USATSI_8910489_168381442_lowres

Minor League Update: July 9th Edition

There are lots of good hitting performances this week of which to make note,  and one truly dominant week from the teams’ best SP prospect. Before we get started, a few items of interest:

  • Hotshot teenager Justin Maese left his last start after taking a comebacker on the forearm. The damage was not as severe as first feared and he’s still with the VanCs, but missed a turn in the rotation.
  • Two pitching prospects are headed to tomorrow’s Futures Game: RH Francisco Rios and LH Angel Perdomo.
  • Three Blue Jays prospects made Baseball America’s Top 100 midseason prospects list: Sean  Reid-Foley, Anthony Alford, and Conner Greene.

The system was stacked with great performances this week, let’s take a look.

Pitchers of the Week

1. Sean Reid-Foley (20) – RHP – Dunedin (A Advanced)

Week: 2 GS , 12.1 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 15 K
YTD: 16 G , 89.1 IP, 58 H, 22 ER, 29 BB, 97 K 2.22 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 9.7 K/9, 2.9 BB/9

SRF was just announced as the highest ranking of three Blue Jay prospects to make the Baseball America mid-season Top 100 list, at No. 84, and the only shock is that he’s not much higher. In five starts since being promoted he has a 0.86 ERA and a 2.0 BB/K rate to go with his 10.9 K/9.  A lot of Jays fans are not really aware of what’s happening down on the farm. except for the very elite guys. They should be aware of Sean Reid-Foley. He’s really really good.

2. Joel Espinal (19) – RHP – Gulf Coast Jays

Week: 2 GS , 12 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 15 K
YTD: 4 GS, 17 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 21 K, 0.53 ERA, 0.41 WHIP,  11.1 K/9, 0.5 BB/9

A 6’2″ RHP out of the Dominican Republic, Espinal is one of several young Latin pitchers in the lower minors who are attempting to prove again that you can find and develop significant international free agent talent even among the players who didn’t get multi-million dollar bonuses.  I literally can’t find anything about the circumstances of his signing but he signed sometime before the 2015 DSL season began where he pitched well, but mostly in relief. If he keeps pitching like this he’s going to end up on some radars.

3. Francisco Rios (21) – RHP  – Dunedin

Week: 1 GS , 5 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K
YTD: 16 GS, 92.1 IP, 78 H, 20 ER, 21 BB, 86 K, 1.95 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 8.4 K/9, 2.0 BB/9

Since being promoted to Dunedin, Rios has seemed to slip a little bit out of the spotlight that shown brightly on him at Lansing, but that doesn’t mean he’s been struggling. He’s got a 2.31 ERA and a 1.12 WHIP in 10 Dunedin starts so far.  However, there is one thing that’s different. He now has exactly as many strikeouts in Dunedin as he had in Lansing, but over twice as many IP at the level.  However, fortunately, this doesn’t seem to be a huge red flag, it’s all a part of the learning process.

Hitters of the Week

1. Rowdy Tellez (21) – 1B – New Hampshire (AA)

Week: 13/27, 3 2B, 0 3B, 2 HR, 0 SB, 4 BB, 6 K, .481 AVG, .548 OBP, .815 SLG
Season: 77/267, 17 2B, 1 3B, 12 HR, 1 SB, 46 BB, 59 K .288 AVG, .394 OBP, .889 SLG

Major league veteran Casey Kotchman plays 1B in Buffalo. He’s hitting .238 with a .703 OPS and he probably needs to be thinking about what comes next for him because Tellez has just about run out of things to accomplish at AA.  You’ve heard this before, but let’s sing his praises yet again. At the end of play on May 9, he was 13/91 on the season, with three doubles and three homers, but also an impressive 22 walks. That worked out to a .574 OPS. It was fair at that point to consider the possibility that pushing him to AA was too aggressive. Since then he’s slashing .364/.440/.608/1.048 and as his last week totals show, and he’s shown no signs of letting up. My promotion predictions haven’t been reliable, but I would certainly not be shocked if he changed addresses during the All Star break (also, by the way, it’s a rank injustice that he’s not on the Futures Game roster).

2. Derrick Loveless (23) – RF – New Hampshire

Week: 6/17, 2 2B, 0 3B, 2 HR, 0 SB, 3 BB, 5 K, .353 AVG, .350 OBP, .824 SLG
YTD: 58/222, 15 2B, 4 3B, 7 HR, 8 SB, 33 BB, 70 K, .261 AVG, .354 OBP, .459 SLG

Loveless has been without love (see what I did there?) on top prospect lists since being drafted in the 27th round in 2011, and for good reason. His first three years in pro ball were entirely nondescript offensively, no contact, no power, no speed. But he hung around, possibly because of good defense or because they saw some raw ability in him. He improved on all fronts in 2014 in his first shot at full season ball, then regressed last year in Dunedin. He was the kind of guy that you wouldn’t miss if they’d cut him at the end of Spring Training. So the odds are that his outburst since being promoted to AA on May 9 is an irrelevant outlier. But it’s the best run of his career and maybe the only time he’ll get recognized so good for him.

3. Darrell Ceciliani (26) – OF – Buffalo

Week: 10/28, 3 2B, 1 3B, 3 HR, 0 SB, 1 BB, 6 K, .357 AVG, .355 OBP, .857 SLG
YTD: 44/171, 11 2B, 2 3B, 4 HR, 7 SB, 14 BB, 29 K, .257 AVG, .310 OBP, .415 SLG

When Ceciliani was signed to a free agent minor league contract over the winter, the praise was pronounced among coaches and staff who were familiar with him, and he was expected to be a big contributor. But when he was called up for a brief major league appearance (appearing in all of 2 games) it certainly wasn’t because he’d earned it. In fact, his OPS at that point was a mere .554 and trending downward. But someone in Toronto apparently did right by him because things have been different since he returned. He’s slashed .353/.411/.726/1.136 over the two weeks since.

Other Minor Notes

As last week, the best use of this space is to make note of those short-season players who had a great week I mentioned above. In the GCL, besides high draft pick Bo Bichette, who’s in the chart below, four other hitters deserve a mention. SS/2B Kevin Vicuna, a LH hitting Venezuelan is hitting .378 so far; 1B David Jacobs who was a 32 round pick in the most recent draft has a .940 OPS; SS Javiar Monzon, who’s a 23 year old Cuban who’ll surely be promoted in short order as he’s too old for the league, has a 1.025 OPS; and 21 year old Mexican  Noberto Obeso has a 1.072 OPS and he has a career .476 OBP.

At Bluefeld, 2014 4th round catcher Matt Morgan, who hasn’t hit at all before this year, has a .910 OPS in the early going and the team is said to have a lot of faith in him. Nash Knight, by contrast, was an undrafted free agent last year but the 3B has a 1.037 OPS so far. Another catcher, 2016 12 round choice Ridge Smith is also hitting well. Vancouver 2B Mattingly Romanin, a good Ontario boy, had a week, posting a 1.083 OPS. Further up the system, another guy who deserves an honorable mention is New Hampshire catcher Jorge Saez who hit .357 this week, with a .976 OPS to bring his season mark up to .833 after having spent the previous month down in Dunedin.

Other Stat Lines of Interest

HITTERS

Last Week

Hitter Age Pos. Lvl G AVG OBP SLG HR SB BB K TB
Richard Urena 20 SS A+ 7 .367 .387 .433 0 1 1 6 13
Anthony Alford 21 CF A+ 5 .053 .143 .053 0 1 1 5 1
Max Pentecost 23 DH A 4 .375 .444 .875 2 1 2 4 14
Juan Kelly 21 1B A 7 .296 .387 .481 1 1 3 9 13
Cavan Biggio 21 2B R+ 4 .429 .500 .500 0 1 3 2 7
Vlad Guerrero, Jr. 17 3B R 7 .258 .303 .355 0 3 2 5 11
Bo Bichette 18 SS r 6 .304 .333 .609 1 1 2 5 14

Season

Hitter Age Pos. Lvl G PA AVG OBP SLG HR SB BB K TB
Richard Urena 20 SS A+ 74 322 .281 .329 .409 4 8 19 54 124
Anthony Alford 21 CF A+ 46 186 .187 .286 .265 2 6 20 64 44
Max Pentecost 23 DH A 44 187 .296 .368 .438 5 2 18 37 74
Juan Kelly 21 1B A 79 316 .278 .344 .490 9 6 28 68 141
Cavan Biggio 21 2B R+ 14 57 .340 .424 .420 0 1 7 7 21
Vlad Guerrero, Jr. 17 3B R 14 59 .214 .267 .375 2 3 3 11 21
Bo Bichette 18 SS r 11 46 .381 .417 .619 1 1 4 8 26

PITCHERS

Last Week

Pitcher Age Pos. Lvl G ERA K/9 BB/9 WHIP
Taylor Cole 26 SP AA 2 4.09 9.0 0.8 1.45
Conner Greene 21 SP AA 2 8.68 5.8 5.8 1.71
Shane Dawson 22 SP AA 1 1.80 12.6 7.2 1.60
Angel Perdomo 22 SP A 1 9.00 13.5 9.0 1.50
Jon Harris 22 SP A 2 2.08 8.3 0.7 1.15
Ryan Borucki 22 SP A 1 2.40 8.4 1.8 1.13
Jordan Romano 23 SP A 1 0.00 9.0 4.5 1.25

Season

Pitcher Age Pos. Lvl G ERA K/9 BB/9 WHIP
Taylor Cole 26 SP AA 4 3.74 8.7 2.9 1.615
Conner Greene 21 SP A+ 15 2.91 5.9 4.4 1.471
Shane Dawson 22 SP AA+ 14 3.62 7.2 5.1 1.569
Angel Perdomo 22 SP A 16 2.71 11.8 4.2 1.110
Jon Harris 22 SP A 14 3.35 8.4 2.9 1.236
Ryan Borucki 22 SP A+ 17 5.38 7.1 2.7 1.466
Jordan Romano 23 SP A 5 1.17 10.2 3.5 1.174

Lead Photo: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Related Articles

Leave a comment

Use your Baseball Prospectus username