Check this out. could it be ANY cooler?Eric Thames - born to be a Blue Jay.
A little content for ya, while I'm here: Henderson Alvarez was promoted to AA New Hampshire today, I'm not sure who comes out of the rotation (logically it would be Lamura) or possibly promoted to Vegas (Gonzalez or Beck have pitched well enough, but Vegas would have to ditch MacDonald or a reliever (Collazo?).
While I'm on the subject of promotions - it's still too early yet for widespread system-wide promotions. You likely won't see that until after the newly drafted players start filtering in for the short-season teams. but being a prospect hound, and impatient, I'm going to ignore that and give you a brief overview of who I'd be looking to promote. Of course, i don't know everything the Jays management does and I'm certain they know what they are doing but, what the heck, we all got uninformed opinions, right? Also, I'm ignoring the possibility the Jays want someone at AA more than AAA (ala Stewart) and thinking traditionally here.
This will not be comprehensive - I'll probably miss something but it's as much of the obvious stuff as I can see:
1. Ditch MacDonald and Collazo at LV, promote Gonzalez and Beck from NH and figure out which starts and which relieves.
2. Clint Everts back to AA for Alan Farina (RHRP). Evan Crawford could use a promotion too, but there's no obvious player to replace. Crawford can assume the closer role in AA for now.
3. Justin Jackson to AA as the full time 2B. While it's good Jackson has the versatility to play the OF, he's not going to beat out Gose and he doesn't have corner power. His future is likely a utility role but his clearest path to exceed that is middle infield. With Adeiny at SS, that means 2B. But he's owning the FSL right now (not easy in that pitcher's league) and it's time to move him up, IMO.
4. Matt Wright (LHRP) from Dunedin to NH.
5. Consider moving up Kevin Ahrens soon. The sample size is small, he was ordinary at best in April and has been on fire the past 20 games or so, but there might be something to be gained from rewarding success after SO much struggle in Dunedin. Plus, Sobolewski is crashing at AA so there's not as much of a road block as normal.
The bigger promotions come later. At some point you might expect Jenkins to move to AA - maybe even McGuire, though there's something to be said for separating their time frames a bit. Brad Glenn is pushing for a move to AA. Later in the summer you might see Sierra in Vegas. Hutchinson might move up to Dunedin when Jenkins/McGuire move. You might see highly regarded Aaron Sanchez take his place if that happens. I hope to see the entirre Lansing starting outfield move up to Dunedin in the second half (assuming Glenn and Jackson have already moved up).
And, naturally, Snider and Lawrie in Toronto!
Speaking of the Jays, they are a game and a half out of a playoff spot. Not sayin', jus' sayin'.
1 comment:
Given Justin Jackson and Kevin Ahrens' recent success, I would leave both of them at Dunedin for the year and let them rake and build some confidence.
Both of them have had such rocky years after so much post-draft hype that I think a sustained run of success would do them both some good.
The last thing I would want to do is shatter their confidence again with the big jump from A+ to AA.
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