With us coming up on mid-season, it is time to take a look at how the players on our Top 50 Prospect list have performed to this point. This isn't a reorder, we'll get to doing that in the off-season, this is just a look at how the guys we picked out as our best prospects are doing to this point in the season. Here are the 1 thru 5 guys.
1. Travis d'Arnaud: Things were going really well for the top guy on our list, until he was fell on and his posterior cruciate ligament tore, now it will be two months until he is playing again. And just when I was having fun little thoughts about JP being traded and Travis getting the job. Before the injury, he was named to the USA Futures team, and had a .333/.380/.595 line in Vegas, with 16 home runs, 19 walks, 59 strikeouts. He could walk a bit more, I suppose. He had a terrific May, hitting .367/.410/.734 and was having a good June as well, .341/.367/.588. He's hitting lefties (.297/.366/.500) and right-handers (.344/.384/.623). Zaun keeps telling us that he isn't any good defensively but he's thrown out 30% of base stealers. He has 6 passed balls, not that that really means anything. Everyone else seems to think he's good behind the plate.
2. Noah Syndergaard: Noah has been one of the piggy back pitchers in Lansing, he's pitched in 15 game, 8 as a starter, 7 as a reliever, to try to keep his innings managed. He has a 3.51 ERA in 48.2 innings, with 45 hits (keeping batters to a .238 BA), 15 walks and 64 strikeouts. He threw 5 innings in his last start Saturday, allowing just 1 hit, no walks, with 7 strikeouts. He's getting a lot of ground outs, 2.28 per fly out. His ERA has jumped some in June, 4.38, but he still has 16 k, with just 4 walks in 12 innings. We'll see how things go as they let him pitch a little deeper into games as the year goes on. Just 19.
3. Jake Marisnick: He actually hasn't exactly been lighting it up in Dunedin, so far this year. He's hitting .258/.337/.439, with 5 home runs, 6 triples,17 doubles, 21 walks, 50 k and 10 steals. He was pretty good in April (.890 OPS), dropped off in May (.621 OPS), but has picked it up again in June (.836). He's 21 and has a lot of steps to go. Hopefully the rest of the goes better.
4. Anthony Gose: Numbers look really good in Vegas, .292/.372/.425 with 9 triples, 3 homers, 38 walks, 80 k, 29 stolen bases in 77 PCL games. Of course, all batters look good in Vegas. He had a great May (.364/.431/.554). June hasn't been quite as good, .284/.376/.412, but still he is getting on base. He is just 21 (22 in August), so there is no rush to get him to Toronto. It would be nice if he could cut back on the strikeouts some.
5. Justin Nicolino: Another one of the sharing time pitchers in Lansing. He's pitched in 15 games, with 9 starts. He has a 1.42 ERA, with 47 hits, 11 walks, 55 k in 57 innings. It is hard not to like a 5 to 1 strikeout to walk rate. He's pitched 5 innings in each of his last two starts, they'll like keep him at 5 innings per for most of the rest of the season. He's getting ground balls, 1.51 per fly out. He could move up but I don't know that the Jays are in big hurry to push him up the ladder.