sharper, his overall command wasn't.  Pearson loaded the bases on a base hit sandwiched by a pair of walks, and his afternoon was over.  Great relief work by local product Brayden Bouchey limited the damage to a single run on the inning.
   For the game, Pearson threw 73 pitches, 40 for strikes.  He fanned 5 and walked three, and had a pair of ground ball outs.  Truth be told, Pearson was probably the least effective Vancouver pitched on the day; Bouchey pitched a pair of scoreless innings, while lefty Travis Bergen, making his way back from over a year of inactivity due to injury, tossed three scoreless frames, striking out 6.  Just the same, there was much to take away that was positive from Pearson's outing.  His fastball was no match for Boise hitters, but his secondaries were not effective offerings on this occasion.  He consistently repeats his drop-and-drive delivery, and throws his offspeed pitches from the same arm slot as his fastball.  Standing in a modifed stretch on the rubber, there are not a lot of moving parts to his mechanics.  And while Adams has been the Canadians' best player, and comes to pro ball with a reputation as a solid defensive Catcher, he has some work to do in terms of framing pitches.  On some of the borderline pitches, Adams appeared to reach rather than coax the ball into the strike zone, and this may be an area he works on at Instructional League.

    There is a great deal about Pearson that can lead one to profile him as a top of the rotation starter. The fastball velocity gives him a greater margin for error on his secondaries, which by many reports have come a long way over the past year.  Baseball wisdom suggests that a true measure of a Pitcher is how he performs when he doesn't have his best stuff.  If that is true, at 20, Pearson still has some maturing to do.  Perhaps knowing that his outings would be limited to 3-4 innings, and given the huge home crowd, Pearson may have been a little too pumped up, and we're willing to give him plenty of further opportunities to prove himself.  The Blue Jays prefer to let their new draftees play, and worry about making refinements after their first pro season.  Pearson will likely be headed to Florida to continue to develop his fastball command, as well as the consistency of his secondary pitches.  It's still early in his career, but there's every reason to believe that the Blue Jays have a front end starter in the making.

    According to our good friend Charlie Caskey (@CharlieCaskey on Twitter), who we sat with in the Vancouver press box for Pearson's start, C's Pitching Coach Jim Czajkowski, who has served in that capacity with team for 6 of their 7 seasons as a Blue Jays affiliate, Pearson is the best arm he's ever had.  That would put Pearson ahead of such major leaguers as Roberto Osuna, Aaron Sanchez, Marcus Stroman, and Noah Syndergaard.  After fanning 10 hitters over 4 innings in Vancouver's first playoff game, Pearson appears to have backed that claim up.


 

Blue Jays Scouting Director Weighs in on MLB Draft

Riley Adams/milb.com photo

    Blue Jays Director of Amateur Scouting Steve Sanders moved to Toronto last fall after being named to the job following six years with the Red Sox, but with the duties that come with running the department charged with selecting players in the annual June draft, he admits that he hasn't seen a lot of the city just yet.

    We caught up with Sanders in Chicago, where he was waiting on a flight to Tampa.  The Under Armour Showcase, an annual gathering of the top draft-eligible high school players that takes place at Wrigley Field, had just wrapped up.  The East Coast Pro Showcase was on tap next for Florida, followed by the Area Code Games in California the week after.

   The Blue Jays' drafting philosophy had undergone a change under the leadership of President Mark Shapiro and GM Ross Atkins from the days of Alex Anthopolous, which was evident last year.  Up to 2015, the Blue Jays had been willing to roll the dice on draft day, selecting players with high upside, but often with accompanying high risk.  The high school pitcher, perhaps the riskiest commodity in the market, was the Blue Jays preference, as well as athletes in non-traditional baseball places.  In 2016, the club went with a more conservative approach, selecting college players with five of their first six picks, which may have been an effort to re-stock the system in response to the prospect dealing Anthopoulos did in his final year at the Blue Jays helm.

  Approaching the draft, the goal for Blue Jays scouts, says Sanders, is "a complete understanding of the player on and off the field....his strengths, weaknesses, and make-up."  Players are evaluated not just for their tools, but for their aptitutde, and coachability, and as Sanders says, "how their values align with our organization's."

   Working with the Blue Jays High Performance Department on evaluating players, Sanders says the club is always, "working to find new ways to gather and evaluate information more efficiently." For obvious reasons, he wouldn't divulge what some of the team's methods were, but it was well known that the Red Sox, his former employer, used neuroscience to help evaluate potential draftees.   Angus Mugford, who heads up the High Performance group, said just before the draft that his role was to create "a good physical and mental fundamental makeup of as many players as possible," with the mental component being a huge factor.  Make up has become a huge focus of the Blue Jays' evaluaton of prospects - Director of Player Development Gil Kim calls it "the sixth tool."  With talent levels being so even across a wide spectrum of players, it's often traits like grit and resilience that separate the prospects from the suspects. Sanders added that the Blue Jays' Area Scouts take pride in getting to know players - "the more we know (about a player), the better draft day decisions we can make."

  After taking over from former Scouting Director Blake Parker last fall, Sanders made few changes to the scouting staff.  In the early years of the Anthopoulos era, the Blue Jays had one of the largest amateur scouting staffs in baseball, but the numbers have been cut back over the past few years. Sanders felt that wholesale change wasn't necessary when he took over:  "this is a group that had a lot of success before I got here."  As for his philosophy on draft day, he says because each draft is unique in terms of the composition of its top players, and the important thing is to "attack the draft, adding as much impact talent as we can."  More often that not, this translates to the "best player available," when the Blue Jays' turn to select comes up each round.  Sanders says it's best to be "open-minded" when it comes to the draft - some years college players dominate, and sometimes there are more arms than bats, as well as the reverse.  In preparing for next year's draft, Sanders already suggests that it will be different in terms of its composition of top propsects than this year's was.


 Sanders was asked for some capsule comments on the team's top draft picks:

On North Carolina SS Logan Warmoth, taken 22nd overall:

He's a player we've scouted for a long time....he wasn't a propsect out of High School, but he steadily improved at North Carolina, and that really showed this year.  He's very steady and a well-rounded player, with a chance to stay at SS and hit for power.  His make up is off the charts, and he has the intangibles to be a top of the lineup hitter.

The second Blue Jays 1st rounder was Florida Juco RHP Nate Pearson:

His stuff in undeniable.  He's shown steady improvement, and (Area Scout) Matt Bishoff has known him for a long time.  It's not just his velocity, his secondaries are good pitches as well.  He's a good athlete, repeats his delivery well, and has the ingredients to be a top of the rotation arm.

  2nd round pick C Hagen Danner:

 Very athletic player who we scouted as both a catcher and a pitcher. Strong with projectable power, has a chance to be a run producer with the bat to go along with good hands and plus arm behind the plate. Was up to 95 with quality 3 pitch mix off the mound. Great competitor & teammate who bring a lot of winning attributes.

3rd rounder C Riley Adams:

Strong performer in his 3 years at USD and in the Cape league, has power to all fields and shown ability to hit for average and get on base. Easy arm strength and another very good athlete which we feel will help him stay behind the plate despite his larger frame. Works hard on both sides of the ball and continued to get better defensively throughout our looks this season.

4th round pick SS Kevin Smith:

 Quality defender with hands and instincts to stick at SS. Has some pullside power at the plate and showed off what he can do with the bat in the Cape league last summer. Student of the game that's remade parts of his swing over the last few years, did a nice job of making some adjustments this spring to bounce back from a slow start. As he continues to develop, we feel he has the tools to bring value on both sides of the ball as an everyday SS.

5th round pick 2B Cullen Large:

Offensive switch hitting infielder with feel for the bat from both sides. Quality performer for three years at William & Mary. Has played mostly 2B but may be able to move around some for added versatility.

6th rounder OF Brock Lundquist:

LHH college OF with feel to hit & track record of performance at Long Beach State. Can play both corners.

7th round pick RHP Colton Laws:

 Big 6'7 RHP with three pitch mix, gets downhill and throws a lot of strikes. Has impressive feel to pitch, size and angle add deception and can make him a tough look for hitters. Good athlete who was a basketball player in HS, feel he's going to continue to get better as he continues to log innings.

Canadian OF Tanner Kirwer, taken in the 20th round:

CF with plus speed to impact the game in the outfield and on the bases. Was starting to hit his stride offensively before being hit by pitch at the end of July (he was recently placed on the 60-day DL). Great makeup and energy, originally from Alberta, Canada before heading to Niagara U.

 
   As the draft heads into Day 2, the knowledge of the Area Scouts is "the locomotive that drives the process," according to Sanders, and is a good example of why these individuals are among the most important in the organization.  They know the players better than anyone, having seen them play over the course of several years.  The intuition of Area Scouts becomes even more important on Day 3, when there is little information available about players who have yet to be drafted.  Many selected at this point become what is known in the trade as "organization guys" - players drafted in order to fill rosters at the lower levels of the farm system.  But, as Sanders says, "for every guy we drafted, there was someone on the staff who believed in them."

   At 29, Sanders is one of the youngest Scouting Directors in baseball.  He is, in baseball terms, "a gamer."  Sanders attended Northwestern, but tore his labrum before attending the school, and redshirted his first three years.  After graduation, he interned with Dodgers in his hometown before moving across the country to become the Red Sox Amateur Scouting Coordinator in 2012, moving up to Assistant Director in 2015.  He has as reputation as having strong people and analytical skills.  When asked what allowed Sanders to stand out among the candidates the Blue Jays were considering for the job, Shapiro responded:

 It was helpful that Steve had worked with people that we knew well and aligned with like Ben Cherington, Mike Hazen and Mike Murov.  Throughout our time with him, he was thoughtful, intelligent, passionate and humble.  Steve impressed upon us that he was driven to learn and improve – and more importantly help others do the same.  He also exuded many of the leadership traits that I think separate great leaders.  Even better, he has over delivered on those interview attributes in his everyday leadership.  He works to build strong, respectful relationships throughout our organization and to utilize every person and source of information to help us make better scouting decisions.  We are fortunate to have Steve leading our Amateur Scouting staff.

  Once things settle down at the end of the summer, Sanders admits that he's looking forward to getting to know Toronto better before planning and scouting for next year's draft begins.

 

Blue Jays Draft Recap: The Top Guys

Charlotte Observer Photo

  The internet is full of evaluations from a variety of sources about the Blue Jays draft.
I don't pretend for a moment to know all that much about any of the prospects, and much of what follows is a summary of online reports and my own observations from watching video.  Just the same, here's a look at the Blue Jays top draft picks:

Logan Warmoth  SS North Carolina
    Described by many as a "safe pick", Warmoth has been comped with long-time MLB SS J.J. Hardy, and that's a reasonable projection.
   In the field, Warmoth has fluid movements, combining agility with good hands and footwork. When he has time, he sets and makes strong, accurate throws.  He can also make that crossfire, on-the-run throw to first.  His arm is currently ranked as the strongest tool in his kit.  He's projected to stay at SS, and the Blue Jays will likely give him every opportunity to do so, although some reports suggest he's better off as a 2B long term.
   He has what is described as a solid approach at the plate, but it appears that he makes a lot of groundball contact and may have to work at adding some loft to his swing.  He has a simple, quiet set up, using a toe tap to start his load.  There's not a lot of movement in his short, compact swing.  He should put a lot of balls in play, and because of his ability to work a count, he should see a fair number of balls to barrel.
  Warmoth has been lauded for his baseball IQ, and in a trend that the Blue Jays are for the moment at the leading edge of, makeup.
   Warmoth should start the season at Vancouver, but could easily finish up at Lansing, depending on the playoff hunts of both teams.  He may move quickly through the system, and in most cases might be among the first of his draft class to make it to MLB.

Nate Pearson RHP College of Central Florida (JC)
   With their second first round pick, the Blue Jays opted to go for upside and chose Pearson, who has topped 100 several times this season, and usually sits 96-98.
   Unlike a lot of fireballers, Pearson works mostly down in the zone, getting good eye plane-changing downward movement.
  Pitching from a 3/4, semi-stretch delivery, there are not a lot of moving parts to his motion.  Pearson uses his lower half very well, and throws with intent.  At 6'6"/240, he is an imposing presence on the mound, and with his size and a glove flip during his delivery, can be very hard on right hand hitters.
He does not land in a good fielding position, however, and that part of his mechanics will need some refining.
   Pearson relies on his fastball, and has a slider that shows some promise with some late break.  His curve is not a well developed pitch - he often gets on top of it, and does not disguise it well.  It's highly likely that he will shelve that pitch once he turns pro.  His change is described as a work in progress.  There's a lot to like with that fastball, however, which should buy his secondaries time to develop.
   Scouts were encouraged that Pearson was able to maintain his velocity late into games.  He has a commitment to LSU, so there is no guarantee that he will sign.  The pick is protected, so the Blue Jays are covered if Pearson decides to return to school.  Drafting Warmoth with the first pick was a safe bet in the event that Pearson does not sign.
     There has been speculation that he could be moved to the bullpen full time, in which case he projects to possibly breeze through the minors and find himself in the back end of a major league pen with that velo in short order.  The more likely scenario is that the Blue Jays audition him as a starter, in which case he likely starts his season in Bluefield.  There is a considerable high risk/high reward element to this pick:  Pearson could develop into a solid starter if he can harness his secondaries, or he could become a lights out bullpen arm.  There is also a chance that he returns to school if the Blue Jays are unwilling to go much over slot for him.

Hagen Danner P/C California HS
  Selected with the 61st pick overall, Danner was one of the most intriguing players in the draft due to his two-way abilities, but scouts appear divided on where his prospects are best in the long term.
  He throws a three-pitch mix which includes a fastball that can touch 95, and will almost certainly add a tick or two to that as a pro.  Behind the plate, he has been termed a solid defensive Catcher who lacks elite bat speed.
  It will be interesting to see which direction the Blue Jays go with Danner.  Will they move him to one position or the other, or given the need for versatility on a 25-man roster in this day and age of multi-arm bullpens, will they allow him to play both?
  On the showcase circuit, Danner spent more time pitching than he did behind the plate, and that may be a clue as to where his future lies.  The GCL appears to be a logical starting point for Danner, but he probably won't finish the season there.

Riley Adams C San Diego
   Adams is a bat-first Catcher who improved his stock considerably this spring.
At 6'4", he's a bit big for the position, and scouts have noted inconsistencies with this throwing and receiving skills.  More than one report indicated that his makeup is considered plus, which was no doubt a factor in the Blue Jays selecting him.
  Adams hit well in the wood bat Cape Cod League last summer, adding legitimacy to his hit tool, but his swing is long, and there is a swing-and-miss element to his game, although he does see a lot of pitches.
  Adams should start the season at Vancouver.

A few final thoughts:
-it's worth remembering that as much as we cram in the days leading up to the draft, we don't really know these players.  Scouts do.  They've been following most of the players in their areas since their sophomore years of high school.  They've talked to the players, their parents, and their coaches. Scouts have a much better of the make up of a player than the rest of us do.  And with the physical talents between many draftees being only slight in terms of their differences, it's make up that often separates the prospects from the suspects.

-not that they have no value, but I don't tend to obsess much over guys picked later than the third round. These are the players that statistically speaking have the highest chance of reaching the majors.  The upper minors, of course, are littered with guys selected in lower rounds than that, but rather than take a shot-gun approach, I try to focus on the top selections.  Historically, they have the better chance of advancing.  After Round Three, the scouting staff typically takes over selecting players, and while they're always looking for that "arm behind the barn," to borrow a phrase from another era, the main purpose of picking players beyond that point is to stock rosters of the lower level affiliates.

-while there are almost a limitless supply of scouting reports and video online, most of it is in isolation - there's very little game action video, so you don't get a true sense of how a player responds in game situations.  And this is why that even though I read through all that material to get a sense of a player's profile, they're pretty much a blank slate to me, and I look forward to seeing them live (yours truly has not one, but two trips to Vancouver planned for this summer - helps to have family out there) or online.  I promise to have plenty of photos, video, and reports.

-speaking of the latter, if you can't make it out to the Left Coast this summer to watch the C's, broadcaster Rob Fai has confirmed that the Saturday night televised Canadians games will continue this summer.  Shaw TV televised the games last year, and while the games were not shown live east of Sault Ste Marie, they were available on YouTube.  Shaw sold its media division in order to get into the wireless market, and there were concerns that the new owners of Shaw TV properties, Corus Entertainment, would not be interested in showing the games.  It's only a half dozen games, but viewers get an excellent chance to watch some of the Jays prospects sent to Vancouver in action.