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Lane Thomas was 19 today and he got to play in a doubleheader. Thomas had five hits between the two games, two doubles and a walk. Thomas is the top performer so far for the Jays 2014 draft class. Bluefield split the doubleheader. Buffalo exploded for 19 hits, Ryan Goins led with 4. Of note Dalton Pompey had three hits and Kevin Pillar had two including a three run home run. Vancouver won with good performances from Roemen Fields, Franklin Barreto and Chase Mallard.

New Hampshire were one hit, Dunedin and the GCL Jays were three hit and Lansing were seven hit. All four lost. Sean Reid-Foley pitched well for the GCL Jays.



Pawtucket 2 Buffalo 15

  • Dalton Pompey was 3-5 with a double, a walk and 2 K's. Pompey has had 14 at-bats. He has 6 hits and 6 K's. Pompey also had one SB tonight.
  • Kendall Graveman pitched seven innings and gave up 2 runs on nine hits. Graveman had just one strikeout, he did induce 14 ground balls vs 3 fly balls.
  • Ryan Goins had 4 hits and made a great defensive play. Cole Gillespie and Darin Mastroianni had three hits each. Kevin Pillar and Matt Hague had two hits with a home run.


Portland 7 New Hampshire 1

  • New Hampshire were held to one hit, a solo home run from Andy Burns.
  • The Fisher Cat hitters struck out 15 times, Jon Berti had 4 of them, Jorge Flores 3. Despite the 3 K's Flores led the lineup with a .297 batting average. Flores doesn't walk much or have much power so that 300 BA leads to a 684 OPS.


Dunedin 0 Tampa 2

  • Marcus Knecht had two of the Jays 3 hits. Knecht has been streaky all season and despite regularly having multi hit games his BA is just .255.
  • Mitch Nay was 0-3 and is still oh for the FSL.
  • Jesse Hernandez was the loser with 2 runs allowed in 6.2 innings.


South Bend 7 Lansing 3

  • Rowdy Tellez was 2-4 with 2 K's. He is hitting .333 so far in Lansing.
  • Dawel Lugo has hit the skids in August, his OPS for the month is 325 but he did hit a home run, a 2 run shot.
  • Grent Powers didn't get out of the second inning and was tagged for 5 runs.


Boise 1 Vancouver 4

  • Chase Mallard pitched six shutout innings. His ERA is 2.89. Mallard is 22 and from a top university program (UAB) so his performance could have been expected. But he was a 14th round pick so the Jays liked him enough to start him. Next year will be a truer test for Mallard.
  • Franklin Barreto had a couple of hits and a couple of steals. We know Barreto can hit but he now has 24 steals and has only been caught 3 times. Barreto's K rate is just over 20% and his K/BB ratio is approx. 2.5 to 1, a decent ratio.
  • Roemen Fields was 3-4. After a red hot start Fields has cooled off but it was good to see 3 hits from him on Saturday. This is Fields first full season so the grind of everyday play was bound to get to him at some point.


Kingsport 11 Bluefield 6 - game 1

Kingsport 3 Bluefield 7 - game 2

  • Lane Thomas is on fire. In game one Thomas was 3-3 with 2 doubles and a walk. In game 2 Thomas was 2-4. He is now hitting .357 in Bluefield, very good for a guy celebrating his 19th birthday today.
  • In game 2 Josh Almonte had 3 hits and is now hitting .297. In case you missed it Fangraphs had a look at Almonte earlier this week. He was described as being toolsy and raw but his long arms might make it tough for him to be a high average hitter.
  • Angel Rojas had 3 hits in game one and one in game 2. The 21 year old infielder is hitting .232 for Bluefield.


GCL Blue Jays 1 GCL Phillies 2

  • Sean Reid-Foley pitched three innings just hitting one batter. Reid-Foley has pitched in seven games and, other than one blowout where he gave up six runs, he has pitched well. Overall, including the bad start, Reid-Foley gave up 17 hits in 19.2 innings. Chris King from Baseball Prospectus was at todays game and his comment after the game was "command of his secondary pitches has been very good. Will throw them in any count with confidence." Reid-Foley will be 19 next Saturday.
  • Nick Wells, this years third round pick, is younger than Reid-Foley, he doesn't turn 19 until next February. Like Reid-Foley, Wells pitched in nine games, although not as successfully as his fellow draftee. Wells ERA is over 6 but he is very young.
  • Deiferson Barreto doubled and scored the only run. He is hitting .293 and one of the bright lights among the hitters.


3 Stars

3rd star: Kevin Pillar

2nd star: Ryan Goins

1st star: Lane Thomas


Boxes

Lane Thomas Celebrates His Nineteenth Birthday | 15 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Mike Green - Sunday, August 24 2014 @ 08:54 AM EDT (#292472) #
How hot is Kevin Pillar?  Since the All-Star break, he's hitting .364/.394/.629 with 14 doubles and 7 homers in 137 PAs.  He's also 13-15 stealing bases during that time. 
ogator - Sunday, August 24 2014 @ 09:49 AM EDT (#292474) #
The refusal to call Pillar up to help a sputtering offence is starting to look like some kind of willful obstinacy.
China fan - Sunday, August 24 2014 @ 10:01 AM EDT (#292475) #
Because 25-year-old prospects with gaudy numbers in the minors are always better than established major-league hitters like Rasmus or Reimold.  Even if they've already been given 151 plate appearances in the majors and failed to do anything with it.  So if a team decides not to promote them until September, it must be obstinacy.
ogator - Sunday, August 24 2014 @ 10:27 AM EDT (#292477) #
It is only pig-headed foolishness when the guys playing in front of the minor league player are being successful. I wouldn't call Rasmus or Reimold very successful at this point. Players and former players drone on about the intangible value of experience of veterans but neutral outside observers and front office people need to have the courage to take a justified risk. Stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result i.e. that Rasmus at this point in the year will become a competent defender or Reimold will start hitting in such a way that he is a benefit to the team, considering his minimal value as a defender. Where will Reimold or Rasmus be next year?
Super Bluto - Sunday, August 24 2014 @ 10:43 AM EDT (#292479) #
Could be they're keeping Pillar in Buffalo for this play-off run? Maybe not so much for Pillar's sake as for the Bison ownership.
dan gordon - Sunday, August 24 2014 @ 02:12 PM EDT (#292483) #
I think Pillar should be up with Jays, but it looks like they won't call him up until September. He has developed a great deal this year, and I think he is ready to be a very effective mlb player. Since he started the year 5 for 44, in Buffalo he has hit .356 in 351 AB's with 10 HR's, 36 doubles. He's a high percentage base stealer at 27 for 33, and a good defender. It would be interesting to know what he did or said earlier this year to so alienate himself from the Blue Jays management. I sure hope they don't trade him for minimal return like they did with Yan Gomes. With Rasmus and Cabrera possibly departing, I think Pillar can be an important guy next year.
China fan - Sunday, August 24 2014 @ 02:42 PM EDT (#292484) #
Wow, so it is "stupidity" and "pig-headed foolishness" if the Jays fail to bench Rasmus and replace him with a completely unproven 25-year-old minor-leaguer?  It must be comforting for some fans to live in such a black-and-white world, with no ambiguities permitted, only one side to every argument, not even a hint that an issue might have two sides to it.
China fan - Sunday, August 24 2014 @ 05:12 PM EDT (#292494) #
An exciting game in Buffalo today -- the Bisons win in dramatic fashion on a 12th-inning walkoff grand-slam home run by Brett Wallace.  His third HR of the game.  Amazing. This puts them in a tie for the wild-card position, I believe.
greenfrog - Sunday, August 24 2014 @ 08:00 PM EDT (#292496) #
Jays fans have been living in an unambiguous world in one respect for the last 21 years: no playoffs.
Mike Green - Sunday, August 24 2014 @ 08:08 PM EDT (#292497) #
I really like what the Cubs are doing.  They drafted Schwarber early.  There were real questions about Schwarber's ability to remain behind the plate.  Instead of futzing around, they moved him to LF straight away and said "go mash".  He's at .314/.417/.613 in the FSL after 2 homers today.  He'll be joining Kris Bryant and Jorge Soler before too long (I'll guess late July 2015) in what promises to be a lineup that should be a lot of fun to watch. 
ogator - Sunday, August 24 2014 @ 08:12 PM EDT (#292498) #
Reimold BA .212 OBP .283
Rasmus BA .226 OBP .288 Sigh. Lots of ambiguity there.
TangledUpInBlue - Sunday, August 24 2014 @ 08:43 PM EDT (#292500) #
Well, Ogator, if you want to play that game you'll need to include Pillar's MLB numbers for the year. The ambiguity is in the comparison, and anyway it involves a lot more than looking at their stats for this year. Nevertheless, for the two statistics you've used (BA and OBP), you'll find that in Pillar's case, the former is actually higher, and not terribly good. And why did you leave out SLG?
greenfrog - Sunday, August 24 2014 @ 09:39 PM EDT (#292504) #
I tried to make the case for Soler as a worthwhile signing for the Jays when he was still an IFA. At the time, the Jays had some minor-league depth in the outfield, but I thought it would be worth trying to accumulate an embarrassment of riches at the position (and in the minors generally). Good job by Epstein to go after him aggressively.
smcs - Sunday, August 24 2014 @ 10:38 PM EDT (#292505) #
I'm not buying into Pillar as a full-time player because I don't think he can bring his .350 BABIP from AAA to the majors, and I don't think he will be able to hit righties. He doesn't draw walks (33 walks in 150 AAA games), doesn't really hit for power (14 HRs in 150 AAA games, although I'm willing to buy into this being a run of bad luck, as evidenced by his 57 2Bs over the same time), but he also doesn't seem to strike out a ridiculous amount (86 Ks in 150 AAA games). He's a Zero True Outcome Player. The Jays don't seem convinced that he can play CF, as the only time he got a serious run in CF was last year in AA. I can buy Pillar as being more suitable for this Jays roster than Nolan Reimold, and that he might be an option as a cheap platoon with Gose for next year, but I don't see a long-term solution for the Jays.
JB21 - Sunday, August 24 2014 @ 11:43 PM EDT (#292507) #
I saw Pillar play one game live in my life. In this game he was the starting CF for the Bison's (last summer) and he almost killed himself trying to catch a ball. It was a double off of the wall and Pillar apparently was not warned by the warning track, full speed into the wall and down like he was shot (or like he ran into a wall at full speed). Anyways, in a sample size of 1 game, I determined he's probably better suited for a corner OF position so he stays alive.

For the record, I like the kid and hope he continues to hit. I really hope that they call him up for September and give the kid regular AB's, because next year matters.
Lane Thomas Celebrates His Nineteenth Birthday | 15 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.