No Rings For Jays Fall Guys

Sunday, November 22 2009 @ 09:02 AM EST

Recent 40-man roster addition Reidier Gonzalez pitched a shutout inning but his Phoenix Desert Dogs lost to the Peoria Javelinas 5-4 in the Arizona Fall League championship game.

Gonzalez set down the side in order in the sixth inning and only needed 12 pitches to do.  The 24 year-old Cuban retired White Sox prospect C.J. Retherford on a ground ball to second and got Tigers prospect Cale Iorg (son of former Jay Garth) to fly out to left field, well short of the warning track according to MLB Gameday.  After needing just two pitches apiece to get Retherford and Iorg, the number two overall pick in the 2009 amateur draft gave Gonzalez a tough battle during an eight pitch at-bat.  Mariners prospect Dustin Ackley worked the count full but he grounded to third to end the inning.  Of the 12 pitches Gonzalez threw, nine of them were strikes.

Gonzalez was the only Toronto prospect to appear in the game.  The Desert Dogs bench consisted of just three players and all of them were the other Jays prospects in catcher A.J. Jimenez and outfielders Darin Mastroianni and Adam Loewen but Desert Dogs manager Gary Cathcart, who also skippers the AA New Hampshire Fisher Cats, decided to not put any of them in the game.   Mastroianni hit .250 during his brief trial in the AFL while Loewen and Jimenez struggled with the stick by batting .200 and .157 respectively.  Second baseman Brad Emaus had the best batting average of Jays prospects in the AFL by hitting .317 but his last action was November 14th so he may be injured.  Jays 2008 first round pick, first baseman David Cooper, played for Mesa and he struggled to a .231 mark.

On the pitching front, Gonzalez was 2-0 with a 3.38 ERA in his seven appearances and put together a K-BB ratio of 11-6 in 16 innings.  His WHIP was 1.56 and hitters batted .288 against him.  As for Robert Ray, he was 2-1 with a 4.87 ERA and had a K-BB total of 25-7 in 24 1/3 innings.  However, he proved to be a little too hittable with a WHIP of 1.68 and an opponents batting average of .315.  At least he got through the fall season healthy so that's a positive step.  To keep track of how other Jays prospects are doing in the other Winter Leagues, click here.

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