Future Blue Jays MiLB Newsletter 5/22

Hey, all. Happy Victoria Day to those who celebrate. Here’s some of the latest from the Blue Jays farm system….

Ponies Can’t Melt Cheese

RHP Chad Dallas continued his fine spring with the best start of his career in his AA debut for New Hampshire on Friday night. Relievers Toy Watson and Jimmy Burnette combined with Dallas for a two-hit shutout of Binghamton:

The 5’11’/205 Dallas doesn’t necessarily light up the radar gun, sitting 93-94, but he gets hitters out the old-fashioned way: by disrupting their timing. With a solid lower half, Dallas gets a good drive into his delivery, and can locate all of his pitches. He had a good start to the season last year, but ran out of gas in his first full pro season. He also watched as teammates like Sem Robberse, Jimmy Robbins, Trent Palmer, and Yosver Zulueta moved to AA last season, and he admits he’s using that as motivation this year.

Sanchez Stubmles

Just a few hours after New Hampshire’s bullpen had put Dallas’ scintillating debut to bed, Vancouver RHP Rafael Sanchez was about to break his Northwest League maiden in the second game of the C’s twin bill with Tri Cities.

Sanchez’ evening got off to a promising start, as he retired the side in order in the 1st, but than ran into trouble in the following two innings, the victim of a tight strikes zone and some unfortunate location:

 Harrison Be-Devereraux’s Tri-Cities

Ok, sorry about that one.

But there was nothing sorry about the 2022 9th round’s first career start for Vancouver:

Harrison had pitched exclusively in relief at Dunedin and Vancouver, but with regular rotation guy Hunter Gregory sent to the IL, Manager Brent Lavallee had a need for a Sunday starter, and the Long Beach State product more than fit the bill.

Harrison retired the first nine hitters, and faced the minimum over five innings, the only blemish on his day a leadoff single in the 4th that was erased on a double play.

Harrison throws a four-seamer, change up, and a sweeper. He doesn’t light up the gun, but his compete level is off the charts.

Our good friend Niall over at Csplus wrote this excellent profile of the former Dirtbag: https://csplusbaseball.ca/2022/12/02/2022-vancouver-canadians-rhp-36-devereaux-harrison/

International Review

 Baseball America published their Blue Jays 2022 IFA review this week. It was no surprise that the most space was devoted to the Jays top signing, Dominican OF Enmanuell Bonilla, who signed for $4.1 million, the highest bonus the club has ever offered (Vladimir Guerrero Jr.s 2015 $3.9 would be higher if adjusted for inflation).

BA’s Ben Badler says Bonilla is a potential five-tool player, with a high degree of athleticism and explosiveness:

Among the “names to know,” among the other signees, Badler points out:

-Venezuelan OF David Guzman, one of the purest hitters in the VZ class, “He’s a compact, 5-foot-9 lefty who tracks pitches well, makes good swing decisions and has a simple, fast swing with good bat control.”

-Venezuelan RHP Samuel Acuña, a Dahian Santos-sized hurler “….he has several projection indicators scouts look for between his athleticism, delivery and arm action. He’s an athletic mover on the mound with a loose, fast arm to produce a fastball that has ticked up to touch 92 mph.”

-Brazilian RHP Sann Omosako, whose two older brothers have played pro ball: “a 6-foot-2, 175-pound righthander who is an athletic righthander with a fastball, curveball, slider and changeup in his repertoire.”

-Nicaraguan SS David Montealto, a smaller-sized up-the-middle guy: “He’s a high-energy, athletic defender with good actions and a knack for making the flashy play.”

-Venezuelan OF Edward Valencia, who lived in Colombia before returning home to VZ: “He’s a high-energy, athletic defender with good actions and a knack for making the flashy play.” What stands out to me is the report on his arm strength, and when you combine that with his athleticism and nationality, well….it makes me think of Gabriel Moreno. Perhaps there’s a position switch in his future.

-RHP Cawrin Salcedo is a longshot at 19, but has an interesting background. He was born and raised in Montreal, but moved to the DR to live with extended family several years ago.

2018 Review

Since it takes, on average, a minimum of five years to develop a player signed at 16 or 17, it’s worthwhile to take a look back on the Blue Jays class from that year.

Toronto had just under $5 million to spend, and the bulk of it went ($3.1M) to SS Orelvis Martinez. Martinez had “trained” with Wander Franco’s trainer, and BA said that while he was good, Martinez was “no Wander Franco.”

Five years on, it’s hard to disagree with that statement. Certainly, Martinez’ 30 HRs last year and 11 so far this year at AA are impressive, but he’s shown a tendency to chase, and is getting on base just under 23% of the time. Martinez won’t turn 22 until after the season, so there is still plenty of time, but he remains very much a work in progress.

For $750K, Toronto grabbed SS Miguel Hiraldo in that class. Moved to 2B, Hiraldo is a clunky defender, but at least his bat has shown some signs of life (.739 OPS) so far at AA this season.

All other players from that class are now gone from the organization. C J.J. D’Orazio, who went to Arizona in the 2021 deadline deal for Joakim Soria, is having a decent season with the D-Backs NWL affiliate, and is the only other member of the class still in pro ball.

Tops in the Organization

Now that we’re around the quarter pole of the season (probably just a bit past), it’s a good time to look at the best players in the system to date.

Starting Pitchers:

1. Adam Kloffenstein

2. Chad Dallas

3. Trenton Wallace

4. Rafael Sanchez

5. Dahian Santos

Through 7 starts, Kloff has been the best starter in the system, hands-down. Certainly, Ricky Tiedemann being limited to 4 starts hasn’t helped his cause, but Kloff is striking out better than a batter per inning, missing bats at a 15% rate, and showing all the marks of a mid-rotation innings eater. He’s avoided the blow-up innings of the past, consistently hitting his spots with a five-pitch mix.

Wallace was the NWL’s pitcher of the week earlier this month, and his 1.53 ERA leads all starters in the system.

Santos has had some up and down results, but overall is trending in a positive direction. Brandon Barriera has had some uneven results in a small sample size after an impressive pro debut. Sem Robberse is also in the team picture, even with an ERA north of 5.00; as he gets lengthened out and pitches deeper into games, that number should come down. Starting pitching is a definite strength in the organization.

Relievers

1. Connor Cooke

2. Jimmy Burnette 

3. Hagen Danner

4. Paul Fry

5. Luis Quinones 

Cooke had a rough AA debut, but was a lock in Vancouver’s bullpen; he joins an impressive group at New Hampshire, although there’s every reason to believe Danner will be at AAA next month. Fry has done a good job for Buffalo, and Quinones has made impressive strides as an OTTO guy at AA. Shoutouts to Hayden Juenger and T.J. Brock, too.

Hitters

1. Rafael Lantigua

2. Riley Tirotta

3. Michael Turconi

4. Ernie Clement

5. Peyton Williams

The unheralded Lantigua is not on the 40, otherwise his performance on both sides of the ball so far this season might put him in consideration for a big league job. Clement, who has close to 300 MLB ABs, has put together a strong month for Buffalo.

Turconi was Vancouver’s best player to these eyes last month, while Tirotta has been on fire over the season’s first six weeks. Williams repeated Dunedin with Rainer Nunez ahead of him, but he’s posted a 1.069 OPS this month, leads the system in RBIs, and is a threat just about every time he’s at the plate.

I probably could have made room for Davis Schneider on that list. The 2017 28th rounder put himself on the map last season with a career-best offensive campaign. His 8 HRs leads Buffalo this year. The issue for Schneider is that as a right-handed hitting, multi-position player, well, he better take a number. He seems to have slotted in behind Otto Lopez, and now perhaps Clement and Lantigua on the depth charts. Still, it’s impressive what he’s accomplished over the past season-plus. Brian Frank of Herd Chronicles wrote a nice profile of Schneider this past week.

Next week, I’ll take a look at how the Top 30 prospects (according to MLB pipeline have fared to date.