What does Dalton Pompey’s strong AFL mean?

I know that there’s been a number of articles written about Dalton Pompey this off-season. A lot has been made about how he is quickly becoming the jewel of Blue Jays management, but how much has a strong Arizona Fall League helped Pompey establish himself as a legitimate candidate to replace Colby Rasmus in 2015?

We’ve heard all about Gibbons endorsement of Pompey as the Blue Jays starting CF if the season started tomorrow.

We’ve heard all about how Dalton impressed enough to be selected to the Arizona Fall League All-Star team.

We’ve heard about how Pompey’s meteoric ascent through the minors secured him the minor league Breakout Prospect Award. We recently heard speculation about Alex Anthopoulos’ trading Anthony Gose to clear a path for Pompey, which will allow him to become the Toronto Blue Jays 2015 starting CF. Now to add fuel to an already blazing inferno of hype surrounding Dalton Pompey , he has gone and earned yet another award, at the very least some more recognition.

Jonathan Mayo, of MLB.com, revealed that Pompey was selected as the prospect who demonstrated the best ‘Outfield Defence’, besting the Minnesota Twins Byron Bruxton, and Boston Red Sox Rusney Castillo. He also received an honourable mention for his speed.

That’s some pretty decent recognition for the young CF. We better stop giving him so much attention or we will have to play with the roof open everyday because the Rogers Centre may not be able to fit his ego. Not to suggest Pompey has an ego, but all this success had got to giving him a boat load of confidence going into the off-season.

It’s safe to say Dalton Pompey’s strong 2014 stats propelled him into the upper echelon of Blue Jays Top Prospects, and quit possibly, into MLB Top Prospects. See 2014 MLB stats below.

and his 2014 MiLB stats.

The Arizona Fall League ended on Thursday, but Pompey played his last game was on Wednesday. He had one plate appearance and exited after he hit head on the ground sliding into second and was taken out of the game for precautionary measures. He finished 1-for-1 with his 9th stolen base of  the fall.

Pompey appeared in 19 games, finishing with a slash of .257/.358/.371, four doubles, two triples, no homeruns, and 2 RBI. He displayed good patience with 11BB and 14K, but before we get too excited, let’s remember that this the arizona fall league and not the majors. Pompey put these numbers playing against some of Baseball’s brightest young talents, but also some of Baseball’s not so bright talents. At the end of the day the talent in Arizona is not equal to what Pompey will face in the Major Leagues in 2015.Until then, let’s just sit back and dream about what could be in 2015 and with any luck for many years to come.