It was not a banner week across the system
It was a tough week across the Blue Jays organization, with Buffalo posting the only winning week at 4-2 (despite being outscored in aggregate by the Iowa Cubs). Like their big league brethren, the Fisher Cats bookended the week with wins but lost everything in between. Curiously, they outhit Binghamton in three of their four losses and were outhit in their Sunday win.
But that wasn’t even the worst of it, as Dunedin and Jupiter started their series with matching 9-6 records that look a lot different after a six game sweep despite allowing just 27 runs. Dunedin has lost nine straight after a 9-2 start, and they’re simply not hitting at all. Vancouver also had a winless week of sorts, dropping two games to Spokane before the last four were washed out. It’s the second straight year Spokane has visited Vancouver in April only to have a significant chunk of games lost, and once again it may be a blessing in disguise with Spokane off to a white hot start and Vancouver yet to beat them in five attempts.
Between the Vancouver cancellations and no Dunedin broadcasts from Jupiter, there isn’t as much to remark upon this week so this notes are more abbreviated than usual:
- One bright spot is Adam Macko, off to a very nice start in Double-A (3.15 ERA in 20 innings over four starts, 22 strikeouts against 8 walks and just 14 hits). He’s still no control artist who fills up zone, but in the early going has not lost the zone as happened all too frequently last year. His fastball velocity has firmed up nicely, as he’ll hold 92-94 while bumping a little higher while mixing and matching with the three offspeed pitches.
On Friday he flashed some really good change-ups that were a bat missing offering, though it was not consistent and others were more of the show-me grade. In my looks this year, it’s been the slider that’s been the most effective secondary, especially to lefties, with the big-shape slow curve more to change looks and steal strikes than get swings and misses. I’ve probably been guilty of selling Macko a little short over the last year in terms of pure stuff, and now that he’s stayed healthy since coming over to build a solid innings base is very much trending towards a mid-rotation starter. - Facing a lefty heavy Iowa line-up, Chad Dallas struggled mightily the first time through the order. He went with a very cutter heavy approach to try and manage the platoon disadvantage without a change-up, but the hitters were all over it and him as he walked three and gave up two hard hits. He escaped damage only because a third very hard hit ball was lashed right at the third baseman for a double play. Granted, the second turn though which I didn’t see had much better results, but everything about this look continued to point towards the bullpen.
- Finally, in the ugly department after his best rehab start to date Alek Manoah regressed with another rough one Tuesday, as he teetered with a lot of baserunners over the first couple innings before a home run-double-home run in a 5-run third inning finally did him in. For his part, 2020 second rounder CJ Van Eyk didn’t even make it out of the first inning Saturday, retiring just one of 10 batters faced. While not great, his stuff looked alright, but the story throughout his pro career has been getting hit harder than he should be.
- No one in Dunedin is hitting, the exception being outfielder Victor Arias (/383/.473/.553). He has a strong 2022 season at 18 in the DSL that had him in the Top 40 mix, but fell off last year coming stateside. So far it’s largely an average driven line, and he’s striking out at a healthy clip (27%), but nonetheless he stands out in the absence of anyone else doing much of anything and will be worth monitoring as the season progresses.
- The tiny silver lining to the pitching injuries in Dunedin is opening the door of opportunity for others, and on Dunday 2022 19th rounder Gage Stanifer made his full season debut. I’m always curious about late round high school picks who go pro, and he worked two innings with a low-90s fastball, the slider his main secondary in the first inning before leaning change-up in a messier second inning. He’ll be a priority to get a good look at moving forward. As will Fernando Perez, who had the start of the week with 6 innings in which he struck out 9 while allowed just a run on 3 hits.