There were lots of runs in the affiliates games on Wednesday. Many hot hitters stayed hot but some of the pitching is still inconsistent. Edward Olivares and Bo Bichette keep on hitting, both of them had three hits. Lourdes Gurriel and Cavan Biggio had two hits, and each homered. Dwight Smith is heating up. Read below for more hitters.
Sean Reid-Foley had a down and up start. Conor Fisk and Zach Jackson did not pitch well. Yennsy Diaz, Elio Silva and Joel Espinal were good.
I also added some commentary about the latest top prospect lists.
On Tuesday both Baseball America and MLB.com (mlb Pipeline) updated their top prospect lists. BA just went with a top ten plus commentary while MLB went 30 deep. It is interesting to look at the lists.
The top three are the same for both lists, Vlad Jr., Bo Bichette and Anthony Alford, in that order. Vlad has always ranked higher than Bo so that is no surprise. Alford has played well this year and made it to the major leagues but out of sight is out of mind. Alford has been injury prone but several of his injuries have been flukes, or one-offs. The hamate bone is a common injury for baseball players but has no lasting impact beyond the recovery period. Similarly the concussion should not recur as such injuries and outfield collisions are rare in baseball. But nevertheless Alford is a consensus number three.
BA have the reputation of being very influenced by draft position. However for these updates MLB, under the influence of ex-BA employee Jim Callis, have been more deferential to recent draft picks. MLB has Logan Warmoth at number four while BA has him at ten. MLB have Nate Pearson and Hagen Danner in the top ten too. While the recent draft seems good, that is aggressive positioning in a strong Blue Jay farm system.
Max Pentecost is at number five with BA, who have good things to say about his defense at catcher. MLB put Pentecost at eighth.
BA has four pitchers in their top ten, MLB has three but one of them is Nate Pearson. If we add the rankings of the four BA ranked pitchers we get a surprise best pitcher in the organization. TJ Zeuch is ranked 9 by BA and 5 by MLB for a total of 14 points. The top pitcher is actually a tie as Sean Reid-Foley is ranked at 8 by BA and 6 by MLB. Zeuch's ranking is helped by his four pitch arsenal, all of which are at least average per BA. SRF suffers from his command and the possibility he will be a reliever. Conner Greene is third with a 6 and 11 ranking while Justin Maese is fourth with a 7 and 14. BA ranks Greene the higher of the two publications and describes him as an enigma.
BA notes three players are risers in the rankings. They are (with the MLB rank in parentheses): Ryan Borucki (13), Danny Jansen (17) and Jordan Romano (18). The MLB commentary for Borucki and Jansen seems to be a hold over from 2016 year end. For Romano they note that his third pitch, the change-up, is a definite work in process. If that can develop that pitch he could be a future MLB starter, if not he will be headed for the bullpen.
BA's fallers include Rowdy Tellez, Richard Urena, John Harris and Max Ramirez. MLB have Urena at number ten, so there is a divergence of opinion there. Urena is still young for his level so that plays to his advantage. Harris did pitch poorly in the first half of this year but seems to have found something and has been playing better of late.
My sense from looking at the MLB list is that their update is a "quick job". In the off-season they have around four months to update their top thirty lists. In season they have much less time, probably just the month since the draft, to react to on field performances and so they adjust to major performance changes but ignore less well publicized performances. Vlad and Bo and the draft picks are high visibility. Danny Jansen is low visibility and the MLB team probably haven't had the chance to consult with scouts and managers on his performances. I also see players like JB Woodman and Harold Ramirez on their top 30 when they probably shouldn't be while up and comers like Edward Olivares and Chris Rowley are ignored.
On the field on Wednesday, Dwight Smith Jr. had two hits. Smith's bat is heating up, he has four multi-hit games in his last seven games. Sean Reid-Foley got off to a bad start, giving up six runs in the first two innings. He was hit around for six hits including a home run. He got better after that retiring 11 of the next 12 hitters. Was it a learning experience for SRF? Lourdes Gurrielhit his first AA home run and also added another hit. He did make an error that cost SRF a couple of unearned runs. Dunedin racked up 19 hits and lost. They had a lead in the tenth but Zach Jackson gave up two runs to blow the save and take the loss. Bo Bichette was 3-6 with two doubles. His average is .387 and his OPS in Dunedin is 935. Vlad Jr. is having a tougher time. He was 1-6 with three K's. He is still adjusting to high A. It will come. Cavan Biggio had two hits, including his eighth home run. Conor Panas and DJ Davis also picked up three hits each. Edward Olivares had another 3-4 night, he was a triple short of the cycle. Yennsy Diaz had a good start.
In short season ball Vancouver were shut out but Kevin Vicuna picked up two more hits. Elio Silva and Joel Espinal pitched well for Bluefield. Silva went six and Espinal three and they each notched a K per inning. Yhordegny Kelly was 4-4 in the GCL and is hitting .317. Kelly is listed as a DH which is why the 20 year old is not a major prospect.
3 Stars
3rd star: Yhordegny Kelly
2nd star: Bo Bichette
1st star: Edward Olivares
