Saturday Bantering: Prospect talk

There isn’t all that much for Blue Jays news out there.

Ross Atkins talked to the press, but there wasn’t all that much come out of it. His feeling is that things will be slow to develop this winter. And he was ‘close on a deal’, but didn’t give out any clues.

Other than that, they don’t know if they will be playing in Toronto next year. My guess is they will start the season playing somewhere else, but by season’s end they will be playing back in Toronto, but it is all a guess.

And the entire coaching staff will be back, but he made it sound as if Dante Bichette will have a smaller role. I would be ok with that, I’m thinking too many cooks might be a good thing.

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Baseball America released their top 10 Blue Jays prospect list. This is going to be a strange year for prospect lists, we don’t have any stats to go on. BA’s list:

1. Nate Pearson
2. Austin Martin
3. Jordan Groshans
4. Simeon Woods Richarson
5. Alejandro Kirk
6. Orelvis Martinez
7. Alek Manoah
8. Gabriel Moreno
9. Adam Kloffenstein
10. Miguel Hiraldo

They also had picks for the best tools in the system. I’ll share some:

• Best Hitter for Average: Austin Martin
• Best Power Hitter: Riley Adams
• Best Strike-Zone Discipline: Alejandro Kirk
• Fastest Baserunner/Best Athlete/Best Defensive Outfielder: Dasan Brown
• Best Defensive Infielder: Rikelbin de Castro

They also had a chat. Some of the answers:

• Standouts at the Alternate site: Riley Adams and Josh Palacios.
• Ben Badler feels Jordan Groshans will start at High-A next year (or whatever they call High-A next year).
• Best ‘off the board’ prospect: Cristian Feliz, signed out of the Dominican last year. Big guys with power, outfielder.

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I think I’m going to take the Marlins as my NL with the naming of Kim Ng GM. The first woman and first Asian-American General Manager in the MLB. Only 20% of the way into the 21st century, baseball has joined the 20th.

After the White Sox signed the reanimated corpse of Tony LaRussa (even after he consumed his all that embalming fluid), I figured there would never be a step towards the future.

I wish Kim Ng the best of luck (except when they play the Blue Jays) and hope she isn’t the last female GM in my lifetime.

I wonder when the first female player will make it to the majors? Is she born yet?

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Keith Law wrote about the rule changes for 2020 and what he likes and doesn’t like:

• Universal DH: He likes.
• Runner on second in extras: He doesn’t like.
• 26-man roster: He likes, as long as they limit number of pitchers.
• 3-hitter reliever rule: He sort of likes, but would change it to 2-hitter.

I always liked the idea that one league did the DH and and the other didn’t. I like the non-DH because teams need to have a bench in the NL. The Jays went for years with bench payers you would never want to see on the field. With pitchers being pinch-hit for and double-switches, you need to have bench players that can actually help a baseball team win, not just guys who can go into games that are already lost. But then, I’m not sure that outweighs the value of the extra offense the DH gives us. So I don't might having both.

The runner on second thing I don’t like, but it was ok for this season. I don’t like the 3-batter thing, because I see it as limiting strategy. I don’t like things that limit strategies. I do like bigger rosters. I’d gladly go 27-28 men if teams didn’t use it to add to the bullpen.

On the ‘runner on second’ Law says:

I’ll admit to a small purity argument of my own on this rule, although I don’t think it’s a compelling argument for reverting to the old rules on extra innings: There’s something extremely annoying about a runner scoring without a batter actually reaching base to do so, and charging the pitcher with a run allowed (unearned, but the earned/unearned distinction is itself a bogus one because errors themselves are so subjective) for such a phantom runner. It’s statistical asymmetry and I can’t abide it.

If there was something I wish baseball would do, but I don’t know how to turn it into a rule, I would love baseball teams to use relievers for more than an inning. I’d like relievers who can go 2-3 innings.

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If you are a betting man, and want to bet on where some guys may get traded to, or who will sign some of the top free games, BetOnline.ag wants you to know the odds (and, I’m sure, would be happy to take your money). I’m only including ones where the Jays are listed. I’ll admit to being surprised that we are the favorite to sign Masahiro Tanaka. I’d think the Yankees would be the strong favorite.