Jays Prospects Mega-Thread

[Woodman19]

This thread is to keep track of all rookies in the Jays minor league system who are highly rated or doing well at all levels of play. This way we can consolodate all of our players into one thread.

DSL Blue Jays

GCL Blue Jays

Bluefield Blue Jays

Vancouver Canadians

Lansing: Single A

Dunedin Blue Jays: Single A

New Hampshire: Double AA

Las Vegas 51's: Triple AAA

Blue Jays Top 15 Prospects:
1. RHP/ Kyle Drabek 8.0 B
2. 3B/ Brett Lawrie 8.0 B
3. RHP/ Zach Stewart 8.0 C
4. OF/ Anthony Gose 8.0 C
5. C/ J.P. Arencibia 7.0 C
6. RHP/ Deck McGuire 7.5 B
7. RHP/ Chad Jenkins 8.0 C
8. RHP/ Aaron Sanchez 8.5 D
9. OF/ Jacob Marisnick 8.5 D
10. C/ Travis D'Arnaud 7.5 C
11. SS/ Adeiny Hechavarria 7.5 D
12. OF/ Eric Thames 7.0 C
13. RHP/ Henderson Alvarez 8.0 D
14. RHP/ Asher Wojciechowski
15. OF/ Marcus Knecht

Graduated:
LHP: Marc Rzepczynski
LF/DH: Travis Snider
LHP: Ricky Romero
LHP: Brett Cecil

Ranking System

10: Generational Talent, Best ever; Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemmons, Albert Pujols.

9: MVP Caliber, Wins many awards; Derek Jeter, Cliff Lee, Randy Johnson

8: All-Star player, plays at a high level for most of their career; Carl Crawford, John Lester, Mark Tiexera

7: Good Starting Player who could potentially make an all-star team every once in a while; Daisuke Matsuzaka, Jhonny Peralta, Ben Zobrist

6: Average Major League player with no exceptional qualities; Jose Molina, Nate McLouth, Joe Blanton

5: Utility Player; Johnny MacDonald, Kevin Slowey, Tony Gwynn Jr


A: Blue Chip, baring injury should reach his full potential

B: Very Likely to reach his full potential but there is still some work to do to reach it.

C: Still has a modest amount of risk before fulfilling his potential.

D: Not very likely to reach his full potential.

[Woodman19]

Kyle Drabek


Assets: Has a live arm, throws 94-96mph. Has a great Curveball.

Flaws: Still working on his change-up and Control.

Comparisons: Ben Sheets, Chad Billingsley

Rating: 8.0 B

Career Upside: Has the potential to be a 1-2 type Pitcher. Must work on his change-up to reach Ace status. Likely a perennial 15 game winner.

Brett Lawrie



Assets: Very hard working player, does all the small things to help a team win. Great hitter

Flaws: Defense needs work, he is learning a new position.

Comparisons: Casey Blake, Aramis Ramirez

Rating: 8.0 B

Career Upside: Solid middle of the order bat. Fan favorite player.




Zach Stewart


Assets: Has a good slider to go with his good fastball. Lots of sink on his fastball. Throws in the high 90's.

Flaws: Needs to build up his endurance to become a major league starter. Still needs to work on command.

Comparisons: Roy Halladay, Derek Lowe

Rating: 8.0 C

Career Upside: Has the ability to be a top of the rotation starter 2-3.

[Woodman19]

Anthony Gose



Assets: Speed, kid has lightning legs. Plays great defence covering allot of ground with his great speed.

Flaws: Hitting is not yet polished, needs to work on being more selective at the plate to allow him to get on base.

Comparisons: Kenny Lofton

Rating: 8.0 C

Career Upside: 50 steal threat gold glove center fielder.



J.P. Arencibia


Assets: He has the potential to drive in alot of runs due to his above average power.

Flaws: He is not a defensively sound Catcher, although he has a strong arm.

Comparisons: A.J. Pierzynski, Brian McCann

Rating: 7.0 C

Career Upside: Has the potential to be an average catcher with some power.


Deck McGuire



Assets: Has the body of a major league pitcher. Has good control.

Flaws: Needs to get better movement on his pitches.

Comparisons: Bartolo Colon

Rating: 7.5 B

Career Upside: Inning eater #3-4 pitcher.

[Woodman19]

Chad Jenkins


Assets: Has a strong body built to log many innings. Has a fastball that reaches in the mid to upper 90's. Has strong sink on his fastball.

Flaws: Needs to work on his control.

Comparisons: Derek Lowe

Rating: 8.0 C

Career Upside: Middle Rotation starter who logs 200 innings.


Aaron Sanchez



Assets: Big bodied kid with a great fastball.

Flaws: Needs to improve control.

Comparisons: Chris Carpenter

Rating: 8.5 D

Career Upside: Staff Ace



Jake Marisnick


Assets: Potential 5-Tool Talent, Very Athletic

Flaws: Needs to learn how to hit pro pitching.

Comparisons: B.J. Upton

Rating: 8.5 D

Career Upside: 5-Tool outfielder.

[Woodman19]

Travis D'Arnaud



Assets: Above average speed for a catcher, Developing a good eye at the plate.

Flaws: Needs work on his defense.

Comparisons: Brian McCann

Rating: 7.5 C

Career Upside: All-star Catcher


Adeiny Hechevarria



Assets: Has good size and is very polished Defensively.

Flaws: Needs to learn how to hit pro pitching. Struggled since he began pro ball.

Comparisons: Jimmy Rollins

Rating: 7.5 D

Career Upside: Has potential to be an All-Star Shortop who can challenge for Gold Glove titles, but first he needs to be able to hit major league pitching.


Eric Thames




Assets: Has good power, Chance to drive in runs.

Flaws: Defence is Average and is a bit older in terms of prospects.

Comparisons: Martin Prado

Rating: 7.0 C

Career Upside: Middle of the Order bat.

[Woodman19]

Henderson Alvarez

Assets: Control artist, Has an excellent big league Change-up

Flaws: Injured since 2010. Needs to get back on the mound and log innings.

Comparrisons: Greg Maddox

Rating: 8.0 D

Career Upside: Has the potential to be a good middle of the rotation starter.

[Greg Maddux's Biggest Fan]

Woodman, impressive little list you've got there. Are those prospects listed your Top 15 or the Top 15 as judged by Baseball America?

From the little I've seen of some of these pitchers at the Major League level, I'm hardly wowed by the potential. Hopefully the system will get better after you-know-who is outta here.

[Woodman19]

Woodman, impressive little list you've got there. Are those prospects listed your Top 15 or the Top 15 as judged by Baseball America?

From the little I've seen of some of these pitchers at the Major League level, I'm hardly wowed by the potential. Hopefully the system will get better after you-know-who is outta here.

It's a List I have compiled to personal preference based off of many different scouting services

Baseball America
Baseball Prospectus
mlb.com
Sporting News
ESPN

as well as individual scouting reports.


I will try to finish up the player bio's for all 15 I have listed.

If anyone wishes to discuss where they are rated or anything like that, I can definately move players around based on where they are and rise/fall of status. Infact I plan to modify the order as I just listed them off the top of my head

[Greg Maddux's Biggest Fan]

It's a List I have compiled to personal preference based off of many different scouting services

Baseball America
Baseball Prospectus
mlb.com
Sporting News
ESPN

as well as individual scouting reports.


I will try to finish up the player bio's for all 15 I have listed.

If anyone wishes to discuss where they are rated or anything like that, I can definately move players around based on where they are and rise/fall of status. Infact I plan to modify the order as I just listed them off the top of my head

I would weigh-in, but I don't really know about the prospects other from what I've seen. I do frequent BA website often, but ususally non-Jay players are profiled. I've already stated my opinion on Rzepcynski and Mills - not favorable so far (of course this could change with increase in velocity or pitch repetoire etc).

As for Romero, I'm not really sold on him yet, despite the promising rookie year. As you've indicated, he doesn't miss many bats and I don't find his curveball that exciting. Changeup looks about average. If Romero is not on and hitting his spots, he's going to get hit hard. Cecil looks like the best potential out of the pitchers besides Litsch I would say. He's too much of a thrower right now though. To me it looks like he humps on the fastball too much; trying to overthrow too much past hitters. It doesn't look like he trusts his stuff as of yet. Looks like he will develop a plus cutter and changeup. Reminds me of young Andy Pettite.

As for Snider, like the swing & power. He lacked plate discipline earlier this year but if that develops, could be a 30 HR guy. Judging by Arencibia stats in Triple AAA, he's way too much of a free swinger. He needs better pitch selection to be a ML hitter. The rest I don't know about really.

[Woodman19]

And thus concludes my review of the top 15 players


I now open this up for discussing possible changing of the order the addition/subtraction of the system.

[babaganoosh]

I have to say, I'm surprised Ray is so high. I haven't heard anything about him before he was brought up and he did do a decent job, but I didn't think that he'd shoot up the prospect rankings so fast.

1 player I'd like to mention is Brian Jeroloman. He's pretty much never going to make an MLB team as a starter because his bat is pretty bad, but his defence is MLB ready from what I've heard and I think he'd be a great role player coming off the bench for us in the future. Maybe an offense (Arencibia)/defense (Jeroloman) combo?

[Woodman19]

Anybody have any honourable mentions of players we can add to this list?

[Greg Maddux's Biggest Fan]

Anybody have any honourable mentions of players we can add to this list?

I think you pretty much covered it. Ahrens is having a terrible year though

[Woodman19]

I think you pretty much covered it. Ahrens is having a terrible year though

So is Justin Jackson. However Rios struggled at a similar age, so I wont count them out until back to back horrid years. They can still rebound.

[Woodman19]

Arencibia might be turning it around

He has had a few good games at the plate recently

He went 3-4 with a HR the other night and has pushed his average up from .210 to .231

Defensively he has improved even further this year and is described as a "Excellent" defensive catcher.

[Richmond Hill Phoenix]

Woodman, I'd be careful referencing using Alex Rios as that type of a reference haha. Not really a great endorsement for any youngster.

[Woodman19]

Woodman, I'd be careful referencing using Alex Rios as that type of a reference haha. Not really a great endorsement for any youngster.

True, I meant it in that. He still became an "everyday" player in the majors despite a weak year in the minors. I certainly didnt want to imply that he will be as good (or Bad)

[Woodman19]

Just a note.

Arencibia had another great game last night hitting 2 Home Runs and driving in 6 RBI's! For the past week he has been on a tear hitting .379 with 6 Home Runs and 14 RBI's!

It looks to me like he has finally is seeing the ball and is staying back on the bad pitches. He has been looking really good lately people!

[babaganoosh]

Just a note.

Arencibia had another great game last night hitting 2 Home Runs and driving in 6 RBI's! For the past week he has been on a tear hitting .379 with 6 Home Runs and 14 RBI's!

It looks to me like he has finally is seeing the ball and is staying back on the bad pitches. He has been looking really good lately people!

I guess he'll be a September call-up when the AAA season ends along with guys like Accardo.

[Woodman19]

Reporting another great night by JP Arencibia,

3-5 with an RBI.

His average is now at .235

[Greg Maddux's Biggest Fan]

Reporting another great night by JP Arencibia,

3-5 with an RBI.

His average is now at .235

Arencibia needs to hard work on plate discipline to be a successful major league player. He definitely needs more seasoning in the minors.

[Woodman19]

Arencibia needs to hard work on plate discipline to be a successful major league player. He definitely needs more seasoning in the minors.

no argument here. I do notice though over the past month his Strikeouts have drastically reduced, thats a step in the right direction, but likely he will need at least 1 more full season in the minors to improve both his defense and offensive discipline.

[Chris from NY]

Woodman, I'd be careful referencing using Alex Rios as that type of a reference haha. Not really a great endorsement for any youngster.

If only I'd been around to read this thread two weeks sooner. You took the words right outta my mouth. Or the keys right off my er... um.. keyboard.

Nice thread though. Gives us all something to be optimistic about I suppose.

[Big_Mac]

Just read this, great work Woodman. I am not totally up on my Toronto prospects so I was wondering whatever happened to David Purcey? Where does he project in the Jays future, if he does anymore?

[Woodman19]

Just read this, great work Woodman. I am not totally up on my Toronto prospects so I was wondering whatever happened to David Purcey? Where does he project in the Jays future, if he does anymore?

I plan to rework my top 10 in the near future after the influx of top prospects in the past week.