Future Blue Jays MiLB Notebook

Some in-person updates from lovely Vancouver, the ongoing brilliance of Sem Robberse, and more….

Cheese Tosses Cheddar

There were high hopes for the 4th round pick in 2021 out of Tennessee, and he certainly impressed in the first half at Vancouver last year, but faded in the second half. Still, the guy whose nickname comes from his penchant for having bat-missing stuff fanned 97 in 93 innings in 2022. Partly due to his second-half issues, as well as the depth ahead of him, Dallas returned to the Northwest League this season.

But if he pitches well as he did in his 2023 debut, he won’t be a Canadian for long.

After having their opening series rained out by the atmospheric river that drenched the Lower Mainland, Vancouver opened their home schedule on Tuesday night of last week, with Dallas taking the mound. The right-hander was outstanding, striking out a career-high 11, retiring the last 10 men he faced before exiting the game after the 5th inning.

Sem-ply Brilliant

That same evening, New Hampshire starter Sem Robberse got into a spot of trouble in the 1st inning, loading the bases with no outs thanks in part to a strike zone that was, we’ll charitably say, compressed.

But there was simply no panic in the young Flying Dutchman. He gave up a run-scoring sac fly, then struck out the next two hitters (needing only eight pitches in total) to escape the inning. Robberse then retired 11 of the next 12 hitters he faced, a second-inning walk and a fifth inning triple the only blemishes on his evening the rest of the way. Robberse struck out 8, giving him 16 in 9.2 innings on the season.

Talking to Blue Jays MiLB pitching coordinator Cory Popham about Robberse’s start, the organization is thrilled that he’s bumped his velo up to 93-94. Location, movement, and the ability to command his arsenal of pitches to all four quadrants of the strike zone are the keys to Sem’s success, but as Popham observed, the added speed on his fastball gives him “more margin for error.”

Robberse was obviously tiring when he was promoted to AA last season, but if he continues at his current pace, some moves are going to have to be made to make room for him at the next level.

Tiedemann’s Eddie Feigner Outing

For those unfamiliar with the King and His Court, Feigner was a fast-pitch softball wizard who barnstormed for over 60 years, striking out hitters with such ease that he needed only a catcher, 1st baseman, and short stop behind him.

In his 2023 debut for New Hampshire, Tiedemann barely needed a defence behind him, getting all nine outs in his three-inning stint by strikeout. Tiedemann, in a story by Keegan Matheson on mlb.com that certainly would have made the high performance department less than thrilled, admitted that he frequented a McDonald’s across the street from the UBC residence the Blue Jays housed Vancouver players in last year much more than he should have. A much more cut version of Tiedemann appeared on the mound for New Hampshire last night, fortunately.

As for those clamouring for Tiedemann’s promotion, Popham said that with their starting pitchers, the organization breaks the season down into thirds. In the next third, the focus will be on getting guys not already there to 5 IP/80 pitches, then working on getting them into a five-day rotation. Of course, continued dominance by Tiedemann could mean that those above Cory’s pay grade may call the shots, but the plan for now seems to be to continue on building him up. Be patient, Jays fans. He’ll be worth the wait.

Dahian Santos Grips

There was a little bit of a language barrier between the owner of the best slider in the system and myself. C’s broadcaster Tyler Zickel helped bridge the gap between Santos’ receptive and expressive English skills (and this guy with an ESL education background later kicked himself for not using Google’s translate app), but the young right-hander was more than happy to demonstrate his pitch grips.

That slider:

Two-seam grip:

Changeup:

Next week, I’ll add in conversations with Dasan Brown, Ashley Stephenson, and C’s GM Allan Bailey.