Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Dunedin Comes Up Short

Dunedin played the first game of the FSL final and they had a one run lead with two outs in the ninth inning. But St Lucie hit a two run home run and won 6-5. Dunedin have played four post season games and they have a 2-2 record. Both losses were late innings bullpen blow ups. Mitch White didn't do much for his confidence, Buffalo lost. New Hampshire won a tight game by scoring the only run. It was the final game of their season.

Buffalo 8 Syracuse 9

Harrisburg 0 New Hampshire 1

St Lucie 6 Dunedin 5

This is what I noted from yesterday's games.

Kendry Rojas started for Dunedin and the first three hitters got on base. He struck out the next two hitters and almost escaped but a single scored two. In the bottom of the first two walks and a single loaded the bases for the Jays with one out. A bases loaded walk and a ground out tied the game. After a quiet second inning St Lucie took a 3-2 lead in the third with three singles. In the bottom of the inning Cade Doughty hit a two run home run to make it a 4-3 Dunedin lead.

Andres Tolhurst came out of the bullpen and went three shoutout, hitless innings. He walked two. Meanwhile the Jays tacked on another run with an RBI single by Josh Kasevich in the fourth.

Ian Churchill came on for the seventh. Churchill had trouble in game two of the semi-final and that continued here. He only retired one of the four hitters he faced. He left with the score 5-4 and with two runners on base. Trey Cumbie replaced Churchill and got out of the inning. He also kept St Lucie off the board in the eighth. But in the ninth, with two outs and just one out from the win, Cumbie was taken deep for a two run homer and St Lucie had the lead.

Dunedin went quietly in the ninth.

Mitch White was in AAA to find his groove. It's still missing. In five innings he was taken deep twice, gave up nine hits and was charged with eight runs. But he didn't get the loss. Anthony Kay also joined the home run allowed club and he took the loss. Nate Pearson threw 17 pitches, two thirds of an inning, and was taken out of the game.

The Bisons hit four home runs of their own. Davis Schneider and Trevor Schwecke each hit their first AAA home run. Both were two run shots. Veterans Yoshi Tsutsugo and Stevie Berman also homered. Schneider also doubled to go with his home run.

New Hampshire were no hit through six innings. Addison Barger led off the seventh with a single and scored on a single from Phil Clarke. Those were two of the Fisher Cats three hits in the game.

Jimmy Robbins was outstanding yet again, six shutout innings with six K's. In five AA starts, Robbins ERA is 1.52, his WHIP is 1.1 and he has 26 K's in 23.2 innings. In his last two AA starts Robbins threw 11 innings with eight hits, 2 walks and 15 K's. Robbins was a 20th round pick in 2019 and threw 19 innings that year. He hadn't pitched since 2019 until April this year.

Three Stars

Third Star - Cade Doughty

Second Star - Anders Tolhurst

First Star - Jimmy Robbins

Boxes

Posted by Gerry on Sunday, September 18 2022 @ 09:28 PM EDT.

Dunedin Comes Up Short | 21 comments | Create New Account

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

John Northey - Monday, September 19 2022 @ 09:17 AM EDT (#422576) #

Painful, but great experience for those Dunedin players. They will be learning a lot about playoff pressure even if the crowds aren't there. Just like Vlad-Bo-Biggio did years ago in AA IIRC.

bpoz - Monday, September 19 2022 @ 09:43 AM EDT (#422577) #

Pearson has pitched 5 games since his return. 1st gm in Dunedin then the next 4 in Buffalo. Every game was less than 20 pitches thrown. I looked at the off days between appearances. 3, 4, 2, 1. Maybe that means something. 4.2IP, 1H,2bb 4Ks. Not a Dahian Santos or Michael Dominguez strikeout pitcher.

hypobole - Monday, September 19 2022 @ 09:47 AM EDT (#422578) #

Kiley McDaniel at ESPN lists his 10 prospect breakouts:

7. Ricky Tiedemann, LHP, Toronto Blue Jays
Preseason Prospect Grade: 40+ FV, breakout pick

I scouted Tiedemann at Southern California junior college before the 2021 draft and was intrigued by his three above-average pitches and starter feel from a low slot with a lively sinker. I noted that progressive, numbers-oriented teams seemed to like him the most as low arm slots became en vogue. I assumed he'd go around the middle of round two, but he somehow (I still don't know why) slipped to the 91st overall pick, later in round three. Tiedemann was a young, 18-year-old, first-year JuCo prospect at draft time and he had physical projection in his 6-foot-4 frame, but I also didn't think his velocity would spike this season from 89-93 before the draft to 93-96 mph this spring, peaking at 98 mph. His off-speed stuff got more lively with the added arm speed, his command didn't recede at all and he reached Double-A as a 19-year-old, ranking 41st on my midseason list.

jerjapan - Monday, September 19 2022 @ 10:35 AM EDT (#422582) #

That's an exciting scouting report. Kid has to be the most exciting prospect in the system this year, no?
I don't know why it popped into my mind, but I was reminded of Atkins' early promise to stack the AAA rotation. Mitch White seems in danger of becoming another exemplar of what not to do on this front. Anthony Kay, Thomas Hatch, Nate Pearson, Bowden Francis, these guys were all touted as legit depth starting options coming into the season. I'm sure I'm forgetting someone, but it was a forgettable staff in Buffalo, by and large. Max Castillo was the best of the bunch, and we needlessly included him in the Merrifield trade. I was fine with buying low on Merrifield, but the fact that the org didn't give Castillo a real shot in a bulk role remains the biggest depth blunder of the year. I'm glad for Casey Lawrence that the guy got major league innings this year, but sad for the state of our depth.

I know plenty of posters saw through those rosy projections immediately, but this org, for whatever reason, is not developing it's AAA, back-of-the-rotation guys. Perhaps they should stop pursuing back of the rotation arms? hmm, FO?
I think Gerry's guy LJ Talley is one of the best stories of the Bisons season, tbh, so thanks Gerry for flagging the guy as worth having another look at. He has been a legit good player for months now. Ex-bauxite Tammy Rainey mentioned his under the radar season recently, and she's one of the better minor league observers out there. I wonder what your statsier guys think of him?

uglyone - Monday, September 19 2022 @ 11:05 AM EDT (#422585) #

"I don't know why it popped into my mind, but I was reminded of Atkins' early promise to stack the AAA rotation."

Not sure what's worse - the fact that he actually did name that as a key goal (with pride!), or the fact that he was never able to actually do it.

John Northey - Monday, September 19 2022 @ 11:32 AM EDT (#422586) #

I remember being excited about the potential for depth this year in AAA - Kay-Pearson-Hatch-Thornton all looked like solid 7th and beyond men (Stripling being #6). Heck, there even was hope for Luciano to finally show his potential this year. The article I wrote in November is here and interesting to go through comments.

Kikuchi was an afterthought at the time - seen as equivalent to guys like Jon Gray (1.4 WAR $56 over 4), Cobb (2.6 WAR $19 over 2 plus option), DeSclafani (-0.8 WAR $36 mil over 3), a bit lower than Matz (-0.5 WAR over $40 mil total over 4 years), Wood (0.1 WAR $12.5 per for 2 years). Kikuchi is at -1.4 WAR so far btw, for $36 over 3. So of the 'cheaper' opti

There were 1-2 year options then like Rodon (5 WAR so far, $21.5 mil for 1 year with player option for 2nd if he got 110 IP which he has), Verlander (Jays almost had him he says, 5.1 WAR for $25 mil plus player option for another year $25 mil), Syndergaard (1.3 WAR for $21 mil), etc.

It is interesting to look back and see what we all though was available vs what happened. I really wanted the Jays to get Gray back then which would've been better than Kikuchi/Matz/DeSclafani/Wood (all flops) but hardly a great choice. Verlander would've been sweet, Syndergaard not worth the draft pick lost imo. Others included Corey Kluber (2.7 WAR for the Rays for $8 mil), Zack Greinke (1.4 for KC for $13 mil), Michael Pineda (-0.4 for $5.5 mil and released by the Tigers...ugh) among others of course.

bpoz - Monday, September 19 2022 @ 01:02 PM EDT (#422589) #

I think Atkins did stack the AAA team quite successfully. My proof is that Buffalo is challenging for the AAA playoffs. That is how I interpreted Atkins comment. Buffalo is a great AAA team to have, especially since it is very close to Toronto.

Lawrence, Francis, S Anderson, Hatch & Allgeyer all contributed a bit to the success of Buffalo. As did Lukes and a few others. But their contribution to Toronto was nothing. Castillo started in AA so he does not count IMO.

Moreno was a legit prospect in AAA. O Lopez too maybe. Tough for him that he missed ST so he could not challenge Kirk & Jansen. His late start also gave Collins playing time when Jansen was injured.

Atkins can stack AAA again in 2023. Hope they get off to a good start again. There should be more prospects at the start of Buffalo's season in 2023. T Morris, S Horwitz, Barger, Tiedemann, Juenger, Zulueta and maybe a few others.

bpoz - Monday, September 19 2022 @ 01:42 PM EDT (#422590) #

Stacking the 2022 AAA team came out of the blue at me. I cannot think of how Atkins can stack AAA to help the Jays in 2022. Moreno, Lopez are ready to help. I liked S Anderson, A Hernandez, K Johnston as possibilities to help the 2022 team.

2023 should be stacked for the purpose of making Buffalo a winner and also helping the Jays if the prospects like Juenger and Horwitz develop. Pop could start in AAA and should be able to help. My top 10 list has Tiedemann, Robberse, Zulueta and Barger starting the year in Buffalo or getting promoted fast. I see a lot in them.

John Northey - Monday, September 19 2022 @ 02:05 PM EDT (#422592) #

AAA, like all minor league teams, has one purpose - to help the big team. But to keep those teams happy you need to put some effort into winning there as well or the owners will just shift to another affiliation (and Buffalo is a premium one for that). The Jays for 2023 will need to keep building up the pitching in Buffalo with solid AAAA guys (like Lawrence) and real prospects (Tiedemann should be there next year). Hayden Juenger, Sem Robberse, Yosver Zulueta, and Jimmy Robbins all have shots at being in the AAA rotation. Safe to say the Jays will try to resign Lawrence as he has been a solid addition to the rotation there (2.60 ERA over 121 innings, even if he didn't do so well here, beyond eating innings when desperately needed), odds are they'll try to keep Hatch around too (although I wouldn't be shocked if he gets removed from the 40 man at some point). Prospects come and go over time, it'll be interesting to see who grabs opportunity and who we say goodbye to.

99BlueJaysWay - Monday, September 19 2022 @ 02:37 PM EDT (#422594) #

Like John and Bpoz, I also thought they did a really good job of adding depth.

To me, the question going forward is why the Blue Jays are having so much less success helping their own pitchers become more effective. They seem to be adept at helping major leaguers tweak their approach to be more successful, but can�t seem to do that at the minor league level. We have 2 home grown players on our ML pitching staff. That strikes me as highly unusual.

Even the Tiedeman example- he mentioned in his profile story the key to his leap was getting access to nutrition and weight/strength training for the first time in his career. I get that that�s a big part of player development, but it�s really unclear to me that they�re actually just teaching these players to be better pitchers

John Northey - Monday, September 19 2022 @ 02:54 PM EDT (#422595) #

Good point 99BlueJaysWay - IMO a big hidden efficiency that the Rays have attacked is high quality coaching at ALL levels, not just the majors. Your A ball coaches should be ML caliber coaches imo. The cost is minimal - say, 4 coaches per level at $150k each per year = $2.4 mil for all 4 levels. Or about what they are paying Biggio in his first arbitration year, or less than they are paying Colorado to take on Grichuk's contract each year for 2 years. The payback could be huge - just shift a non-prospect into a ML'er for a full season or get 1 more WAR each year from someone, anyone and you have paid off 4 years worth of those coaches. Seems a no-brainer. But too often we see teams go with fewer than 4 coaches per level or just hiring ex-players to give happy stories to players down there. I suspect that isn't as bad as it used to be, but I'd bet few coaches are fully trained.

hypobole - Monday, September 19 2022 @ 04:21 PM EDT (#422598) #

A few years back Longenhagen had this remark about the pitchers in the Jays system:

"There are lots of changeups and splits in this org, though it hasn�t been one that�s had success developing breaking balls."

We've much lamented the Syndergaard trade, but he didn't become truly dominant until Dan Warthen taught him his slider. Would he have become dominant if we'd held onto him?c I'd guess probably not, any more than Jose becoming a dominant power hitter if the Pirates had held onto him.

And I don't think it has to do with quantity of coaching, it's the quality. I'm guessing there are far fewer really good coaches out there than people believe.

The Rays seem to coach-up a lot of pitchers, but they've also had the equivalent of an entire staff on the 60-day IL in their system at times. Trade-off?

Mike Green - Tuesday, September 20 2022 @ 02:22 PM EDT (#422607) #

The 2nd game of the FSL championship is free on milb.tv tonight. Good time to catch Kasevich, Roden, Beltre, Doughty, Machado and Peyton Williams.

#2JBrumfield - Tuesday, September 20 2022 @ 03:39 PM EDT (#422608) #

Addison Barger has been called up to Buffalo according to Sam Dykstra of MiLB.com

Mike Green - Tuesday, September 20 2022 @ 03:48 PM EDT (#422609) #

That's interesting. Barger has had a fair number of PAs this year and he is going to the AFL. I wonder if they are considering bringing him up as an extra man; there's such a limited use for Gabriel Moreno now and he could a little more playing time.

Gerry - Tuesday, September 20 2022 @ 04:18 PM EDT (#422610) #

The AA season ended on Sunday so for Barger is was go home or go to AAA. I assume the thought was Barger could start 2023 in AAA so lets give him a preview.

Gerry - Tuesday, September 20 2022 @ 04:21 PM EDT (#422611) #

In addition to Barger, Luis De Los Santos also was called up. Barger is in the lineup tonight, De Los Santos is not.

The Jays did bring back Eric Stamets to Buffalo recently as their backup shortstop so Barger will only be taking at bats from him or Rafael Lantigua.

Mike Green - Tuesday, September 20 2022 @ 05:09 PM EDT (#422612) #

That could very well be it, Gerry. Triple A has not seemed like it was significantly more talent rich than double A the last few years. It seems like the really good players spend less time there.

Gerry - Tuesday, September 20 2022 @ 08:45 PM EDT (#422627) #

And Dunedin comes up short again, and their season is over.

LJ Talley homered in the ninth to tie the Buffalo game, off to extras.

Gerry - Tuesday, September 20 2022 @ 08:55 PM EDT (#422628) #

Barger with the walk off single in extras.

Gerry - Tuesday, September 20 2022 @ 09:02 PM EDT (#422629) #

Barger hit the ball hard in a lefty/lefty matchup. It could have been a double but everything stopped when the winning run scored.

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