Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Thurman Punches Out and Up

Grayson Thurman was recently promoted from Dunedin to New Hampshire. He hadn't really earned a two level promotion but New Hampshire needed help and Vancouver's players are set for the playoffs. Thurman entered the game in the ninth inning with New Hampshire leading by a run but with the lases loaded and no outs. He escaped and New Hampshire won. The Fisher Cat hitters who were hot on Saturday, stayed hot on Sunday. Damiano Palmegiani hit a grand slam to propel Buffalo to a win. Vancouver and Dunedin lost.

Dunedin's season is now finished. Vancouver start their five game playoff series with Everett on Tuesday.

Lehigh Valley 3 Buffalo 6

New Hampshire 7 Bowie 6

Vancouver 0 Tri-City 3

Jupiter 10 Dunedin 4

Three Stars

Third Star - Trevor Schwecke

Second Star - Damiano Palmegiani

First Star - Gratson Thurman

Boxes

NOTES

Damiano Palmegiani has hit the ground running in AAA. He hit a grand slam home run in the third inning to put Buffalo ahead for good. He is hitting .370 so far with a 1.278 OPS. He will strike out 30% of the time but he does hit for power. Nate Lukas and Rafael Lantigua each had two hits.

Yosver Zulueta had a couple of nice outings since returning from the Florida complex but that was not the case on Sunday. In one inning LHV had a triple and two doubles leading to two runs off Zulueta. The jury is still out.

New Hampshire took a 7-5 lead to the bottom of the ninth. They brought in their closer Juan Nunez who promptly walked four to make it a 7-6 game with the bases loaded and no outs. The NH manager brought in Grayson Thurman who had a 4.80 ERAS pitching in Dunedin, two levels down. This would be his second appearance in AA. Thurman went strikeout, strikeout, ground out to preserve the win. Michael Dominguez had started and he was wild like Nunez. He walked five in 4.2 innings. Bowie hit two solo home runs off him. Dominguez has a home run issue. In 30 innings in AA he has only allowed 16 hits, that is excellent. However nine of those 16 hits have left the ballpark. Something to work on next season.

The offense was led by the same guys would led it yesterday. Trevor Schwecke had three hits, a triple short of the cycle. He hit his 6th home run. Will Robertson hit his 19th and had a two run single. Riley Tirotta hit his eighth. Alan Roden was 2-3 with a walk.

Vancouver's bats were resting for the playoffs I guess, they had just three hits in the game. Cade Doughty had two hits and walked. Rafael Sanchez started and threw 4.2 shutout innings. He struck out seven.

Dunedin scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth to make the final score semi respectable. Rafael Ohashi didn't have "it". Seven hits and three walks in just 1.2 innings. Irv Carter pitched an inning out of the bullpen. Connor O'Halloran hasn't figured out pro ball yet. He gave up four runs and has a 6.30 ERA.

Yhoangel Aponte was the offensive bright spot, 3-3 with two walks. He had a single, a triple and a his first home run. These late season pops can be deceiving. Aponte had four hits in his last nine FCL games, so these seems atypical.

Posted by Gerry on Monday, September 11 2023 @ 07:01 AM EDT.

Thurman Punches Out and Up | 15 comments | Create New Account

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bpoz - Monday, September 11 2023 @ 09:39 AM EDT (#436434) #

Dunedin had a disappointing year. Promotions was a short list IMO. Injuries maybe the cause. Catcher E Duran hit very well, so maybe he starts in Vancouver next year.

Catchers made progress this year. P Clarke and A Sosa in AA. Hopefully E Duran has good catching skills.

ISLAND BOY - Monday, September 11 2023 @ 10:01 AM EDT (#436435) #

Is it possible that the success and seeming positive jolt that Davis Schneider, not to mention Ernie Clement and Spencer Horwitz, might lead the Jays to look internally when needed rather than trade for guys like Paul Dejong and giving chances to the Bradley Zimmers from the MLB scrapheap ?

In that vein, will the probable departure of Matt Chapman result in a competition at third between young guys like Addison Barger, Orelvis Martinez, Rafael Latigua, or even Damiano Palmegiani ? There seems to be a lot of infield prospect piling up in the upper minors and it's either use them, trade them or lose them.

John Northey - Monday, September 11 2023 @ 10:03 AM EDT (#436436) #

IMO a successful minor league team is one that develops ML players - the most basic way of measuring, but also hard to do until many years later.

Lets look at Dunedin - we'll limit to guys 22 and under as they get LOTS of rehabbing guys there.
1980: No Dunedin, instead A Kinston: 8 ML'ers (Fred Manrique, Tony Fernandez, Ron Shepherd, Brian Milner, Paul Hodgson, Mitch Webster, Toby Hernandez, Mark Eichhorn)
1990: 8 ML'ers (Domingo Cedeno, Ryan Thompson, Greg O'Halloran, Jeff Kent, David Weathers, Ricardo Jordan, Ricky Trlicek, Denis Boucher)
2000: 4 ML'ers (Orlando Hudson, Josh Phelps, Glenn Williams, and Gustavo Chacin at age 19).
2010: 12 ML'ers: Anthony Gose, Tyler Pastornicky, A.J. Jimenez, Mois�s Sierra, Adeiny Hechavarr�a, Travis d'Arnaud, Travis Snider (1 game, had already played in majors), Ryan Schimpf, Yan Gomes, Ryan Goins, Henderson Alvarez III, Chad Jenkins
2019: 9 ML'ers: Samad Taylor, Alejandro Kirk, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, Cal Stevenson, Simeon Woods Richardson (just 18), Max Castillo, Josh Winckowski, Nate Pearson. Could be more as time goes by.

Just a quick dive hitting 4 different GM's time here. Some pretty good ones, and it shows just how empty the farm was by the end of Gord Ash's reign of terror (Hudson was damn good though, and Chacin was fun to cheer on). Wonder who the 4-10 future ML'ers are who were on this years team in Dunedin? Of course, those 3 teams I checked were A+ (Vancouver) not A like Dunedin is now.

FYI: Dunedin wasn't a Jays affiliate until 1987 - surprising as I could've sworn they were always a Jays affiliate from day 1 as the team had spring there forever. Go figure. So some pretty good players going through there over the years. Jeff Kent has to be ranked #1 for the years I checked but the best ever has to be Roy Halladay class of 1996 at age 19 (2.73 ERA 15-7 2.5 BB/9 vs 6.0 K/9 so he was good but not anywhere near as good as he'd become). I'll have to do a deeper dive in the offseason as this looks like a fun exercise - could use some charts to show how the team has done over the years at the lower levels. AAA should be buried in ML'ers - checking a random year, 1987, just 6 of 16 hitters didn't get ML time, just 2 of 15 pitchers didn't - 3 21 year olds (Sil Campusano, Greg Myers, and Todd Stottlyemyre) on that team.

bpoz - Monday, September 11 2023 @ 10:31 AM EDT (#436438) #

Gillick had a lot of top 5 picks I believe but did not do so well with those picks. He also had a pretty good Latin area.

Ash & Richardi did not have a good Latin area. AA was pretty good IMO. This FO seems very good on paper. If Orelvis and Leo Jimenez graduate and do well then this FO is V good.

Marc Hulet - Monday, September 11 2023 @ 10:44 AM EDT (#436439) #

Lantigua is MiLB FA after this season and I doubt they commit 40-man spot given the existing # ahead of him...

Andrew Bash may have pitched his way into consideration for a 40-man slot and Bowden Francis type of role... he's not flashy but he got the job done at AAA while splitting RP/SP and could be an up/down innings eating RP or SP (that the Jays desperately need) and 3 milb options intact. Teams desperately need players like this as we've seen...

scottt - Monday, September 11 2023 @ 12:18 PM EDT (#436441) #

I don't know. Bash looks like the type of guys you can gamble on not being taken.
They already have Bowden Francis. They don't need to replace him.

Marc Hulet - Monday, September 11 2023 @ 01:39 PM EDT (#436451) #

Teams need reliable up-down optionable guys... being able to send Francis and someone like Andrew Bash up-and-down all year is something most teams do for flexibility (Rays, etc) - and it was lacking for the Jay's this year.

Lots of teams are looking for reliable upper level arms and Bash (who was likely originally hurt by the lost MiLB season) has gotten stronger each year the higher he's gone. There aren't a lot of pitchers that actually had good years at AAA in 2023.

These are your projected AAA starters in 2024 and theres not likely much available out there:
Paxton Schultz
Jimmy Robbins
Chad Dallas
Andrew Bash
Luis Quinones

Pitchers with options that can provide length at the MLB level are valuable - that's why I see him as a potential 40-man guy .. less so to just protect from the Rule 5

uglyone - Monday, September 11 2023 @ 02:36 PM EDT (#436464) #

was it actually lacking for the Jays this year tho?

Francis, Jackson, Pearson, Pop. 2 did well, 2 not so well. also tiedemann could well have been in the mix if not for injury.

and were there 0 options left on thornton or hatch or did we use them this year before losing them?

ISLAND BOY - Monday, September 11 2023 @ 03:29 PM EDT (#436471) #

Thomas Hatch was called up 3 times this season for short periods, once each in June, July and August. I seem to remember he really bombed in his last appearance and was DFA'd. He was picked up by the Pirates and has been meh there.

Trent Thornton, whom I always liked, was called up this summer in July and pitched 4 times out of the bullpen. He became expendable when the Jays acquired Genesis Cabrera ( great move ) and was DFA'd and then traded to Seattle just ahead of the trade deadline for Mason McCoy. With Seattle he's pitched 18 innings, allowed 14 hits, 4 walks and 15 strikeouts.

Marc Hulet - Monday, September 11 2023 @ 03:39 PM EDT (#436473) #

Both Hatch and Thornton are on their last option years this year.

Jackson and Pearson were fine but neither of them are long men/able to step in and start which is what I was stressing - the need to have 8-10 starters (or bulk guys) per year.
That's where the gap has been (but the Jays got lucky for the most part w health among the SPs) and is highlighted to be again next year... which points a spotlight on Bash's potential value to the org.

uglyone - Monday, September 11 2023 @ 04:08 PM EDT (#436479) #

well.....injuries did take out Ryu, White, Tiedemann, while Manoah imploded.

John Northey - Monday, September 11 2023 @ 04:33 PM EDT (#436484) #

For pitchers options are very valuable (sucks for the pitcher, but great for the team). Francis still has an option left for 2024, as does Cimber, Danner, Pop. Jackson used his last option this year. Other pitchers on the 40 man with options are Kikuchi, Romano, Swanson, Cabrera (not sure if his 3 games in AAA used up his last one or not - if injury rehab then it didn't use it), Mayza. But none of those are likely to be used in 2024.

Jonny German - Tuesday, September 12 2023 @ 04:43 AM EDT (#436530) #

Bash has had himself a nice season, but does he have the upside that makes him a risk to be taken in the Rule 5? Is he more of a risk to be taken than

Adam Macko

Michael Dominguez

CJ Van Eyk

Trent Palmer

Dahian Santos

Can't protect them all.

bpoz - Tuesday, September 12 2023 @ 07:16 AM EDT (#436531) #

I think 3 prospects will be added to the 40 man. Maybe 5. I don't know how many players are coming off the 40 man. Otto Lopez gets practically no playing time, I suppose his value is injury insurance which a lucky signing like Ernie Clement is easily got.

Mike Green - Tuesday, September 12 2023 @ 09:26 PM EDT (#436608) #

Roden has a double, a single and a walk in four trips tonight. He's got a wRC+ over 160 in double A, in almost 200 PAs. After dominating in high A.

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