Overall the farm was not bad on Saturday. 2 losses and 5 wins with an outstanding day by third baseman Mark Sobolewski – 5 for 7, 2 doubles, two home runs and 7 RBIs. The long ball blessed the 51s with Arencibia and Wallace each belting one, and producing 6 RBIs.
The Toronto Blue Jays were rained out in Detroit Friday night so that game will be made up as part of a doubleheader Sunday with game times of 1:05 and 6:05 in the post meridian. We look west for our topic of the night where emotions ran a little high in the Mariners dugout during their 2-1 loss to Boston at Safeco Field.
Pitching was the name of the game Friday, the Jays pitchers had a one hitter, a two hitter and a three hitter as the affiliates recorded four wins in five games. Four Lansing pitchers combined on a one hitter. Lansing themselves had only four hits but two of them were round trippers. The GCL Jays had three pitchers combine on a two hitter. The Jays had only five hits but one of them was a three run home run by Michael Crouse. Three Fisher Cat hurlers combined on a three hitter and the hitters took it from there. Auburn won a slug fest while Las Vegas lost despite a big night from Brett Wallace.
Dunedin and the DSL Jays were rained out.
One and Five: What a Wednesday on the farm, seventeen innings but no cigar for Dunedin. A Lugnut “W” and “Ls” for the GCL Jays, New Hampshire and Las Vegas. Our boys were outhit 62-46 and it showed.
We all know that prospect development in baseball is an uncertain and rocky process. First round picks flame out and never make it to the major leagues. Twentieth round picks or similar undrafted longshots do make it from time to time. There is a saying in baseball development that in any year one third of your prospects will improve, one third will fall back and one third will stagnate.
Last year was not a good one for the Blue Jays under this measure. Approx one half of Jays prospects fell back last season while only about one sixth jumped ahead. That might be why the Jays now have a new farm director and a new scouting director, not to mention a new GM.
So how are the Jays prospects doing in 2010? Let's start with the Jays top 30 prospects for 2009, as selected by Batters Box. We will also include the players obtained in the Halladay trade.
In case you missed it on Facebook today. intrepid Bauxite Mike Moffatt reports, using Extremely Professional Journalist third-person language ...
"Mike Moffatt just hit his first home run -- at age 33. His 25-year plan of lulling the opposition into a false sense of security just paid off." Another Bauxite quickly posed the undying journalistic snideness, "Quick math tells me you will catch Aaron (the real leader) in AD 20,885. Bring it on!" Moffatt modestly responded, "Nope, that's it for me. I'll be forever tied with Duane Kuiper."
So in this the year of the Blue Jay Roundtripper, congratulations to our own Mike Moffatt, who now owns as many 2010 home runs as Yunel Escobar (TOR edition), Nick Green, Jarrett Hoffpauir and Mike McCoy combined. Hoo-rah!