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Some more awfully attractive pitching lines in the minors, not to mention some breakout performances at the plate, in a 3-0 Monday for Toronto's farm teams.

AAA

No game Monday


AA

New Haven 14 Trenton 0


Hitting: John-Ford Griffin broke out of an early-season hitting slump in a big way, homering and driving in six runs on a 3-for-4 day; he's now hitting .260/.362/.520. Rich Thompson contributed three hits, two runs and an RBI, not to mention his fifth stolen base. Guillermo Quiroz doubled twice, and Gabe Gross doubled and drove in two in a romp over last-place Trenton.

Pitching: Start getting excited. Jason Arnold fired six innings of one-hit ball, walking just one and striking out eight. Arnold’s ERA is now 0.52 in 17 innings, having allowed just eight hits, walking seven and striking out 16. Dave Gassner may have found his niche in relief, throwing three shutout innings with 2 hits and 4 Ks.

High-A

Dunedin 3, Sarasota 1


Hitting: Right fielder Ron Davenport went 2-for-4 with a run scored, while last year’s DH phenom Jason Perry drove in two runs with a double and sacrifice fly, boosting a struggling line to .227/.327/.341.

Pitching: The win and the kudos went to reliever Santo Valdez, who pitched three innings of two-hit, two-strikeout ball in relief of starter Dave Abbott. In 8 appearances, Valdez has a 1.26 ERA. Jordan DeJong got his fifth save. Woo-hoo!

Low-A

Charleston 3, Hickory 2


Hitting: Shortstop Raul Tablado continued to swing a hot bat, doubling and homering to drive in two runs and score two. The infielder now has a .306/.358/.565 line in the early going, though his 5/18 BB/K ratio portends difficulties to come.

Pitching: Brandon League fired six shutout innings, but it wasn’t always pretty: 8 hits, 1 walk and just 3 Ks. Ramon Mora vultured a relief win after allowing six hits and two runs in 2 2/3 remarkably ineffective relief innings; his ERA stands at a nifty 11.88.
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Pistol - Tuesday, April 22 2003 @ 09:49 AM EDT (#90046) #
Moving this to the appropriate thread.......

I went to the New Haven game last night. Arnold dominated the whole time. 6 innings, 1 hit, 1 walk, 1 hit batsmen, 8 K’s (one reached base on a passed ball). The first few innings I was behind home plate and was able to see the radar readings. His fastball was as high as 92, but more consistently in the 87-90 range. His changeup was in the low 70’s and his other(s?) offspeed pitch was in the low 80s. He only gave up 1 hard hit ball the entire 6 innings, and that was tracked down at the wall by Rios (I didn’t see any dimensions, but it looked like the wall in CF was at least 400 ft. It was 340 ft down the left field line). The hit given up was a grounder to RF.

Quiroz threw out the only basestealer, an unusual site for this Jays fan. He’s referred to as ‘Q’ and ‘GQ’.

JF Griffin was the big hitter. He had an opposite field shot in his first at bat over the LF’s head. The next at bat he hit a towering jimmy jack right now the RF line.

Gross looked bad in his first 2 at bats before getting a hit to left center that he stretched into a double. He walked his next AB.

Fun fact of the night: Diego Markwell and Andruw Jones are first cousins.

A ‘huge’ crowd of about 150 last night. I think JP will be signing Vlad now with all that extra revenue. The Yale Bowl isn’t awful (of course, I went to Silver Stadium growing up….) but it certainly is a bowl. The foul ground size and shape is similar to Oakland.
_R Billie - Tuesday, April 22 2003 @ 11:13 AM EDT (#90047) #
150 is a terrible turnout. Of course it's hard to draw fans when the team will be moving away in the year. Despite their talent, it looks like the Ravens will be the Expos of Eastern League.

Ironically, if things go right, most of the talent should be moving up to AAA by the time the team moves...they'd best hope Russ Adams and a few of their pitchers get the promotion to replace the talent next year.
_Spicol - Tuesday, April 22 2003 @ 11:34 AM EDT (#90048) #
Jason Dubois, the Jay for a few days, swatted 3 HR in yesterday's game for the Cubs AA affiliate. His BA is a league best 467 and he has a 822 SLG.
_Spicol - Tuesday, April 22 2003 @ 11:37 AM EDT (#90049) #
A ‘huge’ crowd of about 150 last night

Baseball America lists the attendance as 652 but that is still pretty terrible for a AA team.
Gerry - Tuesday, April 22 2003 @ 12:25 PM EDT (#90050) #
Should we not expect Arnold to consistently be in the low ninties, not in the 87-90 range?
_R Billie - Tuesday, April 22 2003 @ 01:07 PM EDT (#90051) #
Depends what he throws. I think he sticks with a sinking fastball a lot of the time. Low 90's is probably his four seamer. Doesn't seem to matter as he allows relatively few hits, though that might change as he moves up.

Too bad the Jays couldn't work something out for Dubois...he looks like a player though probably still at least a year away from the majors.
_Jordan - Tuesday, April 22 2003 @ 01:20 PM EDT (#90052) #
Jason Dubois, the one that got away... :-( There likely wasn't anything the Jays could do: Aquilino Lopez had to be kept on the 25-man roster as the Rule 5er, and carrying Dubois on the bench all season, DeWayne Wise-like, would have done him no favours. I can only assume JP tried to work out a deal for him with the Cubs, but was rebuffed. C'est la guerre.

In other Rule 5 news, Gary Majewski is 0-1, 3.00 in 6 appearances with the White Sox' AAA affiliate in Charlotte -- 4 H and 6 K in 6 IP, but with 5 BB and 2 HB already. And ex-Blue Jay farmhand Matt Ford, plucked by Gord Ash to serve in Milwaukee's pen this season, is 0-0, 1.23 in 7 1/3 relief innings thus far: 4 H, 2 BB, 4 K. But considering that Ford has never pitched higher than A-Ball, well, let's just say I won't be adding him to my BBFL team. Not that my 20th-ranked staff couldn't use some help....
_DS - Tuesday, April 22 2003 @ 01:37 PM EDT (#90053) #
The whole situation with Dubois just shows that Toronto has a scouting and evaluation staff that knows what they are doing. They'll be able to pick up lumps of coal and turn them into diamonds on demand. Within a few years, I wouldn't be surprised if the Jays bullpen will be mostly made up of players grabbed through the Rule 5 draft.
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