Blue Jays Minor League Promotions: K.C. Hobson and L.B. Dantzler

The Blue Jays like to be really secretive about everything it seems. After the end of the first half of the Midwest League (single-A) and Florida State League (advanced-A) seasons, the club promoted a bunch of prospects up a rung. Shi Davidi reported a couple of the promotions but there were at least two more that had slipped under the radar.

Bradley Richard "L.B." Dantzler was promoted Lansing to Dunedin. (Dantzler goes by "L.B." because everyone started calling him L'il Brad, his dad was presumably big Brad.) Dantzler, 23, was named the Most Valuable Player of the Northwest League (short season-A) after being picked in the 14th round of the 2013 draft. He was also named by Baseball America as the 18th best player in the NWL after 2013.

Dantzler has not had a spectacular year with Lansing, hitting .248/.351/.366 with three homers and eight doubles in 191 plate appearances, but he has cut down on his strikeout rate and is walking slightly more. With those numbers it didn't look like he was due for a promotion, but the Dunedin Blue Jays needed a new first baseman.

Why? FSL All-Star first baseman K.C. Hobson, son of Butch, will be joining former D-Jays Derrick Chung and Daniel Norris with the Fisher Cats tomorrow. Hobson, 23, is a left-handed hitter and was selected way back in the 2009 draft in the sixth round. His overall numbers (.239/.317/.338) may not look All-Star worthy, but in his last 20 games (arbitrary endpoints alert!) he has been hitting a lot better at .293/.369/.573 with five of his seven homers this season. With non-prospects Michael McDade and Yusuf Carter having handled the first base duties in New Hampshire so far this season, it's not like Hobson is being blocked in any way.

Thank you MjwW for the head's up on Dantzler's promotion.