Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - We Have To Talk About Addison

Addison Barger had three more hits bringing his average up to .538. We know it wont last but its an impressive start in AA. Barger struck out almost 40% of the time last season which seriously impacted his prospect status. He cut that down to 30% in Vancouver and now in three games in AA he has three K's in 13 at bats. That leaves his BABIP at .700, unsustainable but nevertheless a fine start.

They say if you watch baseball you can see something new every night. Well I did on Thursday. In the Bisons game, ninth inning, Bisons down 3-2 with two outs but the tying run is on third. Pitcher throws a ball in the dirt that the catcher blocks but it rolls away from him. He takes off the mask as he goes for the ball but the mask hits the baseball. That's called a catchers balk and the runner scores. I don't remember seeing that before. I also saw three batters getting hit in a tied game in the ninth inning, that's a new one too.

It was close games day for the affiliates. Buffalo won in extra innings. Dunedin lost in extras. Vancouver walked it off in the bottom of the ninth while New Hampshire won by two.

Buffalo 5 Iowa 4 - 11 innings

New Hampshire 7 Reading 5

Hillsboro 6 Vancouver 7

Dunedin 4 St Lucie 5 - 10 innings

This is what I noted from yesterday's games.

Gabriel Moreno was back in the lineup catching starter Bowden Francis. Francis got seven outs and gave up seven hits, but escaped with just conceding one run. New Bison Matt Peacock threw one inning, gave up a home run. The game was close all the way and the Bisons tied it in the ninth with the catchers balk mentioned above. After a quiet tenth Chavez Young singled in a run in the eleventh. Jordan Groshans grounded out to bring in another run. They needed that second run because Iowa got one back in the bottom of the inning.

Moreno doubled, singled and walked twice. LJ Talley and Chavez Young had two hits, Nick Podkul three.

Addison Barger was 3-5, scored two runs and drove in one. He is hitting .538 in his brief time in AA. Rafael Lantigua homered, Davis Schneider has his average up to .250 with a two hit night.

Trent Palmer and Nick Fraze are both on the IL, so Sean Mellen started. Reading scored two off him in three innings.

Vancouver took a 6-1 lead to the ninth but blew it. Will McAffer did most of the damage but Hugo Cardona made a throwing error at 6-4 and with two outs. Hillsboro must have felt bad about that because they hit the first three batters in the bottom of the ninth before Miguel Hiraldo delivered an infield single for the win.

Chad Dallas started and had a very good start, six innings, one run on three hits with eight K's. Hiraldo had three hits. Zach Britton two, including a triple. Leo Jimenez had just one hit but scored twice and drove in two runs.

Michael Dominguez went 5.2 innings, the longest outing by a starter for Dunedin this season. He allowed one run.

Seven hits for the D Jays, Angel Del Rosario had two and scored two runs. He stole four bases to give him 21 for the season.

Three Stars

Third Star - Chad Dallas

Second Star - Addison Barger

First Star - Miguel Hiraldo

Boxes

Posted by Gerry on Friday, July 15 2022 @ 08:10 AM EDT.

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greenfrog - Friday, July 15 2022 @ 08:34 AM EDT (#417329) #

Here is a snippet of BA's take on Barger: "The Future: A player with a standout tool on both sides of the ball - will Barger make enough contact long-term to be an everyday player? - is the primary question around his profile. If he does he has the ability to be a super-utility infielder or an everyday regular on a second-division squad."

The standout tool on defense is his throwing arm. On offense it's his power.

bpoz - Friday, July 15 2022 @ 09:08 AM EDT (#417332) #

Seems to me that players are moving through Vancouver very fast this year. A small example Palmer and Barger. Based on great stats I expect Trent Wallace to go to Vancouver. Ben Baggett is interesting.

Mike Green - Friday, July 15 2022 @ 11:11 AM EDT (#417333) #

Jimenez reached base 4 times last night with a single, a walk and 2 HBPs. After a miserable start, he's hitting .375/.452/.583 in July. The organization chose to move him step-by-step, and that looks to have been a very good decision. I'm high on him in the long run

jerjapan - Friday, July 15 2022 @ 12:27 PM EDT (#417335) #

A catcher's balk? thats a new one to me too.
i brought Barger up a while back but the consensus was that his K% made him a non-prospect. his power is evident, but Greenfrog's note on his arm being a plus on D is news to me. i still see a utility guy when i look at that slash line, but you mathy types have more insight than i do on much of this stuff.

one thing i haven't seen talked about much anywhere is the overall impact of the lost pandemic season on minor league development. Barger was 20 years young that season, with just over 200 pro ABs to his name. his K% is down nearly 10% this season as Gerry noted in his write-up.

for Barger and others, how does the 'lost' season impact age relative to minor league level? how many prospects improved relative to projections at the secondary facility, and how many regressed? how does the elimination of lower level teams factor in? obviously time will tell with some of the data, but i wonder how you guys factor in the pandemic with prospect development?

bpoz - Friday, July 15 2022 @ 12:56 PM EDT (#417336) #

Good point jerjapan. I also thing the 2021 draft was better because it was overstocked due to the short 5 round 2020 draft.

jerjapan - Friday, July 15 2022 @ 01:28 PM EDT (#417338) #

right, the five round draft, another wildcard variable. hard to prognosticate when the game changes so quickly!

John Northey - Friday, July 15 2022 @ 07:21 PM EDT (#417348) #

With the draft I always wonder what the point was of the old unlimited rounds, then 40, and now 20.

Doing a quick check we see for the Jays going by 5 year windows...

1977: 16 drafted, 2 reached - Jesse Barfield and near HOF'er Danny Ainge (OK, basketball HOF - 71 win shares but basketball is more extreme than MLB - best is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at 273 with 8 over 200 vs MLB WAR where the best ever is 183 by Babe Ruth with just 6 over 150).
1982: 32 drafted, 9 reached, 4 of note (David Wells, Key, Borders, and unsigned Mike Henneman) with 4 total reaching who were unsigned vs the 5 who signed who reached.
1987: 71 drafted, 13 reached, 3 of note (Timlin, Derek Bell, Darren Lewis (unsigned)). 7 of those who reached were not signed by the Jays, so only 6 reached who were signed.
1992: 52 drafted, 7 reached, 2 of note (Shannon Stewart, Doug Mientkiewicz [unsigned]). Just 2 unsigned reached.
1997: 66 drafted, 8 reached, 3 of note (Orlando Hudson, Vernon Wells, Michael Young) 4 reached who didn't sign.
2002: 50 drafted, 8 reached - Dave Bush the most WAR at 3.6, then Russ Adams at 0, just 1 reached who didn't sign - this was JPR's first draft and he failed horribly at it.
2007: 35 drafted, 8 reached - 3 of note (Brett Cecil, Marc Rzepczynski, J.P. Arencibia) - all who reached were signed by the Jays. Known bonus' paid were $6.47 million.
2012: 44 drafted, 8 reached, only one of note is Marcus Stroman (also Borucki, Alford and lots wasted on others). 3 of those who reached weren't signed.
2017: 41 drafted, 5 reached so far, best so far is Riley Adams - all who reached are college players (no shock given how recent it is).

So each year the Jays produce under 10 players with rare exceptions from the draft. Orlando Hudson is probably the best Jay ever for sub 40th round (he was picked twice by the Jays, in the 33rd and 43rd rounds - he signed after being drafted in the 43rd round). The best MLB player ever for 40th and beyond I suspect is Mike Piazza (62nd round 59.5 WAR) but by far the best are in the first 5 rounds (covers many greats from Stieb to Halladay). For 10th round you get Yan Gomes, Ryan Freel, Jordan Romano, Josh Phelps, and Danny Farquhar as the 1+ WAR guys over 44 picks. For 20th (out of 43 picked) you get Jeff Kent (wow), Mark Hendrickson, Ben Weber, and Vinny Capra as the only guys reaching. Sure explains why the draft ends there now. By the 30th you get Rowdy Tellez as the only positive WAR guy out of 3 to reach. 40th only Jose Cuas reached (didn't sign - 11th rounder by Brewers 3 years later), 50th is just Brian Bowles, 60th 5 drafted none reached, 70th 3 drafted, 1 reached (Tom Marsh), none signed here.

The draft is fun, but after 5 rounds it is pretty much a pure crapshoot - for every Jeff Kent you get dozens of guys who never reach. Only twice has a Jay gone from draft to the majors directly (John Olerud in 1989 and Brian Milner in 1978) so don't expect immediate help. In MLB history only 22 players have done that - most recent Garrett Crochet a LHP for the ChiSox in 2020.

scottt - Friday, July 15 2022 @ 08:03 PM EDT (#417350) #

The rule about not using equipment to capture the ball is probably there to prevent players from throwing their gear.
However, that is not a catcher's balk. It's closer to interference and the umps award bases according to the position of the runners when the infraction occurs.

An actual catcher's balk is when the catcher leaves his box before receiving the ball, usually to prevent a steal and hence runners are awarded a base. It's basically an illegal pitch out in which the catcher would get in front of the plate or behind the batter.

Mike Green - Friday, July 15 2022 @ 09:08 PM EDT (#417357) #

Well, if must talk about Addison, he's 1-1 with 2 walks so far today. That's nice.

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