Thanks for the update.  Thames seems to really be lighting it up.  Maybe working his way onto the radar even moreso this offseason if he continues his impressive Fall.

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I'm pretty sure Hech has a tight hamstring and that's why he hasn't seen any action yet.

I was wondering why Hech hadn't played yet, because I too heard he was a priority player over Iglesias.

BTW, Mastroianni (5 for 5 last game) and Henderson Alvarez have had very positive starts to their seasons in the various Caribbean Leagues.  Stats of all participants can be found here.

How did Thames do against LHP this year?  His numbers look great overall especially considering he played in New Hampshire the entire season and doesn't have many professional at-bats, but I haven't been able to find his AA splits and his inability to hit lefties used to be a concern. 

Platoon player still or the potential to be an everyday LF?

Heche started the AFL game today at short but was pinch hit for in the fifth.  Not sure if he aggravated his hammy or whether it was just precautionary.

Farina's in to pitch for Peo J.  Sitting mostly 92-93 with his fastball, but touched 94 once.  Also threw a 79mph curve and a 83mph slider, if you believe MLB Gameday.  Hmmm short, righty reliever sitting 92-93 with a slider?  That sounds familiar.

Baseball America has come out with their 2010 draft report cards this week and their overview today.  They have the Blue Jays as the 3rd best draft after the Indians and Red Sox.

Obviously BA and all of us know that its still very early but its still nice to be recognized by BA - they spoke with scouting directors, scouts and player development officials to come up with their rankings.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/online/draft/draft-dish/2010/2610851.html

Draft report cards are close to useless.  They essentially rehash the draft opinions of BA or whoever else does them.  Half of the Jays top picks didn't play in 2010 and those that did had limited time on the field.

The Jays score well because they had lots of extra picks.  They scored well in 2007 as well, before Ahrens, Jackson and co failed to develop as expected.

The first valuable evaluation of the draft will come this time next year once all of these player get a full season of playing time.

The BA report card likes McGuire and Sweeney, obviously, and of course Dyson, Wojo, Sanchez and Syndergaard.  They do say that Chris Hawkins was the best athlete drafted by the Jays.

Did the picks fail the Blue Jays or did the Blue Jays fail the draft picks in terms of development?

I believe that Ahrens isn't a failure quite yet. He's right about where you would expect him coming out as a 4th year College Player, no?

Apologies – next time I will make sure to note that a subscription is required.

As I stated, it is too early to put too much emphasis on such a ranking but its just another positive response by the media and the scouting profession to the Jays 2010 draft.  And, yes, I would agree part of the reason for the positive response is the number of picks the Jays had in the first 3 rounds.

Question from the BA chat.

Phil N (North York): I was surprised to see the Blue Jays at #3 for best draft - especially since they didnt have many players rank in top 5 in any category listed.

John Manuel: Thanks to everyone coming out for the chat. I don't think that's necessarily the way to think about it, Phil. I just think the Jays had a strong effort all the way around--pitchers such as Aaron Sanchez and Asher Wojciechowski went later than might have been expected, and I like some of their young hitters, such as Chris Hawkins and Marcus Knecht and Kellen Sweeney. It's a balanced haul, augmented by two of the best prep LHPs available in Griffin Murphy and Justin Nicolino. Not a surprise at all, for me, that they ranked third, I thought coming in they'd be top 5 and they earned it. Strong effort by the entire, expanded Jays scouting staff and first-year scouting director Andrew Tinnish.

.....BTW - remember how high BA was about Doofus's first draft in 2002.....

Can I humbly request that Bauxites refrain from terms like "Doofus" to describe MLB managers, coaches, GMs, players, etc?   It's very annoying.  Everyone in major-league baseball has a reasonable amount of intelligence, even if we disagree with the decisions that they sometimes make.  Calling anyone a "doofus" is hardly a useful way of advancing our understanding of anything.  Please -- analyze their decisions, quibble with their personnel moves, disagree with their trades or their bullpen management, but please don't toss around insults.  It just alienates people and gets in the way of accurate analysis.

I agree as well. Unless someone is talking about Joe Morgan or Jim Bowden :)