Future Blue Jays Newsletter

Another look at the week that was in the Blue Jays system, including notes from a couple of games I took in at Nat Bailey, and some observations on Alek Manoah’s rehab start.

Tuesday, April 9th

The first Org Sweep of the season was recorded, as all four full season affiliates recorded victories, two of them in their Home Openers.

RHP Chris McElvain, acquired from the Reds in the deal for Santiago Espinal, got the start for Vancouver, who were swept in their opening series in Spokane. McElvain tossed four scoreless innings, and the offence came alive to snap a 3-3 tie in the last of the 8th in a game the C’s would win 5-4.

SS Nick Goodwin, one of those guys to keep an eye on, hit the last longball of the season in the C’s NWL title-clinching game last season, hit the first one at The Nat this year:

Will Robertson alert: the late bloomer (this season’s Davis Schneider?) hit his 3rd HR of the young season as Buffalo edged Rochester 6-5.

Spencer Horwitz had yet another multi-hit game, raising his average to .379. It was a bullpen game, with Paxton Schultz throwing 2.1 innings, and Connor Cooke pitching a scoreless 9th for his 1st Save.

In Dunedin, Mississauga’s own Connor O’Halloran, a 5th rounder in last year’s draft, threw 5 strong innings (2H, 2 R/ER, 3BB, 7K) to get the W as the D-Jays topped Tampa 6-2 in Dunedin’s Home Opener. Arjun Nimmala was 0-5.

In New Hampshire’s Home Opener, the Fisher Cats banged out a dozen hits as they routed Somerset 8-2. Gaby Martinez led the way, knocking out his first AA HR, and doubled as part of a 2-5, 3 RBI night. Alan Roden, Josh Kasevich, Rainer Nunez, and Michael Turconi all had a pair of hits for the Cats. Starter Trent Palmer and piggybacker C.J. Van Eyk tossed three strong innings each, and the bullpen shut things down.

Wednesday, April 10th.

Danny Jansen’s rehab start with Buffalo occupied much of the attention in the system. DHing for the Bisons, Jansen’s 4th inning grand slam capped off a 9 run inning for Buffalo en route to a wild 12-11 win over Rochester.

In Tampa, Juaron Watts-Brown took to the mound in the professional debut for the 2023 3rd rounder. He tossed three no-hit innings as the surprising D-Jays won their fourth game, a 9-2 thumping of the home side. Dunedin’s bullpen worked four scoreless innings, dropping their Florida State League-low ERA to a microscopic 0.33.

In his first High A start, Kendry Rojas made things look easy, scattering a pair of hits, walk, and HBP over five shutout innings. A trio of relievers shut the door for Vancouver as the C’s scored a 2-0 W over Hillsboro.

New Hampshire was rained out.

Thursday, April 11th

The Dunedin Blue Jays are quickly becoming the team to watch in the system. The visiting D-Jays won their 5th in a row, topping Tampa 3-1.

Dunedin starter Grant Rogers was a bit wobbly in the first inning with his command in his pro debut, but the 6’7” 11th round pick from last year’s draft recovered to pitch four shutout innings. With the W, Dunedin now sports the best record in the young Florida State League season at 5-1.

Top pick Arjun Nimmala had the night off.

Top prospect Ricky Tiedemann took to the mound for Buffalo, and while his outing was considerably better than his previous one, Tiedemann struggled with location, walking 3, fanning 7, and hitting a pair of batters. All of those added up to a high pitch count (73), and Tiedemann was out of the game with two out in the 4th. Still, the front office has to be pleased with his progress.

Also with the Bisons, our man Francys Romero broke this news:

C Phil Clarke, SS Josh Kasevich, and 3B Alex DeJesus had three hits apiece as New Hampshire improved to 4-1 with a 6-3 win over Somerset. Kasevich raised his average to a surprising .435.

In his first outing since August 20th of last season, LHP Trenton Wallace pitched into the 5th inning. Wallace has a low arm slot and could become an effective lefty bullpen specialist. He’s one I’ve always had my eye on.

Friday

Speaking of New Hampshire, Kasevich continued his early season hot streak, banging out 4 hits (all singles) in New Hampshire’s 10-8 victory.

Dunedin OF Yhonangel Aponte had a career night, going 4-5 with a double and a triple as the D-Jays topped Tampa once again, to the tune of 11-2. In his second FSL start, Francisco Perez threw five strong innings, allowing a pair of runs while striking out 7.

A trio of Vancouver pitchers combined on a three-hit seven inning shutout of Hillsboro in the C’s game one 3-0 win. Geison (pronounced “Jason”) Urbaez, in his first NWL start, twirled four innings of one-hit ball to get the W. In the nightcap, three costly errors spoiled an otherwise fine outing by starter Ryan Jennings. Things came undone in the 5th, when Jennings allowed a one out single, followed by a wild pitch, defensive obstruction on a pick off attempt at 2nd, followed by a balk and later another wild pitch allowed Hillsboro to take a 4-2 lead, en route to a 5-2 win over the home side.

Buffalo was rained out.

Saturday

The tarp was on in the morning, and needed all hands on deck to keep the winds from carrying it off to Cheektowaga, but it was the Bisons who were blown away, losing both ends of a doubleheader to Rochester, the second in extra innings.

New Hampshire dropped a twin bill as well, a fine start by Adam Macko going for naught in the nightcap.

Dunedin lost to Tampa 8-7. After a hot start, Arjun Nimmala went hitless, and has gone 1 for his last 16.

Yours truly made the trek down Ontario St to Nat Bailey in my annual pilgrimage to Vancouver. In a highly entertaining affair, the C’s prevailed 6-5 over Hillsboro. Some observations:

Sunday

In which we save the best for last……not only did the parent club win, but all four affiliates as well, making for a Platinum Org Sweep.

Buffalo pounded out 15 hits, and five Bisons pitchers combined on a one-hit shutout as the home team swamped Rochester 17-0. I’d say Orelvis’ bat is waking up:

New Hampshire scored in double digits as well, topping Somerset 13-9. Alan Roden had a pair of HRs, and Garrett Spain hit his 4th of the still young season.

Dunedin got into the double figures as well, pounding Tampa 11-2. Landen Maroudis was impressive once again, pitching into the 5th and allowing only a single run.

The highlight of the day had to be Vancouver’s series finale against Hillsboro. The C’s jumped out to an early lead, thanks to a Ryan McCarty’s 2nd 3-run HR of the weekend. But the C’s would not record another hit for the next five innings, and after Hillsboro scored five runs in the 6th to add to the two they notched in the 1st, the visitors looked set to take a 7-3 win as they recorded two quick C’s outs in the last of the 9th. But Dylan Rock was hit by a pitch, Jommer Hernandez reached on a booted groundball at 2nd, and Jean Arnaez was hit by a pitch from Vancouver native Eli Saul. Leadoff hitter Dasan Brown singled to score Rock and Hernandez, and suddenly the C’s were only down by two. McCarty slashed a 3-2 double down the 1st base line, scoring Arnaez and Brown, and we had a tie game. With extras looming, Jace Bohrofen stayed alive by just nicking what would have been strike three had not the Hillsboro catcher bobbled it, then worked a walk to bring up Nick Goodwin, who along with McCarty has provided much of Vancouver’s early offence:

More Thoughts…..

I watched Alek Manoah’s rehab start for Buffalo, and came away with some thoughts.

First off, I saw that he was wearing his Blue Jays pants….at 6’7”/290 (I suspect the latter figure needs an update - physically, at least, he’s a shadow of his former self), his is a size that MiLB teams don’t tend to have on hand. It reminded me of a visit to the C’s clubhouse in 2019, when Manoah was in his first year of pro ball. In his locker, along with his size 17 cleats, was a pair of pants that once belonged to Blue Jays longtime minor league pitching coach Jim Czajkowski, who is a mountain of a man.

In the first inning of work, Manoah gave up a run despite not allowing any hard hit balls. He didn’t help himself by failing to hold a runner at 1st (still a challenge in this new baseball world for some pitchers), but his pitches showed plenty of movement, and he mostly hit his spots. Interestingly, I though, were the three disengagements he had, making me wonder if this is how Manoah will deal with the pitch clock moving forward. Also, he himself called two challenges under the ABS system, and successfully had two ball calls overturned. All in all, at 23 pitches, it was a solid first inning, especially compared to his previous start.

Manoah’s second inning was solid as well. He made a mistake on an 0-2 count to the leadoff hitter and gave up a line drive single to CF, but Manoah got two quick outs, gave up another hit, then a flyball to get out of the inning.

He probably deserved better in the 3rd. Gargantuan James Wood, Washington’s second ranked prospect, singled sharply to start the frame. Wood stole 2nd, then raced to 3rd on a throwing error by Danny Jansen, who had to reach for a Manoah pitch well up and away. Rochester 1B Juan Yepez then battled Manoah in an 11-pitch AB, winning the contest with an RBI single. That confrontation seemed to take a bit of wind out of Manoah’s sails. The next hitter doubled on a liner to Bisons RF Nathan Lukes on a play that was somewhere between routine and difficult; not helping matters was Orelvis Martinez inexplicably cutting off the throw from Lukes that likely would have nailed the batter at 2nd. The next hitter lofted a bleeder that LF Rafael Lantigua came a long way to make a sliding grab on, but was in no position to throw Yepez out at the plate.

In the 4th, Manoah allowed leadoff double and a one out walk before reaching his pitch count; reliever Troy Watson allowed both runners to score.

It was a cold day in Buffalo, with many fans layered in parkas and toques; gripping the ball was indeed a challenge. It was a positive outing, but it still is difficult to determine if Manoah is ready to step back into a big league rotation just yet. He has painted himself into a bit of a corner with whatever happened between him and the front office last August, and he must be feeling tremendous pressure to prove himself. As more of a finesse guy than a high octane arm, Manoah relies on location, movement, and velocity - in that order. And the location still probably needs refining. He had three hitters on 0-2 counts, but couldn’t put them away, which was at least party attributable to missed spots. Still, Manoah was pleased with the outing:

Oh, and……..

Finally…..

It’s always so good to escape winter’s last April Ontario gasps for Vancouver. It’s definitely spring out here, and my seventeen-minute walk up to The Nat is a breath of fresh air. Ontario St is a major cycling thoroughfare, and seeing groups of passing road bikers, families with kids on little bikes, and riders on all manner of city bikes made me long for cycling weather.

I like to arrive a couple of hours before game time (a media pass lets you get in before the gates open). I can take in pre-game drills, chat with the ushers and attendants, and touch base with people like C’s broadcaster Tyler Zickel, and PA guy Niall O’Donohoe (who also runs the excellent csplusbaseball.com website). This year, I also made acquaintances with Chris Georges, an Ontario lad learning the tricks of the booth alongside Zickel, and C’s official scorer Mike Hanafin, who those of an older demographic will recall was on Toronto-area stations CFRB and CFNY in the heyday of GTA radio.

Mike had some interesting observations about life as an official scorer. He came upon the job somewhat as a lucky twist of fortune. Hanafin had relocated to Vancouver in 2005, and shortly after moving had been contacted by then-C’s radio voice Rob Fai to fill in on an emergency basis after the regular scorer called in sick. After a few more sick days in a row, Hanafin had the job handed to him, and he’s been up in the pressbox ever since.

I asked Mike what the toughest part of being an official scorekeeper is, and without hesitation, it was the “fifty-fifty” calls, plays that could go either was as a hit or an error. “Either way, someone’s not going to be happy with your call,” Hanafin said. “The manager on one side will be upset his guy didn’t get credited with a hit, or the other manager will be mad his player was charged with an error.” In the past, managers could appeal directly to Hanafin to reverse the call, a process he says he always enjoyed, because for the most part they were quite respectful (current C’s manager Brent Lavallee being the best in that regard). Now, there is a process by which managers have to go through the home team’s general manager to appeal a decision, and Hanafin admits he misses the interaction with the skippers.

Hanafin was a guest on the redoubtable Toronto Mike’s podcast, for your listening enjoyment.

 I also had a chance to meet and chat with fellow author (and C’s fan) K.P. Wee, who has written - among others - a book about knuckleballer and former Jay Tom Candiotti.

What a great week of baseball. Thanks for joining me on the ride.