System Audit: Toronto
August 27, 2006
Systems Audit:
Toronto Blue Jays
1. Travis Snider, RF, Rk. Young and gifted. Strikesout too much, especially against lefties, but that may correct itself with time. He showed continual improvement over the course of the season and has a good potential. How that plays out is anyones guess. He's only 18 and is looking at a possible A+ placement next year.
2. Ricky Romero, LHP, AA. He flew threw A+ this year and has demonstrated excellent control. In his first professional year he has been susceptible to the HR. He will not strikeout many at the ML level, but he will consistently get batters out.
3. Adam Lind, LF, AAA. Great contact hitter who could be successful doubles hitter a la Lyle Overbay.
4. Curtis Thigpen, C, AAA (just promoted) Great plate discipline with decent power for a catcher. Needs to improve his catching in order to stay there. Otherwise will make a servicable infielder.
5. Ryan Patterson, LF, AA. After tearing through the New York-Penn League last year Patterson has more or less replicated his numbers in A+ and begun to at AA this year.
6. Chip Cannon, 1B, AA. Cannon is an Adam Dunn type hitter. His strikeout rate is staggering but has shown tremendous power. Definitely a three true outcome hitter. In AA this year he's ended his ABs with a BB, K or HR 44% of the time! He hits the ball hard nearly every time he makes contact which is good, because with a high strikeout rate he'll need excellent placement to succeed.
7. Kyle Yates, RHP, AA. Yates has a devastating curveball, but that's about it. While he has been outstanding at times (posting a 1.91 ERA over 75 IP in A+ last year) he doesn't have the periferals to believe those numbers are duplicable in any fashion.
8. Manuel Mayorson, SS, AA. Doesn't walk a lot, doesn't strikeout a lot, doesn't hit a lot of HR, doesn't have a lot of power. He's here because of his defense. He's an outstanding defender with a tremendous arm.
9. David Purcey, LHP, AAA. Mostly uses his mid 90s fastball. Which is good but lacks anything to compliment it. He walks too many batters and is ineffective against decent hitters.
10. Josh Banks, RHP, AAA. Great control pitcher. How great? 36 walks in his last 311.1 innings.
Flier: Balbino Fuenmayor, 3B. 16 year old Venezuelan phenom.
The Jays don't have much. They traded the Brewers two of their better prospects in Gabe Gross and Zach Jackson and many of the guys who were on this list six months ago have graduated. The system is weak and doesn't project to have many players who make significant impacts in the future.
Future Lineup (MLB arrival time)
C: Benji Molina
1B: Lyle Overbay
2B: Aaron Hill
3B: Troy Glaus
SS: Manuel Mayorson
LF: Travis Snider (2009)
CF: Reed Johnson
RF: Alex Rios
DH: Adam Lind (2007)
Starting Rotation
1. Roy Halladay
2. Ted Lilly
3. AJ Burnett
4. Gustavo Chachin
5. Josh Banks (2007)
'Pen
CL: BJ Ryan
Setup: Ricky Romero (2008)
LR: Shaun Marcum, David Purcey (2007)
Toronto should have a better farm system. With the philosophy they've taken they should have built a better system, but they haven't. Or at least they don't have the fruits to show for it. They've traded some, some hasn't panned out and some is hitting the big leagues now, but with diminished expectations for one reason or another.
System grade: D+
Posted by Koby Schellenger: Aug 27 at 3:02 PM
Fantasy Baseball 
Why don't they resign Vernon Wells... oO! Whoever writes this, could you do a Mets and Red Sox one? Please?
I am pretty confident Wells will want to test the FA market and the Jays won't pony up the cash to keep him.
Why don't they resign Vernon Wells... oO! Whoever writes this, could you do a Mets and Red Sox one? Please?
I'm going division by division, each week tackling a new team so the Red Sox will be in the next 3 weeks.