Many are called but few are chosen. The Jays have approximately two hundred and fifty players under contract at the end of a season when the newly drafted players mix with the no longer rookies. Out of that number only thirty can be chosen to be on the Batters Box Top 30 list. There are many other worthy candidates who just didn't play enough to be recognized or who haven't really matured yet and as a result haven't shown their true potential. 

Last year Justin Nicolino didn't make our top 30, he was too new to the system.  Luis Perez looked to have topped out as a AAA reliever.  Both of those were able to shake-off the disappointment of not making the Batters Box top 30 to shine in 2011. Who will surprise with a break-out in 2012?  Most likely it will be one of the players listed below. If you doubt that, consider that two of the prospects included in last year's feature were Adonis Cardona and Michael Crouse. Following a list of the prospects to watch, this article will conclude with a brief blurb on every player to receive a vote on any of the eight Top 30 lists.

Welcome to the creme de la creme, the number one through ten prospects.  In case you missed it number 11 through 20 are here, and number 21 to 30 are here.

We hope you enjoyed this top 30 and the hope it brings to the future of the Blue Jays organization.   Check back tomorrow for a few who missed the top 30.

Today we look at the prospects rated 20 though 11. For prospects 30-21 click here.

Welcome to the Batters Box top 30 Blue Jay prospects for 2011. Eight of your trusted minor league correspondents pooled their votes to come up with the list. The same trusty eight shared the task of writing the prospect descriptions you see below.

In total, forty-two prospects received at least one vote.  Twenty of the top thirty were named on all eight ballots.  There can be plenty of debate as to who should have made it, particularly here, in the bottom 10.  We hope the wisdom of our crowd has delivered a great top thirty.

As usual we have split the top 30 into three installments, running Monday through Wednesday. On Thursday we will look at some prospects that did not make the list but are favourites of one of our writers.

We hope you enjoy the list and the discussion.

With the absence of minor league updates I am having withdrawal symptoms, so I decided to look at some minor league hitters stats.  I read an article around a month ago that looked at numbers in the lower minors and calculated which numbers mean something in predicting future success.  I cannot find the story now, but as I remember it the two main numbers with meaning were age relative to league and strikeout rate.  Or to put it another way, if a player is young for the league, and if he can put the bat on the ball, that is a sign of future success.  I looked at those numbers for all of the Jays minor league teams and the results are below.

Hitters are evaluated based on five tools, but one tool is the most important, the hit for average tool.  Some players can fill a utility role as a great defender, some can find a role as a power bat with a low average, but most players in the majors can hit for average.  A minor league players batting average might not be a true indicator of future success in the majors.  Particularly in the lower minors hitters can take advantage of weak fielders, inconsistent pitchers, and bad fields.  But ultimately if you can put the bat on the ball, you have a better chance of success at higher levels.

The Baseball America league top 20's started last week.  This thread will capture all the relevant Blue Jay rankings and comments.  Blue Jays listed so far:

GCL - Adonys Cardona #8

GCL - Joe Musgrove #13

Appy - Noah Syndergaard #4

Appy - Chris Hawkins #11

Appy - Aaron Sanchez #12

Northwest - Justin Nicolino #1

Midwest - Jake Marisnick #3

Midwest - Drew Hutchison #14

FSL - AJ Jimenez #10

FSL - Drew Hutchison #13

FSL - Deck McGuire #17

Eastern - Travis d'Arnaud #2

Eastern - Anthony Gose #3

Eastern - Henderson Alvarez #10

Eastern - Adeiny Hechavarria #19

PCL - Brett Lawrie #1

PCL - Eric Thames #15

That is 17 total Blue Jay prospects on the league top 20's. 18 seems to be the highest number.

 

Contrary to premature reports of their demise, Lansing was still alive and fighting to extend their season last night. Meanwhile, New Hampshire went for the Eastern League Championship. The headline may give away the result for each team.

Vancouver took  the Northwest League championship last week and Lansing went down in their series Thursday. Now, New Hampshire finds itself poised for the Midwest League title with just 27 outs to go.

The Lugnuts season is hanging by a thread as they dropped the second game of their Midwest League Championship series to fall behind 2-0.

The affiliates went 1 and 1 in their playoff matchups despite two starters combining to allow 1 run while striking out 15 in 10 innings.

The New Hampshire Fisher Cats lost a heart-breaker to the Richmond Flying Squirrels in Game 1 of the Eastern League Finals.

Just one game on the docket Monday night, but oh what a game.

It was a great day for the affiliates. One team won it all, another advanced to the championship series, and another took a 1-0 lead in the divisional series. There were no losers in Jaysville on Sunday.

It was a night of dominant pitching, timely groundballs and a controversial finish that saw one affiliate wrap up their series, another take the series lead and one affiliate set up a deciding game this afternoon. I won’t give up which affiliate was involved in which game, until after the jump, but my only clue is that Drew Hutchison took the mound last night.

Three affiliates in playoff action. One took the lead, one fell behind, and one will pack up the lockers.