Unusually this year the Blue Jays and their minor league affiliates start their seasons on the same day.  All four full season affiliates are in action but the game counts for just three of them.  The Lugnuts play their traditional pre-season game against the Michigan State Spartans, a game that is a bigger deal in Lansing than the home opener.  This game is the real home opener for the Luggies, in the minds of the Lansing residents.  I believe it's also the first $2 thirsty Thursday so the college students can fill up on cheap beer.

The minor league season starts next week, around the same time as the Blue Jays start. The rosters were announced to the players this morning and Batters Box has received a copy.

Most assignments were well known: d'Arnaud, Gose, Sierra and Hechavarria to AAA. McGuire, Jenkins, Hutchison and Jimenez to AA. And Marisnick, Crouse and Knecht to Dunedin. But there are a few surprises.

Relief pitchers in most cases are the left-overs.  In general, teams put their priority players in the starting pitcher spots and if you are not a priority player you are usually a reliever.  This often changes in AA or AAA where players need to change roles in order to succeed.  Some players have bullpen roles due to an unusual delivery, Danny Farquhar, or due to being injury prone, Alan Farina.   As the Jays accumulate pitching prospects, some good pitchers will be forced into relief roles.  They can try to pitch their way out of the pen, or show their worth as a future major league reliever, or make themselves attractive to another team.  There is always an opportunity on a baseball team.

Starting pitchers are the biggest group in our review and the most subject to change.  Invariably by the start of the season there will be a half dozen pitchers on the disabled list including several starters.  We will forecast an excess of starters and hope that within that mix we will find five to stick.

Today we take our final look at the position players by predicting where the outfielders will land.  The outfield projections vary from simple to complex by team.

We finish our tour of the infield minor league assignments with a look at third base. This is not a position of strength in the Jays minor league system and you could see the same players in the same spots to start 2012 as played in 2011.

We started this series by looking at catchers and first basemen, today it's the middle infielders who we review.  Because of the interchangability of shortstops and second basemen we will look at them together making it a double position look.

 

John Sickels has done a farm system ranking for the first time - and guess who's top?

1) Toronto Blue Jays: Eight B+ prospects with ridiculous depth behind them.
2) San Diego Padres: Incredible depth after the winter trades pushes this system almost to the top.
3) Texas Rangers: Continues to churn out talent, with much more percolating at the lower levels. I do not give the Rangers farm system credit for Yu Darvish. They would rank number one if I gave them credit for Darvish, but in my mind that is unfair to the other teams: I see him as a major league free agent, not a prospect.
4) Seattle Mariners: Jesus Montero plus three elite pitching prospects and others who can improve.

Yesterday we looked at the placement of minor league catchers for 2012 and it was relatively straightforward.  Today we look at first basemen and the picture is much more muddled.

 

We are in the depths of a baseball-less winter but pitchers and catchers will be reporting to camp in less than 30 days.  The minor league camp won't start until March but let's start thinking about the lineups for the 2012 season.  There is no hurry so we will do this over the next week or so.  Today I will look at the catchers.  Infielders, outfielders and starting pitchers will follow over the next few weekdays.

Yu need to forget the other distractions today and Yu need to consider Baseball America's top ten, released today. The top ten isn't very surprising, except for Asher Wojciechowski who sneaks in at number ten.

The Dunedin Blue Jays followed suit with the parent club and unveiled its new look for 2012 on Frday.

The new logos for the Dunedin Blue Jays of the Florida State League.

Update @ 11:10am - The Bluefield Blue Jays have done likewise.

The primary logo for the Bluefield Blue Jays of the Appalachian League.  The National Post's John Lott has a photo of Dunedin's and Bluefield's new designs.

We haven't had a minor league thread in a while, now seems like a good time to get one going.  I received some updates from the instructional league last week and I thought I would share those.  In addition I have a look back at the 2011 season and we will catch up on the AFL.

Many are called but few are chosen. The Jays have approximately two hundred and fifty players under contract at the end of a season when the newly drafted players mix with the no longer rookies. Out of that number only thirty can be chosen to be on the Batters Box Top 30 list. There are many other worthy candidates who just didn't play enough to be recognized or who haven't really matured yet and as a result haven't shown their true potential. 

Last year Justin Nicolino didn't make our top 30, he was too new to the system.  Luis Perez looked to have topped out as a AAA reliever.  Both of those were able to shake-off the disappointment of not making the Batters Box top 30 to shine in 2011. Who will surprise with a break-out in 2012?  Most likely it will be one of the players listed below. If you doubt that, consider that two of the prospects included in last year's feature were Adonis Cardona and Michael Crouse. Following a list of the prospects to watch, this article will conclude with a brief blurb on every player to receive a vote on any of the eight Top 30 lists.

Welcome to the creme de la creme, the number one through ten prospects.  In case you missed it number 11 through 20 are here, and number 21 to 30 are here.

We hope you enjoyed this top 30 and the hope it brings to the future of the Blue Jays organization.   Check back tomorrow for a few who missed the top 30.