It was a .500 night on Junior's Farm. A strong pitching performance was not fully rewarded but it all worked out in the end and you should have seen the poker men in the form of the third baseman and center fielder of the future. The winning affiliates put together ninth inning rallies while the other two battled back to tie their contests only to lose, with one game being decided in overtime. Let's go down to take a look at what happened Tuesday night.
The impressive bats on the top part of farm made us proud Saturday. Las Vegas and New Hampshire were strong at the plate and on the mound. Dunedin suffers 3rd loss in as many outings.
Winners Las Vegas and New Hampshire had loud lumber with 10 hits while Dunedin managed only 5 and came up the evening’s loser. Lansing had their second postponement in as many nights due to field conditions (that soggy Michigan permafrost is really something).
The minor league season gets under way tonight with four Blue Jay affiliates in action. With the parent club en route to the west coast tonight the minors can get our full attention.
Zach Stewart starts in AA tonight and Gregor Chisholm got the story on why Stewart is in AA:
"We talked about that at length," Anthopoulos said. "We figured with a guy like Zach it won't be the worst thing in the world to continue to work on certain things, because we know it's a tough environment in Las Vegas."
I have the minor league rosters and I will post them shortly (I need to see some of todays game first).
There are some highlights:
My trip to spring training is done and now that I am back at home I thought I would try and summarize what I have seen and add to my scouting reports on some players.
I also have more video to share of Aaron Sanchez and Deck McGuire.
Day three in Dunedin was an inter-squad day. Two games were on offer, Las Vegas vs New Hampshire and Dunedin vs Lansing. There was a Syndergaard sighting; another home run by a hot hitter; some hot hitting by a big dollar player; and some surprising base running.
Check the link below for video of Syndergaard.
Today was day two of my trip to minor league spring training. On this day the AAA and AA teams played the Phillies. I saw a two home run day, a solo home run, and in general good hitting by a number of Blue Jay prospects.
I also have some video of Mike McDade doubling to the wall from the right side (McDade is a switch hitter).
On my first day in Dunedin there were three lower level games being played. The Dunedin squad and the Lansing squad played their Philadelphia equivalents. The GCL level team played the Long Island Storm, a semi-pro or senior team of some sort.
The battle for starting pitcher jobs is likely to be one of the most interesting contests of spring training. There are several new pitchers looking for their first professional assignment. Will Deck McGuire and Asher Wojciechowski get assigned to Lansing or Dunedin? Will any of the kids get to start in Lansing? Is Henderson Alvarez ready for AA? Who will get the fifth starting job on these teams?
All of this ignores the battle at the major league level for the #4 and #5 jobs. And wait until you see the battle at Lansing, they could fill two teams with starters.
The final hitting position in our series is outfielders. We are not writing a story on designated hitters, in the minor leagues the DH is usually filled by rotation. Sometimes you have two good players at a position, for example last season Dunedin had Travis d'Arnaud and Yan Gomes, both catchers who were hitting well. The DH position could be used to get extra at-bats for both. The DH position also allows a team to get at-bats for the reserves.
Outfield is not considered a position of strength for the Jays but there are several outfielders whose 2011 performance will be closely watched. Can Darin Mastroianni handle AAA? Same question for Adam Loewen? How will Moises Sierra return from an injury filled year? Will Anthony Gose improve his hitting? Those are some of the more interesting story lines for 2011.
