Blue Jays Daily Prospect Update 04/08/11

In The News

Blue Jays top prospect Brett Lawrie had his contract purchased by the team and was called up to the show, while the yo-yo like treatment of Travis Snider continues as he was sent to the minors.  Luis Perez was called up as well to take the place of Carlos Villanueva who was placed on the Disabled List.

Let Me Vent
The awful management of Travis Snider under former GM JP Richardi and Manager Cito Gaston has continued with Alex Anthopolous and John Farrell. Despite Snider raising his average 41 points (24 G, 26-100, .360 AVG, 2 HR, 10 2B) since returning to the Blue Jays after re-working his swing but is mired in a 6-44 (.136) slump over his last 11 games.  You can't get a good judge on a player after 25 games! That is the second time this year he's been sent down after 25 games.  Wasting his option years with yo-yo'ing, now next year he is in a make or break year at just age 24.  I can understand him struggling though, he was a raw talent with great tools when he was selected 14th overall in 2006.   Raw talents shouldn't be spending only 1302 plate attempts in the minors.  Travis was never a player that should be in the majors by his 20th birthday like he was.  Travis spent all of 70 plate attempts at AAA Syracuse! Thats 18 games worth of action at the highest minor league level.   Yes Travis showed well, but he should have been kept in AAA the whole season in 2009.  I didn't mind giving him a taste of the big leagues when rosters expanded in 2008, but send him back to AAA to work on his plate approach and hitting lefthanders.  Travis wasn't a polished college prospect, he was a RAW toolsy HS player who impressed in the minors, but never was allowed to grow into his tools.

The last part of my vent is about Anthopolous' assertion that Thames has been playing better.  Over Thames' last 11 games, he's hitting 7-41 while playing below average defense.  Since Snider came back up on July 4th, Thames is 22-97 (.226).  Snider was a plus defender in RF and LF, so I really don't understand where AA is getting this from.  Despite AA's motto that we aren't about winning this year, he certainly makes it seem that way by going for "who is playing better" rather then by who can learn more in the majors vs. minors.  In my humble opinion, Thames should be in Las Vegas right now, not Snider.

Daily Prospects Lines

AAA
David Cooper went 2-5 with 3 runs scored and a double (44th of the season) to bring his average to (.377).
My thoughts: Cooper will be back in the Bigs this year.  He's tearing the cover off the ball in AAA.  While people say not to put stock into AAA numbers, his numbers aren't all power related.  While he does have 54 XBH, doubles have always transfered well from PCL to MLB.  If he was hitting like Willy Mo Pena, I'd be more concerned.  Along with his 46-33 K/BB ratio, he's hitting 24.6% of BIP as line drives.  Line Drives in PCL transfer well as it is flyball hitters in PCL who see their numbers drop dramatically in the majors *cough* Wood *cough*.  His park adjusted wOBA (info) has him hitting AAA pitching at the same sort of rate as Adrian Gonzalez is hitting MLB pitching, of course there is a LARGE difference between the 2 and Cooper is not Mr. Gonzalez, but that is his comparable MLB wOBA.

Adam Loewen was 3-4 with 3 runs scored, a walk and a double (40th of season) bring his average to (.322)
My thoughts: Adam Loewen continues his conversion from pitcher to position player and has impressed while doing it.  Much like Cooper, he doesn't have a high Flyball rate (only 22.2%), and boasts a pretty good 21.9 Linedrive%, which would transfer well to the bigs.  He's hitting for more power then Cooper (Loewen has 15 dingers) but also has 40 doubles on the season and 3 triples! While he does have strike out issues (striking out in 23.2% of PA), he does walk at a decent enough rate 10.3%.

AA
Chad Jenkins - 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K.  74 pitches, 51 strikes, 23 balls.
Extremely impressive outing by Jenkins, even if the final strike out numbers don't show it.  Of his 51 strikes, 13 were whiffs by batters (25.5%, MLB average is 8.5%). 

Adeiny Hechavarria - 0-2, 3 BB
Anthony Gose - 2-5, 2B (17th), 1 SO
Travis d'Arnaud - 1-4, 1 K
Moises Sierra - 1-3, 1 BB

A+
AJ Jimenez - 1-3, 1 BB

A
Micheal Crouse - 1-5, 2B (25th), 1 K
Carlos Perez - 1-4, 2B (15th)
Jake Marisnick - 1-4, 1 BB
Marcus Knecht - 1-1, 2B (27th), 4 BB
K.C. Hobson - 0-4, 1 K
Daniel Barnes - 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K

A-
Nothing of note.

R - Bluefield
Christopher Hawkins - 2-4
Mitchell Taylor - 5 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 K


R - Gulf Coast League
Joe Musgrove 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K