Friday Bantering: Vlad picked as Minor League Player of the Year

In what will be a surprise to no one, Baseball America picked Vladimir Guerrero Jr. as the Minor League Player of the Year.

You likely know the numbers, .381/.437/.636 with 20 homers, 37 walks and 38 strikeouts in 95 minor league games, 61 at New Hampshire (where he hit .402), 30 at Buffalo (.336), 3 in the GCL and 1 at Dunedin.

Baseball America had a comment from his uncle Wilton, saying that at 11 years old:

“I saw his swing,” Wilton said, “and I said, ‘He’s going to be like his father.’ He swings hard all the time. Every pitch. No matter what you throw, he swings hard. You can throw everything. You might get him out one time, but you’re not going to get him out with the same pitch twice. He has the ability to hit the ball hard all the time. He has the power and he has the eye. His dad was the same way—no matter what you throw, he can hit every pitch. The only thing is, Junior is a little bit more selective at the plate.”

I worry when they say ‘better than his dad’, because people tell me he’s going to be a better player than his dad. His dad’s in the Hall of Fame. We can hope he’ll be as good or better, but it isn’t a given.

And Max Pentecost (remember him) was named Eastern League Player of the Month for August:

New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Blue Jays) catcher Max Pentecost batted .375 in August and led the Eastern League in slugging (.650) and OPS (1.031). He finished second in average and tied for fourth in home runs (six). Pentecost, 25, was selected by Toronto in the first round of the 2014 First-Year Player Draft out of Kennesaw State University.

He played 89 games for the Fisher Cats this year, hitting .253/.283/.401 with 10 homers, 15 walks and 89 strikeouts. He played 77 games at catcher, which is nice to see. I’m less worried about his numbers, more happy that he was healthy.

Mark Shapiro is having a press conference, but not much seems to be coming out of it. I was hoping Sportsnet would show it. There was this:

I can see why the Mets would want him, they need someone to bring order to chaos and Shapiro would be good for that role. I’m betting they won’t want to pay what Mark would ask.

And there was these:

There is a bit of a disagreement between the Jays’ front office and Josh Donaldson’s people on whether a long term deal had been discussed or not. The front office says they discussed it and no deal could be reached. Josh and his agent says no deal was offered.

To me this all sounds like semantics. I’d imagine a deal was talked about and likely the Jays soon realized that they weren’t likely to be coming to agreement, so they didn’t make an offer.

I don’t think either one is lying, I think both are kind of shading the truth.

Nice to see Reese McGuire up with the Jays. They have some decisions about the catcher’s position next year, but I’d be happy with McGuire as the backup if the Jays can move Russell Martin.

And Lineups