I still can't figure out putting League in the pen already, but then I'm a fan & Dick Scott and crew are the ones putting together the minor league system and they obviously see something.

I know very little about League, does he have a reputation for blowing away the opposition's line up the first time through and then struggling the second or third time 'round?

Can anyone tell me who/what Danny Jackson is, if anything? I don't recall seeing his name anywhere before the above Fisher Cats article.

Gerry, Justin Maureau's back in Auburn? Vermilyea still in the pen (instead of Pleiness) in Dunedin? Tingler and Hassey both skip Charleston? I'm sure you were just as suprised as I am.

I have not heard but I assume Maureau is injured. We knew DJ Hanson and Jesse Harper were injured too.

Vermilyea and League in the pen are surprising. Even if pitchers are expected to relieve they often start to get their work in on a regular basis. Bullpen pitchers can pitch half as many innings as starters. It will be interesting to see how much work those guys get. With Vermilyea it might have been more of a mental thing, he really wanted to relieve.

Tingler's jump was also surprising. David Smith was sent back to Charleston for a second year due to Tingler's leap-frogging him. Snavely also was sent to Charleston. The Jays must want to fast track Tingler. Sometimes you don't know about the small speedy guys until they move to AA or AAA.

Hassey I put at DH. He is probably more of an infield backup. He was at Charleston last year so the jump to Dunedin makes sense.

When I look at the rosters I feel that Manchester lost out a bit. Syracuse has Rios, Gross, Quiroz, Bush, Adams, Sequea, Arnold.

Dunedin has Vito, Tingler and an unbelievable rotation of Banks, Rosario, Perkins, Isenberg and Pleiness. Plus Vermilyea in the pen.

Manchester has Hill and McGowan, plus Peterson and League in the pen. I am not denigrating the rest of the Fisher Cats lineup, just that more top prospects were sent to Syracuse and Dunedin. If McGowan had gone to Syracuse the Manchester ownership might have been upset. Manchester fans will have to wait until mid season for the promotion's to happen.

I think Adams and Hill's promotions were also surprising. They spent a half season at AA and high A respectively, so they are definitely on the fast track.

It's interesting that League is apparently onside with the move to the bullpen and is positive about it. Possibly he recognizes that the road to the majors is generally faster for a reliever than a starter. And I have to say, if the reports are accurate that he now has a low 90s slider to go with a high-90s fastball, then I'd like to see him in Toronto as soon as possible. :-)

Seriously, when you think about it, the bulk of the Jays' top pitching prospects are in the rotation, not the pen. Consider:

Starters
1. Dustin McGowan
2. David Bush
3. Francisco Rosario
4. Josh Banks
5. Jason Arnold
6. Vince Perkins
7. Justin Miller
8. Jesse Harper
9. Kurt Isenberg

Relievers
1. Adam Peterson
2. Jamie Vermilyea
3. Brandon League
4. Bubbie Buzachero

You could add a few more names to either list, but right now, most of the pitchers coming up through the system are destined for the rotation. Considering that Toronto is set in the major-league rotation with an ace (Halladay) for four years and a solid mid-rotation guy (Batista) for three years, while the bullpen is still kind of patchwork, it does make sense to reinforce the relief corps in the minors now. Evidently, League's repertoire and makeup projected better as a reliever than as a starter, so he appears to be a good fit in this effort.

I could see Perkins going to the pen if he continues to have control issues, and maybe Rosario if his surgery reduces his workload ability (though he's apparently come back much stronger after the TJ), but that's about it. I think this move makes organizational sense.

My take : League is seen as a fastball/slider pitcher without good control. Mostly fastballs. He's got excellent velocity, 94-96 with occasional touches to 97.

Does anybody know of *any* successful major league starters who fit this profile? I can't think of any. Fastball-fastball-fastball starters who have indifferent secondary pitches tend to be guys with excellet control. I can think of LOTS of relievers who fit this profile, though, including some of the very best in the game over the last ten years. I'm thinking of Troy Percival, Roberto Hernandez, Armando Benitez, Ugueth Urbina, Billy Wagner (slightly better control), Jason Isringhausen (Izzy has a better curve now than he once did).

A - League throws as hard as anyone in the system. He just turned 21 so he is stilll really young. He has not yet developed a quality breaking pitch, as his strikeout numbers were always low for his pitch speed. I can only assume the Jays think he will only be a two pitch pitcher and therefore the pen is the place for him. Still at age 21 it is very young to make that assumption.

League was targeted to start at Dunedin, so the Jays are saying try relieving at a higher level. League did have a good spring in the major league camp.

Jack - Jackson had an ERA of 1.89 at Dunedin last year and 4.02 at New Haven, all out of the bullpen.

Justin Owens, Juan Campos, Erik Rico, Matt Logan, Aaron(?) McEachran, Justin Maureau, Derrick Nunley - all these guys are past the Rookie League stage but aren't on any of the full-season rosters - any info on any of these guys? (Well I guess there is a bit of info on Maureau in this thread already)

Information at this stage of the season is skimpy. Most of the minor league staff are in Florida. The short season guys from last year report today and tomorrow. Hopefully we will know more in a couple of weeks but for now most of the people in the know are on the field.

Another thought on League -- and while I'm on it, Peterson and Vermilyea too -- thse guys came up as starters, and they're presumably going to have more endurance than your typical college closer who never throws more than 60 innings a season. The Jays are innovative enough to know that they don't want to be developing ninth-inning specialists; they want to be developing excellent pitchers who happen to enter the game in relief.

In a lot of ways, the ideal reliever is someone like Octavio Dotel (at least, prior to his move to closer): he's a lights-out pitcher who could bring it for 100+ innings a year scattered over 60+ appearances. Multi-inning relievers who can work out of a jam in the 7th and still start the 9th are the bullpen aces of the future. Guillermo Mota did it last year; Francisco Rodriguez should do it this year. If the Jays can develop League into a 90- or 100-inning reliever, they'll have an extremely valuable commodity on their hands.

Vermilyea could serve this function as well, although with less overpowering stuff, he might be better suited to longer-relief stints. Peterson reportedly had some arm fatigue coming out of colege, so he actually might end up as the more classical ninth-inning closer type.

Tingler's jump is surprising but satisfying: his performance at Pualski was outstanding and he's already too old for Low-A Ball (23). I hope he gets more playing time as the season goes on. Gerry's right that you need to see whether smaller guys like Tingler can thrive at higher levels, or whether they'll simply have the bat knocked out of their hands. Tingler's BB/K rate at Pulaski (46/14) still leaves me shaking my head, so I think he'll do well.

Of the players Geoff mentioned, the one I have half an eye on is Derrick Nunley, who strikes out tons of guys and walks tons more. He may never be able to get his evidently outstanding raw stuff together, but arms like that are definitely worth tracking. Maureau should recover from a hard 2003 and move up quickly.

Manchester did miss out on a lot of the marquee players this time around; they got the short straw that Charleston drew last year. Still, they'll have McGowan and Hill until June, and after that some of the great talent from Dunedin will start heading north. Plus, they've assembled a pretty good roster of veteran minor-leaguers who should keep the team competitive (and give good interviews too, apparently). I think they'll be okay.

While I'm thinking of it: thanks to all who made comments on my Top 40 Jays Prospect list, posted by Kent back in mid-March. I hope to have a new posting there soon with updates and explanations on various players.

Look for Hanson to work in Dunedin once the shoulder gets well. Rosario will also get work in Dunedin for a while until there is better weather in Manchester. Jesse Harper will be in the rotation in Manchester very soon. They are getting his pitch count back up after three weeks with a tight muscle in the throwing shoulder. There are a couple of career minor league guys keeping a seat warm until he gets there. You will then see a rotation of McGowan, Reimers, Harper, maybe Rosario and whoever is throwing the best out of the rest of the guys. Peterson, League and DeJong as set up men and or closers. McGowan will probably be gone by all star break if not sooner. I also believe that Harper could be gone before the season is over. He was dealing misery to the BlueJay hitters until the problem with the muscle. I have heard that they have altered his throwing motion a little to get a little more velocity. Two years ago he was hitting 93-95 regular. He has since dropped down a little while he learned to command all four pitches.

My big concern more about League than Vermilyea (because Vermilyea seems pretty polished already) is that if he hasn't mastered a breaking ball or secondary pitch yet, I'm not sure if it's in his best interest to try to do that as a reliever facing fewer batters and throwing fewer innings. It should be all about repetition for these young guys and if he's not on top of a breaking ball or changeup yet I don't think the answer is to give him less work over the course of a season. His changeup is well behind his other pitches I understand which is probably why they made the move to relief. I still don't like it from a development standpoint. It smacks a little too much of moving Escobar quickly just to throw his raw stuff into the big league pen.

Similarly with Vince Perkins, I don't think the answer to control problems is to make someone a reliever. They'll just go from a starter with bad control to a reliever with bad control. It's probably worse to be a reliever with bad control. Who wants to go to the bullpen to call on a guy who's likely to give up a walk (the Doug Creek Syndrome)? The best thing with him is to try to do what they did with Escobar when they converted him back to starting last year...get him to stop overthrowing, slow down and smooth out his delivery so that he's 2-3 mph slower with control instead of mid-upper 90s and all over the place.

McGowan gets the start on Thursday against the Yanks' AA affiliate

Actually the Rockcats of New Britain are the Twins affiliate. I unfortunately won't get to Thursday's game (it's a 10:35 start that's sold out) but I hope to catch a game or 2 on Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

Has the Dunedin Roster been posted ? Or is this all Speculation. I just visited the Charleston site and it stil has the 2003 roster as well

The Charleston roster was in the local paper. I received a copy of the Dunedin roster from an inside source. They are for real.

I'm impressed that you were able to score the Dunedin roster info, Gerry. I emailed Ken Carson, head of Florida operations, a week ago, and still haven't heard word.

With Vermilyea, it might have come down to Scott and Co. trusting Jamie's intuition. If the man felt better in the pen, and had tremendous success there last year, then why not listen to the person?! We have to remember sometimes when we're scouting/projecting, from afar, that the players (in this case, Vermilyea) are human beings. The organizational decisions ought to take into account both the braintrust's philosophy and the pitcher's own input.

Scout, thanks for the very encouraging reports on Harper; I had pegged him as my breakout candidate for 2004, so hopefully he's ready and able to ramp up his fastball a few degrees.

It occurs to me that, somewhat like their big-league brethren, some of the Jays' top prospects might get off to a slow start this year. A lot of them are debuting at higher levels than they've ever played at before, especially the Triple-A guys; Jason Arnold can warn his new teammates that there's more than just a vowel separating AA from AAA. Combine that with the cold weather in many of these northern towns' Aprils and Mays, and the early results may be less than stellar. But I'm confident the best of these prospects will come around sooner rather than later.

Steve Z, could you drop me an e-mail at jordanf@cba.org? Thanks!

Josh Banks gets the opening day start for Dunedin tomorrow.

A couple of additions.

I received a report that Matt Logan may have had offseason surgery on his hand. That would explian his absence.

I agree that Hanson and Harper's return would be big for the Jays. Hanson was ranked by Baseball America as the Jays #14 prospect and Harper was #18.

Mike Moffat posted a couple of minor league links on his roundup thread. Here are a few more:

Meet the Fisher Cats

Justin Singleton

Charleston Alley Cats

The flexible Charleston infield

The last story is interesting in that Ryan Roberts is switching to second base. Ryan Roberts was the Jays only third base prospect, unless you count Aaron Hill. Roberts was selected in the eighteenth round of the 2003 draft and had a good year at Auburn. He is another relatively short player at 5' 10". Maybe that is why the Jays decided to move him as second basemen are generally smaller than third basemen.

I'm finally getting caught up; our version of the depth chart has been updated, reflecting Gerry's changes to the Dunedin roster. I've also created links to the Baseball Cube stats for AAA and AA players who don't have Prospect pages on Gerry's site; I'll get to the A-ball guys as soon as I can.

Later this month, Gerry, Robert and I will be going to Erie, PA (it's about an hour from Buffalo) to see the Fisher Cats play the Tigers' AA club. We'll be bringing back some photos, interviews, and scouting reports -- with any luck, we'll get to see McGowan pitch either the Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon game.

Another road trip that's being discussed is taking the new high-speed ferry to Rochester to catch a Syracuse game -- Sunday, June 13 and Sunday, August 1 are possible dates. We welcome all Bauxites to join us on these excursions.

http://www.gerrymcdonald.ca/depthchart.htm
The depth chart is tremendous. COMN to go there.

If the article I read was correct, McGowan will be starting on Saturday (which seems odd being that it's their 3rd game). I'm certainly planning to check that out. Last year I remember McGowan being a bit on the wild side in the couple starts I saw.

If you want a better look at YOUR Syracuse Skychiefs go here.

Player pages for YOUR Manchester Fisher Cats are almost done. They include brief bio's so we know that Brandon League likes Angelina Jolie, hey who doesn't? Jason Waugh is known as J-Dub, and his favourite song is "all my ex's live in Texas". You can find them here.

The Dunedin roster is finally posted on their web site but of course you could just check our depth chart.

This reminds me ... at the spring training game in Dunedin, the Jays were announced as "your Toronto Blue Jays" when they took the field ... sort of. The announcer's accent made it actually sound like "Your Tauraunto Ba-lue Jies."

These guys need to skip fielding practise and work on their nicknames.

Kevin Frederick - Freddy
Dan Jackson - Jax
Dustin McGowan - D-Mac
John Ogiltree - Tree
Adam Peterson - Pete
Cam Reimers - Reims
Paul Chiafreddo - Chia
Tim Whittaker - Whit
Robert Cosby - Cos
Ty Godwin - T-God
Jason Waugh - J-Dub

For most of you guys I think we can do a little better than just truncating your last names. Dustin, Ty and Jason: I hate to break it to ya, but at this rate all of the A-rod, I-Rod, J-Lo type names are going to be taken by the time you guys make it to the majors.

PS. Gerry the depth chart looks great but you might want to fix the spelling on Halladay. I think it's spelled Jermy Acey as well but Halliday kind of sticks out like a sore thumb. Thanks for all your hard work though.

Here are my suggested upgrades:

Kevin "Right Said" Frederick
Danny "Not That One" Jackson
Dustin "Rain Man" McGowan
John "Tree" Ogiltree (it's not so bad)
Adam "12" Peterson
Cam "Camaro" Reimers
Paul "Chia Pet" Chiafreddo
Tim "Ernie" Whittaker (a salute to a beloved ex-Jay)
Robert "Bill" Cosby
Ty "Oh My" Godwin
Jason "Evelyn" Waugh (I'm guessing he won't much care for that one)

I've been wanting to post these for a while and I kept forgetting.

http://www.venezuelansummerleague.com

http://www.dominicansummerleague.com

A couple of rather useful links. This was the Jays' VSL affiliate in 2003, during which they released a ballplayer with a name so great I can't believe he wasn't put on an express train to the big leagues...

Gleiderberg Pimentel

Now that's a name.

Gleiderberg Pimentel

No nickname could do that justice....

What about G-Pim?

I think it's spelled Jermy Acey

This one is still a bit of a mystery. Baseball America lists him as Jeremy. Baseball Cube lists him as Jeremy. I think Pulaski listed him as Jermy, so I don't know which is correct.

I am going with Jeremy, as the most common version, until proven otherwise. Thanks for the Halladay catch.

Gerry, if I assure you that it's Jermy Acey, is that OK? Minor League Baseball lists him as Jermy. Skyline College lists him (always) as Jermy. Pulaski listed him as Jermy. CNN/SI lists him as Jermy. MLB does as well.

It's odd, and confusing, but I am quite positive it's the right spelling.

Gerry, if I assure you that it's Jermy Acey, is that OK?

OK, free advice from a lawyer is rare, and hard to refuse.

He so needs to be in a platoon with Rob Ducey.

I wonder - was that comment about Joey Reiman being able to play 2nd base a typo and they meant 1B - if not, that's even more interesting than Roberts shifting over there.

There's a new thread about the 2004 minor-league season for your perusal.

Any info on Justin Owens' shoulder injury?