The Down-Low On Aquino
Thursday, February 05 2015 @ 03:52 AM EST
Contributed by: #2JBrumfield
The Blue Jays swapped left-handed pitchers with Colorado on Wednesday, sending Tyler Ybarra to the Rockies organization in exchange for Jayson Aquino.
Newest Blue Jays acquisition Jayson Aquino pitched for the Tri-City Dust Devils at Nat Bailey Stadium in Vancouver in 2013.
Jayson Aquino was the Rockies ninth-best prospect according to Baseball America in its 2013 Prospect Handbook.
Jayson Aquino was signed as a free agent out of the Dominican Republic in 2009 for a $175,000 bonus. He began his pro career as a starter with the DSL Rockies in 2010 and earned an All-Star berth after a 1.02 earned run average and a strikeout-walk total of 59-9 in 62 innings. The 6-1 lefty followed that up with another strong season by winning eight of 10 decisions while posting a 1.30 ERA. Baseball America rated Aquino as the Rockies' 26th best prospect in its 2012 Prospect Handbook.
According to Baseball America, his U.S. debut was delayed in 2012 because of extra weight he put on and a less than stellar work ethic. Instead, it was back to the DSL where he went 6-1 with a 1.52 ERA and a 10.2 K/9 rate before he was promoted to Grand Junction in August. There, Aquino went 4-0 with a 1.87 ERA and held Pioneer League hitters to a .203 batting average. That led to a jump of 17 spots among the Rockies Top 30 prospects list, checking in at number nine.
Aquino began his 2013 campaign in the Northwest League and made his Tri-City debut with a home start against Vancouver in which he held the Canadians to a couple of runs over five innings in a no-decision. He lost his next start despite a quality start of three runs over six innings in Eugene and permitted just one run in 6-1/3 frames against visiting Everett. Aquino then pitched in Vancouver and lasted 5-2/3 innings and was charged with two runs on five hits - including a solo home run to Dan Klein - as well as a walk and a hit by pitch while striking out six.
The native of San Pedro de Macoris was then promoted to Asheville of the South Atlantic League after his performance at Nat Bailey Stadium resulted in a 3.13 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP. He made 11 starts with the Tourists and always managed to last at least five innings every time he took the ball, debuting with a five-inning, one-run performance in Rome July 7. He had a pair of seven-inning outings, including his best start on August 5 when he surrendered just one run in Lexington. However, Aquino would never enter the win column in 2013 as he went a combined 0-10, including a 0-9, 4.78 mark with Asheville. That resulted in a tumble to number 28 on Colorado's Top 30 prospects list.
Jayson Aquino gets congratulated after giving up just two runs over 5-2/3 innings in an eventual no-decision and come-from-behind win for Vancouver on June 30, 2013.
Aquino had a rough start to the 2014 campaign after taking some rawhide to the head in spring training. He was assigned to Modesto and his first California League start was one to forget as he was rocked for eight runs in the notorious hitters haven in Bakersfield. He bounced back with efforts of two runs over six frames and five shutout innings in his next two starts but a sore shoulder sidelined him for nearly two months. Aquino was dummied for 10 runs over five innings in Bakersfield upon his return June 11 but he had a better outing in his third crack in Bakersfield July 6 when he finished one out shy of a quality start. He finally beat the Blaze five days later at home by pitching seven shutout innings of four-hit ball with a 6-3 K/BB total. His most dominating outing came August 16 when he allowed just a solo homer among two hits while whiffing 11 and walking one over 8-1/3 innings against Stockton August 8. He would go the distance six days later in a complete game win at home against Bakersfield to lower his season ERA to 4.94. It shot back up to 5.40 in his final California League start when San Jose slapped him around for eight runs over 5-2/3 innings to drop his record to 5-10. Still, Aquino earned a promotion to Double-A where he spun consecutive two-run, six-inning outings against Springfield. He struck out nine but walked eight, including six of them in his last start.
To make up for the time he missed with his shoulder issues, Aquino was
sent to the Arizona Fall League where he went 2-0 with a 3.38 ERA. In
his 16 innings over four starts with the Salt River Rafters. His K-BB
total was 13-4 and his WHIP was 1.25. Over his minor league career, the
22 year-old southpaw has thrown 453-2/3 innings with 405 strikeouts and
115 walks to go along with a record of 27-26.
Baseball America says Aquino has a three-pitch mix that includes a fastball that ranges from 88-92 miles per hour. His best pitch is a changeup that is rated above average and he also throws a solid-average curveball. Modesto pitching coach and former big leaguer Dave Burba told MiLB.com in July that Aquino needed to use his heater more when discussing his repertoire.
We did try to get Jayson to use his fastball and get some downhill angle on it. He already has a plus changeup and breaking ball, and he relies on them too much. He's starting to make the adjustments...He's starting to realize that it's important to use your fastball and locate it, not just throw it down the middle. Early in the year, he would have a slow start, wasn't really aggressive early in the game and then all of a sudden, he'd start getting hit around. That's when he'd turn up the dial...We kind of got him out of that mode and now we're really focusing on him staying down with angle with his fastball. He's starting to get the grasp of how important it is to use the fastball instead of throwing off-speed all the time. To me, that's the biggest adjustment.
Baseball America adds Aquino needs to pitch with better tempo and learn to control his emotions on the mound. He also needs to improve on fielding his position and holding runners. His projection is that of a number-four starter. He will turn 23 on November 22.
As for Tyler Ybarra, the 25 year-old spent 2014 in the bullpen at Double-A New Hampshire where he split eight decisions and put up an ERA of 4.42. He was a 43rd round pick by the Jays in the 2008 amateur from Wellington High School in Kansas. The 6-foot-2 southpaw went 2-4 with a 6.64 ERA in the Gulf Coast League in 2009 before missing all of 2010 due to Tommy John surgery. He bounced back with a 2-0 record and a 2.15 ERA with Bluefield in 2011 and was called up to Vancouver for the playoffs to help the Canadians win the first of three Northwest League championships. The Kansas native pitched for Lansing and Dunedin over the next two seasons where he maintained his K rate of over 10 every nine innings but he walked 5.4 batters per nine with the Lugnuts and D-Jays, an increase of over two BB/9 from his time in Bluefield. His K rate dropped to 7.1 with the Fisher Cats while his BB rate remained over five. He leaves the Jays organization with a 13-13 record and a 3.05 ERA over 218-1/3 innings. He struck out 230 batters but walked 115 to go along with a 1.319 WHIP. Ybarra turns 26 on December 11.
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