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.

Round three is when our fighters are starting to tire, let’s see if any later picks get their second wind.  A quick note, the signing bonus information for the latter rounds is often guesswork:

Richard Prigatano – 16th Round – 499 Overall – Unsigned – a tidy 0.20 BB/K ratio at Long Beach State.  That’s not good.

Brady Dragmire – 17th Round – 529 Overall – $250,000 – Dragmire made a very brief debut in 2011 with a whole one inning pitched.  Last year saw some more action and all in all, it wasn’t bad.  I can’t find any scouting reports to see what the right-hander throws, but at 6’1″ there isn’t a ton of projectability.  Brady had a low era despite his below average LOB% of 60%.  His WHIP was 0.93 so he does have a knack of getting outs.  Having just turned 20, Dragmire should begin this season in Bluefield.

Jon Berti – 18th Round – 559 Overall – Unknown – Apparently the 42nd Bowling Green Falcon to be taken in the mlb draft, Berti had a bit of a split season in 2012.  After a fairly good debut season with Vancouver, which was augmented somewhat by a .361 BABIP, the second basemen began 2012 in full season ball.  In sixty games with Lansing JB was rolling with a .391 OBP, highlighted by a nice 12.7% walk rate.  A promotion to Dunedin followed, which may have been a bit of stretch.  His walk rate remained consistent at 12.6%, but everything else dropped.  A .250 BABIP didn’t help his cause, but his time in Dunedin really accentuated his lack of power.  A .282 slugging percentage and .098 ISO are pretty ugly.  When you consider that the ISO was actually his highest over the three levels then Berti is destined to be org filler.  He’s a scrapper, and a player that fans will love, he just won’t progress much further than AA.  Next year will see a return to Dunedin, but Christian Lopes will soon surpass him.

Luke Weaver -19th Round – 589 Overall - Unsigned – 40 strike outs in 41 innings with Florida State his freshman year.  Not bad.

Joel Seddon – 20th Round – 619 Overall - Unsigned – Is 6 foot 165 pounds?  That’s not that big for a right handed pitcher.

Peter Mooney- 21st Round – 649 Overall – $90,000 – For me, the most interesting thing about Peter Mooney is his height.  The

June 24, 2011; Omaha, NE, USA; South Carolina Gamecocks infielder Peter Mooney (6) throws to third base during the game against the Virginia Cavaliers during the 2011 College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park. South Carolina won 3-2 in 13 innings. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Thorson-USA TODAY Sports

diminutive shortstop is listed as 5’6″ by BaseballReference, 5’8″ by Fangraphs, and 5’7″ by the South Carolina Gamecocks website where Mooney spent his Junior year.  After getting drafted in both of his junior college seasons, Peter signed with the Jays post a College World Series title with the Gamecocks.  Making his pro debut in 2011, Mooney saw time over three levels, enjoying success at each one, albeit with tiny sample sizes in the GCL and Lansing.  In twenty-one games for Bluefield, Mooney put up an .827 OPS with a 1.31 BB/K ratio and .182 ISO.  All quite positive.  Unfortunately though, the momentum shuddered to a halt in 2012 when the middle-infielder missed the season through injury.  I can’t find much info on the injury or if he has recovered so this prediction is strictly a guess.  If he is healthy, I would think another tour in Lansing would be on the cards before a possible mid-season promotion to Dunedin.

Aaron Nola – 22nd Round – 679 Overall - Unsigned – there was both an Aaron and Austin Nola on LSU web page.  ‘Hey, are you guys brothers or something?’

K’Shawn Smith – 23rd Round – 709 Overall - Unsigned – another shortstop, Smith went the junior college route with Indian River State College.  And now I found a link saying he’ll play for the Stetson Hatters as a sophomore.  Maybe he collects hats, who knows.

David Rollins -  24th Round – 739 Overall – Unknown – Another part of the Houston trade, I’ll leave it to Marc Hulet at Fangraphs to break down his stuff as he will be plying his trade in 2013 with Quad Cities in the Midwest or Lancaster in the California league.  He’s dead to me.

Eric Arce – 25th Round – 769 Overall – $100,000 – Drafted twice by Toronto, first in the 27th round of the 2010 draft before signing after being tabbed in the 25th round of the ’11 draft.  Signing seems to have been a wise move, as Arce lit up the Gulf Coast League, leading it in home runs with fourteen.  He also showed excellent plate discipline with an 18.4% BB rate leading to a fantastic .437 OBP.  Bluefield was the next station stop in 2012.  The numbers weren’t quite as superb as the left fielders K rate spiked to 34.6% and slugging % fell .150 to .472.  Still, at age 20, he walked at a 17% clip, put up a .244 ISO and managed a .850 OPS.  Not bad.  I’m going to pull the homer card here and predict a Vancouver assignment for Arce.  Simply because I want to see him at the Nat and get a close up look.

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.