We had dreams when the night was young: Bluebird Banter Top Prospect Review #11-20

Our second group of prospects to review. We looked at the first 10 of our top prospects here. The title comes from a song on Robby Robertson's new CD  How to Become Clairvoyant. I've mentioned before how much I love that CD. I've never been a big fan of Robertson. His voice, has never been his strong point, but now it has that lived in feel now that suits the material on this CD perfectly.

11. Henderson Alvarez: Henderson was number 5 on our list the year before, and he dropped for no reason other than we added a number of good prospects in the year between. Henderson started the year on the DL. He made a couple of rehabish starts in Dunedin then went to New Hampshire. He is 4-4 with a 3.38 ERA, he has 39 k and 13 walks in 55.1 Double-A innings. He has had good and bad starts but has been lighting up the radar guns to the high 90's  and he is getting a lot of ground balls. I really like him, just 21 and doing find in Double-A.

12. Aaron Sanchez: Aaron was the 34th pick in last year's draft. He's at Bluefield in the Rookie league and their season has just started. He's had 2 starts and relieved in another game. A total of 10 innings and he has been hit hard, 18 hits, 7 walks, 6 strikeouts. Don't read anything into 10 innings. He turned 19 last week. 

13. Eric Thames: If you haven't noticed, he's been out there in outfield for the Jays the last couple of weeks. In he 11 games since he was called up again, he is hitting .326/.356/.651 with 2 homers. At Vegas he hit .352/.423/.610 in 53 games. He has even taken a couple of walks in the last 4 games. 

14. Asher Wojciechowski: Picked up in the first round last year, 41st pick overall. After 3 starts in Auburn last year, Asher has been at Dunedin this year. In 15 starts he is 4-7 with a 5.72 ERA. In 78.2 innings he has 56 strikeouts, 24 walks and 101 hits allowed. Just getting his pro career going. 

15. Chad Jenkins: Chad had a slightly disappointing year last year, but then low minor league infields and infielders don't often make ground ball pitchers look good. This year he started at Dunedin and went 4-5 with a 3.07 ERA in 11 starts and got moved up to New Hamphire. There he's had 5 starts, is 2-2, with a 3.34 ERA. In total he has thrown 102.1 innings, with 65 strikeouts, 25 walk and 103 hits. I'd like to see more strikeouts, I can't see him being successful only getting 5.7 strikeouts per 9 innings, but he does get a lot of ground outs. 

16. Moises Sierra: Sierra is in New Hampshire and is hitting .272/..340/.449 with 12 homers and 47 RBI. He also has 9 stolen bases but has been caught 10 times. He had a pretty rough June, hitting .228/.314/.413 and July isn't going any better, .154/.241/.231. I don't know, I know his defense is good and all, but he's going to have to start hitting sometime. He is on our 40-man roster.

17. Noah Syndergaard: He's at Bluefield, and their season has just started. He's made 2 starts and has 1 relief appearance, totaling 13.1 innings. He has given up 12 hits, 4 walk with 18 strikeouts for a 1.35 ERA. Another first round pick from last year, he's just 18 so he has a long way to go. 

18. Dickie Joe Thon: Our 5th round pick from last year. He's starting his pro career in the Gulf Coast League. Their season has just started. In 40 plate appearances, he is hitting .294/.400/.324 with 3 stolen bases. He's split time between SS and DH. He's just 19. 

19. Drew Hutchison: Our 15th round pick, last year, but he's much better than a 15th round talent. We gave him a big bonus to sign. Pat Hentgen said this about him:

...there is a kid name (Drew) Hutchison that's in Lansing. He's young, he's wiry. He's little, he's not real big right now, but he's going to put on weight. He's a high school shortstop. I saw him when we first signed him and man he just pounds the strike zone. And as a high school shortstop. I was really impressed with him. He reminded me a little bit of Marcum.

Since he is listed at 6'2" and 165 pounds, he will have to put on weight or he'll blow away in a strong wind. He started the season at Lansing going 6-2 with a 2.63 ERA in 14 starts. He got moved up to Dunedin at the end of June, has 2 starts and a relief appearance there, 2-1, 3.86 in 16.1 innings. In 88.1 innings he has 24 walks, 96 k and 82 hits, and 1.58 ground balls per fly ball. Pretty amazing for a 20 year old that didn't pitch much before signing with us.  

20. Adonys Cardona: We signed him as a international free agent, last year, out of Venezuela, for $2.8 million. When he signed we were told he was 6'4" but he's listed at 6'1" on Baseball Reference. The Jays have him starting out at the Gulf Coast League, he has made 2 starts and 1 relief appearance, totaling 8 innings. 10 hits, 1 walk and 11 k, with 6 earned runs. He's just 17, so it will be a little while before we get to see him.