Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine
Nine games produced three postponements and a single win. Ugh.


Sacramento 8    Las Vegas 1

Yikes. Nothing to see here. David Cooper singled and walked. And uh, well, Scott Richmond started and allowed seven runs in five innings.

Jay for five minutes Michael Taylor homered for Sacramento. The 25 year-old has a .797 OPS and still hasn't cracked the Oakland roster.


New Britain 4    New Hampshire 3 (12 innings)

A long night in New Hampshire as the Fisher Cats dropped a 12-innings affair that included a 70-minute rain delay. Joel Carreno started and lasted three no-hit innings in which he allowed a run on no hits, no walks, and one strikeout. Weird, huh? It came on an error, wild pitch, and ground out. In case you were interested. After the delay, Henderson Alvarez pitched two perfect frames, striking out a pair. From that point on, old guys took over.

On the offensive side, Mike McDade continued his scorching ways with two hits, including his 14th homer while Travis D'Arnaud was the only other Fisher Cat to contribute two hits, which included a double and an RBI. I just realized that Jonathan Diaz had three hits. Which makes my previous statement misleading but still true. Anthony Gose and Adeiny Hechavarria were both caught stealing.



New Britain 5    New Hampshire 2

That game above was the continuation of Wednesday's suspended affair. And this one wasn't much better. Anthony Gose had two hits, including a double and his 40th stolen base.

Chad Beck started and pitched well over five, allowing just one hit and two walks. Frank Gailey took a massive blown save allowing five runs in the top of the seventh.



Dunedin @ Lakeland (Postponed)



West Michigan 8    Lansing 5

Michael Crouse
hit his 9th homer along with a double while Marcus Knecht contributed a hit and a walk. Jake Marisnick didn't play.

John Anderson started this one. He went 1-2-3 in the first before starting the second Walk, HBP, single, Wild Pitch, before being relieved which is kinda weird. Maybe Lugnut Fan can fill us in. In any event, it didn't get much more interesting from there.



Vancouver 3    Spokane 4

Randy Schwartz hit a two-run homer while Nicholas Baligod had a pair of hits.

Zach Breault started and allowed three runs in six innings.




Johnson City 3    Bluefield 9

Gustavo Pierre, Andy Fermin, and Art Charles carried this one by each hitting a homer, gathering two hits a piece, and driving in six total. Carlos Ramirez had three hits.

David Rollins started and went five innings, allowing a run on three hits while striking out three.




GCL Tigers @ GCL Blue Jays (Postponed)



DSL Blue Jays @ DSL Braves (Postponed, I think)



Three Stars:

3rd Star: Michael Crouse
- 2-for-4, HR, 2B
2nd Star: Mike McDade- 2-for-4, HR
1st Star: Jonathan Diaz- 3-for-4


A Win for Bluefield | 19 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Mike Green - Friday, July 08 2011 @ 11:55 AM EDT (#238260) #
The F-Cat game reported was the completion of a suspended game from yesterday.  There was also a regularly scheduled game which the F-Cats lost 5-2.  It was indeed a long night. 
bpoz - Friday, July 08 2011 @ 12:08 PM EDT (#238261) #
By my calculations S Richmond has only burned 1 option, that being in 2011.
92-93 - Friday, July 08 2011 @ 12:32 PM EDT (#238262) #
Richmond was optioned in 2008 and 2010 as well.
sam - Friday, July 08 2011 @ 02:43 PM EDT (#238265) #
d'Arnaud making a hotsheet once again.  Attaboy
John Northey - Friday, July 08 2011 @ 02:58 PM EDT (#238266) #
So who are the future Jays who are in the minors. IE: if you had to make a lineup for, say, 2016 using just guys currently in the system who have yet to play in the majors what would it look like? I'm checking http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/TOR/2011-organization-batting.shtml as it is easy to get groupings.

CA: d'Arnaud, Travis - 22 in AA hitting 309/383/536
1B: McDade, Mike - 22 in AA hitting 311/356/534
2B: er... Arcila, Daniel ? - 20 in rookie ball 239/340/543
3B: Lawrie, Brett 21 in AAA - 354/415/677
SS: Thon, Dickie 19 in rookie - 294/400/324 (40 PA)
LF: Knecht, Marcus 21 L-A - 314/410/516
CF: Gose, Anthony 20 AA - 261/353/418
RF: Sierra, Moises 22 AA - 272/340/449

2B is a mess as few guys really look good with the bat. Was tempted to go with Adeiny Hechavarria at SS (228/266/355) but that bat is so weak I had to go with Thon.
greenfrog - Friday, July 08 2011 @ 03:14 PM EDT (#238267) #
I think I would go with Marisnick over Sierra (and maybe over Knecht). Marisnick has excellent numbers and probably has more all-around talent than the other two.
stevieboy22 - Friday, July 08 2011 @ 03:22 PM EDT (#238268) #
I will make my 2016 all prospect team..
Granted I have only seen all of these guys play a couple of games...

C - D'Arnaud
1B -McDade
2B - Lawrie (My fantasy teams are offense first)
SS - Hechavarrie (not giving up on him yet)
3B - Sierra (or did this experiment end before it started?)
RF - Marisnick
CF - Gose
LF - Knecht
DH - Crouse

If Lawrie and Sierra can't play second and third, I bring in Jackson to play 2nd Lawrie to 3rd and remove Sierra all together...

Pitching
SP - Alvarez
SP - Sanchez
SP - McGuire
SP - Hutchinson
SP - Carreno (I have faith)


The pitching is the fun part of this task, because you can make a solid case for 15 guys; maybe even more... I think the only one you can't disclude is Alvarez, after that its interesting...

mendocino - Friday, July 08 2011 @ 03:48 PM EDT (#238269) #
greenfrog - Friday, July 08 2011 @ 04:18 PM EDT (#238270) #
Maybe Dawel Lugo as a long shot at SS? Four years is a lot of development time - it's possible that he could be major-league ready in 2016.
bpoz - Friday, July 08 2011 @ 08:02 PM EDT (#238279) #
92-93, thanks for answering my question. So you say that he has burned 3 options, I still disagree and say that only 2011 used an option.
My explanation is that in 2008 he was added to the 40 man in Sept 2008 and finished the year pitching 5 games for us.In 2010 he only pitched in 9 Minor league games, IMO some of that had to be rehab and so would not count.
Please explain what I am missing. Thanks.
Ryan Day - Friday, July 08 2011 @ 08:36 PM EDT (#238280) #
"3B - Sierra (or did this experiment end before it started?)"

I assume it did. The Jays have a fair number of corner OF but almost no 3b (aside from Lawrie), so you'd think there'd be some value in Sierra playing third at least some of the time, but it never got any further than spring training. I don't think players transition from OF to IF very often.
Mike Green - Friday, July 08 2011 @ 08:43 PM EDT (#238281) #
RF to 3B conversions have been the subject of study since (at least) an article in a Bill James Abstract about 25 years ago at the time of the Dodgers' effort to move Pedro Guerrero to the hot corner. Depending on how you count it, somewhere between 5 and 20 per cent stick. The most notable success stories were Bob Elliott and Mike Shannon. The major issue seems to be the fine skills required at third base.
92-93 - Friday, July 08 2011 @ 11:19 PM EDT (#238299) #
From bluejays.com:

06/21/10 Toronto Blue Jays optioned RHP Scott Richmond to Dunedin Blue Jays.

8/15/08 Optioned RHP Scott Richmond to Triple-A Syracuse
uglyone - Saturday, July 09 2011 @ 03:07 PM EDT (#238333) #
I prefer to look more at age brackets than prospect status. It's the only way I can make sense of it.

For me, I see us having two "windows" of youngsters right now - an MLB-ready or near MLB-ready group of 25 and younger who are at AA or higher, and then a group of younger prospects at lower levels. Most all of these guys I consider legit prospects with a solid chance of being MLB contributors.

"near MLB Ready"

CF A.Gose (20)
RF T.Snider (23)- M.Sierra (22)
LF E.Thames (24)
3B B.Lawrie (21)
SS A.Hech'ria (22)
2B J.Jackson (22)
1B D.Cooper (24)
C J.Arencibia (25) - T.D'Arnaud (22)
DH M.McDade (22)

SP H.Alvarez (21)
SP K.Drabek (23)
SP B.Cecil (24)
SP B.Jenkins (23)
SP J.Carreno (24)
SP Z.Stewart (24)

RP M.Rzepczysnki (25)
RP D.Farquhar (24)
RP A.Farina (24)
RP R.Uviedo (24)


"Lower Levels"

CF J.Marisnick (20)
RF M.Crouse (20)
LF M.Knecht (20)
3B ---
SS D.Thon (19)
2B ---
1B ---
C A.Jimenez (21) - C.Perez (20)
DH ---

SP D.McGuire (22)
SP D.Hutchison (20)
SP N.Molina (22)
SP A.Wojciechowski (22)
SP A.Sanchez (19)
SP N.Syndergaard (18)


If I had to pick one team based on just those guys to see as the Jays big league team in 2016, I'd probably go with something like this:

CF A.Gose (25)
RF J.Marisnick (25)
LF T.Snider (28)
3B B.Lawrie (26)
SS A.Hechevarria (27)
2B D.Thon (24)
1B M.McDade (27)
C T.D'Arnaud (27)
DH E.Thames (29)

UT/PH D.Cooper (29)/M.Knecht (25)
OF M.Sierra (27)/M.Crouse (25)
IF J.Jackson (27)
C J.Arencibia (30)


SP H.Alvarez (26)
SP K.Drabek (28)
SP D.McGuire (28)
SP D.Hutchison (25)
SP C.Jenkins (28)

RP J.Carreno (29)
RP M.Rzepczynski (30)
RP Z.Stewart (29)
RP B.Cecil (29)
RP N.Molina (27)
RP A.Wojciewchowski (27)
RP D.Farquhar (29)
RP A.Farina (29)


ayjackson - Saturday, July 09 2011 @ 04:00 PM EDT (#238342) #
From bluejays.com:

06/21/10 Toronto Blue Jays optioned RHP Scott Richmond to Dunedin Blue Jays.

8/15/08 Optioned RHP Scott Richmond to Triple-A Syracuse

The 2008 option isn't used because the stint lasted less than 20 days.  Likewise in 2010, he only had 9 appearances in the minors - some or all was rehabbing (30 days) and then he'd have the 20 day rule before an option was used.  So unless he had an uniterrupted 30-day rehab and another 21 days in which he accumulated his 9 appearances, he wouldn't have used an option in 2010 either.

TamRa - Saturday, July 09 2011 @ 04:51 PM EDT (#238347) #
1B D.Cooper (24)
...
DH M.McDade (22)


By all accounts, McDade is a noticeably better 1B than Cooper...
Mike Green - Saturday, July 09 2011 @ 10:46 PM EDT (#238386) #
In other good news, Sanchez went 4 scoreless innings for Bluefield, walking 2 and striking out 7. That's more like it. Asher Woj also had a good start for Dunedin. Yippee.
bpoz - Sunday, July 10 2011 @ 08:18 AM EDT (#238401) #
A long time ago, in the late 80s there were 3 OFs that were great offensively ( AS/MVP even) but were poor defensively. G Bell, R Henderson & J Cansenco. They may not have always been bad defensively, maybe OK. But good?
Henderson & Cansenco both played for Oakland. I believe the CF was Dave Henderson, who was not bad offensively. He looked big to me, but I don't know how he ranks defensively. That was a good Oakland team that made the playoffs a few times. They destroyed the Jays in the playoffs one year and R Henderson played a big part.

Anyhow a near future Jays OF could be Bautista, Snider & Thames. If this happens for a half season or so then we will see how decent they can be defensively. Offensively Snider & Thames are showing very good flashes, so they have to be given the ABs for future evaluations to help make decisions.

Sometimes an incredible bat has to be played at the cost of some defense, but how much. I am not making a judgement, because I expect the playing opportunity will give me the answer, if I can understand it.

Chuck - Sunday, July 10 2011 @ 08:35 AM EDT (#238402) #
Rickey Henderson had a weak arm but he was not a poor defensive outfielder. He was quite good in fact.
A Win for Bluefield | 19 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.