The MLB Draft begins today. It will be a while before the Toronto Blue Jays make their first pick. They will not be picking until 39th as the Blue Jays received a 10-pick penalty on their first pick (No. 29) for exceeding the second surcharge threshold of the Competitive Balance Tax. The Jays have a draft bonus pool of $5,543,100 to work with.

The first four rounds of the draft go today and rounds 5-20 will be held on Sunday. MLB.com, MLB Network and Peacock will have coverage of the MLB Draft beginning at 1:00 pm Eastern Time today. Picks 11-40 will be held from 2:30 to 4:30 pm Eastern according to MLB.com so you can probably tune in before 4:30 pm if you only care about the Jays. You can follow the draft right here.

Baseball America has the Jays taking second baseman Jarren Advincula from Georgia Tech with its first-round pick in its latest mock draft. Jonathan Mayo of MLB Pipeline thinks the Jays will go with outfielder Ty Head from North Carolina State while Jim Callis is predicting that righthander Taylor Rabe from Mississippi will be selected. Kiley McDaniel is tabbing catcher Will Brick from Christian Brothers High School in Tennessee will layer in as Toronto's selection.

The affiliates were winless on Friday, three losses and two suspended games in Florida. A few hitters had nice games. Eddie Micheletti homered and drove in three runs for New Hampshire. JR Freethy had three hits and a hand in all three Vancouver runs. And Jay Harry had three hits and a walk.

We head into the all-star break with three games in San Diego. The Jays are 3-3 so far on their west coast trip. The next three will decide whether its a winning trip or a losing one. The Padres are 46-47 and are 3-7 in their last ten games so they are coming in on the colder side. The Jays have a two game, dragon inspired, win streak.

The affiliates found some hits. Victor Arias had five hits, part of a 16 hit outburst by New Hampshire. Dunedin had eleven hits and the FCL Jays had 13. They all won. Vancouver had seven hits and lost. Buffalo were rained out.

Given we are headed towards another draft I figured it might be a good idea to review the past, as we prepare for the future.  Will we see another Yesavage, a Halladay, or an Augie Schmidt? Time will tell.  

Buffalo registered just three hits in their loss, New Hampshire also had three in their game one loss, Vancouver had four in, yep, their loss. The hitting was better in the second New Hampshire game and in Dunedin but New Hampshire had the only win on the night. Dunedin outhit Lakeland but lost by six runs.

Plus comments on Jay Harry, Jasen Coleman and Juan Sanchez.

Anoiher losing Tuesday on the farm, this is a recording. Buffalo and Dunedin were embarrassed and the FCL Jays lost by a run. The only winners were Vancouver and the DSL Blue squad. New Hampshire and the DSL Red squad were rained out.


Victoria, BC native Sam Shaw had plenty of reason to smile after a perfect night at the plate on Tuesday.

The MLB draft begins on this Saturday and concludes on Sunday. The Jays do not have a good position heading into the draft. Their first pick drops by ten positions because the Jays payroll last season exceeded the second threshold of the competitive balance tax. And the Jays lose their second round pick because they signed Dylan Cease (I believe). Finally the Jays do not get a compensation pick for Bo Bichette because they signed Cease.

The Jays limp into San Francisco after Seattle manhandled them over the last two games. They do have a chance at redemption as the Giants are worse than the Jays. The Giants record is 37-52, 21 games out of first place in their division. The Jays are at 42-48, they would have to go 6-0 to reach the all-star break at .500.

Jake Bloss faced the same team for the second time this week and improved from giving up eleven runs to just one. Buffalo won behind him. New Hampshire took an early lead and made it stick. It was Johnny King day in Vancouver and his eight strikeouts and a Sam Shaw home run were enough for the win. Dunedin trailed into the ninth inning when new legend Giaconino Lasaracina turned a loss into a win. In total four wins!

Dunedin and the FCL Jays won, the top three affiliates lost. It was a quieter night on the farm, no starting pitcher went more than four innings and only one hitter had more than two hits. That one guy with three hits was Giaconino Lasaracina who also homered.

Buffalo scored 16 runs yesterday, today it was New Hampshire who scored twelve runs with 18 hits. Vancouver split a doubleheader, Dunedin won in extra innings. Buffalo and the FCL Jays lost.

The Jays roll into Seattle to play the Mariners for the first time since last October. You remember that series, the one where the road team won every game? Vlad was the series MVP and Jeff Hoffman saved the final game. Cal Raleigh hit four home runs in that series. Now, eight months later Vlad is in the dumps, Hoffman has lost his job and Raleigh is hitting .163. We have seen numerous "what's wrong with Vlad?" stories here in Toronto. Change the name to Cal and you know what's in the Seattle Newspapers.

Despite Raleigh's struggles the Mariners are tied in first place in the west but they are just two games over .500.

Buffalo scored sixteen runs to register the only win on the farm. New Hampshire, Dunedin and the FCL Jays were soundly beaten. Vancouver were rained out.

Eugene had a 12 run inning against Vancouver. At one stage ten hitters in a row reached base. It was the only loss of the night as Buffalo, New Hampshire and Dunedin won. New Hampshire also had a tough pitchers game, conceding 10 runs but they scored enough for the win. Buffalo and Dunedin has excellent pitching for their wins.

Jay Harry has received plenty of note in these reports this season as he has ascended to AAA. But he still has not cracked BA's top 30 prospect list. Why would that be? Well the more obvious answer is that he swings at everything. His walk rate this season is 4.8% and his K rate is 22.4%. That ratio is not one that is a sign of future major league success. His O swing% is 48%, meaning he swings at 48% of pitches out of the strike zone and TJ stats has his max exit velocity at the 25th percentile.

Now on the more positive side he has improved his walk rate in AAA, from 3.9% in AA to 7%. And he has reduced his K rate from 23.5% to 19.7%. Lets see how those numbers change over the next few months. Will pitchers start throwing him more balls and will Harry continue his improvement?