Jays Journal » Reidier Gonzalez

Minors Movements in Jays Affiliates: Casey Lawrence Promoted to Dunedin and more

Mat Germain — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 20:35:07 +0000

There are a few promotions and injury news to report from within the Jays affiliates landscape. Here they are in no certain order of importance: Casey Lawrence Promoted to HiA Dunedin According to his Twitter feed: “@caseylawrence: Enroute to Dunedin. Can’t wait to get out of this ugly Iowa weather. From a plane that I had [...]

Minors Movements in Jays Affiliates: Casey Lawrence Promoted to Dunedin and more - Jays Journal - Jays Journal - A Toronto Blue Jays Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More

Top 50 Jays Prospects, Jays Journal Edition: #10 Adeiny Hechavarria

Mat Germain — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 01:07:11 +0000

We now delve into the top 10 on our list! The first, and largest, of what became many international investments made on the international market by the Blue Jays and Alex Anthopoulos is next in Cuban…..

#10: Adeiny Hechavarria

Short Stop / 22 years old / 5’11″ 180 lbs

image courtesy of mopupduty.com

Born: April 15th 1989, in Santiago de Cuba

Bats Right Throws Right

Cuban League Team: Santiago de Cuba

Signed: as an international free agent for $10 million ($4 million bonus, $0.5 million in 2010, $2 million in 2011, $1.75 million in 2012, and $1.75 million in 2013 – (all figures courtesy of Cot’s Baseball Contracts) – Signed by Marco Paddy

Quick Facts:

Hopes to bring his parents, father (Diosmede) and mother (Mirta), as well as brother (Alien) to America once he makes it to The Show. (more…)

Hoffpauir Hits Cycle, Dopirak Nails a Walk-Off Grand Slam

Mat Germain — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:17:13 +0000

The Las Vegas 51s had an outstanding day at the plate yesterday as they were able to hammer out 17 hits against Sacramento (OAK). Jarrett Hoffpauir and Brian Dopirak were definitely the stars of the show. Jarrett hit for the cycle, starting it off with a home run in the 1st – getting the hard part out of the way, a double in the 3rd, and then got his triple in the 4th inning. Not a bad start to the game! He finished it off with the easiest part, a single, and said that he feels so comfortable at the plate that he never thought about bunting himself on. Well, that bodes well for the Jays, because anyone who watched the game yesterday had to notice Aaron Hill wincing as he ran towards first and refusing to bend his knees to get that ground ball which allowed the first 2 runs to score against the Jays. If those are indications of his health status right now, the Jays may call on someone like Jarrett to fill a bench spot should Aaron return to the DL.

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Jays Minors Review: 20-Apr-10

Mat Germain — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:04:36 +0000

Here is a review of the major events in the minors for the Jays on Tuesday, 20th of April:

AAA Las Vegas –Lost 8-5 vs Salt Lake (LAA)

Rei Gonzalez (6.06)was not at his best Tuesday as he allowed 9 hits over 5.1 IP, 4 ER, 3 walks, and got 4 Ks. Luckily for the Jays, there is no rush for him to perform after his promotion to AAA since others are definitely proving to be up to the task of providing depth for the big club.
Another pitching note is that Jesse Carlson gave up 2 runs on 3 hits in his 1 inning of work in relief.
OF Chris Aguila (.375) led off and went 2 for 5 with a double (his 5th of the season), while JP Arencibia (.273), Jeremy Reed (.238), and Jorge Padilla (.262) all went 2 for 4.

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Jays Notes: 15-Apr-10

Mat Germain — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:26:26 +0000

Here are some Jays notes for April 15th, 2010:

Brandon Morrow still hasn’t found his groove. His outing Wednesday showed a lack of movement in all of his pitches and it seemed to me that he was pacing himself. I could be wrong, but those are my observations of his outing. He gave up 7 runs in 4 innings mostly due to 8 hits. He threw strikes (51 of 87), as also evident from only giving up 1 walk. I’m still waiting for Brandon to show start type stuff, but if he doesn’t do so soon the Jays may end up putting him back in the pen or sending him to AAA to sharpen his stuff.
Whatever Morrow did Wednesday didn’t really matter because the offensive side of the Jays was non-existent. They only managed 2 hits and 3 walks….not pretty!
Travis Snider got the day off. Hopefully that is enough to get him going, because both Jeremy Reed and Randy Ruiz could start pushing for playing time if he doesn’t wake up.
Kevin Gregg came in a took the closer’s job away from Jason Frasor. I remember lots of people criticizing the Jays for grabbing Gregg when they signed him, saying he couldn’t be effective in the AL. I wonder what they’re thinking now?
Reidier Gonzalez, now going by the name Rey for some reason, got the win for AAA Las Vegas despite giving up 5 ER in 5 IP, beating Fresno’s Madison Bumgarner. He got 7 Ks and now has a 5.73 ERA over 2 starts.
In AA, Kyle Drabek would have had a better outing if he had received good defensive support. He gave up 7 runs over 5.2 IP, but only 3 of those were earned. He walked 2, struck out 2, and gave up 1 HR in the outing. CF Darin Mastroianni (1 for 4, 1 SB), SS Jonathan Diaz (1 for 2, 2 BB), and C Brian Jeroloman (2 for 4) had the best days for New Hampshire.
HiA Dunedin’s Andrew Liebel got his 1st win of the year by providing 5 innings of 3 run ball over Daytona. Dunedin beat Daytona 11 to 6 mainly due to the red hot Travis d’Arnaud who went 4 for 6 with a double, a SB, and 3 RBI. 3B John Tolisano also had a great day, going 2 for 4 with a walk and a double, and also by scoring 4 runs. Travis is now hitting .423 on the season and shouldn’t be too far off from a promotion to AA New Hampshire.
Matt Fields was hit or miss for LoA Lansing as he struck out 7 in only 4 innings, but also gave up 10 hits, resulting 2 ER. Since Lansing couldn’t produce any offense (Bradley Glenn produced 3 of the 6 hits Lansing had in the game), Fields also took the loss. Of note in this game was the fact that Oliver Dominguez was playing at 3B. With his speed and potential, he could come up the ranks as a Chone Figgins type 2B/3B/CF combination, making a very useful utility player.
The newly acquired Shawn Bowman will in fact be reporting to AAA Las Vegas and will take over 3B duties there. Brad Emaus, meanwhile, continues to play in AA despite a good spring.

Dana Eveland takes to the mound today, hoping he gets more offensive support than Morrow got last night!

Reidier Gonzalez Strong in LV Win

Mat Germain — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 11:32:40 +0000

Las Vegas SP Reidier Gonzalez, a pitcher the Jays have very high hopes for this season, kicked the year off on the right foot yesterday, as he went 6 innings strong with no walks, 2 ER, 5 Ks, and 5 hits allowed for his first win of 2010. LV won 7-3 over Salt Lake for a 2-0 start. Josh Roenicke followed up his effort with 2 perfect innings with no hits allowed, no walks and 2 Ks. Jesse Carlson threw the 9th and got through it with only 1 hit allowed.

The offensive force for Las Vegas was very well spread out as 8 of the 9 hitters had hits, and 5 of those had multiple hits (Figueroa, Dopirak, Reed, Arencibia, and Lubanski). However, it was Arencibia that led the way in driving in runs with 3 to his credit, while Dopirak chipped in by driving in 2.

This start to the year is indicative of the fact that the Jays have a very strong club in Las Vegas and will be able to benefit from their talents when injuries strike. If JP Arencibia continues his strong start, there’s a very real chance we’ll see his power bat in Toronto by August. Reidier Gonzalez, meanwhile, has the unfortunate task of getting through more guys mid-season (McGowan, Litsch, Cecil, Drabek) to get any opportunity to get a shot in the lineup – never mind the fact that all Jays starters have looked good enough to keep their roles (Morrow should be better from here on out). Still, he could get a shot if injury or trades occur.

Tallet and Jays Pen 2 Hit The O’s

Mat Germain — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:57:20 +0000

It’s only spring training, but this win was impressive for the Jays. The Orioles had the majority of their regulars in the lineup, from Adam Jones to Nick Markaikis (Roberts was the only real omission), and the Jays simply shut the bats down. Brian Tallet, in a fight with Dana Eveland for the #5 spot in the rotation, led the way as he was lights out with only 1 hit allowed in 4 innings. He allowed no walks and struck out 3, getting 6 ground outs and 3 fly outs. He was followed by Camp, Downs, Gregg, and Frasor who all followed suit with 4 shut out innings and only 2 walks allowed, no hits. Merkin Valdez allowed the only run of the game for the Jays in the 9th inning. It seems that no matter what happens this spring, the Jays have 2 very good options for the #5 role in Tallet and Eveland. If they can provide the Jays with stability until the return of Jesse Litsch the Jays will benefit from a hefty amount of pitching depth.

Other notes from the game that I gathered include the fact that very time Travis Snider is in the #6 spot in the lineup he gets at least a hit. Today was no different since he gathered 2 hits including a solo HR off Kam Mickolio. Cito may want to consider keeping Snider in the #6 hole as he seems very comfortable there. Brian Dopirak went 0 for 4 to bring his average down to .222 while Randy Ruiz went 1 for 4 and now has a .467 average on the spring. It’s looking more and more like Dopirak may begin the year in AAA unless he gets hot from now to April. I’m still impressed about how consistently the Jays are getting 10 hits or more per game this spring.

Other news and notes:

Apparently some teams have shown interest in SP David Purcey who has really found himself at the bottom of the list in terms of depth for the Jays. Some believe he can still be a starter, while others believe he could be a power reliever. My question is if the Jays trade him now, would they be selling low? They’d be better off showcasing him for a little while and getting a better price for him once teams get desperate for pitching.
I think the Jays may have a closer by committee situation until Kevin Gregg proves he can handle the job (if he does, that is). There’s an article by Jordan Bastien on the subject here.
No official word on the Adeiny Hechavarria signing yet. Who knew a physical could take that long. Maybe U.S. authorities are having a hard time putting the controls on that $10 million dollar check!
The Jays optioned pitchers Sean Henn and Reidier Gonzalez to AAA Las Vegas.
The Jays are facing Baltimore again tomorrow, followed by Houston and the Braves.

Jays Lack International Presence

Mat Germain — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:26:19 +0000

Update 8 Jan:

Reports state that both the Blue Jays and Angels have taken the lead in the sweepstakes with offers approximating $23,000,000. If true, it would leave all other offers rumoured in the dust and would make Aroldis decide between the 2, assuming no other team comes up with a better offer before one is agreed to.

Update 7 Jan:

It was brought to my attention that the Jays may actually be leading the race for Chapman due to 3 very important reasons.

1 – Canada has friendly relations with Cuba, whereas the United States do not. If Aroldis values his family and wants to bring them to North America, Canada is the easier country to do it with, obviously.

2 – Alex Anthopoulos returns from his honeymoon tomorrow, the exact day Aroldis hinted a deal could be completed and announced – pending physical of course, unless it was already done during the private scouting session.

3 – The Jays were the ONLY team to ask for and receive a private session which proves 2 things: Aroldis and his agent are willing to sign with Toronto, and the Jays proved their serious interest and presumably let Aroldis know he was their #1 priority.

The Aroldis Chapman sweepstakes have made me realize one major point about the Blue Jays: They lack International presence on their roster despite spending lots of money in the Dominican and in Venezuela. I realized this when it was mentioned that the presence of Kendry Morales on the Angels was a lure for Aroldis to sign there instead of going elsewhere. It also reminded me that Hedo Turkogulu signed with the Raptors specifically because the Turkish community was so strong in numbers within Toronto, while passing up more money from other teams.

The current 40-man roster for the Jays holds only 5 International players:

Reidier Gonzalez – Cuba
Jose Bautista – Dominican Republic
Luis Perez – Dominican Republic
Edwin Encarnacion – Dominican Republic
Alex Gonzalez – Venzuela

The remainder are all from the United States or Canada. That makes the International presence on the Jays 12.5% on the 40-man roster. For a quick comparison, the Red Sox currently have 12 International players for a 30% total. Does this make them the better team just because they have International presence? No, it’s obviously not that simple. But, if a Japanese player like Yu Darvish was looking to sign with an MLB club, would he be more likely to accept a deal to the Red Sox who have 3 prominent Japanese players, or the Jays who have none? This is exactly the reason why Alex should be willing to overpay slightly in order to get someone like Chapman on board, it sets the table for future signings and attracts other International players to follow suit.

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Jays Starting Pitching Depth

Mat Germain — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 21:21:29 +0000

Before I begin breaking down the current pitching depth of the Jays, I’d like to give a shout to to Wally Fish and encourage everyone to follow his posts on Kings of Kauffman. Wally is responsible for getting me over to Fansided and I appreciate all of his help thus far. He recently pointed out in his posts that the Jays may have hit a HR when they hired Alex as GM, and I entirely agree with that assessment. The impact of his recent deal can be seen in the pitching depth listed below.

As Alex Anthopoulos took over from JP Ricciardi, the Angels were offering 3 years of Saunders, JP had not been successful in getting Drabek or Happ included in a deal, and the Red Sox and Yankees seemed very reluctant to include Clay Buchholz, Phil Hughes, or Joba Chamberlain in any deal. Out of all of those arms, the one the Jays sought most was Kyle Drabek, and that’s exactly what Alex got. The Phillies have stated that had Alex not allowed for negotiations to take place with Doc, there would have been no deal struck. If one had been struck, it certainly wouldn’t have included Kyle.

Well, now Kyle Drabek is property of the Jays and will hopefully be one of the many prominent pieces the Jays have for their rotation. I will include the injured in hopes that can take over at some point in 2010.

Expected Beginning 2010 Rotation :

LHP Ricky Romero (26) 6’0″ 215 lbs #2 potential
RHP Shaun Marcum (29) 5’10″ 195 lbs #3 potential
LHP Brett Cecil (23) 6’2″ 225 lbs #1-2 potential
RHP Scott Richmond (30) 6’5″ 215 lbs #4-5 potential
LHP Marc Rzepczynski (24) 6’1″ 205 lbs #1-2 potential

The others that could be in play include:

RHP Zach Stewart (23) 6’2″ 205 lbs #2-4 potential
RHP Kyle Drabek (22) 6’0″ 155 lbs #1 potential
RHP Jesse Litsch (24) 6’1″ 215 lbs #3 potential
LHP Brad Mills (24) 5’11″ 185 lbs #4-5 potential
RHP Robert Ray (25) 6’5″ 195 lbs #3 potential
LHP David Purcey (27) 6’4″ 240 lbs #4-5 potential
RHP Reidier Gonzalez (24) 5’9″ 215 lbs #2-4 potential
LHP Luis Perez (24) 6’0″ 205 lbs #3-5 potential
RHP Dustin McGowan (27) 6’3″ 230 lbs *may wind up in the pen – potential as closer

While Litsch and McGowan are not expected to be 100% as the season begins, the Jays do have a lot of depth and a ton of guys who are close to earning a chance in the rotation. With only one of the 14 pitchers listed above being over 30 years old, the Jays are young and full of potential. The additions of Kyle Drabek and Zach Stewart really provide needed depth and more importantly, top end depth.

Potential 2011 Rotation:

With these top-end names in mind, and Henderson Alvarez and Chad Jenkins quickly moving up the ladder, the Jays have a lot of potential in starting pitching. Add to that the fact that they hold 10 draft picks in the first 3 rounds of the draft in 2010, and you’ve got the potential for the Jays to build on this very talented, young, and cheap rotation. It’s one that I definitely look forward to watch grow and mature into stars.