Pulaski Blue Jays
Rookie-Level Appalachian League
Review by Jonny German
A good developmental year for the Pulaski Blue Jays saw their record slip to 34–33 (.507) after a powerful 40–27 (.597) showing in 2004. The team featured five teenagers and six 20-year-olds, ten former Dominican Summer League Blue Jays, and eight 2005 draftees.
Second baseman Wesley Stone was the youngest player on the team at 18 years, 2 months, and he put up admirable numbers in the first half of the season before fading a little into September. Zach Kalter, a 2005 20th-rounder who was Scouting Director Jon Lalonde’s favourite sleeper pick, drew an amazing 45 walks in just 261 plate appearances and swiped 17 bags.
Outfielder Jacob Butler was the best hitter on the team at .290/.384/.590 in 200 AB, earning a promotion to Auburn. Not far behind him was first baseman Paul Franko at .301/.392/.517 in 176 AB. The Jays drafted Franko in 2003 and 2004 before finally signing him as an amateur free agent after he went unselected in this year’s draft.
Shortstop Jesus Gonzalez and catcher Jonathan Jaspe turned in strong hitting performances from demanding defensive positions and merit keeping an eye on, as they move on to full-season ball. Bonus baby Leance Soto… well, his performance was forgettable. Better luck next year, Lee!
The pitching staff didn’t have as many highlights as the position players, but it did feature standout performances from Jesse Litsch and Reidier Gonzalez. Litsch, signed as a draft-and-follow this past June after being selected out of junior college in the 24th round of the 2004 draft, led the team in innings pitched at 65 2/3, striking out 67 against just 10 walks and 51 hits and posting a 2.74 ERA. He finished out the season with Auburn.
The 19-year-old Gonzalez, a 2005 19th-rounder, was off to an outstanding start to the season before an ankle injury sidelined him. In his 28 innings, he posted a minuscule 1.63 ERA and struck out 4 for every walk allowed. Aussie teen Shane Benson led the team with 6 wins.
Auburn Doubledays
Short-Season NY-Penn League
Review by Rob P
Yours truly referred to the Doubledays as the Atlanta Braves of the New York-Penn League in my preview of this year's team. Their wins per year since 2002 (adjusted for 162 games) now stand at 100-123-110-97. Out of two playoff rounds, their number of winning appearances are, from 2002 to 2005, 0-0-0-1. If this isn't as close as you can get to the 1996-99 Atlanta Braves, I don’t know what is.
As for the players, I'll refrain from repeating my commentary on the five prospects from Auburn appearing on the Top 30 list here at Batter's Box. In fact, it wouldn't be useful to talk about the “lesser” short-season players, since there is very little I can tell you that will be accurate and useful in determining whether they can help the big club one day.
Instead, I'm stealing a page (well, a page format) from the magnificent Baseball-Reference.com and providing you with the entire team statistics in a familiar way. First, the hitting statistics:
Pos Player Age G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K AVG OBP SLG SB CS HBP SH SF IBB
---+-------------------+--+---+---+--+--+--+--+--+---+--+--+----+----+----+--+--+---+--+--+--+
C Josh Bell 20 46 181 13 43 16 1 3 17 4 65 .238 .258 .387 0 1 1 1 0 0
1B Joey Metropoulos 21 52 178 25 52 21 2 6 28 15 44 .292 .342 .534 0 0 0 0 3 0
2B *Sean Shoffit 20 57 188 32 47 13 1 1 21 32 52 .250 .363 .346 2 2 2 2 1 0
3B Anthony Garibaldi 24 35 116 19 22 4 2 3 14 5 32 .190 .260 .336 2 1 6 4 0 0
SS #Manny Sena 20 65 225 30 47 6 0 3 18 20 84 .209 .272 .276 9 3 0 9 1 0
LF Brian Pettway 21 56 200 19 45 10 2 6 25 16 66 .225 .288 .385 0 1 2 0 1 1
CF Ryan Patterson 22 71 274 52 93 23 4 13 65 21 53 .339 .386 .595 5 2 3 3 5 4
RF *Cory Patton 23 57 220 41 60 18 1 14 44 22 60 .273 .343 .555 1 0 2 1 1 0
DH *Nick Thomas 22 62 193 24 49 7 1 7 32 37 41 .254 .374 .409 0 0 2 1 3 2
#Jermy Acey 24 55 193 26 58 17 0 4 17 16 41 .301 .372 .451 0 1 6 3 0 1
*Matt Cooksey 22 52 129 20 31 4 0 2 11 24 32 .240 .365 .318 5 3 2 6 1 1
Brian Bormaster 23 41 117 19 38 8 1 1 18 18 22 .325 .414 .436 0 0 2 2 3 0
Kyle Bohm 22 40 98 12 23 6 1 2 6 11 16 .235 .321 .378 0 1 2 0 1 0
Marshall Bernhard 22 42 80 15 17 3 0 0 5 9 17 .213 .323 .250 2 1 4 2 0 0
Chris Gutierrez 21 21 62 8 14 5 1 0 6 2 17 .226 .273 .339 0 1 2 3 0 0
Josh Celigoy 23 23 48 8 10 3 0 0 3 5 16 .208 .278 .271 0 0 0 1 1 0
Jacob Butler 22 11 40 5 8 1 1 2 8 2 7 .200 .238 .425 0 0 0 0 0 0
Jesus Gonzalez 20 6 15 3 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 .267 .313 .267 0 2 1 0 0 0
And the pitchers:
Pos Player Ag G ERA W L SV GS GF CG SHO IP H R ER BB HR SO TBF
---+-------------------+--+---+-----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+-----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+
SP Orlando Trias 21 15 3.89 4 7 0 15 0 0 0 81.0 85 40 35 21 4 54 353
SP Kristian Bell 21 15 3.14 5 4 0 15 0 0 0 77.3 74 38 27 33 3 71 335
SP Robert Ray 21 15 2.77 4 3 0 13 0 0 0 61.7 46 22 19 20 2 58 253
SP Randy Dicken 22 14 3.60 4 2 0 11 0 0 0 60.0 63 31 24 24 5 66 264
SP *Eric Fowler 22 15 3.02 4 2 0 10 0 0 0 56.7 42 24 19 29 1 55 242
CL Paul Phillips 21 26 2.29 2 1 13 0 23 0 0 39.3 31 14 10 13 2 41 163
RP Adrian Martin 20 22 3.05 1 1 3 2 7 0 0 44.3 51 19 15 2 1 36 188
RP Billy Carnline 21 21 4.61 4 0 1 2 3 0 0 41.0 41 23 21 20 1 36 180
RP Edward Rodriguez 20 21 3.49 3 1 3 0 8 0 0 38.7 41 21 15 7 2 25 165
RP Josh Sowers 22 19 4.86 4 0 0 2 3 0 0 37.0 42 23 20 16 1 27 170
Sean Stidfole 21 19 3.79 4 1 0 0 3 0 0 35.7 26 22 15 20 1 40 159
Gabriel Alfaro 22 18 6.23 2 4 1 0 9 0 0 30.3 40 23 21 13 3 36 140
Yesson Berroa 22 17 4.18 3 1 7 0 13 0 0 23.7 20 11 11 4 2 32 94
Aaron Tressler 23 5 0.00 1 0 0 0 0 0 13.3 8 0 0 1 0 11 48
Brian Grant 20 5 13.50 0 1 1 0 3 0 0 10.7 16 19 16 6 2 8 56
Jesse Litsch 20 4 3.60 0 1 0 3 0 0 0 10.0 11 9 4 6 0 7 50
Dewon Day 24 3 3.00 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 3.0 4 2 1 3 0 4 17
Peter Eberhardt 23 3 6.00 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 3.0 2 2 2 2 0 1 14
Ricky Romero 20 1 0.00 0 0 0 1 0 0 2.0 2 0 0 1 0 2 9
Cory Hahn 23 1 0.00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.0 2 0 0 0 0 1 4
And finally, one player I'd like to mention is Nick Thomas. He wasn't discussed much, if at all, in previous Auburn updates and he's not on the Top 30 list, so the casual watcher might not hear much about him. However, he hasn't had a bad professional season. He hit well in Pulaski and again in Auburn, and his BB/K ratio is certainly nice to look at.
I won't call him a sleeper, because I don't want to -- I just wanted to highlight a performance that most people probably wouldn't notice. Perhaps he'll perform well enough next year to make more people notice his skills.
Lansing Lugnuts
Low-A Midwest League
Review by Mike Green
The Lugnuts’ debut as a Jay affiliate was a disappointing one, as the team started off strong but faded as the season went on. In April, the story was Casey Janssen, who completely dominated the Midwest League and was on his way up to Dunedin by early May. The Lugs found themselves in first place at the end of the month, but there were signs of trouble as the offence struggled.
In May, the Lugs treaded water as Chip Cannon heated up toward the end of the month and soon was on his way to Dunedin as well. After the Lugnuts fell short in the first-half race, the second half of the season was a long, slow slide. With the loss of Cannon and Janssen and no comparable replacements coming from below, Lansing was outgunned and finished the second half in 4th place, 10 games out, at 33-37. Curtis Thigpen and Christian Snavely carried the team in the second half with their bats, earning Thigpen a promotion to New Hampshire.
The best player on the club all season long was Chi-Hung Cheng, the young Taiwanese lefty, who filled the role of rotation anchor well. Cheng was profiled in our Top 30 prospects. Young lefty and Mississauga native A.J. Wideman held his own. Shortstop Ryan Klosterman struggled initially, but hit for some power, drew walks, stole bases effectively and fielded his position well. Centerfielder Aaron Mathews showed the same skill set, and surprisingly posted a .451 slugging percentage.
DH/first baseman Charlie Anderson posted a fine .410 on-base percentage and continued to hit for power. Utilityman Jason Armstrong did his best Cesar Tovar imitation, playing all over the diamond and hitting .289. Uber-prospect Yuber Rodriquez struggled mightily in Lansing; sometimes converting tools to skills takes time, and 2005 was definitely a step back for Rodriguez.
The fans in Lansing supported their club very well. Olds Park is a wonderful place to see a game and a number of Bauxites made the trip down. The 2006 season starts on April 6 against Southwest Michigan. A special thanks to Box regular Lugnut Fan for his contributions all season long.
Dunedin Blue Jays
High-A Florida State League
Review by Mike Green
Well, we didn’t quite get that one right. At the start of the season, we figured that the Dunedin pitching would be solid, but that the offense would struggle to score runs. In fact, the team shone brightly and erratically both with the bat and on the mound, often scoring runs in bunches and often throwing shutouts, but without consistency, mostly due to changes in personnel.
The D-Jays went 13-10 in April, behind the hitting of Adam Lind and Ryan Roberts. The four lefties in the rotation (Zach Jackson, Davis Romero, David Purcey and Kurt Isenberg) mostly struggled, despite posting good ratios. Isenberg was the surprise of the bunch, as he seemed to have recovered some of his 2003 form. Brian Reed pitched well in relief.
In May, the team went 19-10, with everyone firing on all cylinders. While Adam Lind cooled off some and Ryan Roberts earned a promotion to New Hampshire, Clint Johnston, Carlo Cota and Eric Arnold picked up the slack. The pitching was wonderful, with Zach Jackson spinning gem after gem (and thereby earning a promotion to New Hampshire), Casey Janssen being untouchable after arriving from Lansing, and Kurt Isenberg continuing his rebound. The team found itself in the first-half division race, but trailing a tough Lakeland team lead by Justin Verlander.
June saw the return of Dustin McGowan and the arrival of Chip Cannon. McGowan pitched well, but Cannon simply dominated the league and carried the team on his shoulders for the month. The D-Jays could not catch Lakeland for the first-half title, but opened the second half strong behind Cannon, Arnold and Janssen. In July, McGowan and Purcey were promoted, which created openings in the rotation for Davis Romero and Kyle Yates, who ran with the opportunities.
Cannon was promoted to New Hampshire early in July, but Adam Lind then went on a home-run binge, and Eric Arnold continued his hot hitting. The team found itself square in the middle of the second-half race. This time, they got it done, and it was a team effort. Robinzon Diaz and David Smith picked up the pace with the bat, while Yates and Davis Romero continued their fine pitching. 2005 first-round pick Ricky Romero made eight appearances and held his own.
The D-Jays faced the Tigers in the first round of the playoffs, a best-of-three affair. In the opener, Kurt Isenberg was roughed up for 7 runs as the Tigers won easily. Kyle Yates pitched brilliantly in the second game, striking out 10 in 6 innings, while allowing only 3 hits. Unfortunately, one of the hits was a solo homer, and that was the sum total of the scoring in the game.
The stars of the team have mostly been featured in the Top 30 Prospect report. Some of the less well-known names made significant contributions, however. Eric Arnold played third base and put up a sweet .274/.343/.504 line for the season. “On-Base Jayce” Tingler lived up to his name. Big Vito Chiaravallotti struggled most of the season, but had some big hits during the second-half drive. Mike MacDonald was a solid middle-of-the-rotation starter all year long. Milton Tavarez was the closer most of the season, and while there were many nervous moments, on the whole, he pitched fairly well.
2006 in Dunedin seems more promising than we forecasted 2005 to be. There appears to be a fine balance of pitching and offence headed Dunedin’s way. But in Dunedin, the true fan knows to take it as it comes, as the measure of success is in the number of promotions to Double-A.
New Hampshire Fisher Cats
Double-A Eastern League
Review by Jordan Furlong
“What do you do for an encore?” we asked back in the spring, when the Fisher Cats were setting out to defend an Eastern League championship won in their very first season. The answer, it turned out, was to play respectably and often competitively for much of the season, despite one of the most anemic offences we’ve seen in quite a while, before bowing out in the end. Winning is easy; winning twice is less easy; comedy is hard.
It was a valiant effort nonetheless for the 68-74 F-Cats, whose new home park played extraordinarily tough for hitters. As we noted in our Top 30 prospect list, Fisher Cats Stadium played as one of the most extreme pitcher’s parks around, tougher even than Petco Park in San Diego. But as Bauxite Pistol has noted, the dampening effects of the new ballpark might be limited to right-handed hitters, since left field is about 20 to 30 feet deeper than right field across the board. Also worthy of note is that a hotel being built beyond the left-field fence probably affected wind currents. It seems safe to say that F-Cat ownership will probably take measures to ease the brutal nature of the ballpark next season.In a park like that, it’s no wonder that New Hampshire’s pitchers shone. The rotation was anchored by Josh Banks, who used the stadium to full effect by posting a 63/2 K/BB rate in his home starts. Banks was actually too homer-happy early in the season, but made some adjustments and finished very strong. Also starting slowly was new Fisher Cat Ismael Ramirez, but he found the answer at mid-season and pitched very well before tiring late. Big-time arm Vince Perkins made his Double-A debut and held his own, showing flashes of an ability to command his lethal stuff. And veteran Cameron Reimers rounded out the front four with an off-season for him. Late-season additions Casey Janssen and David Purcey had some sparkling moments.
The bullpen was led most of the season by closer Lee “Game Over” Gronkiewicz, who was so dominating that he successfully bellyached for a promotion at mid-season and was replaced by a committee. Veteran hurlers Ryan Houston, Jesse Carlson and Steve Andrade posted some mind-blowing numbers, but of the three, only Houston is still classifiable as a prospect. Recovering fireballer Tracey Thorpe was impressive upon his arrival from Dunedin, but faltered late. Jamie Vermilyea posted fine numbers before flying to Syracuse. The offence was, as we mentioned before, anemic, last or next-to-last in the league in pretty much every offensive category. Among the disappointing lines were those posted by Ron Acuna, Maikel Jova and Brad Hassey, while Raul Tablado’s FEMA of a season has been documented in detail elsewhere. Vito Chiaravalotti, Ron Davenport and Carlo Cota all arrived in New Hampshire with sterling Dunedin resumes, but the Eastern League ate them up and only Davenport finished the year as an F-Cat, with mildly productive numbers.There were success stories, however. Rob Cosby had a tremendous breakout year, slugging .507 in a pitchers’ haven. Ryan Roberts arrived from Dunedin and ripped the Eastern League for several weeks before cooling off. Late arrivals Chip Cannon and Curtis Thigpen struggled upon arrival but adjusted soon enough to Double-A pitching. Veteran Clint Johnston had a smashing Eastern League debut, but he slumped badly in the second half. Even Miguel Negron, who had a mediocre year by overall standards, made real progress in the power department. His shining centerfield defence was not reflected elsewhere, especially on the left side of the infield, where Cosby and Tablado combined to make 50 errors; many unearned runs dot the pitching stats.
What to expect in 2006? Better offence, even if the team doesn’t bring in the fences. Davenport, Thigpen, Johnston and Negron will all have Double-A experience under their belts and all should improve. Cannon and Roberts will be solid, while Chiaravalotti and Cota should be back at some point as well. Eric Arnold is also a good bet to climb from Dunedin, since Rob Cosby might be Syracuse-bound. Best of all, the F-Cats can look forward to receiving top hitting prospect Adam Lind from Dunedin. Banks should start the year in Syracuse, so Ramirez and Perkins may anchor the staff with D-Jay graduates David Purcey, Casey Janssen and Kyle Yates.
But this list includes some of the Blue Jays’ best prospects, and players like Janssen, Cannon, Roberts and maybe Negron seem all but certain to be promoted during the season. Such are the vagaries of minor-league life, but a franchise as well-run as the Fisher Cats should have no difficulties riding out these changes and sustaining a competitive ballclub. A big shout-out to Bauxite Kevin Pataky, who provided us with in-person commentary from Manchester and bushels of tremendous photographs all season long.
Syracuse Skychiefs
Triple-A International League
Review by Gerry McDonald
Syracuse ended its 2005 season two games under .500, a similar finish to the parent club. Blue Jays fans are generally happy with the big-league team, but 2005 was a disappointment for the Chiefs. Starting the season, the Skychiefs brought in several free agents who looked like they would help challenge for a division title. Chad Mottola, Bryant Nelson, Jason Alfaro and Matt Whiteside were signed to complement prospects like Aaron Hill, Gabe Gross, John-Ford Griffin, Guillermo Quiroz, John Hattig, Brandon League and Francisco Rosario.
However, the best-laid plans of mice, men and Dick Scott came to naught, as the Skychiefs never really got hot, except for an eight-game winning streak in June. They were seven games under .500 at the end of May and fought back to one game over by the end of June, but could never move far away from the .500 level, finishing 11 games back of Buffalo. There was a glimmer of hope for the Chiefs for a couple of weeks in August, when Syracuse was around .500 and Buffalo hit a losing skid, but that was the only time after Opening Day when the Chiefs looked like they had a shot.
The hitters did not live up to expectations this year, as the team finished last in the league in OBP and 10th in SLG. Injuries played a role: Quiroz and Hattig missed most of the year, Hill was lost to the Jays when Corey Koskie was hurt, and Gross was up and down to Toronto a couple of times in April/May and didn’t get his bat going until June. Nelson and Alfaro were major disappointments. Nelson was coming off a very good 2004, but hit under .250 for Syracuse without much else to offer and lost his starting job by year’s end. Similarly, Alfaro had a great 2004 but was injured early in 2005 and never got on track.
Only three Skychief hitters had good years: John-Ford Griffin, who only hit .254 but cracked 31 homers and drove in over 100 runs; Kevin Barker, who single-handedly got the club over .500 after he was promoted from Double-A in June; and Gabe Gross, who just missed hitting .300 after his early-season struggles. In addition to second and third base, production from centerfield (Anton French) and catcher (Dominique, Huckaby, DePastino) was less than expected.
The Skychiefs finished 12th in the league in ERA, after being second at the end of April. Chad Gaudin was easily the pitcher of the year with a 3.35 ERA in 23 starts. The numbers for several other Blue Jay prospects were not so good. Shaun Marcum had a 4.95 ERA in 18 starts, while Zach Jackson ended up with a 5.13 mark in eight starts. In the bullpen, Jason Arnold’s ERA was 6.39, Jamie Vermilyea’s 5.60, and Brandon League’s 6.28. Only Francisco Rosario held his own among the prospects with a 3.95 ERA.
There were few bright spots for prospect watchers in 2005. Among the hitters, Griffin and Gross had okay, not great, years, while Quiroz and Hattig were MIA. Among the pitchers, Arnold finally dropped off the prospect charts, while Rosario had a mixed year and Marcum and Jackson had some rough outings in Triple-A. The path to “The Show” is not always straight, and we have seen better results for Marcum with Toronto in September, so hopefully those prospects who return to Syracuse for another go-around in 2006 will have it all figured out and will be challenging for big-league jobs by June.
There will be fewer older players in Syracuse next year, as Marcum, Banks, Jackson, Perkins, and possibly McGowan will compose the rotation, with Rosario, Vermilyea and Houston in the pen. Position players will include Roberts and Cosby, with maybes on Quiroz, Hattig, Griffin, Negron and Davenport. The team should be considerably younger on average next year.
