Future Blue Jays Newsletter

Lots of this and that in this particular edition.

First things first: some bats in the upper levels of the system are waking up in the aftermath of a cool spring that hung on too long like an aging knuckleballer:

Many fans in my mentions have asked why Robertson hasn’t been called up. Much of that was before the current homestand, but the reasons are fairly obvious. For starters, Robertson is not on the 40-man roster, which creates a pair of issues: who does he replace on the 40, and as a guy on the back end of the 40, his clock starts to tick loudly. Then there’s the issue of left-handed pitching. Robertson hit well against lefties at the lower levels, but he has mostly sat against them this season, a .685 OPS being the main reason. At the same time, this is a guy who has hit 48 Home Runs in the last two-plus seasons. It’s just that at this point in his career (Robertson is 27, long in the tooth for a prospect), he’s more of a platoon guy, and the Blue Jays already have several such guys ahead of him.

Then there’s Orelvis.

This was a rough spring for the prized prospect. He missed the second half of last year due to a PED suspension, and then near the end of spring training was felled by what appears to have been a nasty flu virus (you can speculate all you want about the nature of the illness). Combine the rust from missing half a year along with the lousy spring weather many northern minor league teams had to deal with, and you had a young man who was pressing.

With the weather heating up, Orelvis is getting regular reps, making better swing decisions, and producing some loud contact. Slowly but surely he’s either working his way back into the picture, or enhancing his deadline value.

You could make a case for Piñango as the best hitter in the system to date. Arjun Nimmala may be performing amazing feats at Vancouver, but Piñango has been amazingly consistent. The scouts say velo at the higher levels may challenge his long swing - and Piñango will have to hit to have any hope of a shot at MLB - but the results at AAA have been encouraging.

Among the good scouting and development stories in the system this year, Georgia St grad Watson has to be among the best.

Undrafted after 5 collegiate seasons, Watson headed off to the Indy Frontier League. Blue Jays MiLB Pitching Development Coordinator Ricky Meinhold is a Frontier alum, and told me he fought to get Watson signed last May. He’s since rocketed through the system. At 26, he’s long in the tooth for a prospect, but the dude knows how to pitch.

If you missed the last Around the Nest podcast, featuring the play-by-play voices of the Blue Jays full season affiliates, here you go: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4IkS2gOnf2G5EblIBO3rx6?si=F08ST0OmRY-YPH344bZdcw

It’s been quite the multimedia week here for a guy with a face more suited for radio. On Tuesday, I was a guest on the FAN 590 Toronto, where hosts Julia Kreutz and Blake Murphy peppered me with questions about top prospects. I handled the inquisition like a certain Dunedin reliever:

But my wife’s responsibility for making sure I looked presentable did not end there. I was contacted by Global New Vancouver for a feature they’re doing about Nimmala. I’ll let you all know when the segment airs. Apparently, after 13 years of doing this, I’m something of an expert. Who knew?

The Blue Jays under the leadership of Mark Shapiro may not have a whole lot to show in terms of on-field results, but his dream of making the team a model player development organization are coming closer. There still is a considerable gap between the Dodgers, Red Sox, and the rest of the industry, but with the off-field improvements that have taken place under Shapiro’s watch, his dream of “waves of prospects” is perhaps coming closer to fruition.

Shapiro had to navigate three levels of government to get the Minor League Complex upgraded, but he pulled it off. The Mattick, named after the legendary scout and former Manager, is state-of-the art, and widely agreed to be one of the best in the business. More and more minor league players - thanks in part to pay raised the Blue Jays initiated several years ago - live in Dunedin in the off-season in order to train there. 3 Blue Jays are on Baseball America’s Top 100 list (Nimmala, Trey Yesavage, and - remember him? - Ricky Tiedemann), and a few more more (Johnny King? Landen Maroudis? This year’s top pick?) may be knocking on the door a year from now.

The Blue Jays farm system has taken its fair share of knocks over the past few years. While it has been far from “empty,” several years of late round picks, a very poor COVID draft, and deadline deals to strengthen the roster in a playoff push that never really materialized have emptied the system of upper-level talent. But even the most ardent Shatkinsians would have to admit that it’s an organization that’s on the upswing. The simple but harsh truth about prospects is that only a handful become long-term, productive players, so you have to have as many as possible.

Father’s Day is coming, and if I might, I would suggest one (or both) of my books for your baseball-loving Dad.

“On Account of Darkness: The Summer Ontario Baseball Broke the Colour Barrier,” is my re-creation of the historic, dramatic, and sometimes controversial 1934 amateur baseball season in Canada’s most-populous province. Through the eyes of the two real-life newspapermen who covered their teams, I trace the path taken by the Chatham Coloured All Stars and the Penetanguishene Rangers, who met in the Ontario Baseball Amateur Association Intermediate ‘B’ final. Using considerable newspaper and first-hand account research, I take readers all the way to the tension-filled finals.

“Severn Sound: A Big Leaguer Comes to Port McNicoll,” is another re-creation, this time telling the story of how defending National League batting champion and future Hall of Famer Chick Hafey came to a small Ontario town to recover from severe illness in the middle of the 1932 season. It’s a story about friendship, health, and Great Lakes shipping for added measure, another product of considerable research. In the process of writing this book, I met the granddaughter of one of the book’s characters. She loaned me a photo album of her grandfather Jim Shaw that was full of photos and clippings. When I came across a photo of Hafey (wearing his World Series ring) and his wife holding the day’s catch with Shaw, I felt like an archaeologist discovering a long-lost treasure.

My books are Dad-approved: I can’t tell you how many people who have bought my books for their fathers report back on how much they enjoyed them, and wonder when my next one will be out. You can find both books at Amazon, or if Dad is an ereader kind of guy, they’re available on most digital platforms.

My next book, by the way, “The Howleyites: Toronto’s Changing City, New Stadium, and 1926 Championship Team,” will be available this fall. This one’s for you, non-fiction readers.

Speaking of Dad……..this will be my first since my father passed away on April Fool’s Day.

Dad lived past his 92nd birthday, and lived independently for 91 of those. He did so by staying active physically (he got in his 10K steps a day until a few months before he passed), intellectually (until his eyesight started to fail, he was an avid reader, particularly of Westerns), and socially - Dad had the gift of the gab, an ability to engage in small-talk that I’ve always envied.

In typical Dad fashion, after he received a medical diagnosis that left him, in his words, “ready to kick off,” and even though he was barely responsive for his last few days, as family members from B.C. and Ontario converged to say goodbye, he waited until the last one (my wife) arrived before opening one eye slightly, breaking out into the smallest of grins, and taking his last breath.

Dad was not warm and fuzzy - he was born in the Depression, and raised during a World War, which might explain that. A solid homebody, our vacations seldom ventured far (possibly a result of hockey and baseball schedules of my brother and I); when we went out, Dad’s favourite expression was, “let’s go so we can get back.” But his family was his overwhelming priority, and I know it gave him great pride to see his grandchildren become adults, delivery great grandkids for him to get to know.

Even though he’s been gone for two months, it still seems odd not to pick up the phone to say, “Hi, Dad!” He was so vital and sharp for so long, it’s still hard to believe he’s gone. As per his wishes, he will be buried in a peaceful little cemetery in Eastern Ontario near the little farming village he grew up in, next to his parents, and not far from both sets of his grandparents, and his great grandparents.

Hold your Dads close, friends. One day they’ll be gone.

Miss you, Dad.

A final thought.

I thought long and hard about it, but I returned to the place formerly known as Twitter a little while ago. I really enjoyed the atmosphere over at BlueSky after the toxic cloud that hung over X, but the engagement was a fraction of what it was.

So, I decided to return, at first just to post links to my newsletter; soon, I was tweeting about Jays prospects and the like. I was determined to block any and all negative and/or personal attacks, but thankfully that has not happened.

What I have noticed is the plethora of prospect experts that seem to be out there. On the one hand, I think it’s great. As former Jays coach, farm director, and now MiLB manager Gil Kim once said about my work, I really enjoy their passion. But if you’re not going to watch games, make contacts at all levels of the game (and have good questions to ask so as to not waste their time), and immerse yourself from April to October in the experience, well, you’re not an “expert.” Anyone can look up minor league stats. The more determined folks can even dig through Baseball Savant. But to me, there has to be the human touch. Talk to players (that can admittedly be tough, but there are exceptions like Alan Roden), go in person to watch games, befriend broadcasters (often a font of information), and reach out to player development people. All of that takes time, and maybe that’s why after a decade-plus, people are now coming to me. But I put in the time, as my wife can tell you.