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Two Blue Jays on Keith Law's Top 50 Prospects List

By Tom Dakers
Daniel Norris
Daniel Norris
Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports

Keith Law has two Blue Jays on his mid-season top 50 prospects list. The two are Daniel Norris and Anthony Alford.

Norris is #15, and Law says:

Norris' control abandoned him in the majors to start the season, but since the start of June, he has been throwing more strikes and walking fewer guys while in Triple-A, including a current streak of five straight outings with two walks or fewer. I've said before that I don't think he'll ever have above-average command, but with his raw stuff, he shouldn't need to have it to be a top-of-a-rotation starter.

Alford is #39:

Alford is 20, but he's in his first season playing baseball full time after wasting parts of the past three seasons playing college football at Ole Miss (which was part of the reason the Blue Jays got him in the third round in the 2012 draft even though he had first-round ability). He's quickly making up for lost time, showing excellent plate discipline to go with his combination of plus speed, defensive range and arm strength. He has a strong leadoff-hitter profile once he comes into the above-average power I project for him.

No mention of Dalton Pompey or Jeff Hoffman who were on both Baseball Prospectus and Baseball America's Top 50 lists. I am glad to see Alford get some attention.

In other Blue Jays minor league news:

I was hoping they would just send him up to Toronto.

Aaron Sanchez is to make the first of two rehab starts with the Bisons tonight. I was hoping that he would be making just one start and then join the Jays.

Ken Rosenthal says that Jason Frasor is signing with the Braves. I wonder if the Jays gave him much thought.

Bluejays.com is listing Drew Hutchison, R.A. Dickey and Marco Extrada as the first three starters after the All-Star break. I guess they want to give Mark Buehrle longer to rest his ankle.

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