Better late than never, I always say. Here’s the first installment of a week’s worth of capsule reviews of the Blue Jays’ most interesting minor-league players. Modelled on the previous monthly Farm Reports available on this site, these end-of-year reviews are longer and provide some more detail about the player and the potential value he offers the organization.
If you’re unfamiliar with these reports, here’s a key caveat: John Sickels, I ain’t. These reviews are based only on the players’ statistical performances and on second-hand scouting reports: I haven’t seen these players in person, and unless the Jays relocate their short-season A-Ball team to JetForm Park in Ottawa, I’m not likely to. You may well have more insight on a particular player than I do, which I’d be delighted to receive; by all means, please add your comments in the space provided. Basically, these reviews are meant to help BB readers keep track of the brighter lights in the organization and to get a sense of if or when they’ll help the Jays to a championship someday.
This first entry, for Pulaski, is the shortest of the six, for reasons more fully explained in the text itself. Think of it as a Thanksgiving Day appetizer. Pulaski, Virginia, is home to Toronto's Appalachian League team, the rookie-league franchise that moved from Medicine Hat at the end of last season. The roster consists mostly of 2003 draftees not considered sufficiently elite for Auburn, younger '02 draftees still trying to find their feet in the pro game, and free-agent Latin American players who are being broken into baseball slowly. It's the lowest A-league level, a half-step below Auburn and a full step short of Charleston. The proposed schedule for the rest of the series is as follows:
Tuesday: Auburn
Wednesday: Charleston
Thursday: Dunedin
Friday: New Haven
Saturday: Syracuse
I’ll be responsible for each of these reports, with the exception of Syracuse, which is being prepared by John Neary. I hope you enjoy these articles and that you draw some value from them; they’re for amusement and enlightenment purposes only. As always, comments, compliments, and yes, criticism too, are welcome. Allons-y:
Jermy Acey, 2B/SS, 22
214 AB, .294/.414/.411, 45 R, 16 2B, 0 3B, 3 HR, 28 RBI, 14 HBP, 31 BB, 32 K, 11 SB, 3 CS
It looks like a misprint, but apparently this young man’s first name is Jermy, not Jeremy. I’m not entirely sure why his parents would do that to their kid. Did they name their daughter Elln? Anyway, those HBPs aren’t a misprint either: Acey was a baseball magnet this season, which combined with his excellent batting eye (a recurring theme throughout this report) to produce a .400+ OBP. That’s nice and all, but getting hit by a pitch is a useful baseball skill only in the same way that getting hit by cars is a good way of making a living off insurance payments. I can’t locate any of his college stats – Skyline Junior College of California doesn’t keep its baseball stats online – so I don’t know if he’s been cultivating this talent for a while.
Anyway, Jermy has very good speed, a pretty good bat, and not bad power (16 2B, 3 HR) for a little guy adjusting to wood bats in rookie ball. He made 15 errors in 43 infield appearances, but defensive stats are virtually not worth mentioning at this level – the field quality, the stadium lighting, the official scorers, and so forth play havoc with defensive numbers. Acey was named to the Appalachian League’s All-Star Team at 2B, one of only two P-Jays to make the squad (Robinson Diaz was the other). But like some of his Pulaski teammates, he was also a little old for the league. He’ll likely debut at Charleston next spring, and had better hit the ground running if he wants to impress the team brass.
Amos Day, RHP, 22
2-0, 1.80, 12 Sv, 26 G, 0 GS, 30 IP, 21 H, 9 BB, 26 K, 20.4% KBF
If you scan the rest of this article, you’ll notice that I don’t have much to say about the pitchers at Pulaski – in fact, this is the only entry for a hurler. That’s for two reasons: one, the P-Jays ranked dead last in the Appy League in pitching, so there’s not really a whole lot to talk about. But more importantly, I’m very skeptical about how much you can derive from pitchers’ performances in entry-level ball. Well, that’s not exactly true: a talented scout sitting in the ballpark and watching the pitcher can learn a great deal about his raw stuff, his mechanics, his composure, his stamina and so forth, But since I’m neither a talented scout nor sitting at a ballpark, I’m loathe to render judgments about pitchers based on the second-hand data available to us mere mortals.
Brian Grant, as a for-instance, was an 8th-round draft pick by the Blue Jays in 2002, remarkably high for a high-schooler under the Ricciardi regime (Kent speculated that JP left the room for a moment and one of his now-ex-scouts pulled a fast one on him). Grant has terrific raw stuff, but he was battered silly at Medicine Hat last year and went 2-5, 4.80 at Pulaski this year with 81 baserunners in 51 IP. He just turned 19 last August, and he’s literally years away from the majors, if he gets there at all. But I do think he’s learning as he goes, making progress as a pitcher: he had some very good starts in the latter part of 2003. Then there’s Yesson Berroa, apparently the most promising of the Pulaski starters: the 6’4”, 205 lb righty was signed out of the Dominican three years ago and turned 20 at mid-season; his manager thinks the world of his potential. Yet his final numbers were 6-2, 3.86, 63 IP, 72 H, 20 BB, 39 K. You wouldn’t know from that line if he was a prospect or a suspect.
Basic statistics can be a little misleading when deciding if a minor-league pitcher at any level is learning his craft; and the lower you go, all the way down to the dimly lit parks and unpolished umpires and 14-hour bus rides of the lowest-ranked leagues, the less the stats will tell you on their own. The numbers just don’t do these young men justice, and accordingly, I won’t apply them at this level. This is also why there are far fewer batters listed at this level than for leagues higher up: unless the numbers are really outstanding or unusual, I can’t consider them sufficiently significant at this point.
All that said, I thought it was worth bringing Amos Day to your attention. You'll have seen him listed as Amos in the Pulaski boxscores, but Duwon was his name in college and might still be the name he goes by informally. For the time being, I'll go with the official name. A distant 26th-round pick from Southern University in 2002, where he was a teammate of Rickie Weeks, Amos was voted Outstanding Pitcher of the Southwest Atlantic Conference his final year (10-0, 1.93, 70 IP, 51 H, 31 BB, 88 K). The Jays installed him as their closer at Pulaski, where he held his own quite nicely, though the control issues he displayed in college haven’t entirely gone away in the pros. Minor-league closers are a questionable investment at best, but we’ll wait and see what Day will do next year, or whether the Blue Jays might reinstall him as a starter.
Robinson Diaz, C, 20
182 AB, .374/.407/.522, 33 R, 20 2B, 2 3B, 1 HR, 44 RBI, 10 BB, 14 K
The big bat. Diaz was signed out of the Dominican Republic as a 17-year-old and spent one year in the Dominican Summer League before coming to North America. His first pro season at Medicine Hat last year showed a decent bat and a good BB/K rate, though not much power. So keep in mind, this is his second go-round Rookie League Ball. That said, .374 is .374, and he kept it up over almost 200 AB. He also showed better power; those doubles could turn into homers when he adds some meat to his 5’10”, 180-lb frame – which he’ll need to, if he wants to survive a full season behind the plate.
His arm is strong but his defence otherwise needs some work, though he had to split time behind the plate with two other catchers. He doesn’t walk a great deal, but nor does he swing and miss a whole lot. He turned 20 last month, so there’s still very good upside here. I imagine they’ll start Diaz slow at Charleston in April. There’s no need to rush him: if there’s one thing the Jays have in the pipeline, it’s catchers.
Vinny Esposito, 3B, 23
127 AB, .299/.405/.457, 20 R, 11 2B, 0 3B, 3 HR, 23 RBI, 20 BB, 36 K
My cousin Joann teaches at Immaculata High School in Somerville, New Jersey, which is just down the road from the somewhat larger urban centre of Middletown. I mention this because had she decided to ply her trade at the school in the bigger city, she almost certainly would have taught Vinny Esposito, who attended Middletown North High before heading off to Rutgers.
His high-OBP line in his final year at Rutgers, .328/.448/.488, no doubt caught the eye of one of many bright folks in the Jays’ scouting department, because they nabbed him in the 22nd round and watched him put up very good numbers at Pulaski, including promising power and solid strike-zone command (he battled trunk soreness for a while there). The problem is, Vinny was 23 by season’s end, and that’s pretty old for the Appalachian League. Ryan Roberts and even Carlo Cota are ahead of him in Auburn, so the odds against Vinny at this point are very long. If he decides to give it up and become a teacher, though, I can recommend a good mentor.
Joey Reiman, 1B/C, 22
206 AB, .301/.416/.422, 47 R, 18 2B, 2 3B, 1 HR, 35 RBI, 32 BB, 46 K
According to Jays Scouting Director Jon Lalonde, the club was thrilled to grab Reiman in the 16th round of the 2003 draft, which bodes very well. Joey didn't hit as well as Robinson Diaz, obviously, but he did crack .300, shows excellent strike-zone judgment, and displayed power comparable to Diaz. Reiman actually played three times as many games at first base as he did at catcher, but that’s not necessarily a sign that he’s not cut out for backstopping: the P-Jays had three fine hitters (Diaz, Reiman, and Joey Wolfe) who each play catcher, so they probably rotated to a certain extent.
Joey too was pretty old for the league – he’ll turn 23 over Christmas - so like some of his teammates, he needs to do very well at Charleston next year if he wants to see the big leagues. If he ever has doubts about his ability make it as a pro baseball player, well, he just needs to take some of his own advice.
Nick Thomas, OF/1B, 20
186 AB, .290/.389/.489, 36 R, 14 2B, 1 3B, 7 HR, 39 RBI, 30 BB, 47 K
Think the Blue Jays wanted this guy? They selected him in the 15th round of the 2001 draft out of Laguna Creek High School in California, but he didn’t sign. Undeterred, they took him again in 2002, from Sacramento City College, albeit this time in the 39th round – that’ll learn him. Thomas took his time signing even then, and he didn’t make his pro debut till 2003. Now, here’s the funny part: in high school and at Sacramento CC, Nick was a pitcher. He was clocked in the low 90s and was rated by a number of publications as one of the top 50 high school prospects in the US. But by the time he was in college, he was also playing left field, and when he entered the organization, the Jays put a bat in his hands to see what he could do.
I think there’s potential here: he was just 20 this past season, his first full year as a position player, and he showed both terrific patience and substantial power (he led Pulaski in homers). Nick split his time between first base and the outfield, so he’s probably not a defensive wizard. Offensively, he did strike out too often, and he apparently has a weakness for pulling the ball, but for a recent convert from the mound, that’s correctable. I think he’ll be fine: I came across this quote he gave after the last game of the season was over, reflecting on a key at-bat: “The first pitch, I took. That's usually the way I hit. It gives me a chance to see what he has and lets me get my timing down.” Spoken like a former pitcher and a soon-to-be JP favourite. By the way, the at-bat in question produced a grand slam.
Jayce Tingler, OF, 22
223 AB, .287/.416/.368, 49 R, 13 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 23 RBI, 46 BB, 14 K, 6 SB, 2 CS
Wow. A 46/14 BB/K rate is just freakish. It’s unreal, phantasmagoric … name your adjective. I mean, he walked 3.5 times as often as he struck out – and this wasn’t a fluke, either: in four season playing centrefield for the University of Missouri, Jayce posted a 168/55 BB/K rate in 784 ABs. But that’s not his only trick: after hitting .395 in his senior year, Tingler hit a pretty decent .287 and ran the bases very well. He’s also a dynamic centerfielder, making spectacular catches all over the outfield and maintaining a near-perfect fielding percentage (in his last two seasons at Mizzou, he made zero errors). Moreover, reports describe him as having real leadership abilities.
Sure, he was old for the league at 22, but a great batting eye is good at any level. And though he has less power than First Energy, I could see him turning on an inside fastball or two and yanking it past the right-field fair pole. At 5’8”, 150 lbs, his size probably scared off a lot of teams, and they might yet regret that (he was a three-time All-State high school star … in basketball). In some ways, Jayce Tingler might be the most intriguing player in the Blue Jays system. I guarantee you that JP Ricciardi, a man who appreciates the base on balls, has one eye planted firmly on this kid. He had a cup of chutney Squishy in Auburn at the end of the season (4/0 BB/K in 25 AB). Next year will see him start at Charleston, if not Dunedin. He's worth tracking.
Joey Wolfe, C, 22
102 AB, .314/.457/.549, 20 R, 6 2B, 0 3B, 6 HR, 21 BB, 21 K
Yawn, another Pulaski catcher. I'm sorry, that’s not very nice of me. Wolfe was compared by a Batter’s Box reader on Draft Day 2003 as the next coming of Spanky Lavalliere: at 5’9”, 205 lbs, you can see why. At the University of Louisiana-Monroe, Wolfe showed a good batting eye and decent power, the same traits he displayed at Pulaski. But I’m more skeptical about Joe than about his catching compadres: he was one of the oldest P-Jays on the squad, for one thing. For another, he built a lot of his offensive credentials in a short space of time. Three of his homers came in one game, while 5 of his 6 HRs and 21 of his 28 RBIs came during a particularly hot 14-game stretch. And 102 AB is the bare minimum on which to base a statistical evaluation. There are more warning flags here than for Diaz or Reiman; I would peg Wolfe as trailing the other two backstops at this point, though as I've said before, it's way too early to make definite predictions about anyone at this level.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20031013052713999