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The affiliates had a .500 night with Buffalo and Lansing getting into the win column.

Buffalo Bisons

Raffy Lopez launched two home runs and drove in five in just his second game with the Herd after being called up from New Hampshire. He has six homers total on the season along with a double and a triple. Jason Leblebijian had a perfect night at the plate with four base hits, a base on balls and two runs batted in. Rowdy Tellez had two singles, an intentional walk, a stolen base and an RBI and is batting .281 over his last 10 games. However, he committed two errors at first base. Jake Elmore had two hits, a hit by pitch and two stolen bases.

Murphy Smith started this one and gave up a run on four hits and a walk over three innings. Leonel Campos got the win with two scoreless frames while Chad Girodo coughed up two runs (one earned) on a two-run homer but struck out four for the four-inning save.


New Hampshire Fisher Cats

Jon Harris took the loss but enjoyed his best start at the Double-A level. He lasted seven innings and surrendered a run on seven hits a walk. He struck out six and produced eight outs on the ground in a 99-pitch effort, 65 of which were strikes. Hartford scored its only run off Harris on a bunt single to the mound, an infield single to short, a fielder's choice and a throwing error by Mike Reeves after replacing Patrick Cantwell behind the plate. Harris allowed just one extra-base hit and only one of the singles he gave up was considered to be a line drive.

Reeves singled and walked and Harold Ramirez had the lone extra-base knock with a double but was picked off at second base by the catcher. Jonathan Davis had a hit but was also picked off at second. Tim Lopes singled and stole a base. Richard Urena and Ryan McBroom were a collective 0-for-8 and are hitting .184 and .214 respectively.


Dunedin Blue Jays

D.J. Davis had a puzzling night to say the least. He went 3-for-5 and stole a base but the 17th pick of the 2012 draft managed to get caught stealing three times. Matt Dean homered and singled to extend his hitting streak to four games and his on-base streak to six. He's batting .282 in his last 10 games. Cavan Biggio singled twice, walked and stole a base. Andrew Guillotte was 1-for-6 but stole his 12th base in 13 opportunites to place him fourth in the Florida State League. He played in right field and at short. Max Pentecost was 0-for-6 but drove in a run as the DH while Danny Jansen was 0-for-4 with a walk and a hit by pitch.

Conor Fisk was whacked for 10 hits but still managed to meet the quality start guidelines of three earned runs over six innings with a 5-0 K/BB total. Adonys Cardona has walked 11 in as many innings as two walks and two hits in two-thirds of an inning led to two runs and a blown save. Despite an 8-9 K/BB sum over 11-1/3 innings, Connor Eller has a 1.59 ERA after tossing 1-1/3 scoreless frames and stranding both inherited runners. Andrew Case pitched three shutout innings before Jared Carkuff was tagged with the extra-innings loss.


Lansing Lugnuts

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. now has a 26-game on-base streak thanks to a 3-for-3 night with two doubles and two walks. According to a tweet Lansing play-by-play announcer Jesse Goldberg-Strassler, Vladdy's doubles were to left-center field and deep right-center field. Josh Palacios doubled and singled and is 10-for-22 over his last five games. His only blemish was a caught stealing. Bo Bichette was 0-for-5.

Mike Ellenbest picked up his first Midwest League win with a quality start, giving up three runs on seven hits and a walk while striking out six. Tayler Saucedo pitched three shutout innings for his first MWL save, striking out four to give him a 20-5 K/BB total over 17 innings.


*** 3 Stars!!! ***


3. Jason Leblebijian, Buffalo


2. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Lansing


1. Raffy Lopez, Buffalo


Monday's Linescores


Tuesday's Schedule/Probable Starters

Lansing @ Clinton, 1:00 pm ET - Andy Ravel (2-0, 7.36)
Buffalo @ Syracuse, 1:05 pm ET - Jarrett Grube (2-2, 4.68)
Dunedin @ Tampa, 7:00 pm ET - Jordan Romano (2-0, 2.76)
New Hampshire @ Hartford, 7:05 pm ET - Shane Dawson (1-3, 4.97)


Extra Innings
  • The Buffalo News reviews the Bisons last homestand.
  • The Buffalo News has a story on Christian Lopes.
  • DunedinBlueJays.com has a feature on Ryan Borucki.
  • Congratulations goes to Lansing slugger Bradley Jones who was named the Midwest League's Player of the Month.
Lost ticket pays maximum rate.
Guerrero Jr., Lopez & Leblebijian Lumber Party | 24 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
jerjapan - Tuesday, May 09 2017 @ 08:08 AM EDT (#341784) #
I wonder if the Patrick Cantwell acquisition on May 6th means the org knew that Martin was in potential need of a stint in the DL?

Murphy Smith is another intriguing longshot bullpen option.  One career inning in AAA before this year, and he turns 30 in August, but he's been dominant since converting to the pen full-time last year.  A longer longshot than Casey Lawrence, but I love when these guys get called up, even for a cup of coffee. 

Uglyone called Vladdy our best ever prospect in the last MLU, which might indeed be true.  He only recently turned 18 but is dominating Lansing - what do you do with the kid, developmentally?  He could literally make it to Toronto by 2019.  Didn't he say his goal was to make the bigs by 20 years old?  Remarkable ... if D is his biggest concern - do you let his bat force himself up levels, or stay conservative with him and focus on keeping him at 3B?  Does his path relate in any way to the long term plans for JD? 

Gerry - Tuesday, May 09 2017 @ 12:40 PM EDT (#341799) #
New catcher Patrick Cantwell came out of yesterdays game and is now on the DL. The Jays have promoted Ryan Hissey from Lansing to take his place.

They bypassed both Pentecost and Jansen who remain in Dunedin. This is what teams do with prospects, they have a plan for their prospects and they stick to it and move lesser prospects around to fill in.
#2JBrumfield - Tuesday, May 09 2017 @ 01:30 PM EDT (#341803) #
In more catcher news, Baseball America says the Jays have signed Jose Mayorga and Leonico Ventura. Mayorga was in the Phillies system in 2015 where he played in Clearwater and Lakewood where he hit a combined .192. He did not play in 2016. I can't find anything about Ventura. Better off googling Ace or Jesse 'The Body'.
VictoryFaust - Tuesday, May 09 2017 @ 02:34 PM EDT (#341806) #
Since we are talking about injuries, does anybody know what is happening with Lourdes Gurriel? So far he seems pretty fragile for a 22-year-old. Would love an update.
uglyone - Tuesday, May 09 2017 @ 03:31 PM EDT (#341810) #
So the lansing kids decided to demolish erstwhile Jays' traded farmhand Nick Wells this afternoon:

Olivares 3/5, 2 2b
Bichette 3/4, bb
Vladdy 2/5, 2rbi
Maldoff - Tuesday, May 09 2017 @ 03:42 PM EDT (#341811) #
Pitchers pitching better than it appears:

Ryan Borucki - ERA: 5.26; FIP: 2.57
Tom Robson - ERA: 5.27; FIP: 3.64
Mike Ellenbest - ERA: 6.18; FIP: 3.96
Justin Maese - ERA: 4.89; FIP: 3.26
PeterG - Tuesday, May 09 2017 @ 04:06 PM EDT (#341814) #
Dwight Smith Jr. had 3 hits in a Bisons loss this afternoon.
Gerry - Tuesday, May 09 2017 @ 04:10 PM EDT (#341815) #
Anthony Alford back in the lineup tonight.
John Northey - Tuesday, May 09 2017 @ 05:22 PM EDT (#341824) #
I find it interesting how people think of Vlad Jr as our best ever prospect. How soon they forget. Here are the 2 top prospects ever in Jays history on the offensive side. Pitchers always were a crapshoot and often jumped levels.

Catcher...
at 19 full season A ball: 284/394/455 531 PA
at 20 A+ (Dunedin) 324/402/579 Top 5 ML prospect after this season
at 21 AA 303/430/524 Top 5 ML prospect after this season
at 22 AAA 319/404/541
yeah, the Jays went waaaay too slow with this guy. At 22 he got a shot in the majors but had issues largely due to a position change. He'd change again before sticking.

Shortstop....
at 18 A ball: 278/384/332
at 19 A/AAA: 306/397/403
at 20 AAA: 302/353/388
at 21 AAA: 300/381/403 plus some ML time
at 22 AAA: 255/343/266 in 26 games was clearly bored and had no idea why he was still in minors (trust me, fans had no idea either) would get called up and never be back down again.

And a failed super-prospect (well, at 19 he was but many thought of him that way at 22)
Outfielder...
at 18 rookie ball: 267/331/356
at 19 A/AA: 310/393/510
at 20 AA: 256/342/430
at 21 AAA: 264/333/451
in majors at 22 for some reason (always figured the GM lost a bet) and flopped with a sub 600 OPS lifetime.

So can anyone guess who these 3 are?
uglyone - Tuesday, May 09 2017 @ 05:53 PM EDT (#341829) #
The last one is a doozy but I got it...but i'm pretty sure Vladdy has all 3 beat in prospecting status at this point.

Heck, he has his dad beat too.
jerjapan - Tuesday, May 09 2017 @ 06:29 PM EDT (#341830) #
Nah, that last one's not too hard ... maybe that just means I'm older than you Ugly. 

I think Vladdy has them all beat too, although you'd have to throw D into the equation.  If you thought the catcher was going to stick at catcher, or the CF had a great minor league defensive profile, maybe they beat Vlad. 

Who else thinks he sticks at 3B for a while? 

hypobole - Tuesday, May 09 2017 @ 06:36 PM EDT (#341831) #
Definitely has the doozy beat, and I've seen your argument that he has the erstwhile catcher beat as well. Definitely a better hitting prospect than the SS, but the SS had a ton of defensive value.
lexomatic - Wednesday, May 10 2017 @ 08:11 AM EDT (#341842) #
I remember the catcher and the outfielder being hyped.obviously prospect watching wasn't (as much of or at all) an industry way back. I don't know of anything other than baseball America doing anything back then, and I certainly don't know if he was hyped. But the numbers are good and now that Ss might be a top 10 (of 100) prospect.


Mike Green - Wednesday, May 10 2017 @ 08:30 AM EDT (#341843) #
The shortstop had positive W/K numbers, had good speed, was a very good fielder, and the ball did jump off his bat.  In hindsight, it wouldn't have shocked anyone if he had ended up with a better career than Jeter's.  He didn't, but was still pretty good!
uglyone - Wednesday, May 10 2017 @ 10:35 AM EDT (#341845) #
those were early days for me as a jays fan, that's true - I ran through a bunch of OF before I finally got it....derek bell, whiten, glenallen, ducey....
Nigel - Wednesday, May 10 2017 @ 10:56 AM EDT (#341847) #
The other key thing to remember about the SS's numbers is that the industry's expectations of SS offence were far far different then. Visions of Mark Belanger still filled their heads. The offensive revolution brought to the position by Ripken and others was just in its infancy. There were very few middle infield prospects with those offensive numbers around, regardless of age.
Mike Green - Wednesday, May 10 2017 @ 11:47 AM EDT (#341850) #
All four franchises are playing this morning and early afternoon.  The news so far is good- Rowdy Tellez has doubled and walked in his PAs, SRF is through 4 innings with no walks and six strikeouts, and Harold Ramirez has homered.  Both Jansen and Pentecost have the day off for Dunedin, with Juan Kelly doing the catching.
hypobole - Wednesday, May 10 2017 @ 11:52 AM EDT (#341851) #
What was the story with Campusano's failure? Was he older than his listed age or was he just exposed when he reached the majors?
Mike Green - Wednesday, May 10 2017 @ 12:08 PM EDT (#341852) #
Blame Jimy Williams!!  It's entirely unfair, but I haven't forgiven him for this game
uglyone - Wednesday, May 10 2017 @ 12:17 PM EDT (#341854) #
https://twitter.com/emilywaldon2080/status/862324397926998018

side by side vladdy sr/jr swings.
bpoz - Wednesday, May 10 2017 @ 12:28 PM EDT (#341857) #
Injuries and 3 1 run losses to Detroit that year.
Mike Green - Wednesday, May 10 2017 @ 01:11 PM EDT (#341859) #
I hadn't realized that there was so much motion in Vlad Jr.'s swing.  You'd think that he would have trouble laying off the hard slider with all that momentum built up early. 
jerjapan - Wednesday, May 10 2017 @ 05:26 PM EDT (#341864) #
I didn't realize Kelly was still catching here and there.  It's always good to have an emergency third catcher that has actual experience at the position.

My biggest memory of Sil Campusano is wondering how in the heck this kid could push the reigning MVP out of the OF to DH ... maybe Jimmy Williams was ahead of the curve in valuing defense in this case. 

John Northey - Thursday, May 11 2017 @ 02:01 PM EDT (#341915) #
Seems most guessed but only one name came up - Sil Campusano the failed super-prospect. In 1987 the Jays did one of the dumbest moves possible in naming the kid the CF for the season forcing 2 regulars to move positions from a playoff team without consulting said players including the league MVP. Total disaster. as most would've expected. Looking at his stats you can see he was a decent prospect but no uber one.

The shortstop was Tony Fernandez and he should've been in the majors much quicker (at 20 imo) given Alfredo Griffen was at SS for the Jays who couldn't hit and made tons of errors. I remember Bill James in his annual Abstract saying that it was insane for Alfredo Griffen to be blocking anyone, let along a super-prospect.

The catcher was signed at 16 as a super-prospect. I remember being excited seeing the profile on him and being glad the Jays got him. He was top 5 ML prospect quickly but all along most felt he should've been moved from catcher. The Jays were stubborn and kept him there, wasting time in the minors for no reason. Finally put him in LF when desperate at the start of 1994 and he pounded a lot of HR's but his defense was a nightmare and he slumped bad after a strong start. With Olerud & Molitor on the team there was no where to put him. In 1995 the Jays knew they were out of it by mid-season but didn't trade Molitor despite his being a free agent at the end of the season (add another x beside Gord Ash's record) (other free agents were Alomar, Leiter, Devo) the only free agent to be that was traded was David Cone. Maybe Ash thought he could resign those guys despite the club having a tight budget (new owners). Sigh. So Carlos Delgado was kept in the minors at least 1/2 a season too long. Given he ended with 473 HR that might have made the difference to get him to 500 or at least to McGriff territory.

If Vlad Jr can be as good as Fernandez or Delgado I think we should all be super-happy.
Guerrero Jr., Lopez & Leblebijian Lumber Party | 24 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.