2011 Draft – Round Two

After running through the 2012 draft picks and attempting to predict where the signed players may land in 2013, I thought it would be interesting to quickly buzz through the 2011 draft picks to see how they are getting on.  I’ve got a few reasons for this.  One, spring training has sprung, but the Jays really have very few questions to answer in the next month or two.  After following up a  2012 Grapefruit League  24-7 record with a 73 win season I really don’t give a crap how they do this spring.

Two, the earlier signing dates only kicked in for 2012 so many ’11 picks actually didn’t see any pro action until this past season.

Finally, I’m just curious to see how these kids are getting on.  As pundits such as Marc Hulet have noted, the Jays recent trend of drafting athletes with high ceilings hasn’t really borne fruit thus far.

Thanks to the commenters who made suggestions after my 2012 series finished up.  The main theme being that it tended to drag on a bit, especially as I made it a mission to delve into the potential college careers of those that got away.  Well, the constructive criticism has been taken on board and I’ll be glossing over the 2011 unsigned picks.  Also, as noted in Round One of this exercise, if any of the players drafted also have made Colleague Kyle’s top 30 prospect breakdown, I’ll be deferring to him for any scouting breakdown.

One piece of housekeeping to take care of from the aforementioned Round One.  I spoke to Tom Robson‘s junior coach this past week who confirmed that the elbow strain, which shut down his debut season, was indeed minor and he’s 100% healthy heading into his first spring training.

Now, let’s see what we have here:

Anthony DeSclafani – 6th Round – 199 Overall – $250,000 – Born in Freehold, N.J., which also produced the greatest recording artist of all time.  To celebrate, I’m listening to The River as I write this.  DeSclafani was part of the massive Miami deal, moving to the sunshine state with his Lansing teammate Justin Nicolino.  The good folks over at Fish Stripes did a nice profile of their Anthony.  Although I won’t argue with their projection of a potential middle reliever due to his lack of an out pitch, I will say that the luck they attribute to his high LOB % given his low K rates may be a bit overstated.  He was also victimized by a .370 BABIP (as a comparison, Nicolino’s was .305) which may help explain the 1.39 WHIP.  DeSclafani may not have got the print the other parts of the trade got, but he may very well turn out to be a nice piece in Florida.

Christian Lopes – 7th Round – 229 Overall – $800,000 – The latest member of Colleague Kyle’s prospect team, coming in at

Christian Lopes playing for Team USA (Image via MLBDraftCountdown.wordpress.com)

number 12, Lopes is an interesting case, as, like Kyle mentions, you don’t see many pure second base prospects at his age.  Most 19 year olds are still being given an opportunity to stick at shortstop.  As was the case for many of the younger prospects that made the jump to Vancouver late in 2012, the small sample provided was unimpressive.  Equally frustrating for C’s fans, aside from maybe Dwight Smith Jr, the bulk of the late call-ups will more than likely be in Lansing to start 2013.  I would put Lopes in that category, giving him 500 odd at bats with every day reps at second will be a big step in Lopes’ development.  It will also go a long way towards letting the Jays organization know if they have a viable option up the middle on their hands.

Mark Biggs – 8th Round – 259 Overall – $600,000 – Lured away from the U. of Louisville with a late, lucrative offer, Biggs made his pro debut this past season, throwing just over twenty-seven innings for the GCL Jays.  I’m  combing through the numbers for something positive, but nothing is really standing out.  His 6.59 K/9 isn’t great, especially considering only four of his eleven appearances were starts.  Looking at the season as a whole, his worst outings were his first three.  From mid-July he seemed to figure things out somewhat.  He still gave up just over a hit per inning, but his walks came down and no home runs were surrendered.  Mark turns twenty in May and is a fairly big body at 6’3″ 205.  That combo should see him stretched out somewhat with a Bluefield assignment.  Almost forgot, Jared did a scouting report in the (as yet unfinished)

After getting drafted in June, Biggs was named Mr. Kentucky Baseball. (Alex Slitz, BGDailyNews)

2011 top prospects series.

Andrew Suarez – 9th Round – 289 Overall – Unsigned – a left handed pitcher who went to the U of Miami instead of signing for the greatest team in the world.  His college bio if interested.

Aaron Garza – 10th Round – 319 Overall – Unsigned – 3 questions pertaining to the college bio: there’s a U of Houston? What is a midweek starter? Can video games really be considered a hobby?

Andy Burns – 11th Round – 349 Overall – $250,000 – Andy madeThe First Annual Kevin Pillar Sleeper Prospect List at shortstop after putting up a .216 ISO and 9 home runs in Lansing last year.  With both the shortstops ahead of him, Kevin Nolan and Ryan Goins respectively both seemingly in line for a promotions, Burns should begin 2013 in Dunedin where he’ll get the majority of reps on the left side.  Where he goes from there is tough to say.  With Reyes locked up for the forseeable future the three names mentioned above will start to bunch up unless they find other positions.  That, of course, is presuming they are successful, if they struggle, then the minor league teams always need shortstops.

John Norwood – 12th Round – 379 Overall – Unsigned – Is this the son of the infamous Buffalo Bills kicker, Scott Norwood….? No.

Matt Dean – 13th Round – 409 Overall – $737,500 – The second largest prospect ranking drop (curious as to who was the first) saw Dean fall from 13th to 29th.  And that was being generous.  If there wasn’t so many poor seasons by Jays positional prospects last year, Matt would have found himself on the outside looking in.  For a third basemen touted as a power hitter, putting up a .635 OPS is disappointing to say the least.  Judging by his 33% K rate, he struggled to make any sort of contact, let alone hit one out.  That being said, I really hope he has a decent spring as would like to get a closer look at him in Vancouver.  There are some raw tools there, fingers crossed he finds the tool box come year two.

Nicholas Wilper – 14th Round – 439 Overall – Unsigned – I’ve got nothing on this guy.

Cody Glenn – 15th Round – 469 Overall – Unsigned – College bio is interesting, if you look at the career highlights, pretty much all of them stem from the one game, and they ain’t that great.  The comments are odd as well.