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	<title>Toronto &#187; Bo Bichette</title>
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		<title>Blue Jays 2017 Farm System in Review: The Hitters</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/09/18/blue-jays-2017-farm-system-in-review-the-hitters/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/09/18/blue-jays-2017-farm-system-in-review-the-hitters/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Sep 2017 10:59:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Tammy Rainey]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Anthony Alford]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bo Bichette]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cavan Biggio]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Danny Jansen]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hagen Danner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Logan Warmoth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reese McGuire]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Richard Urena]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Riley Adams]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rowdy Tellez]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Teoscar Hernandez]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vlad Guerrero Jr.]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[The Vancouver Canadians are champions of the Northwest League. The Dunedin Blue Jays are co-champions of the Florida State League. The Bluefield Blue Jays and the DSL Blue Jays made post-season appearances. While there were some setbacks, on the whole, the system was replete with success stories. Let&#8217;s review. The Canadians made post-season magic on [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The Vancouver Canadians are champions of the Northwest League.<br />
The Dunedin Blue Jays are co-champions of the Florida State League.<br />
The Bluefield Blue Jays and the DSL Blue Jays made post-season appearances.</p>
<p>While there were some setbacks, on the whole, the system was replete with success stories. Let&#8217;s review.</p>
<p>The Canadians made post-season magic on the strength of shutdown pitching while the tired offense struggled. They went 5-1 in the post-season, winning four of those five by a score of 2-1. &#8220;Big&#8221; Nate Pearson racked up 14 strikeouts in eight innings pitched over two starts, allowing a single run; The piggyback combination of Zach Logue and Justin Dillon (who regularly pitched together this season) combined for 13 innings pitched giving up only two earned runs while striking out 21 in the two games in which they appeared. More impressive yet, the Canadians&#8217; bullpen combined for 25 innings pitched, while giving up one earned run, striking out 31, and walking only five.</p>
<p>The D-Jays had to settle for co-champion status after Hurricane Irma forced the FSL to cancel their championship series. After losing game one, they played a double header against the Tampa Yankees and won both ends behind dominant pitching from T.J. Zeuch and Jordan Romano.</p>
<p>Now, with team news out of the way, I&#8217;ll turn my attention to individual performances. In part one I&#8217;ll review the hitters, by position, and in part two we&#8217;ll take a look at the pitching.</p>
<h3>Catchers</h3>
<p>This is arguably the most well stocked position in this section which is, frankly, a weird thing to be saying about the Blue Jays.  I reviewed this position at some length <a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/08/28/blue-jays-minor-league-report-a-cornucopia-of-catchers/">a few weeks back.</a> To that analysis I will only take the time to add this bit of information I discovered about <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=596069#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Max Pentecost</strong></a>.</p>
<p>If this guy had not had shoulder issues, he might well have already suited up in Toronto. Every quote I&#8217;ve seen from Jays staff is a rave review. He got a gentle re-introduction to catching this season and in light of a recently published comment in which he described finding it harder to stay focused when he wasn&#8217;t behind the plate, I decided to take a deeper look at this season. For starters, they never had him catch back-to-back games, and he only played 72 games in all due to injuries (apparently unrelated to the shoulder, but injury info on prospects is very difficult to access) including missing the last 3+ weeks of the season. What I found was that the results, albeit in a small sample, support his observation. He played 20 games behind the plate, 22 at first and was the DH 30 times. Here&#8217;s his respective slash lines at each position:</p>
<p>In 81 AB as a catcher: .358/.381/.654/1.035<br />
In 86 AB at first base: .196/.250/.337/.587<br />
In 121 AB as a DH: .273/.348/.422/.780<br />
Overall in 288 AB: .274/.330/.431/.761</p>
<p>This is probably just noise, but maybe it means something? We&#8217;ll have to see.</p>
<p>My prediction is that <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=643376#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Danny Jansen</strong></a> and <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=624512#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Reese McGuire</strong></a> will begin 2018 sharing time in Buffalo with a high likelihood that one or both will see time in Toronto. Pentecost will slot in at AA and I expect<a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=656180#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong> Riley Adams</strong></a> to leapfrog to Dunedin while the <strong><a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=t517&amp;player_id=670394#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL">Ryan Gold</a>/<a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=660857#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL">Yorman Rodriguez</a></strong> duo will break camp with Lansing. Although due to some crowding at that level the latter might stay back and go to Vancouver. <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=668470#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Hagen Danner</strong></a>, this year&#8217;s second round choice, could slot into either Vancouver or Bluefield depending on how everyone looks in the spring.</p>
<h3>First Base</h3>
<p><a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=642133#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Rowdy Tellez</strong></a> was the one &#8220;buzz&#8221; guy at this position coming into the season and he had the first rough year of his career. Early on he was likely affected by some difficult family issues, but even when his average finally recovered in August the power stroke was nowhere to be found. Thankfully Justin Smoak&#8217;s emergence took the urgency away on Rowdy&#8217;s development. He&#8217;ll no doubt repeat AAA next year.  <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=622806#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Juan Kelly</strong></a> in Dunedin was good-but-not-great in a pitcher&#8217;s league, but also brings positional versatility being able to also play 3B and even catch in a pinch (he was signed as a catcher).  2017 8th round choice <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=641459#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Kacey Clemens</strong></a> was a mainstay for the VanCs and 15th rounder <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=t517&amp;player_id=676116#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Ryan Noda</strong></a> was the Appy League Player of the year and a monster for Bluefield (1.082 OPS). Whomever has a better spring will have the chance to jump to Dunedin next year with the other off to Lansing.</p>
<h3>Second Base</h3>
<p>When one lays aside upcoming minor league free agents, the most advanced 2B in the systems is Tim Lopes. While he came up big for NH often, however, a .729 OPS isn&#8217;t going to get him added to any prospect lists. <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=624415#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Cavan Biggio</strong></a> is a member of the Jays Second Generation Club, but he also totaled a .705 OPS for Dunedin in his age 22 season—that&#8217;s not going to cut it. That brings us to <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=669392#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Samad Taylor</strong></a>. He was the second player that the Jays picked up from Cleveland in the Joe Smith deal. After a brief stop in Bluefield, he hit .333 for the balance of August with a hit in every one of those August games save one. Over that stretch his OPS was .848 and he&#8217;ll be someone to watch in Lansing next spring.</p>
<h3>Shortstop</h3>
<p>By now you probably know that spring crush <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=621037#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Jason Leblebijian</strong></a> went off a cliff in early June and crushed the illusion that he might have a major league role. He&#8217;ll be back in Buffalo as a utility man playing mostly 3B next year. More exciting for Bisons fans is the likely advent of <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=620446#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Richard Urena</strong></a>. As recently as the first of this month I was convinced that he&#8217;d go back to AA to begin 2018 as his production their this year did not scream, &#8220;promote me.&#8221; However if he can carry over the gains of his September major league hot streak to next spring, that might earn him the bump. It&#8217;s said that the Jays will want to see him get more work in at 2B next spring in anticipation of middle infield injuries, and that positional flexibility is also something they want in <strong><a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=666971#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL">Lourdes Gurriel Jr.</a> </strong></p>
<p>Gurriel himself did not impress offensively either this year (both he and Urena had an OPS of .286 with LGJ slugging slightly higher) there are quite a few caveats. He missed much of the first half with hamstring injuries and when he did return it was after over two years out of organized competitive baseball games. There&#8217;s a reasonable chance that he has a better spring and, given that he&#8217;s 24 (over two years older than Urena) he&#8217;ll get the AAA assignment. There&#8217;s an argument to be made for separating them, so as not to crowd the SS playing time, but if the Jays want both to be highly flexible in the infield then it is also perfectly reasonable for them to pair the two in the middle of Buffalo&#8217;s infield, occasionally rotating back and forth.</p>
<p>Doing so opens up New Hampshire&#8217;s job for <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=666182#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Bo Bichette</strong></a>. Given that Bichette only got into 40 games for Dunedin, the cautious approach would be to at least let him (and a certain other individual) open the year back there and avoid the spring cold that one must deal with in New Hampshire. But that would certainly be a temporary situation unless he completely fell apart. Whether he plays 140 games in AA or 100, the job is effectively his given he was the most productive hitter (on a full season team) in the Blue Jays system in 2017.</p>
<p>The job Bo leaves behind in Dunedin would likely go to some combination of young Venezuelan shortstops <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=650988#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Yeltsin Gudino</strong></a> and <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=660631#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Kevin Vicuna</strong></a>. Both are, to this point, relatively light hitting glove men whom the organization likes, but they&#8217;re not really on anybody&#8217;s top 30 list. With that said, Gudino was considered the No. 8 international signing prospect in 2013 and Vicuna was No. 30 the following year, so there might be some unrealized upside with them . At some point, though, they would likely take a back seat to one of the Blue Jays&#8217; 2017 first round picks: <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=657089#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Logan Warmoth</strong></a>.</p>
<p>In truth, it&#8217;s not impossible to imagine a scenario where Warmoth leapfrogs the two aforementioned shortstops and goes straight to Dunedin. But given the Blue Jays&#8217; handling of the previous year&#8217;s draft picks as well as the inherent luxury of having impressive depth above him, the 2017 top pick most likely breaks with Lansing. Warmoth did everything the team could have hoped this year in Vancouver, even while the rest of the hitters wore down towards the end of what was, particularly for college hitters, a really long season. Fellow 2017 draftee <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=t517&amp;player_id=675656#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Kevin Smith</strong></a> deserves a mention here as well, likely taking his assignment one level behind Warmoth wherever that ends up being.</p>
<h3>Third Base</h3>
<p>I know what you&#8217;re thinking, but let me take these in order from the top of the system down&#8230;even though that won&#8217;t take long. Jason Leblijian will just be a placeholder—at best—in Buffalo. Matt Dean will be a minor league free agent who&#8217;ll be very lucky to get an offer. Mitch Nay is still around, after much trouble with injury, but also hasn&#8217;t proven he can hit. So let&#8217;s just move on to discussing <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=665489#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Vlad Guerrero Jr</strong>.</a></p>
<p>Vlad, whom more and more folks are putting in discussions about the best prospect in the game, is obviously in the same position as Bo. The team could easily justify conservatively leaving him in Dunedin to begin the year in the sunshine until early May, but given that he has yet to experience serious adversity it might be considered advantageous to his development to let him break camp in AA. Whatever the schedule, that&#8217;s likely where he&#8217;ll play most of his games come year&#8217;s end. It&#8217;s also worth noting that how they choose to develop him will be at least somewhat affected by whether they extend Josh Donaldson this winter (or at least the nature of the conversations with his representatives about doing so).</p>
<p>If/when Guerrero settles in at AA, look for <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=641735#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Bradley Jones</strong></a> to get most of the reps at 3B in Dunedin. While he&#8217;s capable of playing 2B and 1B (and presumably would be a decent enough outfielder) third is where the depth chart is thinnest and so logically he&#8217;d get his best chance here. Jones was so impressive in Lansing that he was their first hitter promoted to Dunedin, but injuries limited him to 17 games and likely underlaid the 0 for 26 stretch that preceded his trip to the DL. The FSL hasn&#8217;t seen the real Jones yet. Below that level it gets dicey. <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=650991#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Bryan Lizardo</strong></a> was unproductive at Vancouver, <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=t517&amp;player_id=660709#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Sterling Guzman</strong></a> hit well in Bluefield before a season ending injury. The second highest paid signing by the Blue Jays in this July 2 period was a 3B, Miguel Hiraldo, but he was described in rosey terms for his hitting, little mention was made of his defense, and he a very long way off.</p>
<h3>Outfield</h3>
<p>The top of the list in terms of advancement among outfield prospects is <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=606192#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Teoscar Hernandez</strong></a>. In fact, he&#8217;s graduated from officially being considered a prospect (joining <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=592647#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Dalton Pompey</strong></a> in &#8220;prospect but not officially&#8221; status). Barring the real possibility that the Blue Jays bring in someone from outside the organization this winter, I&#8217;d say confidence is high Hernandez has first shot at becoming the Opening Day right fielder in the Spring. Pompey, sadly, did not even get to play enough this year to burn an option, so in the unlikely event he doesn&#8217;t get hurt next spring, the Blue Jays can option him to Buffalo and see if he can consolidate his abilities without breaking again.</p>
<p>Joining him in that outfield will presumably be <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=546990#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Anthony Alford</strong></a> and <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=596105#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Dwight Smith Jr</strong></a>. Smith spent 2017 with Buffalo and was mostly okay, but nothing about him suggests anything more than a fourth outfielder ceiling and guy who&#8217;ll probably bounce around the way Zeke Carerra was doing when he came to town. Alford, on the other hand, will surely be the team&#8217;s consensus No. 3 prospect this winter and rightly so. Most observers still think there&#8217;s some unrealized over-the-fence power left in his game, but otherwise he&#8217;s a practically perfect prospect both on and off the field. One reason the team might gamble with a Pearce/Carrera/Pillar/Hernandez outfield is the knowledge that Alford is so close. Alternately (and this is how I&#8217;d play it) they could aggressively shop Pillar and plug Alford into CF, but my guess is this organization is too conservative to break camp with rookies in two-thirds of the starting outfield slots.</p>
<p>Another outfielder who you&#8217;ll potential find in Buffalo in 2018, if he&#8217;s not taken in the Rule 5 Draft, is speedy <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=605231#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Roemon Fields</strong></a>. He has no power at all, but his OBP was .355 and he stole 43 bases while playing praiseworthy defense, which quite a few teams would tolerate off their bench. Behind this grouping is <strong><a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=623912#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL">Harold Ramirez</a></strong>. At his best in 2015 he was a high OBP guy with a little pop and good speed, but in two seasons AA has exposed him and he&#8217;s at this point looking like a marginal guy who&#8217;s not even as good as Smith.</p>
<p>The next guy you want to get excited about is Toronto native and future fan favorite <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=664768#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Connor Panas</strong></a>. Panas led the FSL in homers, and finished second in SLG and OPS. He&#8217;ll plug right into AA as the everyday RF and will again be overshadowed by the Bo and Vladdy show. While he&#8217;s not on their level (he&#8217;ll be 25 next year), he&#8217;s got enough going on to deserve some notice. Then there&#8217;s <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=658668#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Edward Olivares</strong></a>, the other guy who spent 2017 in the shadow of the Show. He was fifth in the Midwest League in OPS, third in slugging. When the 21 year old Venezuelan was promoted to Dunedin on August 13 it took him a few games to find his stroke and he didn&#8217;t manage even one homer at the higher level, but that should not dampen your enthusiasm. He&#8217;ll return to the FSL next spring.</p>
<p>Another interesting guy was Lansing&#8217;s <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=641943#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Joshua Palacios</strong></a>. The 2016 4th rounder was horrendous to begin the season and did not recover before going on the DL on June 5 with a .541 OPS. Just over two weeks later he came off a changed man. From there on out he hit .38 with an .824 OPS which has me projecting him to be Dunedin&#8217;s opening day CF next spring. The other 2017 draft choice on the Lansing roster was second rounder <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=642223#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>J.B. Woodman</strong></a>. You can&#8217;t entirely dismiss him but 157 strikeouts in 96 games (and only seven homers) won&#8217;t play.</p>
<p>On the short season teams the most well regarded prospect has to be <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=663545#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Reggie Pruitt</strong></a>. He&#8217;s still exceedingly raw, but after ending June hitting a sub-optimal .102, he posted a .257 BA with a .650 OPS over the second half, while playing big defense and stealing 28 bases in 36 tries. He&#8217;s still years away from refining them, but the tools are there. A couple of other guys in Vancouver hit marginally better, but they seem to have considerably lower ceilings. Another guy I&#8217;ve been watching is <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=t517&amp;player_id=650996#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Freddy Rodriguez</strong></a>. He was No. 18 in that aforementioned 2013 class and his first two pro seasons were unimpressive, then he was limited by injury to only seven games in 2016. He also missed the first month of the short season this year but when he got to play he showed an improved game. It was only 28 games total, but his OPS was .861 and he&#8217;s still only 20. I&#8217;d speculate he has the chance to open with Lansing but the Jays may opt for caution and assign him to Vancouver. Finally, I&#8217;d be remiss if I did not mention <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=668474#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>Dominic Abbadassa</strong></a> (23rd rd, 2016) who hit .340 in the GCL with an .811 OPS, and 2017 draftee <a href="http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=668470#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL"><strong>DJ Neal</strong></a> (26th)  who overcame a 2 for 27 midseason slump and hit .346 in all other games with an .812 OPS. Both will get a chance to prove their mettle in Vancouver next year.</p>
<p>Other names you may see mentioned among OF include Jon Davis, Andrew Guillote, and Brock Luundquist.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s 40 names in bold, dig in because there&#8217;s a boatload of pitchers to talk about ext time.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: Steve Mitchell —USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
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		<title>The Top 10 Blue Jays by Trade Deadline Value (No. 6 &#8211; 10)</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/07/25/the-top-10-blue-jays-by-trade-deadline-value-no-6-10/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/07/25/the-top-10-blue-jays-by-trade-deadline-value-no-6-10/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 25 Jul 2017 10:59:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kyle Matte]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bo Bichette]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Devon Travis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[J.A. Happ]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Joe Biagini]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Justin Smoak]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Twice a year over at FanGraphs, Dave Cameron publishes a list of who, in his opinion, are the fifty most valuable trade assets in baseball. Cameron&#8217;s most recent update was published over the All-Star break earlier this month. Rather than simply listing the best players, he has attempted to blend past performance and future projection [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Twice a year over at FanGraphs, Dave Cameron publishes a list of who, in his opinion, are the fifty most valuable trade assets in baseball. <a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2017-trade-value-honorable-mentions/">Cameron&#8217;s most recent update</a> was published over the All-Star break earlier this month. Rather than simply listing the best players, he has attempted to blend past performance and future projection with age, team control, and remaining salary. It&#8217;s why, for example, Clayton Kershaw falls outside of the top fifty despite being undeniably the best pitcher in baseball. Not only does he have a salary prohibitive to all but a small handful of clubs, but his contract has a clause that allows him to opt-out at the conclusion of any season in which he&#8217;s traded. Kershaw is the best pitcher on the planet. He&#8217;s nowhere near the most valuable to anyone but the Los Angeles Dodgers.</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t think Dave is the first to come up with the concept, but in terms of both execution and quality, it&#8217;s his that I look forward to most during the lulls of the baseball calendar. With that being said, it&#8217;s always a tad disappointing that we only get his insights and rankings of one, two, or maybe three Blue Jays players, if we&#8217;re lucky. This is why I&#8217;m going to tangent off Dave&#8217;s work, in an effort to offer you my perspective on the ten most valuable trade assets in the Toronto Blue Jays organization. If you have a differing view, please don&#8217;t be afraid to let me hear it.</p>
<p>With the trade deadline only a week away, there may be no more appropriate time for such an endeavour. Not only is the Blue Jays&#8217; 2017 season at a crossroads, but both their short- and long-term outlooks are as well. Few would argue that standing pat and hoping for better luck with the same aging roster seems untenable. Does the front office throw good prospects and money after bad players and try to make one final push, or begin unloading some legitimately valuable assets in an effort to avoid a Phillies-esque unrewarding collapse to the bottom of the division for the next five years?</p>
<p>This isn&#8217;t meant to be the blueprint for a tear down or a shopping list for other teams; there are plenty of both floating around. The players that Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins are most likely to move aren&#8217;t going to shift the needle substantially either way. In fact, I&#8217;d be shocked if any of these ten get moved in the coming days. But just in case they do, here are, numerically, one man&#8217;s outlook of the Blue Jays&#8217; ten most valuable trade chips. Ten to six will be published this morning, with five to one released tomorrow.</p>
<p style="text-align: left"><strong>#10: <a href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/card/card.php?id=70988">RHP Joe Biagini</a></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: left"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/10B-Biagini.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-12598" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/10B-Biagini.png" alt="#10B Biagini" width="466" height="104" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: left">The tenth most valuable trade asset in the Toronto Blue Jays organization is right handed pitcher Joe Biagini. Since being claimed as a Rule 5 pick from San Francisco, the 27-year old has worked long relief, late innings, and even in the starting rotation. He certainly has the repertoire to stick in the rotation as his four-pitch mix has always graded exceptionally well by <a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/07/12/the-stuff-report-vol-2-issue-5-all-star-break-edition/">Mike Sonne&#8217;s &#8220;Stuff&#8221; metric</a>. Biagini has produced modest strikeout rates, but offsets this with a remarkable proficiency for inducing groundballs. Belying his advanced age, Biagini has accumulated fewer than two years of service time and thus is under team control through 2021—including next season at league minimum. Biagini has the potential to build up significantly more trade value if he is able to settle into a role in the coming months and give teams a bit more certainty about what he is. The most recent rotation/bullpen swingman of similar quality with three-plus years of control to be traded was Drew Smyly, though he had affixed himself in the rotation by the time he was used as a piece in the <em>first</em> David Price trade back in 2014.</p>
<p>Biagini narrowly edged out catcher Russell Martin, who would have been the eleventh name on the list. Martin is still a top ten or fifteen catcher in baseball, but with the club owing him 40 million over the next two years, he&#8217;s paid like someone in the top three. Not only that, but he&#8217;ll be 35 years old in 2018 and nagging injuries have begun to take their toll on his game—particularly his arm behind the dish. Were the Blue Jays to pay his salary down, something that wasn&#8217;t considered in building the list, he could certainly net some interesting pieces. Look no further than the Astros acquisition of Brian McCann last winter, with the Yankees picking up 11 of the 34 million remaining on his deal in order to get a pair of intriguing prospects.</p>
<p><strong>#9: <a href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/card/card.php?id=100193">2B Devon Travis</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/9-Travis.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-12582" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/9-Travis.png" alt="#9 Travis" width="466" height="101" /></a></p>
<p>Devon Travis is 26-years old. He&#8217;s under control through 2020 with his first of three trips through arbitration on the horizon this winter. He capably plays an up-the-middle position, and is a career .292/.331/.462 hitter. This is the résumé of a player who should be one of the most valuable assets in any organization. Of course, as always, the story with Travis isn&#8217;t his performance on the field, but how much time he spends off it. In his brief career the second baseman has already been placed on the disabled list four times, two of which included subsequent transfers to the 60-day disabled list.</p>
<p>If he doesn&#8217;t play another game with the Blue Jays in 2017, shoulder and knee injuries will have limited him to 213 of a potential 486 regular season games since he made the Opening Day roster in 2015. Put another way: by the end of the season he&#8217;ll have accumulated three years of service time despite playing in just 44 percent of the team&#8217;s games over that time. Jedd Gyorko and Dee Gordon are second baseman with similar service time to have been moved in recent years, with the former landing Jon Jay in San Diego and the latter Andrew Heaney with the Dodgers, though neither has the tantalizing all-around upside that Travis possesses. With this kind of asset, the obvious most is to hold. You&#8217;d be selling for pennies on the dollar today, and a healthy Devon Travis is a piece that any team would love to build around tomorrow.</p>
<p><strong>#8: <a href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/card/card.php?id=58692">1B Justin Smoak</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/8-Smoak.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-12583" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/8-Smoak.png" alt="#8 Smoak" width="466" height="101" /></a></p>
<p>Of all of the players to receive consideration for the top ten, Justin Smoak&#8217;s value was the hardest to nail down. He was the 11th overall pick in the 2008 amateur draft and a highly touted prospect in the years that followed, but the first seven years of his major league career &#8212; across three organizations &#8212; were a complete nightmare. He hit .223/.308/.392 over nearly <em>three thousand </em>plate appearances, and entering 2017, most Blue Jays fans were hoping the front office could find a way to bury him for as little money as possible. Yet incredibly here on July 23rd, he&#8217;s sporting a .302/.377/.598 slash line and is tied for fourth in all of baseball with 27 home runs.</p>
<p>Better than most others, Blue Jays fans have seen something like this before. Jose Bautista transformed himself from a league average bat to an elite slugger, and while most were skeptical of that production lasting in the long run, he&#8217;s proved us and everybody else but Alex Anthopoulos wrong. On the flip side, we also saw Michael Saunders hit .298/.372/.551 in the first half just last season, followed by a .178/.282/.357 second half, a .205/.257/.360 line with the Phillies in 2017, and his eventual release once they grew tired of him.</p>
<p>Thankfully, that much-maligned contract extension he received last summer gives the Blue Jays—and other teams—extra time to view Smoak with a dubious but intrigued eye without having to pre-emptively commit serious coin in support of this breakout. He&#8217;s under control for 2018 at a modest salary of $4.1 million, with a club option for 2019 that starts at $6.0 million and contains playing time incentives that could push it to $8.0 million. Smoak is the eighth most valuable player in the Blue Jays organization as of this summer, but not unlike the two men behind him, could shoot up the list if he can continue to prove that the last four months are more relevant than the previous seven years. If the Athletics move Yonder Alonso in the coming days, that would set the absolute floor for a Justin Smoak trade if the Blue Jays were to push him to market with the sustainability questions still lurking.</p>
<p><strong>#7: <a href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/card/card.php?id=107491">SS Bo Bichette</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/7-Bichette.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-12584" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/7-Bichette.png" alt="#7 Bichette" width="466" height="101" /></a></p>
<p>The Blue Jay with the seventh most trade value is the first of two prospects to make the list, shortstop Bo Bichette. Bichette has taken the prospect world by storm this season, hitting nearly .400 with Single-A Lansing as a 19-year old, and ascending from the back end of the organization&#8217;s top ten to inside the top fifty in all of baseball (#29 on the <a href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=32224">Baseball Prospectus</a> mid-season update; #44 on <a href="http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2017-midseason-top-100-prospects-july-7/#YwyoFbAuhiRBP8uX.97">Baseball America&#8217;s</a> list).</p>
<p>Bichette is an exceptionally interesting prospect, as his ranking on both of those lists—and this one as well—is an attempt to find the balance between his immense upside and the legitimate concerns about how his swing will hold up against more advanced pitching. Some evaluators see him as a 6/6 bat and power guy, which at an up-the-middle position is an unbelievably valuable piece for any organization. There are others, however,  who see his fielding necessitating a move to third base and his bat wrap causing issues when he reaches the upper minors. Still, there are plenty of teams who would gamble on the former, and it&#8217;s why despite being in just the Florida State League he could be the main—or only—trade chip used to acquire a legitimate big league talent.</p>
<p>Last summer the Cubs used Gleyber Torres (BP midseason #34) to land Aroldis Chapman, and Cleveland sent Clint Frazier (BP Midseason #26) to the Yankees to land Andrew Miller. More recently, Blake Rutherford (BA Midseason #36) was sent to the Chicago White Sox as the centerpiece for a package of David Robertson, Tommy Kahnle, and Todd Frazier. Each of those three prospects falls in the neighbourhood of Bichette&#8217;s current ranking, and provides comparables for the type of return he could potentially net.</p>
<p><strong>#6: <a href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/card/card.php?id=46084">LHP J.A. Happ</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/6-Happ.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-12585" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/6-Happ.png" alt="#6 Happ" width="466" height="101" /></a></p>
<p>I went back-and-forth between Bichette and Happ on who should be six and who should be seven, and in reality, it probably is more of a 6A and 6B situation. Just last summer a pair of left handed starters with similar production and contract status were moved, with the Padres landing Anderson Espinosa for Drew Pomeranz and the Tampa Bay Rays receiving Lucius Fox (and Matt Duffy) for Matt Moore. Those returns aren&#8217;t dissimilar to the value most are placing on Bo Bichette today.</p>
<p>J.A. Happ will be 35-years old next season, but he&#8217;s yet to show any signs of age catching up to him. His average fastball velocity has remained steady at around 92 miles per hour for the last four seasons, and he ranks in the <a href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/pitchfx/leaderboards/index.php?hand=L&amp;reportType=pfx&amp;prp=P&amp;month=&amp;year=2017&amp;pitch=FA&amp;ds=velo&amp;lim=200">upper third among left handed starters</a> by that metric. One potential drain on Happ&#8217;s value is that he&#8217;s only under contract for one more year after 2017, and while it&#8217;s certainly below market value given his performance the last three years, the 13 million he&#8217;s owed isn&#8217;t nothing to a team like Milwaukee or Pittsburgh trying to make a push.</p>
<p>Starting pitching is always in demand, but the type of that demand varies greatly between the summer and winter. Almost every team is looking to bolster their rotation in the offseason, but the market takes a bit of a shift at the trade deadline. The bubble teams may be salivating over someone like J.A. Happ, but the division leaders with plenty of heft at the front end of their rotation might be hesitant to give up a ton of value for someone who would be their fourth starter and might only make one start in the postseason. The Washington Nationals, for example, could see the Blue Jays lefty as a perfect plug for the fifth spot in their rotation over the next two months, but might barely use him come October behind Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, and Gio Gonzalez.</p>
<p><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/07/26/the-top-10-blue-jays-by-trade-deadline-value-5-1/" title="The Top 10 Blue Jays by Trade Deadline Value (No. 1 – 5)" target="_blank">Click here for the rest of the list</a> as we run from number five down to the most valuable player in the Blue Jays organization.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
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		<title>Vlad and Bo are Set to Take Over the Futures Game</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/07/09/vlad-and-bo-are-set-to-take-over-the-futures-game/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/07/09/vlad-and-bo-are-set-to-take-over-the-futures-game/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 09 Jul 2017 11:21:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Tammy Rainey]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bo Bichette]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vladimir Guerrero]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=12261</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Every year since 1999 MLB has staged, as part of the hoopla surrounding the Major League All Star Game an event known as the Futures Game. Lightly noticed outside those who happened to be in attendance at first, the event has steadily grown in the imagination of baseball fans who may often be getting their [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Every year since 1999 MLB has staged, as part of the hoopla surrounding the Major League All Star Game an event known as the Futures Game. Lightly noticed outside those who happened to be in attendance at first, the event has steadily grown in the imagination of baseball fans who may often be getting their first look at their favourite team&#8217;s best prospects in game action. For those who don&#8217;t know, the rosters are selected by Baseball America, in conjunction with MLB and the 30 front offices around the leagues and are composed of a team of U.S. born players, and a &#8220;World&#8221; team made up from players from other countries (and Puerto Rico).</p>
<p>Like the All-Star Game itself, what happens in the course of a single game often doesn&#8217;t reflect all that much about an individual player&#8217;s ability or future. The best prospect in the game might be the MVP that day or he might wear a three strikeout o-fer performance, but fans still get excited to see how their guys match up against the best competition. For the Blue Jays, probably the peak experience with the Futures Game was Aaron Hill winning the games MVP award in 2004.</p>
<p>While this years squad is loaded with top prospects as usual, for Jays fans it will be difficult to see anyone else in the glare of the shining stars that are Vlad Guerrero Jr and Bo Bichette. If you&#8217;re reading this site, chances are you&#8217;ve read thousands of words about each of these teenagers by now, and for good reason. Let&#8217;s review.</p>
<p><strong>Bo Bichette</strong> is the second oldest child of former Colorado Rockies 3B Dante Bichette. Bo&#8217;s older brother is working his way through the Yankee&#8217;s system, but in his second season of professional ball Bo has already cast a very long shadow over not only his brother but most other prospects. After the Future&#8217;s Game Bichette (and Gurrero) will be moving up from the Midwest League Lansing Lugnuts where they&#8217;ve spent the first half of this season to Dunedin in the Florida State League. Bo leaves the MWL stunned by his success. As he departs he leads the  league in BA, OPB, SLG, OPS, hits, doubles, and total bases. Indeed, the only one relatively close to him in doubles is a player five years older than Bichette&#8217;s 19.  He&#8217;s working on one of the best minor league seasons in decades, let alone for his age.<br />
While scouts were mixed before draft day in 2016 about Bo&#8217;s unorthodox swing, and some continue to hold out the idea that it will give him difficulty at higher levels, everyone raves about his ability to make consistent hard contact in virtually any situation. Consider that in his 92 professional games (equivalent to about 2/3 of a full minor league season) Bo&#8217;s production is on pace for over 60 doubles, or that only 10 times in his 70 games this season has he failed to reach base and he was past Mid-June before he first did so on back-to-back days. He had only one such game in 2016, and that one was the day he left the game after a single plate appearance with what would turn out to be appendicitis. Oh, you have heard the appendix story, right? From Arden Zwelling&#8217; (highly recommended) <a href="http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/big-read-know-blue-jays-prospect-bo-bichette/">profile piece on Bichette</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p><em>But somewhere along the way he picked up an injury to his midsection. It hurt like hell and it kept him up all night, yet it wasn’t enough to keep him off the field or prevent him from picking up a pair of hits practically every day. But then, after two weeks of playing through it, Bichette was forced out of a mid-summer game after only one plate appearance, the howling pain preventing him from even swinging his bat. He went straight to the hospital, where they told him it was likely a virus and that he merely needed to rest. A week later, as he lay screaming in agony in his bed, Bichette reckoned it might not be a virus. So, back to the emergency room he went, where doctors looked at CAT scans and realized something was missing. Turns out, sometime over the preceding weeks, Bichette’s appendix had ruptured. Generally, when that happens, toxic and infectious substances from within the appendix spill into the abdominal cavity, which can cause extreme inflammation and, if not treated immediately, death. Bo Bichette didn’t die. Rather, his body absorbed the burst appendix, cleaned up the inflammation, and went on about its business.</em></p></blockquote>
<p>Of such things are legends built. <a href="http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2017-midseason-top-100-prospects-july-7/">BA&#8217;s mid-season prospect ranking situates Bo at No. 44</a>, but that&#8217;s likely not his peak and you are very very right to be giddy about Bo Bichette.</p>
<p>Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. is a year younger than Bo. He is the age at which young men graduate from high school and, if they are good enough, hear their names called on draft day. Yet he&#8217;s in his second professional season and opened the year as the second youngest player in full-season baseball. The average age of a Low A player is about four years older than Guerrero. Still, he&#8217;s running a .409 OBP and an .888 OPS as he moves up from Lansing. So impressed are observers that BA&#8217;s just released mid-season Top 100 lists him at #2 (no Blue Jays prospect has ever been higher than #3, and that was John Olerud) and the man ahead of him is in AAA and likely to graduate from eligibility by season&#8217;s end.  Since 1990, only three players have hit #1 on this list coming off their age 18 season, you may have heard of them: Bryce Harper, Andruw Jones, and Alex Rodriguez.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re giddy about Bo, be absolutely ecstatic about Vlad.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s not to say either of them will walk away with an MVP trophy today. They might or might not but if they do, you dare not miss it.</p>
<p>If you can tear your eyes away to look at anyone else, here are a few suggestions:</p>
<p>Jario Labourt &#8211; the LHP went along with Daniel Norris in the David Price trade, he&#8217;s pitching in relief for the Tiger&#8217;s AA team this year.</p>
<p>Cal Quantrill &#8211; Son of long-time Blue Jay pitcher (and later scout) and also Canadian Paul Quantrill, Cal followed in his dad&#8217;s footsteps as a RHP but promises to be even more talented.</p>
<p>Yoan Mancada &#8211; the 2B tops the Mid-season Top 100, he was the key piece in the Chris Sale deal. You&#8217;ll see a lot of him on the South Side soon.</p>
<p>Eloy Jiminez &#8211; Cub&#8217;s outfielder, a consensus top five prospect and the guy who dominated the Midwest League in 2016 before moving up to the Florida State League for 2017.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo Courtesy of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mwlguide/34053997530/in/photolist-TTevAJ-TeyM5T-UgG4kc-TeyQ6T-TeyBYr-UgB85g-Teyrwe-Uptxbq-Ut9hX8-Teyo5V-Ue3iQJ-UpttJW-TbJEyq-Teyphp-Ue3t5L-Ue3K8C-Ue3H1b-Teyyya-TbJJ4m-TTeD3s-UgFZJp-TeDAdc-TTetry-TTeF8E-UgG8Mi-UteByg-Utev2t-UgG7fR-TTeHvW-TeDyXX-UtetU8-TeDL5M-TTexE3-TeDHVg/" target="_blank">Joel Dinda</a> via <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank">Creative Commons</a></em></p>
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		<title>Blue Jays Minor League Update: One Third In Edition</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/06/04/blue-jays-minor-league-update-one-third-in-edition/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/06/04/blue-jays-minor-league-update-one-third-in-edition/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 04 Jun 2017 16:56:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Tammy Rainey]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bo Bichette]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ryan Borucki]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=11414</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The full season farm teams just passed the 1/3 mark on their season and the sample sizes are now big enough for both team evaluators and internet observers to take seriously. Traditionally organizations wait until June arrives before beginning earned promotions (as opposed to those which happen out of necessity such as Anthony Alford and [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The full season farm teams just passed the 1/3 mark on their season and the sample sizes are now big enough for both team evaluators and internet observers to take seriously. Traditionally organizations wait until June arrives before beginning earned promotions (as opposed to those which happen out of necessity such as Anthony Alford and Dwight Smith, Jr making appearances in Toronto) and sure enough, the first wave of moves hit just yesterday.</p>
<p>Previously, catcher Danny Jansen had gotten promoted when the oblique injury to Reese McGuire opened a spot in New Hampshire,  but other early promotions where just the routine shuffling of organizational filler. The most notable promotion on Saturday was power-hitting one-time sleeper Bradly Jones who was sitting third in the Midwest League in OPS. He&#8217;ll take his collection of infield gloves south to Dunedin. Joining him are Lansing closer Jackson McClelland and 2016 third round choice Zach Jackson who&#8217;s held the opposition scoreless in 11 of his last 12 appearances. Also, The Walking Man OF Jake Thomas (who has collected 40 free passes in 37 Midwest League games) got shipped off to AA New Hampshire.</p>
<p>The theme of the farm system early was hot hitting (particularly from the Lansing Three of Jones, Vlad Guerrero, Jr, and Bo Bichette) and inconsistent pitching. Four of the five most highly regarded SP prospects produced mixed results in April and May  but most have taken a turn for the better as the season has gone on.</p>
<h3></h3>
<h3>Hottest Pitcher: Ryan Borucki</h3>
<p>In four April starts Borucki, 23,  got too much of the zone and opponents hit .303 off him. His 6.52 ERA was not quite as bad as his disastrous six-game run for Dunedin to open 2016 (14.40) but certainly not the start the organization had hoped for.  But this time he turned it around big time.</p>
<p>Since May 1 his ERA in seven starts is 2.23, and he&#8217;s sporting an 11.4 K/9 to go nicely with a 1.7 BB/9.  While other SP in the organization have regained their footing and some have succeeded in areas not so readily apparent in the box score, none of them approach Borucki&#8217;s seven game stretch of high quality work.</p>
<h3></h3>
<h3>Hottest Hitter: Bo Bichette</h3>
<p>When you&#8217;re a shortstop playing alongside an 18 year old phenom 3B who seems to be on a rapid countdown to being the top prospect in baseball, you might get overshadowed. Not Bo. The 19 year old Bichette seems to be the embodiment of the cliche &#8220;can&#8217;t stop, won&#8217;t stop.&#8221; He leads the Midwest League in batting average, slugging, OPS and is .003 behind (former) teammate Jake Thomas for the lead in OBP.</p>
<p>The Jays have a minor conundrum with Bichette. At some point they are going to have to challenge him with a promotion, but Dunedin is still waiting for Lourdes Gurriel to get healthy and get some game time in and being close to the facilities in Dunedin is where he needs to be. It&#8217;s uncertain how willing they will be to split time between the two for an extended period (albeit, Bo has been getting occasional turns at 2B too).</p>
<h3></h3>
<h3>5 Other Stat Lines</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Chris Rowley</strong>: 1.67 ERA, 0.79 WHIP, 8.8 K/9, 1.3 BB/9<br />
Rowley&#8217;s story is deserving of a feature piece. He&#8217;s 26 in AA and just got shifted into the rotation, but he has a military service background and only has just under 200 professional innings. He&#8217;s really opening eyes.</li>
<li><strong>Jordan Romano</strong>: 2.38 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, 9.5 K/9, 3.7 BB/9<br />
Others get ranked and remarked upon, but the 24 year old righty from Markham just keeps doing impressive things for the D-Jays. Over his last eight starts he has a 1.60 ERA and only once has he allowed more than 2 runs in an outing.</li>
<li><strong>Vladimir Guerrero, Jr</strong>: .326 / .414 / .488 / .902<br />
For all his impressive abilities, perhaps the most impressive thing about VGJ this season has been his consistency. His average hasn&#8217;t been under .300 in six weeks, nor his OBP under .410 and for a player his age in a full season league, the lack of fluctuation is a pretty remarkable thing. On the other hand, he hasn&#8217;t hit a home run in a month which is puzzling.</li>
<li><strong>Danny Jansen</strong>: .357 / .407 / .520 / .928<br />
Before the AFL last fall, Jansen got some glasses. Clearly they were magical or something because now he can see, and hit, almost everything. Before he went hitless in three consecutive games this week, he&#8217;d actually put up an even better slash line in AA than he had in Dunedin. For a guy who spent two years in the injury-plagued wilderness, all this offense is a surprise to even his biggest backers. He&#8217;s building his case for being the heir to Russ Martin.</li>
<li><strong>Jason Leblebijian</strong>: .308 / .380 / .529 / .909<br />
I could have put Alford here, but I like to use one of these slots to point out a guy who didn&#8217;t start the year on everyone&#8217;s radar. The previously pedestrian Leblebijian made some key adjustments that turned his career around two years ago but as a 24 year old in Lansing, few thought much of it. So far in Buffalo, he&#8217;s demanding to be noticed.</li>
</ul>
<h4></h4>
<h4>Buffalo Bisons</h4>
<p>A 21-9 record at home has fueled the Bisons 30-23 record, good for third place and 5.5 out in their division. The collective ERA is 4th in the league but only 0.10 behind the league leading Durham staff.</p>
<h4></h4>
<h4>Fisher Cats</h4>
<p>From Mid-April to Mid-May the &#8216;Cats were channeling the early season Blue Jays, running off a 7-23 stretch that buried them in last place. Lately they have been better (9-4 since May 18 making them 21-32 as of this writing). The team ERA remains second-to-last in the league and the team OPS is in the bottom third as well.</p>
<h4></h4>
<h4>Dunedin Blue Jays</h4>
<p>The D-Jays are 28-25, 2.5 games out of first in their division. Both pitching and offense sit, collectively, more or less middle of the pack in the FSL but with some of their better preforming hitters having moved on, the addition of Jones and Thomas to the lineup will be most welcome.</p>
<h4></h4>
<h4>Lansing Lugnuts</h4>
<p>The Lugnuts sit 29-23, 7 games out of first place. Their league-best offense has been undermined by inconsistent and often just plain bad pitching from the back of the rotation.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: © Jonathan Dyer-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
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		<title>MLB Draft: Blue Jays Select INF Bo Bichette With 66th Pick</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/06/09/mlb-draft-blue-jays-select-inf-bo-bichette-with-66th-pick/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/06/09/mlb-draft-blue-jays-select-inf-bo-bichette-with-66th-pick/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 10 Jun 2016 03:45:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Gideon Turk]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MLB Draft]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bo Bichette]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Toronto Blue Jays]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=3581</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For analysis and scouting reports on the Blue Jays earlier picks, click here.  The Blue Jays have made their third selection of the 2016 MLB draft tonight, picking INF Bo Bichette out of Lakewood High School in Florida. He is 18-years-old, is 6&#8217;0&#8243;, and weighs 200 lbs. Bichette is the son of former big leaguer Dante Bichette. Bo fell a bit [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>For analysis and scouting reports on the Blue </em><i>Jays earlier picks, click <a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/tag/mlb-draft/" target="_blank">here</a>. </i></p>
<p>The Blue Jays have made their third selection of the 2016 MLB draft tonight, picking INF Bo Bichette out of Lakewood High School in Florida. He is 18-years-old, is 6&#8217;0&#8243;, and weighs 200 lbs. Bichette is the son of former big leaguer Dante Bichette. Bo fell a bit from where he was going in some of the mock drafts and rankings, so he may require a bit more $$ than the recommended slot amount to sign with the Blue Jays.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Source: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlueJays?src=hash">#BlueJays</a> taking Bo Bichette at 66.</p>
<p>&mdash; Robert Murray (@RobertMurrayBBE) <a href="https://twitter.com/RobertMurrayBBE/status/741112013334716417">June 10, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Bichette was ranked as the 47th best prospect available in this draft class by <a href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=29462" target="_blank">Baseball Prospectus</a>‘ Chris Crawford, and 90th by <a href="http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2016?list=draft" target="_blank">MLB Pipeline</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Bichette received the following grades from MLB Pipeline:</strong></p>
<p><em>Hit: 45 | Power: 50 | Run: 40 | Arm: 45 | Field: 45 | Overall: 45</em></p>
<p><strong>Bichette received the following grades from Chris Crawford&#8217;s BP Draft Book:</strong></p>
<div class="page" title="Page 8">
<div class="page" title="Page 8"> <em>Hit: 60 | Power: 50 | Speed: 50 | Arm: 55 | Glove: 50 | OFP: 50+</em></div>
</div>
<p><strong>From Chris Crawford’s fantastic MLB Draft book is the following report:</strong></p>
<p><em>&#8220;Bichette was one of the real standouts of the Metropolitan Classic, and saw his stock shoot up after his performance this fall. He’s going to get com- pared to his brother, but that pick was a failure in both process and result. Bichette is a legit first round talent, and he could hit near the top of an MLB or- der if everything maxes out.&#8221;</em></p>
<p><strong>MLB Pipeline had the following to say:</strong></p>
<p><em>&#8220;The son of former big leaguer Dante Bichette, and brother of Yankee farmhand Dante Bichette Jr., Bo Bichette clearly has some serious baseball bloodlines. Like the others in his family, he does things in a less than conventional way, but he has had some success against good competition.</em></p>
<p><em>Over the summer, Bichette showed the ability to square up quality pitching and his raw power was on display when he won the Under Armour All-American Game Home Run Derby in Chicago. This spring, he was still hitting the long ball, but also was getting tied up on mid-range fastballs inside. While he doesn&#8217;t have the same exact leg kick setup as his father and brother, there are a lot of moving parts to his swing which concerns some scouts. He does have more bat speed than his brother did coming out of high school. A below-average runner, he&#8217;s probably best suited for second base defensively, or perhaps left field.</em></p>
<p><em>Bichette has been a bit of a polarizing prospect this spring, with some unsure his unorthodox setup will work at the next level. But the bloodlines and the power potential could still have the Arizona State commit off the board in the early stages of the Draft.&#8221;</em></p>
<p>Here&#8217;s MLB Pipeline&#8217;s scouting video featuring Bichette:</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><iframe src="http://m.mlb.com/shared/video/embed/embed.html?content_id=625727583&amp;topic_id=40395496&amp;width=500&amp;height=280&amp;property=mlb" width="500" height="280" ></iframe></p>
<p>The Blue Jays are done drafting for the night. Tomorrow, rounds three through ten will be take place. We’ll have coverage on the picks in rounds three through five moments after they happen, and rounds six through ten at the end of the day.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
<p><em>Chris Crawford’s MLB Draft Book <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/baseball-prospectus-mlb-draft/id1090576351?mt=11" target="_blank">can be purchased</a> on iBooks for just $4.99. It’s a must buy for anybody looking to learn more about all the top players in the 2016 draft class. </em></p>
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