My trip to spring training is done and now that I am back at home I thought I would try and summarize what I have seen and add to my scouting reports on some players.
I also have more video to share of Aaron Sanchez and Deck McGuire.
In Florida I was at minor league camp for four days. One day was rain-shortened. One day the AAA and AA clubs were playing away and on another day the A level clubs were playing away. So each level was at "home" in Dunedin for two and a half games and in that time I was watching multiple games. This is by way of a warning that my comments following are based on a very small sample size and I might have seen a player best at-bats of the spring.
Hitters
Most impressive hitter: Adeiny Hechavarria. Hech looked comfortable at the plate. He didn't seem to be swinging aggressively, he was trying to swing at strikes. But when he connected I saw some line drives and no K's. His defense looked pretty good too.
Adeiny could get off to a slow start assuming he returns to New Hampshire. He has likely never felt the cold that he will experience there and it might take him a while to warm up.
Honourable mentions:
Brad Glenn - three home runs in two games. Glenn hit well in spring last season and carried that into the start of the season where he hit really well for the first month or two. Then he hurt his shoulder and there was a debate as to whether it was better or not and his hitting didn't improve until close to the end of the season. I assume Glenn is headed to Dunedin and it will be interesting to see what he does there.
Darin Mastroianni - Mastro was hitting and fielding well in Dunedin, a couple of triples showed his power and speed.
Kevin Nolan - Nolan is a utility infielder who hit .295 last season in Lansing. I wouldn't call him a prospect but a guy who can hit and field anywhere will be valuable and he could shine if an injury gave him an opportunity.
Notes:
I didn't see Brett Lawrie hit much. I did see him make a couple of plays in the field and he showed good range. On one play hit right at him his form was not the best but I am sure the Jays will be working with him on that. Mike Mordecai is the Jays infield instructor and I assume he will spend a lot of time in Las Vegas.
Anthony Gose looked like he works the count and is willing to take a walk. I was surprised that Yan Gomes threw him out, albeit with an excellent throw. I didn't see enough of him stealing but we know he has great speed and we also know he gets thrown out a lot. That makes me think his form for getting going might be lacking. Gose might need a base running expert to help him out, I don't think Sal Fasano can give him too many base stealing tips.
Young Dalton Pompey from Ontario looked good when I saw him. Pompey is not a big kid but I saw him get a couple of hits, one in the AAA/AA game, and steal a couple of bases. Pompey looks like he can run and if he can hit he could be a surprise.
All the starting catchers I saw looked good. I saw d'Arnaud get a couple of hits, I only saw one Carlos Perez at-bat but that was a double to the wall off Deck McGuire. AJ Jimenez and Santiago Nessy looked good too. And Luis Hurtado is back after missing most of 2010 with an injury.
Robert Sobolewski was playing with he AA team and doing OK while Kevin Ahrens was hitting with the A teams, so I wouldn't be surprised if Sobo gets to go to AA and Ahrens to Dunedin to break that logjam.
I didn't see Justin Jackson hit once and as mentioned previously he will be a super utility guy this season.
KC Hobson looks bigger and stronger this season.
I saw Canadians Michael Crouse and Marcus Knecht hit but neither did anything of note. Randy Schwartz looked good and he hit a home run off Deck McGuire on Monday. Schwartz has been injured for most of the last two years.
Dicke Thon and Scott Campbell are injured.
Pitchers
Most Impressive - Noah Syndergaard. Syndergaard has the big pitchers body and he has big velocity to match, up to 95 mph when I saw him. His off-speed pitches are not as advanced as Wojo, McGuire or Sanchez but he has the faster fastball.
Honourable mentions:
Aaron Sanchez - Sanchez (pictured at bottom) has been talked-up a lot since the end of the season and you can see why. An easy 91-92 mph delivery, that the Jays think will get faster, combined with a plus, plus curveball.
Asher Wojciechowski - I was thinking about why the younger kids made a bigger impression on me that the experienced guys like Wojo and Deck McGuire. I think it is that you can see the potential in the younger guys whereas you assume McGuire and Wojo are closer to finished products. That probably downplays their potential as the Jays can and will make changes to their deliveries and their pitches to improve their chances to succeed in the major leagues. In regard to Wojo he looks like he could step into the Dunedin rotation and do fine. He has a hard fastball and he is willing to pitch to both sides of the plate. He adds a slider and change-up and his ability to continue to start will depend on the development of those pitches.
Deck McGuire - McGuire (pictured below) didn't throw as hard as a I thought he would, he was sitting at 90, rather than the 92-93 that had been reported previously. McGuire will mix in a plus slider and a curve and a change. McGuire will succeed by mixing his pitches which is why he is considered a potential number 3 or 4 starter. I would not be surprised if the Jays sent McGuire to Lansing to start the season.
Notes:
I didn't see a lot of Justin Nicolino or Mitchell Taylor, two lefties who featured around 90 mph fastballs with sweeping type breaking balls which would make them LOOGY candidates if nothing else.
Myles Jaye was a 17th round pick in the 2010 draft but he has impressed the Jays enough to become a starter in Florida and presumably in extended spring. Jaye is a righty with a nice delivery and a 90-91 mph fastball.
Nestor Molina may or may not be a starting pitcher to start the season. Molina is a converted position player who showed a lot of improvement last season. Molina started an A game against the Phillies but there might not be room for him in a rotation.
Milciades Santana is another converted position player who can throw hard, 93-94. If he can add to that with better mechanics and improve his off-speed pitches he could be a sleeper bullpen candidate.
Sean Nolin is injured.
Aaron Sanchez
Other notes:
Mel Queen will continue as a roving pitching instructor with the Jays. Cito's role hasn't been defined yet. AA told me that he will let Cito tell him what he wants to do and they will probably use Cito for scouting and instruction once the season gets going.
I think I answered most of the questions from the pre-camp thread that I could. there are a few with no answers. The Jays haven't fully decided who goes on which roster yet, nor have they any idea of the rosters of the other teams so they don't have an opinion on how strong their teams will be in their leagues.
Minor league games started around the 15th so most of the players had played around ten games and the pitchers had started twice or three times so it was too early for evaluating players, at least to me. The Jays haven't tinkered much with pitcher mechanics yet, they are just trying to get the pitchers season-ready and assigned to teams. some of those more specific questions about pitcher improvement and changes are best left to mid-season.
As always video has been posted to Vimeo.
I have a lot of other video and pictures to post which I will roll out over the next few weeks.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20110329170235277