Future Blue Jays MiLB Notebook 4/24

The latest from up, down, and all around the Blue Jays Minor League system

April 24, 2023

Sorry for the abbreviated version of last week’s newsletter, much of which was written at 30 000 feet above the Rockies. This week will be more detailed.

The Blue Jays top 2017 IFA signing has fallen upon very tough times. He’s struggled to come back from Tommy John surgery, and was sent back to Vancouver to begin the season. In five seasons, he has yet to pitch above A ball.

Pardinho’s only outing this year was, to put it charitably, a disastrous one. He gave up 6 runs (all earned) in an inning and two-thirds on April 12th, walking four and giving up as many hits. Pardinho was clearly aiming the ball, and had absolutely no idea where it was going - it was painful to watch him struggle out there. To be fair, he was squeezed a bit (perhaps not as much as he thought), had some bleeders go for hits, took a line drive off his hip, and had a ball called when he went to his mouth while standing on the rubber.

But it was when he committed the cardinal sin of not backing up at home plate when he fired a wild pitch to the backstop with a runner on 3rd, that the organization, it seemed, decided it was time for action. To compound matters he did it twice, turning his back on home plate as if imploring the baseball gods for help while the runner on 3rd scampered home to score.

A few days later, when I arrived in Vancouver, “body language” was the phrase that I heard most often to describe the right hander. Truth be told, this was not the first time I had been told about Pardinho’s difficulties in managing his emotions on the mound. He had a successful debut season with Bluefield in the former short season Appy League in 2018, but even then, his manager Dennis Holmberg said that keeping a lid on his frustrations had been something they had been working on with Pardinho.

Two days after that difficult outing, Pardinho was placed on the 7-day IL. Perhaps there’s something physically wrong with him, or maybe he needs time in Florida to put things back together. Either way, it has been tough to see him go through such a tough stretch.

I was taken by surprise when Hernandez was not listed on Buffalo’s roster to begin the season after putting himself on the cusp of a big league job at AAA last season.

Depth at that level, as much as anything, was what sent him to the Eastern League to begin the season, according to Blue Jays Minor League Pitching Development Coordinator Cory Popham when we talked in Vancouver. Another source in the ogranization said much the same thing, and that while in AA, Hernandez is working at holding runners on better, as well as adding more velo and being able to throw his fastball for strikes - which will make his devastating changeup that much more effective. Aside from a rough outing this past week, Hernandez has pitched well. He’s part of a bullpen group in New Hampshire that has had a strong start to the year.

Tiedemann Gets Tested

In his second start of the year, Ricky Tiedemann faced a prospect-landed Yankees Somerset affiliate, and he passed with flying colours.

Tiedemann was in a jam early, loading the bases, and was handcuffed by Somerset’s running game. But he gave up just one run on a sac fly, then appeared to do a better job with runners on base as the game progressed, but that is still an area of improvement for the phenom. On the night, Tiedemann fanned 6 in 3.2 innings. Working longer into games and transitioning into a five-day rotation are the goals for this third of the season.

Quinones on Fire

He had his issues when he was stretched out as a starter last year, but Luis Quinones has been lights out in relief so far in the afore-mentioned New Hampshire bullpen. Not that he’s crazy about coming out the bullpen, but Quinones realizes it’s hard to argue with the results. “I honestly don’t like the bullpen at all,” he said when asked about it. “I would rather start all the way. But at the end of the day the goal is to make it to the show and if I can start and relief that could put me in a better position to earn a spot and a role up there.”

Popham and I talked about Quinones. The Blue Jays envision him as a bulk guy, a term both Cory and I promised to find a replacement for. OTTO (Once-through-the-order) Guy has surprisingly not quite caught on, but I think it will do.

Quinones was promoted to Buffalo yesterday, and manager Casey Candaele put him in right away. Quinones walked the first two hitters he faced, but then settled down to retire 4 of the next 7 hitters by strikeout. The promotion was a one-day thing, likely made necessary by the elevation of Otto Lopez to the Blue Jays taxi squad. He tells me he’s back in AA, but the organziation no doubt took notice of his outing yesterday.

Dunedin’s Pitching Staff

There is little doubt that the Florida State League is very pitcher-friendly. The larger ballparks, humid sub-tropical air, and batters learning their own personal strike zones can make for a low-run environment.

Dunedin’s pitching staff held hitters at bay for 29 innings without surrendering a run before giving up a pair in extra innings on Friday. That’s quite a stretch. It started with a scoreless 8th inning on Tuesday, then continued with:

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

If none of those names look familiar, here’s a brief sketch of the ones you should get to know:

-LHP, 20 yrs old, Cuban IFA signed in Oct/20

-throws a sinker that averages 92-93, tops out at 95 and is his primary pitch

-throws a 4 seam, slider, and show-me change

-struck out 43 FSL hitters in 39.2 IP last season

-RHP, Rojas’ countryman, signed in May/22

-throws a four-pitch mix, but primarily four-seam/slider/change, has been working on a cutter. FB averages 92.

-has been dominant this far (3 starts, 18 IP, 1.50 ERA)

-a report prior to his signing from Francys Romero, one of my connections:

Mar 24 (2022)

Right-hander Rafael Sánchez Thorpe arrived in the Dominican Republic at the end of 2021. It happened exactly on December 23. His only goal, while he awaits free agency, is to sign with a Major League organization in the international signing window.

Some scouts I consulted said that Sánchez has the potential to reach MLB.

One of his most notable progress has been the gain in muscle mass. Although I personally always thought Sanchez was more of a power pitcher (reliance on fast delivery) in the last two months he has proven that he can add tools to his arsenal.

Organizations such as the Kansas City Royals, Houston Astros, Oakland Athletics, St. Louis Cardinals, to name a few, have already scouted the Antilla village native, the smallest in the province of Holguín, in eastern Cuba.

Sánchez was a member of the Cuban team to the U-18 World Baseball Cup on Thunder Bay, Canada (2017), and led Cuban pitchers with an 0.87 ERA and 10.1 innings of performance. He dominated 11 batters by way of strikeout and they averaged .143 against him.

-At 23, he’s a little old for this level, and I expect he’ll make the move to Vancouver before long.

The C’s Get Sold, the Nat is Rebranded

Hot on the heels of the sale of the Vancouver Canadians to Diamond Holdings, a US-based firm that owns a dozen-plus minor league teams comes some corporate renaming to venerable Nat Bailey Stadium:

 There was an excellent piece in the New York Times about the C’s which you can enjoy in reader view. Apparently, I just missed the writer. At any rate, there is a bit of uneasiness about the sale of the club to an American corporation, as I wrote in my last newsletter, but there is a sense that upgrades are needed to Nat Bailey that the current ownership probably couldn’t afford. The Nat now has padding on fences all around the playing field, a new waterproof membrane on the grandstand (although some work was needed this week to accommodate a new camera location while the C’s were out of town), and the visitors’ bullpen needs to be moved beyond the outfield wall like the home team’s. In the long run, more spacious clubhouse accommodations for the C’s (the current ones could be best described as “cozy”), an indoor batting cage, and perhaps an outfield concourse will be in the works to make the Nat both more player and fan friendly. C’s GM Allan Bailey told me he doesn’t think the new owners will make wholesale challenges right away (both he and club president Andy Dunn will remain in their current roles), but he does expect changes in terms of HR practices and policies to bring them more in line with Diamond’s.

Are the C’s safe? The team has been moved before, but I think the answer is yes. Soon-to-be former owners Jake Kerr and Jeff Mooney are very civic minded, and it’s highly likely that they sold with the assurance that the team would be kept in British Colombia.

It was only one start, and perhaps we’ve whistled this tune before, but Big Kloff’s Saturday outing was one of the best the enigmatic right hander has put together in quite some time.

Spotted a two-run lead before he took to the mound against that Somerset lineup his rotation-mate Tiedemann had faced earlier in the week, Kloffenstein needed only 11 pitches to retire the side in order in the bottom of the 1st. He gave up a run in the 2nd off a bloop double - the runner who scored from 2nd had stolen the base after Kloff was slow to the plate.

Kloffenstein struck out 5 hitters his first time through the order, pounding the strike zone and getting plenty of whiffs on sliders on the inner half to LHH.

His day ended after 5 innings and 75 pitches. Rain forced a delay as the Fisher Cats readied to bat in the top of the 6th, and the game was eventually called, giving Kloff his first W on the year, and a pretty good line to boot:

Who’s Hot

With the cold April weather and pitchers being ahead of hitters, there were not a lot of offensive stars over the past seven days:

The speedy Brown is one of my favourite players in the system, and not just because he’s an Ontario kid. He’s a joy to be around, brimming with energy and positivity. I had a chance to sit down with him last week to talk. Here’s the transcript of that interview.

FBJ 0:04First of all, tell us about your off-season. Were you in Oakville or Florida? DB: 0:10After the season I was in Florida for a little bit, then I came back out to Vancouver a little bit to see some family stuff like that, because I didn't really have much time during the season. I went back to Florida for strength camp and the biggest focus was just getting my body right and I'm trying to stay healthy, get stronger. I put some good weight on, about 15 pounds of muscle in the offseason. So you know my goal is staying healthy. That's the biggest one, just staying on the field and getting my body to a good spot.FBJ 0:44Do you think you’ll spend next off season in Florida like some of the other prospects did?DB: 0:48I want to travel. I want to play winter ball somewhere somewhere, I want to do something. I found last offseason was good just because it was good to kind of chill out, but I think I'm at the stage where I need reps. I need at bats to get to that next level. Right? So I want to find a place to play baseball.FBJ 1:06Things really came together for you last year, and you were dominant in the playoffs. What was the key for you?DB: 1:26I think it was all mental then, it was just understanding that you know, everyone at this level is capable, but it's the little things that separate ourselves from each other. So my thing was just dealing with failure, dealing with adversity was the biggest one and not getting too caught up with success or failure just going out an playing. So, yeah, to me, that was what clicked it was just like letting myself go and just playing baseball. FBJ 1:50 In the playoffs you were dangerous….. the ball, it must look like a beach ball.DB: 2:01That feeling that feeling to me is unmatched. I’m so anxious to get that back.FBJ 2:06 How about on the bases? There’s still a lot to learn, I think but it's starting to come. DB: 2:12That basically to me is a natural part of the game, you know, same thing when I think about it or when I try to create, make things happen. That's kind of when I run into trouble when I just let myself go and play kind of takes over. So I’m just not getting too caught up with getting thrown out and being safe and just learning the process of it.FBJ 2:31Speed is so essential to this game. Branch Rickey used to hold these tryout camps all over the southwest and anybody who showed u,p it didn't matter if they had a blazing fastball, if they couldn't run, I think it was a six second 40, the player would get cut. He said “Speed is the one thing I can't teach. I can put a guy on the field or I can teach him how to hit or catch or throw, but I can't teach a guy to be fast.” Your defense, I know, this is an old centerfielder here so I appreciate watching you play, but that's something you take a lot of pride in.DB: 3:06Defence to me is something that has always been natural. My alter ego was a football player somewhere, so I've always wanted to be like a wide receiver or a quarterback….as a young kid like to me that was the closest way in baseball to kind of show off my athleticism and just have fun and play. I tried shortstop, but It wasn't for me. It was difficult, but instead I feel I definitely feel very comfortable.FBJ 3:31You love having the game in front of you.DB: 3:33Oh yeah.FBJ 3:34I can I can relate. What other sports did you play as a kid.DB: 3:41I ran track, the 100 and 200. FBJ 4:09So what feels better to you? A game winning hit or throwing a guy out at home or making a spectacular catch to end the game?DB: 4:16A game-winning hit, man. I think that feeling like your teammates coming out, hugging you, and you and all the emotions and the feelings, I love that. Obviously you want to throw guys out, but you know to me it happens in a good year 8-10 times. because that was a while was very good.FBJ 4:43I liked making the catch or throwing the guy out, I guess because I wasn’t a very good hitter. So what’s the key for you this year, how do you build on the success you had in the second half last year? DB: 4:43Timing. I think to me, you have to be on time for that fastball. I find when I struggle is when I'm late on the fastball game. I think once you're able to be on time for that fastball, and then trust your eyes, your hands, and your athleticism to get to that breaking stuff. To me it's less about hitting and more about taking. You can’t really hit a good slider like a good one like you're not really gonna hit it but I think if you're able to recognize it and lay off of it, you have a chance.FBJ 5:13So are you looking for a pitch in a particular part of the strike zone?DB: 5:17Yeah, I have my hot zones. I like middle away to me, but I feel like I'm a reactionary hitter, where I kind of just see the ball and I believe I can get to it and it's just trust. The biggest thing for me is trust…. when I'm going well, I'm not thinking about anything. It's just flowing.FBJ 5:37With the rainouts so far this year, was it tough to get back on track?DB: 5:43I mean, it’s a long season, so it's just about getting those feelings back. At the end of last season, I had 300-something ABs to kind of get that feeling right. FBJ 5:55You’re still one of the youngest players in this league, so it still really is about reps for you.DB: 6:01I think the hardest part for me was just taking the emotions out of it. You know, you can go up and be successful, and you can fail, but not getting caught up with your 0-fers or however many struggles you go through, not getting emotionally attached to it and this understanding is part of the process.FBJ 6:18 The mental part is something I don't think fans really appreciate.DB: 6:27It's essential, in my opinion to get to the highest level.FBJ 6:30Do you have family coming out from Ontario to see yo play?DB: 6:34They were trying to come out for opening weekend, but the rain stopped that. My folks are trying to come out end of the month for that last series. FBJ 6:48Do you talk to your cousin (Athletics’ 10th ranked prospect Denzel Clarke) much during the season?DB: 6:50I went out to Portland and saw him for New Year’s. And then he went to Toronto, but shortly after that for the homecoming game, so I ended up going back for that. And then right before the World Baseball Classic I went out. We left on the 6th (of March), and he was in Orlando on the 5th, so I drove over and I saw him there for a little bit too.