Blue Jays MiLB Notebook

Time for some predictions, as inspired by Justin Lada (@JL_Baseball on Twitter) for the Blue Jays farm system in 2023:

Sleeper Prospect Cade Doughty

Breakout Prospect Robert Robertis

Can’t Wait to See Brandon Barriera

Concerned About Leo Jimenez

Biggest Riser Tucker Toman

Falling Stock Hagen Danner

Unranked Guy to Watch Michael Dominguez

Surprise MLB Debut Alejandro Melean

Top Velo Pitcher T.J. Brock

Best Storyline Ben Baggett

Best Comeback (non-injury). Orelvis Martinez

Best Comeback C.J. Van Eyk

Don’t Be Surprised If Ricky Tiedemann doesn’t make his MLB debut

Buffalo’s Bullpen

If there’s one thing we’ve consistently seen over the past few seasons, getting guys out at AAA is one thing, and doing so at MLB is….entirely another.

But it’s hard not to be enthused (small sample size and everything) about the weekend Buffalo’s pen had to start the season:

Nate Pearson pitched two scoreless innings in as many outings on the weekend. His velo was down just a tick in his second appearance (and the organization definitely wants to see how he holds up), but it only took him 12 pitches to get out of the inning, which is encouraging. His final pitch, at 98.8, was his fastest, and might have been an indication that he was just ramping up. That the pitch was a strike was even better. Similarly, the front office had to have taken note of Junior Fernandez’ 1-2-3 inning on Saturday:

New Hampshire, Vancouver, and Dunedin Rosters

Luckily (and if the Lower Mainland weather - which looks promising - holds), yours truly will be filing reports from Nat Bailey later next week. Until then……..