Friday Bantering: Jays sign Gunnar Hoglund

The Blue Jays have signed their first-round pick, Gunnar Hoglund, for $3,247,500, which is $111,500 under slot.

Keith Law did a recap of the AL East team’s draft. About Hoglund he said:

Gunnar Hoglund (1) would have gone in the first 10 picks or so had the Ole Miss right-hander not undergone Tommy John surgery this spring. He’s a command guy who repeats his delivery very well and will show you a basket of 55s, nothing plus but no real weakness either. Once recovered he should be able to move quickly and settle in as a fourth starter, maybe a tick better.

I don’t know what odds I would give, I thought the Yankees’ outbreak would end any hope of the Jays playing in Toronto, but maybe not.

It will be interesting to see if any All-Stars from other teams end up positive after Judge was part of everything going on in Dever (including standing beside Hank Aaron’s widow in the pregame ceremony).

An ESPN story noted that the Yankees were one of the first teams to hit the 85% target for dropping the Covid protocols (but that doesn’t mean 85% of the players are there). And that 23 of 30 teams have hit that target now.

SABR has put up their Defensive Index rankings, through July 13:

Steve Matz is near the top of the pitcher rankings. Ross Stripling also is above average.

Reese McGuire is right at average, and Jansen is slightly below average.

They have Vlad slightly below average at first.

Marcus Semien is AL best at second base. Cavan Biggio and Bo Bichette are both slightly below average at third base and shortstop.

Randal Grichuk is at the bottom of the list in CF (Jonathan Davis is second last, so I’m a little unsure about their numbers). Teoscar Hernandez and Lourdes Gurrieel are both slightly below average in right and left respectively.