A+ title reference.

Fangraphs has Jays taking Rutledge (who they compare with Pearson) first pick. I expect the Jays to be in on one of the second-tier players Rutledge, Thompson, Manoah, Batty, or Carroll but really, I have no idea. Last year, Groshans was listed as in the 20's but looks like one of the best prospects in the draft now and the Jays also got to use extra money to get Kloffenstein so that worked out beautifully. The Jays have drafted quite well recently so trust them on this front.

Gabriel Moreno is joining the Lugnuts. Also joining is Luis De Los Santos who was just in Dunedin. Jordan Groshans is going on the DL and Dominic Abbadessa is headed back to extended spring training.

I'll be very interested to see how Gabriel Moreno does in Lansing.  He just turned 19 in February, and I love his swing. 

Im not actually sure why Manoah is consensus the number two college pitcher behind Lodolo. His stuff is seemingly better and he has pitched better in the same college conference, not to mention Manoah pitched really well in the cape cod league where Lodolo did not pitch.

It will be nice to see Moreno up at Lansing, the full season prospect pool will be a little deeper to follow as a result.

It’s getting to the point with Pearson where I don’t remember a better Jays pitching prospect.

Even with injury concerns it still shocks me a guy with triple digit heat, 2 promising breakers, and control dropped that far in the draft.

Especially since his 6'6" 250lbs frame is the kind of thing that makes oldskool scouts drool.

Great news about Moreno. Love to see that aggressive placement for kids who earn it.

And Kirk might just be awesome, btw.

I don't think they've ever developed a dominant pitcher- Stieb, Key, Wells, Halladay were not of that type.  The closest pitcher than I can think of is Syndegaard, and of course, he was gone just after he turned 20 having finished the season in Lansing. 

I was thinking maybe McGowen in regards to quality of his stuff, but he was never this dominant. However yeah I agree it seems Thor seems like generally the closest match.

With Christian Williams being promoted to NH and now De Los Santos being sent down to Lansing, I wonder who the Jays will add to Dunedin's roster

Maybe Warmoth is ready to come off the DL.

Moreno just had his first at-bat in Lansing.....home run.

And...he just threw out a base stealer at second.

fun part of Pearson finally getting promoted to an age appropriate level is that we can start to make some comps:

Age 22

Nate (AA): 2gs, 7.0ip, 47.8k%/0.0b%, .167bip, 0.00era, 0.08fip, 0.79xfip
Thor (AAA): 5gs, 29.2ip, 30.1k%/7.1b%, .261bip, 1.82era, 2.99fip, 2.60xfip

still a bit hard to compare directly but eyeballing it i'd say those are two pretty similar performances given the level difference (guys are both August babies too so the age comp is true).

Those 5 starts there are the last 5 starts of Thor's minor league career, btw, other than some rehab starts, as he was immediately promoted to the bigs and never looked back.

Which would mean, of course, that Pearson keeping it up near this level for much longer would not only demand a promotion to AAA, but maybe MLB.

You can't ask for a much better first impression from Moreno than that.

Patrick Murphy seems to be on again today as well with 6 Ks, no walks and only 1 run through 3.

So much of our "young" talent is doing well. G Moreno good sss.

Bauxites and minor league media were high on Kirk and Moreno based on merit and Danner based on pedigree for 2019. They are young and earning this praise.

It's another fine outing for Patrick Murphy- 9 Ks, 1 walk and 1 run through 6 innings.  Kevin Smith has homered.  It sure would be nice if he pulled out of his slump. 

Another hit for Moreno, with two RBI, although he didn't hit it hard.

Moreno struck out, he is human after all (in the league).

That’s four very good starts in a row for Murphy for NH. Going deep into games, lots of Ks, stingy with the walks. He’s brought his ERA down from 6.11 to 3.35.

Moreno's 3rd hit was a triple. Lansing has won the game. 7-6.

It will be interesting to see how the middle infield is handled in Lansing. Between Lopez, Lantigua, De Los Santos and Groshans (when healthy), they have four actual MI prospects. I understand that not all are equally promising. I presume that Lantigua and De Los Santos are farther down the pecking order than Groshans and Lopez but it may give us some clues about future positions (particularly if Groshans starts to play some 3B). They had Lopez at SS today and I really don't think that's a future position for him.

Murphy's certainly making the case for an early promotion to Buffalo. His ERA is the lagging indicator - he's both preventing hits and limiting walks at an elite level.

I'm not sure how reliable BABIP is at determining future ability, and he's not at Nate Pearson-levels of BABIP, but he's below .225 for the season right now. The only blot on his record is four home runs, which isn't terrible, but not great.

At the start of the season I had Zeuch, Murphy and Perez in the same tier, and to this point in the season Murphy has separated himself from the other two and emerged as a top ten prospect.

1/2 Season Top 10:

01. Vlady
02. Bichette
03. Pearson
04. Groshans
05. Pardinho
06. Biggio
07. Murphy
08. Alejandro Kirk
09. Kevin Smith
10A. Kloffenstein
10B. Orelivs Martinez

I of course meant 1/4 season.

Gurriel has played 20 games in the field since he was sent down - 4 SS, 10 2B, and 6 LF. He's committed 1 error total.

Alen Hanson has played 1 game at 2B, 2 at 3B. He's committed 1 error...in each game.

"01. Vlady
02. Bichette
03. Pearson
04. Groshans
05. Pardinho
06. Biggio
07. Murphy
08. Alejandro Kirk
09. Kevin Smith
10A. Kloffenstein
10B. Orelivs Martinez"

It's hard for me to update the prospect list because half the guys haven't played at all and other players, adapting to a new league can take some time. The Jays top-3 (without Vladdy) is still one of the better top-3s in baseball. They need some of the guys lower in the minors and there is a lot of talent there (Pardinho, Kloffenstein, Martinez, Hiraldo, Jimenez, Conine,etc..) to take a step forward.

I keep wondering if the NH position players are good prospects.

R Adams is new to the league. K Smith is struggling badly now. Espinal is doing well, but what ceiling does he have? He is behind a lot of IFs.

Regarding the pitchers: The SPs are doing v well. H Perez is struggling but AA is a big jump. How is the NH defense? It must be good because the offense seems V weak to me. A good defense obviously helps the pitchers.

I'm cautiously optimistic about Riley Adams - if memory serves, he had a slow start at Dunedin last year, which was his first taste of high-A. Secondly, while a 39% K-rate is scary, his swinging-strike rate is actually quite good. Perhaps he's been a little too passive, but I expect him to recover.

Smith is another matter. His strikeout rate went from good in Lansing to acceptable in Dunedin to a problem in New Hampshire, an increase that, unlike Adams, does reflect an increased swinging-strike rate.

Hector Perez is almost exactly replicating his post-trade outings last year in New Hampshire, except he's giving up an extremely high BABIP. If he ever gets his walks under control, he should be a good prospect, but wildness seems to be a constant in his career thus far.

I wish someone was familiar enough with Smith to comment on any mechanical changes from the first half of last year to 2nd half last year /Dunedin to this year.I remember reading there were mechanical changes, and there was a significant difference in results. Anyway, it's hard to know whether to be optimistic because there's a clear correction to make, or pessimistic  because the process  is there but the results haven't been and luck isn't the reason.