The next five on our prospects list.
35. Yeyfry del Rosario: Yeyfry (who deserves extra points for the greatest first name in the system) dropped a few spots from his 22nd spot on last year's list, mostly because he ended up in the bullpen at Bluefield this year. He pitched in 16 games, all out of the pen, putting up a 2.54 ERA, in 28.1 innings, allowing 24 hits, 15 walks and 33 strikeouts, with 2 saves. After showing good control last year, 2.4 walks/9, he walked too many this year, 4.8/9, but still got more than 10 strikeouts per 9 innings. Yeyfry was an international free agent signing in 2011 out of the Dominican, he turns 20 at the end of April. He tops out at 91 on the fastball and has a curve and a change.
34. Deck McGuire: Deck was added to the 40-man roster this winter to protect him from the Rule-5 draft. He made some steps forward this year. His second season at Double-A, he gave up fewer hits (8.5/9 from 10.1 in 2012), fewer home runs (0.7/9 from 1.4), fewer walks (3.4/9 from 3.7) and more strikeouts (8.2 from 6.1). You do expect to see improvement in a player's second turn at a level but it is nice to see. Course the 4.86 ERA wasn't exactly make you excited.
When he was drafted in the first round of the 2010 draft, the plan was that he would quickly work rise up the system and be a starter in the back of our rotation long before now. But, last year we used 13 different starting pitchers and Deck wasn't one of them. I would think that his best chance now would be to have a good season and hope to be next in line when someone gets hurt. Now that he's on the 40-man, he is in better position to be an injury replacement, but then he'll have a bunch of guys in front him. He's 24 now, if nothing happens for him this year, it might be time to move him to the bullpen.
Deck was number 8 on our list in 2012, then 35th last year. Fly ball pitchers at Rogers Centre worry me.
33. Shane Dawson: You think I was going to leave an Alberta boy off the list?
Dawson was our 17th round pick of the 2012 draft but he's been great since hitting the minor league system. In 2013 he split time between Bluefield and Vancouver. In Bluefield, he had a 3.29 ERA in 27 innings, with 17 hits, 6 walks and 35 strikeouts (you do have to like a 33.7% strikeout rate). Called up to Vancouver, he made 4 starts, with a 2.89 ERA, in 18.2 innings, 17 hits allowed, 4 walks and 26 k.
Shane is 20 and is listed at 6'1" and a 180lb (I get the feeling that he's not that tall), so not a huge lefty. His fastball is low 90's and he throws a change and curve. He' not going to be someone that blows batters away with the fastball, but he already knows how to change speeds and keep batters off balance.
32.Gabriel Cena: Gabriel was a international free agent, fromMaracaibo, Venezuela, signing back in 2010, when he was 16. Last year, at age 19 he finally started showing the potential that the Jays thought was worth $700,000, hitting .259/.348/.417 with 3 home runs, 17 walks and 32 strikeouts.
Cena mostly played first base, this past year, I was hoping he'd be able to stay at third. He played a couple of games at catcher and the Jays were talking about moving him to the position, they've always said he had a strong arm.The hope is that, as he matures, and fills out, he'll add strength and be a power hitter. It would be nice to see some of that power soon.
31. Jeremy Gabryszwski : Jeremy was a second round pick in the 2011 draft and he's done a nice job in the minors since. Last year he made 14 starts, for Vancouver, putting up a 2.82 ERA, 76.2 innings, 71 hits allowed, 10 walks, 40 strikeouts and 0 home runs allowed. Gotta like the 0 home runs. He is a ground ball pitcher who hasn't moved up on our lists because he doesn't strikeout many and we kind of like strikeouts (Jeremy was #26 on our 2012 prospects list and #32 on last year's list).
Gabryszwski (Woodman663 called him King Scrabble the Third) is a big guy, 6'4", listed at 195 and throws low 90's, with a good slider and change. It's possible the strikeouts will come, as he matures, or maybe he'll become a more extreme ground ball pitcher and continue to put up good numbers as he moves up the system. He is going to have to improve on the 12.9% strikeout rate to move up the prospect list. He turns 21 in March, so he has a bit of time to come up with the strikeout pitch.
That's today's group, who do you think will move up the list next year and who do you think will fall off the list?