A trip to Buffalo, the C’s explode, the continued dominance of Kendry Rojas, the emergence of Daniel Guerra, and the turnaround of Arjun Nimmala highlight this edition.

Time on the Niagara Frontier

For those of my vintage who grew up in Southern Ontario, Buffalo holds a special place in our hearts.

Before the multichannel universe came along, we got all of a dozen tv channels, three of them from Buffalo. Commander Tom, Clip Smith, Rick Azar, Rocketship Seven, Irv Weinstein, Ed Kilgore, the Bills, Braves, Sabres, and a never-ending series of fires streamed into our family rooms via the new-fangled thing called Cable.

Even though I can’t recall the last time I watched a Buffalo newscast, the city still seems both familiar and comfortable every time I visit. And this past week, Mother Nature smiled on me with a rainout so that I could catch the resulting next-day double header with an old friend I had not seen since Brian Mulroney was Prime Minister.

While we caught up, there was time to watch Jonatan Clase, who laid down a perfect bunt, lined a single to the opposite field, and homered to almost-straightaway CF, and showed that he could easily land the LF job in Toronto next year.

Alan Roden extended his hit streak to 11 games in the first game with a nice piece of situational hitting, lashing a single to LF on an outside pitch with runners on 1st and 2nd. Mason Fluharty showed that while he’s an impressive bullpen arm whose time in Toronto is coming, he still has to finish off hitters and games before he’s a big leaguer.

Then there was Joey Votto, who pinch hit in the first game and started the second. He doesn’t appear to have his swing or timing down just yet, but his ankle appeared to be fine both on the basepaths and at 1st base.

C’s Offence Explodes

Runs have been tough to come by in the Lower Mainland this season. Vancouver ranks last in the Northwest League in that category, but they burst out against the Giant’s Eugene affiliate for 34 runs in 2 games.

RF Jace Bohrofen led the onslaught for the Canadians. He went 2-6 in Vancouver 19-2 rout of Eugene, knocking in a pair, then went 4-5 with a half dozen RBI two nights later. The 6th round pick had a smash debut with Dunedin after the draft last year, but has been challenged by High A pitching this year.

Vancouver has a very different lineup from ten days ago. A number of player were released to make room for a van load of new players, including sparkplug Adrian Pinto, finally healthy after missing much of the past two seasons, and trade acquisitions Jay Harry, Jacob Sharp, and Cutter Coffey. C’s broadcaster Tyler Zickel related a great tale about Harry. When he was pulled from the game for the Twins Midwest League affiliate Cedar Rapids when word was received of his trade for Trevor Richards, Harry stuck around long enough to help lead a 7th inning rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” before heading for Vancouver.

And let’s toss in a shout out to Adrian Pinto, finally healthy again and now in Vancouver. Yes, he’s a long shot, but there are wisps of Jose Altuve in his game:

Daniel Guerra - One to Watch

Regular readers and subscribers may recall Guerra was a name to watch according to Blue Jays MiLB Pitching Development Coordinator Cory Popham, who told us in June:

Another guy to keep an eye on - the results haven’t necessarily been there yet - is Daniel Guerra.  We like how he works, he’s a big body, his big thing right now is just figuring out how the mix works.  He’s got the stuff to strike guys out, we just need to teach him how to do that better.  If we still had Short Season, that might be the next step for him, but as it is, we have him repeating the Complex. 

With the Complex League over, Guerra has graduated to the Florida State League. He retired the first six hitters he faced in his FSL debut last week before running into trouble in the 3rd. Between that start and his one this week, the Dunedin coaching staff worked on eliminating some movement in his pre-delivery set up that was unnecessary, and was taking him off line as he moved toward home plate. The results were almost instant, as the big (6’6”/22) right hander tossed five innings of 2-hit, one unearned run ball, striking out five.

Guerra throws a four-seamer (touches 95), slider, and a curve that shows some promise. His innings will be monitored for the rest of the season, but it’s exciting to think about what might be in store for him in 2025.

Kendry Rojas

A late October, 2021 signing from Cuba, Rojas skipped the DSL and made his stateside debut with one FCL outing before moving up to Dunedin the following season. The southpaw repeated Dunedin to start last year, and seemed poised to join Vancouver to bolster their rotation for the stretch run before unconfirmed visa issues prevented his crossing the border.

Rojas began the season with the C’s, but shoulder issues caused a nearly three month shutdown. He’s back with Monty’s Mounties, and is better than ever, fanning a career-best 10 over 7 innings in his most recent start:

Rojas throws four pitches, pounds the strike zone, and shows polish far and above the average Northwest League pitcher. This is a guy to get to know, a pitcher who may make up for lost time in Arizona this fall.

The Return of Nimmala

The much-heralded first round pick from last year’s draft was challenged with an assignment to Dunedin to start the year; he was one of the youngest players in all of Single A. Not surprisingly, Nimmala was overmatched, and after posting a .586 OPS in 29 games, he was put on the Development List, and sent to the Complex League to get himself back together.

The Player Development staff went back to square one with the prized prospect. “A lot of our work with Arjun was foundational,” a source in the organization said. Working with the hitting lab at the Player Development Complex, the staff helped Nimmala with his posture at the plate, and helping him to simplify his approach. The work he put in allowed him to create a better path, and to have his barrel get to pitches on time.

Was Nimmala down after being put on the Devo List? After all, the game has probably come quite easily to him, and this may have been his first experience with failure. Reports suggest that he was a model student, eager to reset things at the plate and try to get back in action.

The results since his return speak largely for themselves. Yes, there has been some swing-and-miss to Nimmala’s game, but of his 28 hits since going back to Dunedin, 18 of them have been for extra bases. The knock on the amateur scouting staff is that they have emphasized contact over power with many of the top picks of the past few years, but Nimmala is definitely developing as one along the opposite lines. His pitch recognition will have to improve, but there’s a lot to dream on here.

And speaking of those top picks over the past few years, Tucker Toman was one of Nimmala’s fellow Devo List guys. In a year and a half, the 2022 2nd rounder has struggled mightily. He has shown an ability to work the count and see a lot of pitches, but sometimes that passivity has let him down. Like Nimmala, Toman has worked on his posture, as well as his bat path. My source says, “I think you’ll be excited to see how he finishes the year when he gets back.” Toman was activated today.

A cynic (a direction I admittedly sometimes lean toward) would point out to the stumbles of these two youngsters out of the gate as evidence of what the elimination of the Short Season level has done. Certainly, it would have been helpful for one or both of Nimmala and Toman to have spent their first under the lights time spent in Bluefield or Vancouver, but the reality is that with most teams having state of the art minor league complexes and a Development List to give young players a reset, this is where we are.

P-Willy

Congrats to the hulking Vancouver 1st Baseman for NWL POW honours:

The question I get asked most often seems to be “is he a big leaguer?” when a player has a hot week. In Williams’ case, there is no doubt about the bat. BA’s draft report noted:

Williams gets to his plus power more with strength and leverage than bat speed. His swing is actually more conducive to producing line drives than lofted fly balls. He uses the whole field and has a good understanding of the strike zone.

With a .294/ .391/.477 line this season, Williams would be among the Northwest League leaders in several categories if he had enough plate appearances to qualify. And there in, as the great beat reporter Will Shakespeare once noted, lies the rub.

Williams spent the first two months of the season on the IL rehabbing a knee injury; it was the second time the 2022 7th rounder has made a trip to the Injury List. At 6’5”/255 (his draft weight), players of Williams’ type don’t tend to age well.

Still, he was worked hard to turn himself into a good defender, with surprising agility for one of his size, and he has baseball smarts a-plenty. There is something Vogelbachian to his profile, but I would love to see P-Willy at AA. He’s blocked for the moment by Rainer Nunez there, and some Toronto native at Buffalo who needs playing time. Williams would be key to Vancouver’s post-season hopes; as noted above, the C’s have had a hard time scoring runs with him this season. They’d struggle even more without him.