Jays Journal » Russell Martin

Rosenthal: Travis d’Arnaud Draws Rave Review

Jared Macdonald — Wed, 16 May 2012 06:20:32 +0000

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports published his latest column on Tuesday afternoon, and nestled at the very bottom was a tidbit about Blue Jays top prospect Travis d’Arnaud.

Talking to a scout, Rosenthal relayed that the anonymous talent evaluator felt that d’Arnaud looked like Yankees catcher Russell Martin in his early days with the Dodgers, and that d’Arnaud could play in the Majors right now.

The Blue Jays have high hopes for Travis d'Arnaud. (Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE)

“The Jays, as I’ve written before, are in no rush with D’Arnaud. J.P. Arencibia lacks d’Arnaud’s upside and only recently has started hitting, but the Jays like the way he handles their staff,” Rosenthal added.

Should d’Arnaud develop into — or even exceed — the 27-double, 14-home run, .285 hitter and Gold Glove-caliber defender that Martin was from 2006-08 for the Dodgers, I’m sure that the Blue Jays’ front office would be more than pleased, especially considering that the young catcher was the more unknown player received in the Roy Halladay trade over two years ago.

While d’Arnaud, ranked the 17th-best prospect in baseball by Baseball America before the season, hasn’t exactly hit the ball the way many people thought he would in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League this season, his season at this point has been far from a disappointment. Though his current .141 ISO is his lowest since 2007 and well below the .231 mark he managed with New Hampshire in 2011, d’Arnaud has two home runs in his last three games and has improved his pitch recognition at the plate, drawing more walks and cutting down his strikeout rate all while playing above-average defense.

D’Arnaud should see a September call-up at the very least this season, but depending on how Arencibia performs on both sides of the ball in the coming months, we could very well see the Las Vegas 51s catcher before then.

- JM

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Jays Journal: A.L. East Predictions for 2011 Season

Mat Germain — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 18:00:58 +0000

With the season just about set to begin and most of the position battles settled, I’m ready to set forth and make some bold predictions, and others not so bold. I’ll post my MLB wide predictions (most of which are unlikely to come true but make for good stuff to talk about), and hopefully I’ll come up with a few gems that will make some sense (as my 2010 prediction of the Jays finishing above .500 and Texas winning the West did last season).

Here are my A.L. East predictions, going from last to first, just to make things more interesting and to build up to the surprise team that I expect will win the A.L. East.

#5 – The Baltimore Orioles – Record: 78 – 84 (more…)

Jays Fans Poll Results: “Are you satisfied with the moves..”

Mat Germain — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 14:48:39 +0000

I posted this poll just before the new year, at a time that had the Rajai Davis acquisition and the Octavio Dotel signing were the only major moves made by the Jays and GM Alex Anthopoulos. Therefore, the initial results and leanings of the poll in the first few weeks were entirely different than the results we see today, as we close the poll just before spring training.

Here is the question and the results of the poll in question:

“Are you satisfied with the moves made by the Jays so far this off season?” (more…)