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Minor League Update Barger On The Double
Buffalo started their last week of the season with as nice win. Addison Barger hit two home runs, his first two in AAA, and drove in four runs.

Rochester 2 Buffalo 10


This is what I noted from yesterday's games.


Buffalo got the scoring started in the third inning with two run scoring wild pitches. That set up the fifth inning when both Nathan Lukes and Addison Barger went deep. Barger's was a 104 mph blast to right field.


The Bisons racked up six runs in the sixth. Lukes and Rafael Lantigua singled in runs then Barger went deep for a second time, a three run shot. The second one was off a lefty pitcher and it looked like an off speed pitch. The homer made it 10-2, the final score.


Barger was 2-3 with two walks. Lukes was 3-4 with one walk.


Buffalo used five pitchers, Nick Allgeyer struck out six in 2.2 innings.




Three Stars

Third Star - Nick Allgeyer

Second Star - Nathan Lukes

First Star - Addison Barger


Boxes

Posted by Gerry on Thursday, September 22 2022 @ 10:25 PM EDT.
Barger On The Double | 11 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
eldarion - Thursday, September 22 2022 @ 10:39 PM EDT (#422762) #
One of the nice aspects of Barger’s breakout is that it reduces any sting from losing Groshans and gives Orelvis time to develop at 3B. He look really good this season. A cup of coffee in MLB next season seems inevitable.
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bpoz - Friday, September 23 2022 @ 08:56 AM EDT (#422765) #
Miami and Pittsburgh are in a tie for the lowest NL RS. Groshans is a very good addition for them. He is off to a good start. Next year with about 150 ABS for Miami they will know how good he can be. This year he is healthy with 399 ABs total.

Barger is doing well and is a great replacement for Groshans on our prospect list. My list has Barger as #4 replacing Groshans at #4.
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Mike Green - Friday, September 23 2022 @ 10:21 AM EDT (#422766) #
Fangraphs is really impressed with Barger's start in triple A.  His HR/FB rate is 200%.  That's hitting the ball with authority!

Watching the Jays play Tampa is very frustrating.  It's easy to see how important it is to have a steady stream of pitchers at the ready when injuries strike.  Tampa does it masterfully- taking discarded pitchers, making sure that they have command of the fastball and something else that will make them effective as part of a team effort (all at the minor league level) and then what disaster hits, it's well mitigated.  Ricky Tiedemann is very exciting and that's great, but where are those other pitchers?  The ones that have no chance to be ace starters, but can come up to the major league pen for 1-3 months, or maybe longer, and not be incendiary. 
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bpoz - Friday, September 23 2022 @ 10:55 AM EDT (#422767) #
A closer/X closer or Good setup man all want to be closers. So TB would sign the last unsigned closer at a cheaper deal. They also added other cheap deal relievers. A fair competition would take place and roles would be won.

Trading C Archer for 3 prospects was a good deal to make at the deadline because I think they were not contending that year. This helped them stock up on good young arms.

The Jays don't seem to trade a good SP or reliever for unknown arms. This is not quite true however. Stroman for Kay and SWR. And the other way is to get a pick for Ray who was going to leave anyway.
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John Northey - Friday, September 23 2022 @ 11:37 AM EDT (#422768) #
Agreed Mike Green - the Jays desperately need to work on that pipeline of decent relievers to fill spots.  Too often it feels like an afterthought.  IMO more should be pushed once no longer prospects to develop odd ball stuff - sidearm, knuckleball, whatever.  Different looks in the pen is acknowledged as being useful so go nuts with it.  Have a few flame throwers in AAA who you can dump once their options are done who you work on purely to throw strikes, etc.  More pitching coaches if necessary (they cost pennies to the dollar for the potential value). IMO the Jays big problem is not giving guys a real shot who do well in AAA - Beasley (15 ML innings, 1.89 ERA in AAA), Gage (2.52 ERA in AAA, just 13 innings here) are 2 prime examples.  Meanwhile disasters like Merryweather (26 2/3 ML innings) keep getting shots.  Ugh.
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ISLAND BOY - Friday, September 23 2022 @ 12:02 PM EDT (#422769) #
I don't understand why Gage hasn't been called up again. When he was sent down earlier in the season it wasn't for performance reasons.
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bpoz - Friday, September 23 2022 @ 01:04 PM EDT (#422770) #
Groshans spoke about AA pitchers throwing very hard but little control. AAA pitchers have great control but don't throw very hard. My conclusion is that ML pitchers are all quite hard to hit and the ML hitters are hard to get out. So Merryweather, Lawrence, Hatch and others did not work out but Atkins has to keep trying. I am going to call these pitchers retreads ie the guy has a live arm but just can't put it together.
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hypobole - Friday, September 23 2022 @ 01:14 PM EDT (#422772) #
Will have to watch more Barger, but I checked out his 2 HR's last night. The first was a letter high FB that he pulled on a line over the RF fence. The second was a down and away breaker from former MLBer Avilan, a lefty, that he golfed deep to right centre.

That's 25 HR's between 3 levels. I know he had serious K issues last year, but he had missed almost 2 full seasons of development. Played only 13 games in 2019 before leaving the team, and then the 2020 shutdown.

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GabrielSyme - Friday, September 23 2022 @ 02:16 PM EDT (#422775) #
A very positive sign for Barger is that he's cut down on his swing-and-miss in-season as he's moved up levels. He had a 13.6% swinging strike rate in Vancouver, but he's cut it down to 11.6% in New Hampshire and now (SSS) just 7.9% in Buffalo.
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hypobole - Friday, September 23 2022 @ 03:38 PM EDT (#422776) #
The Jays site has Barger's HR's

https://www.mlb.com/bluejays/news/toronto-blue-jays-top-mlb-prospects-updates-2022?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage
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John Northey - Friday, September 23 2022 @ 03:56 PM EDT (#422778) #
So just AAA is left.
  • AA: lousy year, 59-79, Spencer Horwitz a clear highlight (297/413/517 at age 24 over 281 PA), as was Addison Barger (313/384/528 over 198 PA at age 22), Tanner Morris (312/430/468 over 186 PA age 24), John Aiello (306/403/476 over 324 PA age 25), Davis Schneider (283/368/476 over 190 PA age 23 2B).  Orelvis Martinez was a disappointment despite 30 HR (203/286/446 over 492 PA age 20 split between SS/3B) but is so young one can still dream of big things.  Cam Eden appears to be the future pinch runner for the Jays (32-3 SB-CS 215/292/376 age 24 over 306 PA as a true CF it appears). 
  • AA pitching: Jimmy Robbins did a good job 23 2/3 IP 6 BB 26 SO 1.52 ERA over 5 starts, overall 3 levels 2.59 ERA 21 game 15 starts 76 1/3 IP 32 BB 98 SO - probably in AA next year to start with a shot at AAA later, but at 24 already he might go straight to AAA depending on situation.  Good news is he had 1 game with 5 walks, no other with over 3 (just 2 with 3 walks) so TONS of promise for a 20th round pick from 2019
  • Jimmy Burnette is interesting - 13.5 K/9 over 37 1/3 IP but 6 BB/9 too, all out of the pen at age 23 LHP,  Overall between AA/A+ he went 56 1/3 IP 94 K (15/9 IP) 36 BB (5.8/9 IP). Some potential for the pen if he can find the strike zone more often.
  • many others in AA on the mound who fit the Burnette profile - need maps of the strike zone then could be something.
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