Blue Notes: Russell Martin, Cavan Biggio

What do you think of Russell Martin’s play at third?

We’ve had 10 guys play third this season (of course, 3 of then have only played 1 inning, Kendrys Morales and Darnell Sweeney, or 2 innings Gift Ngoepe). Martin has played the 3rd most innings at the position, behind Solarte and Donaldson (I had pretty much forgotten Josh has actually played this year).

Martin’s looked pretty good at the spot.

This play last night was as good play as we’ve seen this season at the position.

I’m not sure he’s got the most range at the position, but he’s making all the plays he can get to. He wasn’t great on the bunt single late in yesterday’s game. I think I’d test him out on bunts if I played for the Royals, but I don’t think he’s any worse than Solarte out there.

And it is nice that he is hitting, finally. He’s inning.346/.485/.615 this month. Just 9 games but if you want to go back to the start of July, he’s hitting .266/.383/.456 in 25 games. I wonder what’s changed for him.

Jim Bowden, at the Athletic, lists ‘five prospects who are ready for the Show now’. As you’d expect Vlad Jr is on the list, but the name that surprised me was Cavan Biggio. About Cavan he says:

Cavan, 23, has so much of the competitiveness, makeup, character, instincts and passion of his dad, it’s amazing that more people don’t talk about him. Playing in the shadow of top prospects like Guerrero and Bo Bichette is probably the reason. Biggio is a solid defender at second base, and has a major-league approach with plate discipline that has led to a .400 on-base percentage and .923 OPS this year. Despite some swing-and-miss issues, he is profiling out as a potential 30-homer second baseman. He also hit more home runs, drove in more runs and stole more bases than Guerrero did while they were both playing together this year at AA New Hampshire.

And goes on to say he would benefit from a September call-up. I have my doubts, we seem to be loaded with middle infielder types, especially when Lourdes returns and Tulo (yeah that’s one’s a joke).

Cavan isn’t on the 40-man roster, so I’m very doubtful that he would get a call-up, but he could be someone gets to play for the Jays next year if there are some injures or if the front office makes some trades in the off-season. I’d love to think he has 30-homer potential, but I’m not that hopeful.

I don’t know who is likely to be called up in September. I’d say Dwight Smith and Billy McKinney are sure things. Rowdy Tellez? Anthony Alford? Pitching side? Tim Mayza (if he isn’t up before that), Danny Barnes for sure, Mike Hauschild likely. I don’t know who else is likely. If Dalton wasn’t injured, I’d think he would come up. I don’t know what his injury is.

Any change of Vlad? No?

Shi has the story of the team taking a tour of the of the Negro League Museum, one of those places I’d really like to see some day.