Thursday Bantering: Some minor league notes

There isn’t much for Blue Jays news on the off-day.

Buffalo Bisons tweeted that pitchers Zach Stewart and Brandon Cumpton signed minor league contracts with the Jays and have been assigned to the Bisons. The Bisons were a little thin on pitching arms with all the moves the Jays have made.

Cumpton had been in the Pirates organization since they drafted him in the 9th round of the 2010 draft. He pitch in the majors a bit in 2013 and 2014. He was pitching for an independent league team when the Jays signed him.

You might remember Zach was part of the Scott Rolen trade, way back in 2009. Rolen wanted to be traded closer to his home. The Jays sent him to the Reds for Zach, Josh Roenicke and some throw in named Edwin Encarnacion. I wonder what happened with him?

Stewart was a pretty good prospect at the time. He would make it to the Jays in 2011, make 3 not great starts for the Jays and then he was traded to the White Sox at the deadline. He and Jason Frasor were sent to the White Sox for Edwin Jackson and Mark Teahen.

Jackson was immediately flipped to the Cardinals, along with Octavio Dotel, Corey Patterson and Marc Rzepczynski for Colby Rasmus, Trever Miller, Brian Tallet and P.J. Walters.

The trade worked out for the Cardinals, they won the World Series that year, not that any of the players they picked up from the Jays were a big part of the win.

Back to Stewart. He pitched a few innings in the majors, and then bounced around from organization to organization, This year he was pitching for an independent league team until the Jays signed him.

Looking at the Bison’s roster, I’m not sure who the next starter to come up would be if we were to need one. I guess Chris Rowley or Sean Reid-Foley

There was a line in the Bison’s game saying that Rowdy Tellez has been ‘placed on the temporarily inactive list’. I don’t know what’s going on. I know he was pulled from a game for not running out a ball. He’s not hitting much, .248/.329/.382 this season and just .184 with 1 home run in his last 10 games.

I hope he’s ok. Maybe he needs a couple of days to clear his head.

Baseball America kind of likes Vladimir Guerrero Jr:

Not all 80 grades are created equal. It’s common to find scouts who throw an 80 (on the 20-80 scouting scale) on a player’s running speed or a pitcher’s fastball.

Speed and velocity are quantifiable, but when it comes to projecting a hitter as an 80 or having 80 productive power, scouts understandably are much more reticent. Saying a minor leaguer will be an 80 hitter is to predict that he will win batting titles. Putting an 80 grade on a hitter’s power is to say he will win home run titles.

In the case of Blue Jays third base prospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr., it’s not hard to find scouts who project him as an 80 hitter. Some see him as having 80 power. Some see him as potentially having both, which would put him in the company of Mike Trout, Miguel Cabrera or Albert Pujols at the plate.

“They don’t build major league ballparks big enough to hold him,” a veteran scout said of Guerrero. “I told our guys, ‘He’s got 90 power.’ He has Hall of Fame ability.”

I like Hall of Fame ability, hopefully we will get Hall of Fame performance too.