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The Blue Jays travel to Fenway to take on the Red Sox, who were late winners on a dramatic three-run home run by Cody "The Boss" Ross. Toronto is only 2.5 games behind Boston, and 3.5 out of the final wild card spot, but six teams stand between them and the postseason at the moment, and at a guess it's going to take a minimum 86 wins (and maybe closer to 90) to make the playoffs, so Toronto has to play well over .600 ball the rest of the season to have a chance, with games against other Wild Card contenders (basically everyone) counting especially. So let's see if they can do it - let's Advance Scout.


Friday: Aaron Laffey v. Josh Beckett

Josh Beckett's underlying numbers are very similar to 2011 - his FIP has risen by .03, to 3.60 - but his fluke BABIP and LOB% numbers from 2011 have rebounded to normal, both career/vs. MLB, and his strikeouts have dropped, so as a result his boldface number, ERA, has jumped by a run and a half, to 4.44. Beckett is 32, and this is the 4th straight year his K% has fallen, from 8.88/9 IP in 2008 to 6.8/9 IP this year, although that drop doesn't look quite as dramatic when looking at K% - 23.7% to 18.1% - because Beckett has started cutting his walks, to 6% of batters faced. Otherwise he's still the same pitcher, mixing in a four and two-seamer, both pretty consistently 90-92, to go with the change (87 MPH) curve (75 MPH) and cutter (89 MPH). He can get swings and misses with all four/five pitches, and relies heavily on the cutter and curve, throwing them about 21% and 18% of the time, respectively. He and Lester are still trying to live down the beer in the clubhouse fiasco. This is his first start against Toronto this year. Career: Bautista 3/11 (2 HR), Escobar 1/11, Lind 8/19, Mathis 2/10, Vizquel 4/15.


Saturday: Carlos Villanueva v. Aaron Cook


Aaron Cook has an ERA of 3.34 and a FIP of 4.01, in 29.2 innings. Aaron Cook has 2 strikeouts in 29.2 innings.

He has managed to do this by A) only walking 2 batters in those 29.2 innings, B) only allowing 2 home runs in those innings, and C) getting a lot of ground balls. His BABIP (.248) is good but not otherworldly, and his strand rate (61%) is awful. It is all quite bamboozling, though needless to say, I am skeptical he keeps this up. He hasn't walked fewer than 3 batters per 9 inning since 2009, nor is his career mark (2.75/9 IP) particularly good. He's never really struck guys out (3.75/9 IP career), so that's not much of a change, but this number is particularly microscopic. To be fair, Cook's (spectacular) home run rate is in line with his career mark, which is also excellent, and he is basically succeeding because he's giving up a baserunner an inning, and most of them are only going to first. I am going to go out on a limb and say that making two of his five starts at Safeco and Whateverthesponsorisnow Coliseum probably helped, but it is possible Cook has lucked into some sort of voodoo magic. Possible, but not probable. In any case, the Jays will face a 33 year old righty who basically only throws a 90 MPH sinker with big right to left break. In his last start against Chicago he threw 97 pitches, 69 of which were sliders. He'll mix in a half dozen four-seamers (90-91) and curveballs (75-77) and relies on a mid-80s slider as his second pitch. Of the 390 pitchers who have thrown at least 20 innings, Cook has the lowest swinging strike percentage, at 2.1%, more than 50% behind the next lowest pitcher. (Hendy is at 4.8%, FWIW). You can read a kind of lame sabremetrics trolling piece about Cook here. Lifetime Yunel Escobar is 4/13, Kelly Johnson 1/14, EE 3/7 with a homer, and Omar Vizquel 9/25.

Saturday: Henderzon Alvarez v. Jon Lester

Like Josh Beckett, Jon Lester's 2012 is extremely similar to his 2011, except he's cut both his strikeouts and walks, but the walks by a much greater percentage. His home run rate is identical. He is, however, allowing a .331 BABIP, as opposed to last year's .286, and stranding 65.7% of runners, as opposed to 78.1%. So his FIP is actually lower than in 2011 (3.68 v. 3.83) but his ERA has risen dramatically (4.80 vs. 3.47). This has led to a ton of hand wringing in Boston, because, you know, it's Boston. The more you know! Lester is still a four pitch pitcher, working fastball, sinker/cutter (depending on whether you are Brooks or Fangraphs), change up, curve, with the fastball sitting around 92 and the sinker 93. His change up comes in the mid 80s, and the curve 10 MPH slower. The change up and the cutter/sinker are probably his best two pitches. He has been knocked around a bit in his last two starts, by the White Sox and Yankees, and is 1-1 against Toronto on the year, allowing 7 runs in 15 innings. Career: JPA is 4/20 with a home run, Jose Bautista is 10/45 with 4 home runs and 5 walks, Rajai Davis is 3/19, EE 3/20 (HR), Yunel Escobar 6/22, Adam Lind 3/24, Ben Francisco 2/14.

Lineup

Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Carl Crawford LF
Dustin Pedroia 2B
Alex Gonzalez 1B
Cody Ross/Ryan Sweeney RF
Will Middlebrooks 3B
Jarrod Saltalamacchia/Kelly Shoppach C
Mike Aviles SS
Someone DH

Salty and Shoppach form a very effective L/R platoon at catcher, though Aaron Laffey will be the Red Sox third lefty in three days, with Shoppach getting the last two starts; still, I'd presume it would be him tonight... Jacoby Ellsbury and Hot Carl Crawford have now played 14 and 4 games respectively after missing most of the season due to injury. Cody Ross is the every day right fielder pretty much, as he is second on the team in WAR and is hitting .274/.348/.570... In fact, if you would have predicted that Ross, Mike Aviles, Daniel Nava and Salty would be 2-5 in fWAR on the Red Sox at this juncture, I would have asked how you traveled back in time from the future... The Red Sox WAR leader, David Ortiz has a strained tendon and just went on the 15-day DL, while former AL MVP Dustin Pedroia is just back off the 15-day DL, and apparently everyone is excited... after starting out strongly, Will Middlebrooks is hitting .247/.291/.446 in his last 28 games, which, I'm sure the White Sox are totally glad they gave away Kevin Youkilis for nothing now.

Infirmary: David Ortiz (DH), 15-day DL, could be back in two weeks, Daisuke Matsuzaka (SP) has an arm strain, his return is TBD, John Lackey (SP) is done with TJ from last offseason, Rich Hill (SP) could be back in August, the other Chris Carpenter (RP) could be back at the end of the month, he had a bone spur, Andrew Bailey (CL) has a right thumb injury, he might be back by the end of August, and Scott Atchison (RP) is TBD with a right forearm strain.

Song to Advance Scout By: Polaris Prize shortlist nominee Grimes with her song Oblivion.

Chart: All data from Fangraphs


Advance Scout: Red Sox, July 20-22 | 51 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
JB21 - Friday, July 20 2012 @ 12:48 PM EDT (#260795) #
Lester traded for Alvarez straight up? I like it.
Mike Green - Friday, July 20 2012 @ 03:52 PM EDT (#260824) #
Arencibia bats fifth against Beckett?  What?  He hasn't ever faced Beckett and is a career .218/.272/.415 vs RHPs.  I guess Farrell wanted to break up the run of left-handed hitters.
Anders - Friday, July 20 2012 @ 05:19 PM EDT (#260839) #
Lester traded for Alvarez straight up? I like it.

whoops, chart fixed.

Alex Obal - Friday, July 20 2012 @ 05:19 PM EDT (#260840) #
Part of me says Farrell knows his old guys, and for whatever it's worth Beckett always got clobbered by Wells and Hill. Maybe the big curveball doesn't figure to be a can't-hit-it, can't-lay-off-it pitch for Arencibia the way some guys' sliders seem to be.

Then again, part of me says Arencibia would be batting fifth if Chad Bradford were starting...
greenfrog - Friday, July 20 2012 @ 10:01 PM EDT (#260853) #
Snider looks good so far - nice quiet stance, patient, some good swings, solid defense in LF.
greenfrog - Friday, July 20 2012 @ 10:28 PM EDT (#260856) #
What a job by Laffey tonight. He now has a 2.77 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP in 39 IP this year. He and Villanueva might be the Jays' most trustworthy starters right now.
scottt - Friday, July 20 2012 @ 11:11 PM EDT (#260860) #
Arencibia is in another hot streak. 8 for 20 since the all-start break. The trick will be to move him back down the moment he cools off.



China fan - Friday, July 20 2012 @ 11:17 PM EDT (#260862) #
It will be interesting to see which of the Jays starters will be nudged aside to make room for Happ in the near future. We would have assumed it was Laffey, but you don't demote a guy who can shut out the BoSox for 7 innings. Cecil becomes the obvious candidate, but I'd like to point out that Alvarez might also be a logical candidate to demote. Over the past 10 games, his ERA is 5.86 and the opposition hitters have a .898 OPS against him. He might need some time in the minors to get his head sorted out. So I'd suggest that Alvarez is almost as likely a candidate as Cecil.
hypobole - Saturday, July 21 2012 @ 01:00 AM EDT (#260864) #
Finally got to watch someone playing quality defense in LF while wearing a Jays uniform.
scottt - Saturday, July 21 2012 @ 01:08 AM EDT (#260865) #
I hope Lawrie will be able to DH against Lester. Probably more likely to see Mathis catching and JPA DHing.
Magpie - Saturday, July 21 2012 @ 01:09 AM EDT (#260866) #
You would think that a 9-0 lead, and Stephen Strasburg on the mound, would be pretty safe.

You would be wrong.
Richard S.S. - Sunday, July 22 2012 @ 08:40 AM EDT (#260891) #
To get A.A. to acquire the pitchers we need, this team needs to put together a winning streak of 8-10 games as a start. We need to be more than 5 games over .500 by the 31st.
Gerry - Sunday, July 22 2012 @ 09:05 AM EDT (#260892) #
Anthony Gose is looking overmatched, obviously. I hope he is learning a lot that he can take back to LV when Bautista returns.

When Gose was called up, AA said he had been called up because in the opinion of the LV manager and coaches, and maybe even various front office personnel, he was the most ready. Well if Gose is the most ready what does that say about Eric Thames and Moises Sierra? Thames never looked this overmatched in his time in Toronto.

Now this is not a shot at Gose, he is very young to be in the majors and he has lots of time left to get better, but I would like it if some reporter asked AA how is it that Gose is the most ready outfielder? There must have been some other reason for bringing him up, as we discussed earlier, either showcasing him, or removing some complacency from him.
China fan - Sunday, July 22 2012 @ 10:07 AM EDT (#260893) #
Gerry, you are right about Gose, but you are wrong if you think that AA would ever publicly admit any of the likely reasons that you suggested. Those kinds of comments would be seen as a jab at a young prospect, and a GM would never do that. He has to insist that Gose was the best guy for the job, even though everyone knows it is not plausible.
China fan - Sunday, July 22 2012 @ 10:12 AM EDT (#260894) #
Also, the "showcasing" theory does not make any sense. As long as Gose was staying in Vegas and performing well at that level, the Jays could perhaps persuade another team that he was almost major-league-ready. By promoting him and showing clearly that he is NOT close to being ready, the Jays have reduced his trade value. So I don't think he's being showcased.

More likely reasons: as Gerry suggested, it could be to demonstrate to Gose that he shouldn't be complacent and still has a lot to work on. But it could also be to reduce the eventual adjustment time that Gose will need for playing in the majors. By giving him a taste of the majors now, it will make it easier for Gose to adjust to the majors in 2013 or 2014.

Of course that theory didn't work out so nicely for Snider when he was promoted at a young age (younger than Gose even).
bpoz - Sunday, July 22 2012 @ 11:05 AM EDT (#260896) #
Last year at this date our record was 50-49 and we were 3 gms back of a 2nd WC. this year 47-47 and also 3 gms back of the 2nd WC.

There are some curious things happenings, the most glaring is the status of the Phillies.

The Jays got Rasmus, but that decimated the pen. But I think the pen got strong again due to the great improvement by FF in the 2nd half & the addition of Litsch. The Sept call ups to the pen were helpful. But I really do not know how equal the pens were before & after the July 31 trade deadline.

The rotation last year was basically bad except for Romero. We had some decent fragments, 10 starts by Alvarez, Morrow's great finish 3 starts and something from Carlos V before he got injured. This year before the injuries we may have been better than last year in that same time span, except for the decline of Romero. The replacements so far IMO have been v good, Laffey & Carlos Villanueva have been very good, Cecil has had 2 each of good, bad & OK starts.

The offense has been very good, I hope it is more than a hot streak. Last year Rasmus was bad & got hurt. We lost Patterson who may have been doing better than we thought offensively. I guess overall it was a mediocre offense.

So hope still exists for this year.
92-93 - Sunday, July 22 2012 @ 12:56 PM EDT (#260898) #
It's a shame John Farrell wasn't a part of this Anthony Gose conspiracy. If there really was another reason other than the development team thinking he was the most MLB-ready, you'd think Farrell wouldn't be running him out there in the leadoff spot.
greenfrog - Sunday, July 22 2012 @ 01:25 PM EDT (#260899) #
Who would have guessed that on July 22, the wild card standings would be:

LAA
Baltimore
Oakland
Chicago WS
Tampa
Boston
Toronto

Baseball can be an unpredictable game.
scottt - Sunday, July 22 2012 @ 01:48 PM EDT (#260900) #
Cooper also struggled the first time around. Gose will adjust eventually.
Mike Green - Sunday, July 22 2012 @ 02:02 PM EDT (#260901) #
Gose hasn't looked that bad to me. Swing looks pretty good, and has gone deep into counts.  It's true that he hasn't squared up a pitch yet. 
uglyone - Sunday, July 22 2012 @ 02:19 PM EDT (#260903) #
tiny sample size, guys.

Mike Trout's first 4gms he looked similarly "overmatched".
grjas - Sunday, July 22 2012 @ 02:21 PM EDT (#260904) #
Be nice if they put gose in the 9 hole now that lawrie is back so they can lower the pressure and give others more at bats
Anders - Sunday, July 22 2012 @ 02:41 PM EDT (#260905) #
Gose hasn't looked that bad to me. Swing looks pretty good, and has gone deep into counts. It's true that he hasn't squared up a pitch yet.

I have been impressed by his plate discipline - he's laid off of a bunch of borderline pitches. With that being said, he hasn't made solid contact yet. Small sample size!

Also, it's a relief to see Adam Lind sitting against a tough lefty. And it's worked!

uglyone - Sunday, July 22 2012 @ 03:38 PM EDT (#260906) #
sure that was a juicy mistake meatball by lester, but damn is it nice to see that easy, easy power from Snider. that was destroyed.
PeteMoss - Sunday, July 22 2012 @ 04:39 PM EDT (#260909) #
Well this is officially fun.
Mike Green - Sunday, July 22 2012 @ 05:24 PM EDT (#260910) #
Well, that was completely satisfying.  It doesn't require a fertile imagination to see this club as having the best offence in the league once Bautista returns. 

I guess Grimes' Oblivion was a fitting choice for the Advanced Scout what with all those long home runs.  Perhaps it merits another spin for the Athletics' series.

uglyone - Sunday, July 22 2012 @ 05:33 PM EDT (#260911) #
they might have the best offense in baseball by...tonight.

Runs/gm:

1) TEX: 5.04
2) TOR: 5.01
3) BOS: 4.99

texas up tonight vs. LA.
uglyone - Sunday, July 22 2012 @ 05:35 PM EDT (#260912) #
Would love to turn this great series into our first legit winning streak of the year...especially with Joey and Morrow out....but of course, with our luck, we get to go up against the two hottest teams in baseball the next two sereies - OAK and DET.

92-93 - Sunday, July 22 2012 @ 05:49 PM EDT (#260913) #
So essentially the only teams you'd be happy to see on the schedule are KC, MIN, and SEA. Actually, SEA has won 6 of their last 9, so scratch them too.

The Jays shouldn't be intimidated by OAK rolling into town, regardless of how hot they are. If they're going to stay in the thick of things, OAK & DET at home are not tall orders. Especially when the starters you're going to face are Blackley, Griffin, Milone, Porcello, Turner, and Fister. Let's take 4 out of 6.
BlueJayWay - Sunday, July 22 2012 @ 05:49 PM EDT (#260914) #
Well that was a nice series.  Pushed the Red Sox of Bahhhston down to last, too.  Nice.
uglyone - Sunday, July 22 2012 @ 06:18 PM EDT (#260915) #
there's nothing that I'm "not happy" or "scared" about.

just pointing out how red hot our next two opponents are - Oak is 13-2 in July, Tigers are 14-4, and both have run themselves right up the playoff standings as a result.
scottt - Sunday, July 22 2012 @ 06:30 PM EDT (#260916) #
Boston had just won 3 of 4 against the White Sox and Toronto was coming up a sweep. With a couple a platoons and Cordero out of the picture Toronto looks very decent, but Alvarez wasn't exactly impressive tonight.
greenfrog - Sunday, July 22 2012 @ 09:38 PM EDT (#260919) #
Exciting series.

The Jays are lucky to be missing Verlander (especially) and Parker in the upcoming series, but Oakland and Detroit will be throwing some relatively hot starters out there (Blackley, Griffin, Milone, Porcello and Fister have all been doing quite well of late, although Porcello has been up and down). Turner is the only starter who has been struggling somewhat.

Meanwhile, the Jays are throwing out Cecil (2 starts), Romero, Laffey, Villanueva and Alvarez.

For me, a 3-3 homestand would be acceptable. 4-2 or better would be fantastic.
greenfrog - Sunday, July 22 2012 @ 09:42 PM EDT (#260920) #
Looking ahead...I see the Jays are scheduled to miss King Felix in the Seattle series (which starts after the upcoming homestand). Gotta take advantage.
Sano - Monday, July 23 2012 @ 03:44 AM EDT (#260926) #
Before moving on in everyone's mind, I just think it would be great to ponder just how impressive that sweep was. The Yankees' sweep was pretty demoralizing, especially with the injuries that were suffered along the way. The way this team was able to rebound mentally and physically was pretty awesome and lets you know quite a bit about this team's belief and self-confidence. It also speaks to Farrell's ability to motivate his guys. Kudos are due.

As far as the upcoming series, I'm just looking to see whether the team can build off this momentum and string some wins together. OAK and DET are both teams that we need to beat to really get back in the hunt in a major way.
bpoz - Monday, July 23 2012 @ 09:57 AM EDT (#260930) #
There seems to be a lot of confusion in the analysis being done recently. But that is NOT a reason to panic or be un/happy/scared. I too have been analyzing the schedule, in our last series with KC we lost 2 of 3. We do play the Mariners, so we have a chance to beat up on them. This year we do not play the Twins. I do not know why, but probably due to inter league scheduling, shafted again.

We play the Orioles 9 more times, IMO we could sweep them. It will come down to our play against TB & NYY whom we play a lot. I expect us to play .500 against everyone else.
Magpie - Monday, July 23 2012 @ 10:30 AM EDT (#260931) #
This year we do not play the Twins. I do not know why, but probably due to inter league scheduling, shafted again.

You sure you mean the Twins? They're in the AL Central, the Jays split four games with them in May, and they're here for three games to close the season.
bpoz - Monday, July 23 2012 @ 12:37 PM EDT (#260932) #
Thanks Magpie. I love & agree with your frequent philosophy of nobody knows anything.

I forgot about Oct. I just figured that we finished with them earlier in the year, but could not resist trying to be funny.

To be serious for a moment, I believe in the luck factor, good & bad. We swept KC but 2 games were by 1 run.
We could have swept the Mariners but Cordero blew the save. It bugs me every time a save is blown, but really you have to expect it once in a while.
I cannot blame Farrell or any manager from staying with his closer for some unknown length of time. This is because an established guy like BJ Ryan when struggling badly still has to be used in high leverage situations or the manager risks clubhouse problems.
Similarly Valentine had to stay with Lester as a sign of respect or because his pen was over used.
Farrell may have to do the same with Romero. However Cecil need not be treated the same way. Cecil was pulled by Farrell before he blew the big lead against CWS.
uglyone - Monday, July 23 2012 @ 01:10 PM EDT (#260933) #
Sano - I can't agree more with your take on the hugeness of the series. The 8th inning of game 1 vs. the Yanks looked like an absolute season ender with Bautista going out and Frasor giving up the game winning grand salami. And the next two games only made it seem proven.....but then to head into fenway and crush the bejeezus out of the Sox speaks volumes about this team for sure.

Even sweeter was the fact that it came against the hated Red Sox....not only is it always sweet to crush the red sox, but they themselves were just getting fans to believe they might have a run in them....they had taken 3 of 4 from the hot Chisox coming in and were only 0.5gms out of a playoff spot....Ellsbury and Crawford had returned and everyone was starting to get excited about what they could do in the 2nd half with a healthier lineup (ignoring of course that the guys that replaced them played unexpectedly awesome while they were out)....and then whammo, the Jays stomach punch red sox nation and leave them gasping for air as their team goes from 0.5gms out of a playoff spot to last place again. Super sweet. Especially since the Red Sox have been responsible for so many season-killing crushfests of the Jays in the last 10 years. They love doing it to us, it's about time we returned the factor.


All that being said, I'm not a huge believer in momentum so this might be nothing more than a fluke series....but I'll still savour this one, and while momentum might not be real it's hard not to think that the team has a whole lot more confidence in itself after being able to crush the Sox like that, especially without Bautista.
vw_fan17 - Monday, July 23 2012 @ 05:03 PM EDT (#260938) #
Sano - I can't agree more with your take on the hugeness of the series. The 8th inning of game 1 vs. the Yanks looked like an absolute season ender with Bautista going out and Frasor giving up the game winning grand salami. And the next two games only made it seem proven.....but then to head into fenway and crush the bejeezus out of the Sox speaks volumes about this team for sure.

To me, this also speaks to the timing of the trade. We didn't get a star, but we got major-league calibre players to help fill the roster until the missing pieces can come back - just in time for the Boston series. I'm sure the timing and emotional lift helped somewhat..
hypobole - Monday, July 23 2012 @ 06:53 PM EDT (#260939) #
"I'm sure the timing and emotional lift helped somewhat.."

Which I imagine is all the Jays wanted. A boost to the team and the continuation of increased attendance and media ratings. Somewhat analogous to the old joke about not having to outrun the bear, just your friend. The trade won't provide more than a tiny increase in the chances of making the playoffs, but it will provide enough of a push to keep playoff chances alive for a while longer.
Moe - Monday, July 23 2012 @ 07:25 PM EDT (#260940) #
Now that the Marlins are selling, would AA go after Josh Johnson? He is under contract for next season, so it would be more than a pure rental. But considering the price for Sanchez (pure rental) and Infante, the price is likely very/too high.


JB21 - Monday, July 23 2012 @ 07:38 PM EDT (#260941) #
Ichiro to Yankees. Interesting. Yanks didn't give up anything, so why not I guess? I could answer my own question with back to .645 OPS seasons (2011 & 2012).
Mike Green - Monday, July 23 2012 @ 07:46 PM EDT (#260942) #
Ichiro has been killed by LHPs this year.  As a platoon player, he is an upgrade on Ibanez once you account for defence.  What a typical Yankee move- acquiring a Hall of Famer at the end of his career to fulfill a useful limited role. 
scottt - Monday, July 23 2012 @ 08:01 PM EDT (#260943) #
Back up for Brett Gardner who is not getting healthier.

Josh Johnson is not having a great year and cost just under 14 million a year.
He probably falls outside Toronto's budget parameter, but he likely brings back a pick in 2014.

Any second baseman available since the position is vacant next year?
Richard S.S. - Monday, July 23 2012 @ 08:12 PM EDT (#260944) #
The trading of picks was the key here.  Detroit trades the 74th-ish pick for the 37th-ish pick.   And the top prospect traded, Jacob Turner, isn't top 10 in the Jays system.   If Drabek interests Miami however...
Moe - Monday, July 23 2012 @ 08:36 PM EDT (#260945) #
And the top prospect traded, Jacob Turner, isn't top 10 in the Jays system.

I think that is overvaluing the Jays prospects a bit. He is a major-league ready SP. Not top of the rotation stuff, but enough to be top 100 prospect at this point, probably even top 50.

hypobole - Monday, July 23 2012 @ 09:59 PM EDT (#260946) #
"And the top prospect traded, Jacob Turner, isn't top 10 in the Jays system."

Keith Law would have ranked him 4th midseason, Sickels 2nd behind only d'Arnaud. Do you know of any scouting site that has Turner ranked behind 10 Jays?
Richard S.S. - Monday, July 23 2012 @ 10:47 PM EDT (#260947) #
MLB - ready or AAAA?
Oceanbound - Monday, July 23 2012 @ 10:58 PM EDT (#260949) #
BA had Jacob Turner as the 22nd ranked prospect of 2012. To suggest he wouldn't be top 10 in the Jays system is... ludicrous, to say the least.
Moe - Tuesday, July 24 2012 @ 12:54 PM EDT (#260985) #
MLB - ready or AAAA?

Do you have any idea what you are talking about? Turner is only 21 and has been promoted fairly aggressively. Yes, he could turn out to be a AAAA guy but the consensus concern with him is health and not that that he is not good enough to be useful in the majors (if healthy). Turner would be around No 5 in the Jays system, depending on how much value you place on upside over likelihood a bit higher or lower than 5. But to say he is a AAAA guy and not Jays top 10 is just silly.

Advance Scout: Red Sox, July 20-22 | 51 comments | Create New Account
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