Future Blue Jays Newsletter

Heads up! Here’s the latest in the Blue Jays system from a guy who, as my Twitter (@DMFox705) bio says, is always thinking double out of the box.

This is a truncated version of the newsletter; I’m posting this from incredible Iceland. Yours truly was invited along to chaperone a high school trip.

Tuesday

To the surprise of no one…….

This week’s focus will be the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.

The Cats limped home from their set at Portland with the Red Sox Eastern League affiliate. They took the opening game, but then lost the next five in a row, hitting just .163 in that series.

Leading the way for New Hampshire this season is SS Josh Kasevich, who entered Tuesday’s opener with Binghamton was leading the EL in batting average.

The 2022 2nd rounder was one of the hardest hitters in D1 to strike out that season, a trend he’s continued in the Blue Jays organization as he works his way up the ladder. Considered to be more of a glove-first player, he puts balls in play, walking as much as he strikes out, which isn’t a whole lot - his 3.4% whiff rate is lowest in the organization. But the knock against Kasevich is that even though he plays the most important defensive position on the diamond, he lacks pop. And that was mostly a fair rap, as he knocked only 19 extra-base hits in 94 games for Vancouver last year, grounding out at a 52% rate.

As Kasevich told Fisher Cats media relations director and broadcaster Chris Jared about his hot start at the plate:

I'm being aggressive and I'm sticking to my approach of just staying through the middle of the field. I go off when I try to be a hitter that I'm not, and when I can stick to the hitter that I am, I can do a lot of good things with the bat.

Kasevich spent his offseason at the Player Development Complex in Florida, often taking to the batting cage with Vancouver and now New Hampshire teammate Alan Roden, about as good a hitter in the system you could partner up with:

…most of the days and I'd go hit with Alan Roden, and we're in the cages grinding most of the offseason working on our path and how we can impact the baseball. It was awesome to have that environment with (Roden), another hitter who loves to get down and work.

Kasevich’s newfound strength showed up in his first EL Home Run on this evening, an inside fastball that he turned on and mashed. Having watched him online and in person last year, I have no doubt that Kasevich could get his bat on such a pitch, but a year ago he probably wasn’t getting his barrel out like this:

Kasevich went 3-5, grounding out twice, but raising his average to .383 on the season. He’s had six multi-hit games already. And not to worry about his defence. Kasevich has the skill set to play big league short stop - he has good hands, a strong, accurate arm, and good reads on plays like this:

Is he a big league SS in waiting? We need to see a longer body of work as far as his new-found hitting prowess in concerned, but I’ll certainly be watching more of him

On the mound for New Hampshire was Left Trenton Wallace, a guy I’ve long considered an under-the-radar guy in the organization. Wallace, a 2021 11th rounder from Iowa, spent a lot of time growing up around the baseball program at Augustana College (a private school in Illinois that has long been a DIII athletic powerhouse) where his father is the head baseball coach. Augustan is probably best known for producing longtime Cincinnati Bengals QB Ken Anderson.

Wallace has been brought along slowly, missing some time due to injury last year. He’s been starting, but probably profiles best as a situational lefty - he has a deceptive delivery from a low arm slot, and throws a sweeper that is one of the better ones in the organization. This video was from last year (he had a bit of trouble with his command on a cold Manchester night, and was out after three scoreless innings that included an uncharacteristic four walks and a HBP):

Elsewhere, LHP Connor O’Halloran gave up four runs (all earned) on as many hits in 5 IP and took the L for Dunedin. 3rd-ranked prospect Arjun continued his second half of April struggles, going 0-4 and striking out twice, dropping his average to .164.

Vancouver was in tough against first place Spokane, who swept the three game series in Washington with the C’s to open the season. Spokane opened the six-game set with their fourth victory in a row over Vancouver, a 4-0 shutout. All the damage for the visitors was done against starter Chris McElvain; three C’s relievers tossed 5 shutout innings, led by Rafael Ohashi’s three scoreless frames.

Buffalo and Iowa were rained out.

Wednesday

I decided to take in Alek Manoah’s rehab start for Buffalo, and it was not pretty. He seemed to be on the right track after his last outing, but cold temps likely hampered his grip, and he was somewhat unarmed as a result. Manoah was in trouble right from the start, walking the first two hitters he faced, and while he walked a tightrope in the first two innings, allowing only one run, the high wire act collapsed in a 31 pitch 3rd inning in which he missed his spots entirely, and allowed 5 runs, including a 3-run shot on a centre-cut, medium-well steak of a pitch…..

The post-mortem of this start largely depends on whether or not you’re a half-full/half-empty kind of person. His start last week was a step in the right direction, but this one was clearly a step back, and the Blue Jays must be formulating a Plan B for the formerly gargantuan right hander. Rehab assignments can be for up to 30 days for pitchers, and by my calculations we’re at Day 18 for Manoah, so it’s safe to say more outings in a Bisons uniform are in his immediate future. But he looked like an options candidate last night, although an optimist will point out that it’s only one start.

Vancouver C Jackson Hornung made things interesting with a three-run shot in the home half of the 9th, but the C’s lost to high-flying Spokane once again, dropping to 0-5 for the season against the league leaders.

Dunedin lost 3-0 to Jupiter (their fifth straight loss), Juaron Watts-Brown tossing 5 decent, if not overwhelming innings. He went heavy on his four-seaem (topping out at 94.4 mph), a pitch the farm department obviously wants him to develop.

New Hampshire wasted a fine effort by starter Mike Dominguez, who allowed only one run in 5 IP. The bullpen gave up six runs in the 7th, and while the Fisher Cats offence chipped away at a five-run deficit, they ended up on the short end of a 7-6 decision.

Addison Barger received word a half hour before midnight on Tuesday that he was being promoted to the big league roster with Kevin Keirmaier hitting the IL. Barger relied heavily on coffee and Red Bull to stay awake after catching a 6 am flight to Kansas City, where he suited up and made his big league debut. One of my good internet friends made a very salient observation about Barger getting the start in LF:

The front office plans for all sorts of contingencies, and I’m sure that they had a plan for Barger’s call up. But why he was put in LF on a field he had never played on before was…..hard to understand. Yes, some would say, put a hot hand - especially if he’s a LHH - in the lineup right away, but there was an adventurous quality to some balls hit to him.

Some would ask what the difference is between playing LF and RF (where Barger took a huge number of reps last September), and as someone who has played plenty of all three positions, I would say plenty. The ball comes off the bat (especially on line drives) on a different line, and you tend to see more action. It is curious that he didn’t get at least at handful of reps at Buffalo - he spent most of his time at 3B this month - in Left. There were probably some roster considerations, but still……it just seems a lot to ask a guy making his first MLB start to do so at a new position.

Speaking of debuts, I thought I would pass along a story of the big league debut of Phil Marchildon of Penetanguishene, ON, who made his entry to MLB with the Athletics in mid-September, 1940. It was, in those pre-television times, the first Major League game he had ever seen. Marchildon’s A’s took on Cleveland’s Bob Feller, who retired the first 22 hitters he faced en route to a 2-0 shutout win, his 25th of the year. Marchildon found himself by about the sixth inning what he was even doing in a a big league dugout watching Feller mow down Philadelphia hitters. He said he felt very much like he had no business being on a big league roster.

Thursday

Buffalo swept a doubleheader from Iowa, Orelvis going yard in the first game once more.

Luis Quinones is long a guy I’ve kept my eye on. He seems to have settled nicely into a middle relief role, tossing 2.2 innings of perfect relief in the opener. Quinones throws hard and has plenty of movement on his pitches, but walks have always been a challenge. He fanned 5 hitters in this outing.

Dunedin dropped their sixth in a row. Starter Grant Rogers threw four shutout innings to start the game - yet another impressive outing - before allowing some baserunners in the 5th.

New Hampshire tied their game with Binghamton 2-2 in the home half of the 8th, but reliever Ryan Boyer allowed a 2 out, 2-2 three-run HR to take the L.

Vancouver was rained out.

And, just as we were about to head to Pearson to board our flight…….

If you’re an optimist, this is indeed good news. If you lean to the pessimistic point of view, you’ll note this is the second season in a row Tiedemann has had early season arm issues, and that this kind of thing is often (but not always) a precursor to trouble down the road.

I was talking with someone in the Blue Jays organization just about this spate of injuries. Three top starting prospects were shut down in three successive weeks. My source feels that the Jays are ahead of the pack in terms of using technology and the data it provides to determine peak loads, points of fatigue, mechanical inefficiencies and the like, but:

….like everyone trying to figure out what the build up should be prior to the season to match the demands of the season.

Whatever the case may be, Tiedemann is in essence starting over, maybe not from square one as was the case last year, but he will need some ramp up time before he’s back at AAA, and his pitch count will once again be closely monitored. And maybe that’s not a bad thing, when you think of it. The rotation - for now - doesn’t need him. One thing I’ve stressed since the end of last season is that even if you count his extra reps time at Arizona last fall, they guy has thrown just under 150 innings as a pro. Tiedemann won’t turn 22 until August, so I just don’t see the need to rush him.