Pruitt's slash line of .211/.300/.304 in A ball was far from impressive.
He's improved in his repeat year, but he's now old for the level and he got caught stealing 13 times.
He's a 4th outfielder at best and only as long as he's good defensively.

Townsend has pitched very well for the C's.

Checking in on the DSL, 17-year old Adrian Montero now has a .434 OBP with an 18:6 BB:K ratio and 14 SBs. Good way to start a career.

Oh, and from BA's Prospect Chat - I thought the mention of Kirk having only 4 PB all year was interesting.

"Any love for Blue Jays prospect Alejandro Kirk?

Josh Norris: I love Alejandro Kirk very much. No, he doesn't have the best body in the world, but the man puts the bat on the ball. He doesn't strike out a ton, takes his walks, has allowed just four passed balls all year and is throwing out 38 percent of runners. At 20 years old he's gone .315/.424/.470 at two levels of Class A ball. I'm not sure what more you could ask for out of him. He can definitely borrow a feeling."

That one video I posted a while back sure seemed to show Kirk being very, very comfortable behind the plate.

There's still no reason for him to have the belly fat that he has, tho.

Thanks for the links to Pruitt and Townsend. I check C's Plus Baseball a lot. Great site. For now I will assume that Pruitt has a good arm and that Townsend can throw that 4 seam FB at 93. Just guessing and being positive. I enjoy the personal touch about how the prospect discovered that he had been drafted.

Winck is definitely going to need a 40 man roster spot.  He's making a strong case for breakout pitching prospect of the year along with Joey Murray and Max Castillo, and given this FO's preference for drafting position players, we will need a few more like him to accelerate the rebuild.  We drafted him in the 15th round, which is starting to feel like a lucky day 3 draft number - since 2013 we've also nabbed Ryans Borucki and Noda, Jackson McClelland and Jonathan Davis.
Luis Quinones was completely off my radar when drafted in the 34th round, but 20Ks in his 14 IPs across 2 levels has caught my eye
At what point do we start to get excited about Jhon Solarte? 

I too expect M Castillo, j Winckowski and Chavez Young to be protected so as not to be exposed after the 2020 season. I have not yet thought about who to protect after the 2021 season. J Murray and N Allgeyer may already be in the Jays Pen in 2021. It all goes well for Murray and Allgeyer AA 2020 and AAA in 2021, with a ML Sept call up in 2021.

UO, I can understand it in the minor leagues, but not the major leagues when you can afford to eat well, have nutritionist access, etc. But when you make the money you make in the minors, it is very easy to just binge affordable carbs all the time and gain weight, esp. if you have bad habits. I grew up quite poor and played sports every single night at the facility my Mom worked at, but she fed us pasta every night, and my dad when he saw me once a week, fed me pizza. Unlearning those habits is not easy. Some if not most of these international signings likely grew up poor. So for any number of the reasons mentioned above, I am not surprised Kirk is fat. But I would hope that for his sake, and his career, that he can figure it out.

Jer, are you sure about Winck needing a spot? I'm pretty sure he doesn't need protection until after the 2020 season. Same with Young. To be picked in Rule 5: "18 or younger on June 5 preceding their signing and this is the fifth Rule 5 draft upcoming". 2019 would only be the 4th rule 5 draft for them.

Sorry, saw Jer's but not bpoz's comment. Please delete my Winckowski comment...ugh, how do we still not have an edit button..

Fangraphs now has a section on the players page where it states when a player is eligible for the rule five draft, Winckowski is eligible after next season.

Two home runs for the guy who thinks he should be in the major leagues. He might be right!

Yep. Presumably somebody in the current infield will be gone within 2 weeks, and then he will be called. 

After Vladdy I am not even sure how to project when a player is ready anymore, so I am really just going to take it as it comes.

In other news I am loosing faith in Zeuch, looking around the majors I am not sure there are any starters left who are sinker/groundball pitchers who thrive anymore.

Bichette works hard and can make adjustments.
He's shown that in AA and in AAA.

He would start in the bottom of the lineup and eventually make his way to the top.

You have guys like Brett Anderson and Wade Miler who get by with a lot of ground balls and few strikeouts.

Waguespack averaged 8.6 K/9 in MLB and 8.9 in AAA.
Zeuch needs to be around 6K/9 to have a chance, but I think they'll give a full year in AAA.

Out of the actual 2019 Rule 5 concerns, who do we think needs to be protected? I certainly would say Palacios. He's still quietly had an okay season at .261/.363/.364 with 9 SB, increasing his BB% rate from 8.4 -> 12 and his K% rate from 22.2 -> 19.4. He's almost doubled his fly ball rate, and he has been tested at all 3 OF spots. Seems like a prime candidate for a future 4th OF.

*Though I meant to say Palacios may be of interest, not definitively should be protected. Doing a bit more digging we'd likely be more concerned with protecting Wall anyway. Sorry, can you tell I got like 1 hour of sleep last night...

Both are good enough to keep an eye on but I'm not sure either is worth protecting.

I really don't think you need to worry about the Rule V in July. The Jays will have spaces to protect who they need to protect. There are so few good players taken in the Rule V for a reason. I had a quick look at the top-10 Rule V picks this year. None have positive WAR. Cumulative WAR is around -3. Half of the players were returned to their teams.

Actually, now that I think about it, that extra 26th roster spot for position player might make it a lot easier for teams to stash a rule V draftee.

"Actually, now that I think about it, that extra 26th roster spot for position player might make it a lot easier for teams to stash a rule V draftee."

The big issue is not really the spot, it's that the players available aren't very good or aren't ready for the majors or both.

Maybe, but there's still value there. It's all about scouting and getting lucky.
When the Orioles took Rickard, he had combined for .321 .427 .447 accross A+, AA, AAA that year.
The Jays don't really have anyone like that, but Wall is the closest.

The usual suspects, Orioles, Tigers, Giants, Marlins, will probably draft someone again, but with that 26th slot, even team that are somewhat competitive can pick a player and keep him on the roster for a year. You can go for a defensive replacement with plusplus speed, use him to steal meaningful runs and only make him bat in blowouts. I guess the 40 roster becomes the limitation.

The Jays shouldn't be worried about losing an outfielder outside of Alford, Conine, Young and Stevenson.

Not only is there the 26th spot, but I think now that more teams are going into the year knowing they're less likely to be competitive and doing this whole tanking non-sense, we will starting seeing more Rule V players stashed on rosters.