Comments on: Top 50 Jays Prospects, Jays Journal Edition: #21 Joel Carreno

By: The Revamped 2012 Toronto Blue Jays Pen - Jays Journal - A Toronto Blue Jays Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 12:01:06 +0000

[...] pen and had been mentioned as a possible closing candidate in the future. We had him listed as our 21st Jays prospect pre-2011 and Jared noted that: “One really interesting thing about Carreno is [...]

By: Brandon

Brandon — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 15:51:40 +0000

Personally, I just don’t see the point of moving a fairly effective starter with some gaudy k/bb and k/9 numbers to the pen until it’s absolutely necessary… Starters are always more valuable than relievers

By: Jared Macdonald

Jared Macdonald — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 20:49:09 +0000

Mat, nice job bringing up the Huggins reference.

I think the main reason Jays management hasn’t moved Carreno up faster is because they have just never thought of him as anything valuable up until this season when he made a name for himself. But, as Mat point out and I mentioned in the article, Carreno has given up roughly one hit per inning of work throughout his whole career so far.

If he can develop his changeup into a plus pitch and succeed at NH early on in the 2011 season, Carreno could potentially get moved up to Triple-A before the end of the season.

If his changeup falters this year, he’ll likely be shifted into the pen as a late inning/closer type.

By: Mat Germain

Mat Germain — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 13:50:55 +0000

I think it’s because he’s been fairly hittable at each level, so the Jays don’t want to burst his confidence. Even last season with all of those great stats and a wonderful 30 BB to 173 Ks, he still allowed just over than 1 hit per inning. In fact, hitters hit .269 against him in 2010, the highest average they’ve had against him during his entire minors career. At his age and at that level, with that stuff, he shouldn’t be that hittable. Just to compare, Charles Huggins, who didn’t make our top 50, gave up just 114 hits in 127 innings and he was moved up to AA thereafter. What happened in AA? He got knocked around and wound up with a 9.53 ERA in just over 10 IP.

The Jays played it safe with Joel and will likely allow him to pitch all of 2011 in AA instead of having pressured him to see AA action in 2010, something that could have had similar results to Huggins. I have no idea whether he’ll succeed or not, but he sure does have the stuff to rack up the Ks.

The suggested move to the pen by Mylegacy is an intriguing thought, one that could have him in The Show as early as 2012. I don’t know what his splits were in HiA, but his winter splits are available at MiLB .com and still don’t provide us with much clearer information.

By: FenixL

FenixL — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 06:02:43 +0000

I think they should just put him in the pen. Its nothing against him, but we’re really deep at SP so he has a better chance of making an impact through the pen.

By: lolwut

lolwut — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 04:20:47 +0000

He is an underrated pitcher in the organization and has generally put up good stats over his career.

Just curious but how come they don’t move him up faster? I mean he is 23 and was pitching well in High-A, why not promote him to AA during the season?

By: Mylegacy

Mylegacy — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 02:36:17 +0000

Have we got ourselves another closer here? Those SO’s last season were amazing! I wonder what his splits are LH vs RH hitters?