2012 Toronto Blue Jays Season Thread

[Matty81]

Alford is probably the most unlikely guy to sign in the whole draft. Might free up some money to spend elsewhere if he goes on to play college football/baseball as planned.

I know the Jays draft the best player every time but am a bit surprised they haven't prioritized a middle infielder or 1B yet, maybe Nay becomes a 1B prospect. Makes me wonder what AA's plan for manning second and first base in 2 or 3 years looks like. You've gotta think that third, short, catcher, center and right are relatively deep and/or set for the next 4 or 5 years and with Gose, Marisnick, Crouse etc coming in the outfield I don't think they'll have any problems fielding a good left fielder. Only leaves two spots on the diamond where I'm unsure of the plan going forward.

[Caged Great]

Originally Posted by Matty81

Alford is probably the most unlikely guy to sign in the whole draft. Might free up some money to spend elsewhere if he goes on to play college football/baseball as planned.

I know the Jays draft the best player every time but am a bit surprised they haven't prioritized a middle infielder or 1B yet, maybe Nay becomes a 1B prospect. Makes me wonder what AA's plan for manning second and first base in 2 or 3 years looks like. You've gotta think that third, short, catcher, center and right are relatively deep and/or set for the next 4 or 5 years and with Gose, Marisnick, Crouse etc coming in the outfield I don't think they'll have any problems fielding a good left fielder. Only leaves two spots on the diamond where I'm unsure of the plan going forward.

It is possible to sign Alford if you allow him to also play football like Deion Sanders.

[dustyanddaflames]

Originally Posted by Matty81

Alford is probably the most unlikely guy to sign in the whole draft. Might free up some money to spend elsewhere if he goes on to play college football/baseball as planned.

I know the Jays draft the best player every time but am a bit surprised they haven't prioritized a middle infielder or 1B yet, maybe Nay becomes a 1B prospect. Makes me wonder what AA's plan for manning second and first base in 2 or 3 years looks like. You've gotta think that third, short, catcher, center and right are relatively deep and/or set for the next 4 or 5 years and with Gose, Marisnick, Crouse etc coming in the outfield I don't think they'll have any problems fielding a good left fielder. Only leaves two spots on the diamond where I'm unsure of the plan going forward.

I think AA sees opportunity in drafting the BPA instead of by position, via trade chip. I agree completely in taking the best player available - they may not fill a need you are looking for, but they sure could be a piece to the puzzle in regards to solving it.

Why take an average 2nd baseman just to take a 2nd baseman, when you can draft a four tool OF and trade him for an above average 2nd baseman?

Just IMO of course.

[Matty81]

Originally Posted by dustyanddaflames

I think AA sees opportunity in drafting the BPA instead of by position, via trade chip. I agree completely in taking the best player available - they may not fill a need you are looking for, but they sure could be a piece to the puzzle in regards to solving it.

Why take an average 2nd baseman just to take a 2nd baseman, when you can draft a four tool OF and trade him for an above average 2nd baseman?

Just IMO of course.

No I agree with the philosophy too, and with how aggressive he has been in making trades those spots could be filled real quick with already developed talent. Mostly just curious about the long term plan on the right side of the diamond. Will be interesting to see what happens in the trade market now that it is set to pick up also.

[Gozer]

Justin Morneu makes a lot of sense....

[dustyanddaflames]

Ya it should be interesting - rotoworld has the Jays inquiring on Matt Garza, which I could see. Big inning eater, and familiar with the AL East. But as usual, if you hear it in the media, usually turns out to be false when talking about the Jays.

[Caged Great]

Here's the list of guys the Jays selected

1st
DJ Davis - OF
Marcus Stroman - RHP
Matt Smoral - LHP
Mitch Nay - 3B
Tyler Gonzalez - RHP

2nd

Chase DeJong - RHP

3rd

Anthony Alford - CF

4th - 10th

Draft Cap manipulators (Crap guys that will sign for nothing)

11th

Grant Heyman - OF (High school)

12th

Ryan Kellogg - LHP (HS)

13th

John Silviano - C (HS)

14th

Zakery Wasilewski - LHP (HS)

15th

Ryan Borucki - LHP (HS)

Will Dupont 2B HS (16th)
Shane Dawson LHP HS (17th)
Alonzo Gonzalez LHP College (18th)
Jorge Flores SS College (19th)
Dennis Jones CF College (20th)
Colton Turner LHP College (21st)
Joshua Almonte OF HS (22nd)
Trey Pascazi SS HS (23rd)
Matt Rose RHP HS (24th)
Jason Leblebijian SS College (25th)
Nathan Desouza RF HS (26th)
Daniel Zamora LHP HS (27th)
Dan Klein C College (28th)
Cole Irvin RHP HS (29th) (he would sign if we have money left over to exceed 100K)
Devin Pearson CF HS (30th)
Derek Chung SS College (31st)
Jorge Saez C College (32nd)
Jonathan Harris RHP HS (33rd)
Brandon Lopes SS HS (34th)
Devyn Rivera RHP college (35th)
Brian Cruz SS College (36th)
Daniel Devonshire 1B College (37th)
Nick Lovullo SS HS (38th)
Shaun Valeriote 3B College (39th)
Jose Cuas SS HS (40th)

The guys that are bolded are later round guys that have higher potential that might be able to be signed depending on the contracts that the others sign.

[Caged Great]

1st rounders Matt Smoral and Tyler Gonzales have apparently signed or are close to signing already

[Caged Great]

Also apparently one team was wanting to draft their interns in the 4-10th rounds in order to sign them for like 1K each, but MLB would not allow it. That team is believed to be the Jays. If true, that is awesome.

[Caged Great]

From what I've been hearing, Davis, Nay, and Gonzalez should all signed for under slot albeit not by a huge amount. Stroman is a bit of a wild card, he could ask for the full 1.8 mil, or he might take less to get his arbitration clock started sooner and be in the majors this season.

Smoral should get about 1.5 mil which is about 600K over slot and all the guys from round 4-10 should sign for around $5000 each freeing up around 1 million.

De Jong is looking for 800K-1M which is about 200-400K overslot.

Alford might take less if he's also allowed to be a football player.

Also expect pretty much all the college players from rounds 11-40 to be signed and some of the lesser hyped HS guys as well.

[Caged Great]

Tucker Donahue, our 4th round pick signed for a 4 digit amount.

[Caged Great]

Jays sign undrafted LHP Kyle Anderson following the draft.

[Caged Great]

To draw comparisons to last draft.

Smoral = Norris
Stroman > Stilson (who's doing pretty good in his own right)
Gonzalez < Comer but not by a huge amount
Nay more or less = Anderson (Nay is a 3B, Anderson an OF but they're both power guys)
Alford and Davis >> Dwight Smith jr
De Jong < Comer (not really sure about this comp)

So more of less we drafted guys that are somewhat similar to last year's upside picks in round 1-3. Any time you can get guys like that it'll definitely boost your system a lot.

The other good thing with this is that if any of these guys decide not to sign for whatever reason, we get picks next year instead, and that includes Beede's comp pick Stroman due to the new CBA it was deemed that we'd get an extra year because of the changes.

[Caged Great]

Canadian Trey Pascazi SS HS (23rd) will sign shortly with the Jays. Was in a final exam when he found out.

[Caged Great]

Catcher John Silviano (13th) will apparently sign by Sat.

[Caged Great]

RHP Brandon Dorsett signed with the jays as an undrafted player

[Caged Great]

Eric Phillips 3B 6th round pick signed for 5K
Alex Azor CF 10th round pick signed for 1K (Said he would sign for a hot dog)
John Silviano C 13th round pick signed for 100K

UFA undrafted players
Wil Browning RHP
Joe Spano LHP

[flames_1987]

Huge thanks Caged for your work here. Nice to get a summary as easy to read as this. Can't help but love how AA's approach to the draft this year

[Caged Great]

Grant Heyman - OF 11th round is taking the weekend, but is leaning towards signing
Zakery Wasilewski - LHP 14th round is in Florida taking a physical with the jays, is expected to sign soon.

Ryan Borucki - LHP 15th round is also in Florida but wants more than 100K, will be one of the first signs if more room is made available.

Alonzo Gonzalez LHP 18th round appears ready to sign. Lots of quotes about him being very enthusiastic to get his pro career started

Derek Chung SS 31st round is a college senior, and appears to have signed as well.

Shaun Valeriote 3B 39th round should sign shortly

[Caged Great]

Devin Pearson CF (30th) and Jose Cuas SS (40th) have already said they aren't going to sign.