News from the Farm

This is a totally random collection of things having to do with Jays' prospects and draftees gathered from various places around the web, mainly because I'm impatient to save these tidbits until the end of the month minor league report.

Item: According to Marc Hulet at Batter's Box, the Jays will announce the Auburn roster on Wednesday, and the GCL Blue Jays roster on Saturday. I'm sure lots of speculation will be addressed by this revelation;

Item: Trystan Magnuson gave up a run in his last appearance. What makes this newsworthy is that it's the first time in eight weeks in which that has happened;

Item: Tim Collins is back on track. He has a 2.03 ERA over his last 10 appearances after having struggled a bit over the first three weeks of May;

Item: Adam Loewen is getting more and more notice as a legitimate prospect (see an article on that subject here). Remember he's only in his second year as a professional hitter, discount him at your peril;

Item: Kevin Ahrens has gone to Lansing while Mark Sobolewski comes up to take his place in Dunedin and both trips were well earned. Of note here is that the Jays have told Aherns to abandon switch hitting and work from the right side only (he had a .267 BA as a RH hitter which is remarkable given the overall average of .168);

Item: Last year's first pick, Chad Jenkins, has a K/BB rate over 5:1

Item: JP Arencibia is hitting .351 in June with a 1.211 OPS;

Item: inconsistent Zach Stewart has a 2.78 ERA over his last six starts, five of which were solid outings.

Item: John Tolisano has spent the last couple of weeks putting himself back on the prospect map by hitting .432 in June. Sample size cautions apply.

Item: Moises Sierra was almost back from his original injury when he hurt his wrist while rehabbing. he's out indefinitely. Also, Scott Campbell, the Kiwi sensation of 2008 is sidelined by a pretty serious hip injury and the Jays have no clue when he'll be back (it wasn't said "if ever" but that's my gut feeling);

Item: The Jays have signed 4 of their first nine draft picks, and 2 (or 3?) from the lower rounds. The four higher round players are Syndergaard, Murphy, Hawkins and Kenecht. Also, it's reported that second rounder Justin Nicolino and Supplemental round pick Aaron Sanchez are all but locks to sign, and another article expressed confidence that 2nd rounder Kelin Sweeney was an excellent bet to sign. No one seems worried about first rounder Deck McGuire. The first hard sign looks to be fifth rounder Dicke Joe Thon. Eighteenth round steal Kris Bryant (comparisons have been made to a young Troy Glaus) is also said to be expecting a substantial bonus to sign but reports are mixed on whether the Jays are ready to pay the price.

By next weekend we'll be around halfway through the minor league schedule and It's my intention to post a prospect ranking at that point which will include the results of the 2010 draft as players under consideration, with the caveat that anyone who hasn't played this year in the Jays system can only be assigned a rough ranking based on reports I've seen. i don't know yet how long the list will be but it's my intent to be exhaustive.