Lazaro Estrada has never been considered a high ranking prospect. Injuries have caused him to pitch as an older player for his league. In 2023 his K rate was V good but in Dunedin. This year he has handled Dunedin & Vancouver very well and fast. NH is a bigger challenge. His K rate has dipped a lot. Someone to watch.

Estrada has an outstanding fastball - he gets a ton of swing and miss on it despite average velo. But he also has thrown it 80% of the time. His curveball also grades out above-average but he doesn't throw it enough. He has no third pitch and is likely a future reliever given his reliance on the FB. Agree his age is less of an issue as he missed a lot of time due to injury not struggles.

Dasan is now 270/374/425, getting back to the levels of 2022.

In the top 5 bats in the system yet to play in MLB?

Adrian Pinto, Jaden Rudd, and Nate LaRue all started their rehab assignments today. Good to see Pinto back, wish he could stay healthy.

AAA

* XX Horwitz (26): 259pa, 17.0b%, 15.8k%, .401bip, .335avg, .179iso, 157wrc+
* XX Jimenez (23): 226pa, 13.3b%, 15.0k%, .300bip, .271avg, .160iso, 129wrc+
* XX Martinez (22): 269pa, 8.9b%, 24.2k%, .288bip, .260avg, .264iso, 118wrc+

* 2B Cancel (27): 67pa, 13.4b%, 28.4k%, .364bip, .310avg, .379iso, 172wrc+
* 1B Tirotta (25): 158pa, 14.6b%, 28.5k%, .338bip, .266avg, .273iso, 144wrc+
* LF Lukes (29): 192pa, 9.9b%, 15.1k%, .375bip, .333avg, .146iso, 133wrc+
* RF Barger (24): 245pa, 15.9%, 19.6k%, .299bip, .259avg, .209iso, 125wrc+
* CF Berroa (25): 239pa, 12.1b%, 23.8k%, .373bip, .296avg, .160so, 121wrc+
* C Serven (29): 143pa, 16.8b%, 28.7k%, .387bip, .269avg, .126iso, 112wrc+
* DH Robertson (26): 283pa, 11.3b%, 30.7k%, .310bip, .239avg, .218iso, 103wrc+
* 3B Palmegiani (24): 287pa, 11.5b%, 26.8k%, .270bip, .222avg, .181iso, 90wrc+
* SS Lantigua (26): 300pa, 12.7b%, 22.0k%, .321bip, .246avg, .069iso, 78wrc+

* IF DeLosSantos (26): 69pa, 11.6b%, 24.6k%, .282bip, .228avg, .123iso, 87wrc+
* UT Clarke (26): 79pa, 15.2b%, 16.5k%, .269bip, .231avg, .092iso, 85wrc+
* C Henry (27): 94pa, 7.4b%, 18.1k%, .273bip, .244avg, .151iso, 80wrc+
* OF Eden (26): 279pa, 11.5b%, 26.5k%, .263bip, .206avg, .143iso, 69wrc+

* OF Roden (24): 78pa, 12.8b%, 15.4k%, .208bip, .197avg, .121iso, 66wrc+
* C McDowell (30): 120pa, 6.7b%, 30.0k%, .246bip, .193avg, .138iso, 53wrc+
* UT Hiraldo (23): 50pa, 10.0b%, 34.0k%, .333bip, .205avg, .023iso, 46wrc+
* IF Turconi (25): 77pa, 6.5b%, 35.1k%, .311bip, .194avg, .028iso, 21wrc+

* IF Arnold (22): 14pa, 0.0b%, 7.1k%, .250bip, .286avg, .286iso, 109wrc+
* OF Spain (23): 8pa, 12.5b%, 37.5k%, .250bip, .143avg, .143iso, 39wrc+


I wouldn't be shocked if Leo hasn't seen his last of AAA. Especially if we move out a player or two by the deadline.

Barger hasn't carried his slump back down to AAA with him at least - a 155wrc+ with solid as usual underlyings since being sent down. He'll have to do that for a while though to get called back up i think, after his poor performance in his callup.

I don't know that Cancel and Tirotta are worth being interested in, but their hitting lines are both really damn good without any glaring worry spots.

Roden got off to a very slow start, but the underlyings were never awful and the babip was unsustainably low. He's started to turn it around though now with a 126wrc+ over his last 8gms, with rock solid underlying numbers across the board.



AA

XX Roden (24): 244pa, 11.9b%, 13.9k%, .287bip, .267avg, .165iso, 130wrc+

1B Nunez (23): 267pa, 9.4b%, 16.9k%, .286bip, .258avg, .146iso, 107wrc+
IF Kasevich (23): 345pa, 6.7b%, 10.4k%, .317bip, .289avg, .087iso, 102wrc+
IF Dejesus (22): 319pa, 8.2b%, 27.9k%, .338bip, .246avg, .100iso, 90wrc+

Nunez i mentioned the other day - still no game power from him but the rest of his line is starting to creep up to notable, and apparently there's plenty of raw power to wait on.

Kasevich is kinda just barely hanging on to notable status. Dejesus is in the same boat, though I still like Dejesus' tools and upside a bit.


A+

OF Da.Brown (22): 265pa, 12.5b%, 23.8k%, .348bip, .270avg, .155iso, 129wrc+
1B Orf (22): 89pa, 15.7b%, 23.6k%, .260bip, .219avg, .219iso, 124wrc+
OF Bohrofen (22): 311pa, 12.5b%, 26.7k%, .285bip, .215avg, .158iso, 105wrc+


Dasan Brown has a very solid line this year, but a bit old for the level. Not sure why he hasn't been promoted yet I think it's well past due.

Orf hasn't played in a long time now. not sure what his injury is.

Bohrofen a big dissappointment for me this year. He's kinda just holding on the same as Kasevich.


A

OF Arias (20): 301pa, 10.6b%, 22.6k%, .337bip, .268avg, .177iso, 137wrc+
IF Nimmala (18): 183pa, 10.9b%, 33.3k%, .290bip, .209avg, .222iso, 108wrc+
IF Beltre (20): 324pa, 10.5b%, 18.5k%, .296bip, .245avg, .097iso, 103wrc+
C Duran (20): 217pa, 13.8b%, 14.7k%, .287bip, .240avg, .067iso, 102wrc+
OF Joseph (19): 239pa, 6.7b%, 24.7k%, .298bip, .232avg, .133iso, 95wrc+

Arias with a top notch line across the board. No rush to promote him at his age but not much reason not to promote him either.

Nimmala having a good year already for his age, but likely on his way to a having a very good year in the end.

Beltre, Duran, Joseph all having nice years for their age at this level. All worth keeping an eye on.


CPX

XX Nimmala (18): 30pa, 30.0b%, 23.3k%, .308bip, .238avg, .333iso, 175wrc+

IF Chirinos (19): 164pa, 9.8b%, 25.0k%, .412bip, .300avg, .143iso, 133wrc+


Chirinos starting to make me take notice, though there's a whole lotta babip boosting that line.

"Dasan is now 270/374/425, getting back to the levels of 2022.

In the top 5 bats in the system yet to play in MLB?"

fun question.

I think Nimmala and Arias are definitely ahead of him. So he'd be battling it out with Roden, Beltre, Duran, Joseph, Chirinos for the other 3 top-5 spots. Not sure which 3 i'd pick tbh.

Dasan is better in 2024 than in 2022. Lower K rate, higher W rate, excellent line drive rate, more pop, sustainable BABIP and 17-1 stealing bases.

He should be in Double A yesterday. They seem to be slow-walking him for reasons I don't understand.

If you include defensive ability, Brown might be behind just Nimmala. It's impossible to tell because of the organization's approach to him. It's weird to do that to a centerfielder whose prime asset, speed, is depreciating.

Does Arias have any defensive chops at all?

I want Brown to make it. I like highly athletic players who can play a superb center field. But I'm going to be skeptical until I see him hit in the high minors and in the majors. There are so many players who get exposed at those levels (and yes, I'm aware that he doesn't need to hit a lot in the majors to be a valuable player).

Bohrofen has been a disappointment to me too but not unexpected; he was always a high-risk high-reward player due to the swing and miss in his game in college which caused him to drop as far as he did in the draft. He had such a hot start this year too, but it's all come crashing down since then.

Orf was on his rehab assignment and should be back in Vancouver after the break.

No one says anything about his defence, as far as I can tell.

No one says anything about Arias' defence.

Brown's K rate is under 24% this year. That's perfectly fine. The club needs to get him to New Hampshire now to see how he adapts.

I like Brown a lot too and hope he gets to AA soon. The AA guys in OF mostly seem like non-prospects to me so should be easier to find room. Jays do have a lot of OF prospects at AAA where you can potentially see something useful so I think that creates a bit of a logjam but at some point you need to move off guys like Lantigua and Eden so you can get prospects playing time.

Joey Votto has been added to the Buffalo roster.

From the transaction log catcher Zach Britton has retired. Britton was only hitting .205 but there are always jobs for catchers.

He could have had trouble handling failure or he could have some other option to allow him to get on with his life (speculation).