Jays Journal » Ryan Shopshire

Top 50 Jays Prospects, Jays Journal Edition: #50 Ryan Tepera

Mat Germain — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 02:13:31 +0000

The Top 50 Jays Prospects list is finally ready to kick things off with our first player of the top 50 list!

#50: Ryan Dennis Tepera

image courtesy of blogs.chron.com

23 years old / 6’1″ 180 lbs

Born: November 3rd 1987 in Lake Jackson, Texas

Bats Right Throws Right

High School Team: Brazoswood HS

College: Sam Huston State University

Drafted: by the Jays in the 19th rd, 580th overall, of the ’09 First-Year Player Draft

Wears: #12 for the Lansing Lugnuts in 2010 (more…)

Jays Minors Updates

Mat Germain — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:57:45 +0000

After a little vacation, here are updates on worthy notes throughout the Jays Minors system:

Art Charles, who was drafted in the 20th rd by the Jays as a LHP and signed July 6th, has been converted into a 1B for the GCL Blue Jays;
Noah Syndergaard made his debut for the Jays in the GCL, throwing 2 shutout innings where he did not allow a walk or a hit. So far so good! If looking for more information about Noah, look up the interview I conducted with him after he signed with the Jays.
J.P. Arencibia is a man on fire in AAA and may be spelling the end of John Buck in Toronto with his performance. Not only is John’s value about as high as it can be in trades right now, but JP is tearing up the ball in AAA at a pace that can’t be ignored much longer. He’s hitting .390 with 7 HRs over his last 10 games, with a .444 OPB and ridiculous 1.396 OPS. He should be in Toronto by the end of July, once Alex starts dealing.
Zach Stewart is beginning to heat up in AA, holding a 5-1 record and 3.19 ERA over his last 10 games. He still doesn’t have stellar numbers, 59 hits and 26 walks to 49 Ks in those 62 IP, but he is learning to come through when needed and get the job done with guys on base. A promotion to AAA may be in order by August.
Adeiny Hechavarria is beginning to warm up in AA, but is still showing cracks to his offensive skills. While his average is much better at .279 over his last 10 games (43 ABs), he still only had 4 extra base hits in that span and was caught stealing twice (no stolen bases). That amounts to few big knocks and no speed….not exactly stellar for a SS. He can still break out soon, but hasn’t wowed anyone yet. (more…)

Jays Minors Review: 29-Apr-10

Mat Germain — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 11:37:29 +0000

Here is a review of the major events in the minors for the Jays on Thursday, 29th of April:

AAA Las Vegas – Won 3-1 vs Colorado Springs

The 51s were the recipients of Robert Ray‘s best start of the year. He gave them 6 innings of work, only giving up 5 hits and 1 ER while striking out 4 (no walks). The outing earned Ray his 2nd win of the year and lowered his ERA to 4.57.
Steven Register (5.02), David Purcey (3.00), and Jeremy Accardo (0.00) all chipped in with 1 shutout inning a piece that had Accardo earning his 1st save of the season.
RF Chris Aguila (.311) was 2 for 4 with a double while batting leadoff, and Jarrett Hoffpauir (.324) followed him up with a 2 for 3 day. Of note in this game was that Jarrett manned 3B instead of 2B, adding to his repertoire and possible utility role qualifications.

(more…)

Jays Minors Review: 23-Apr-10

Mat Germain — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 11:13:26 +0000

Here is a review of the major events in the minors for the Jays on Friday, 23rd of April:

AAA Las Vegas –Lost 6-4 to Salt Lake (LAA)

LV ran into a hot pitcher Friday, as top prospect Trevor Reckling limited them to 1 run over his 5.1 innings of work.
Robert Ray took the loss after allowing 6 ER over 4.1 IP. He allowed 9 hits and 4 walks in the game.
Brett Wallace hit his 7th HR of the season in this one, with JP Arencibia joining in with his 2nd HR.
Steven Register had a great relief appearance for LV, going 2.1 innings while allowing no hits and 1 walk, striking out 3 in the process.

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Jays Minors Recap: SP Mills, Perez, Page, Shopshire All Shine

Mat Germain — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 18:26:56 +0000

In AAA, Brad Mills must have had the same cereal as Ricky Romero, because the Ks were coming in close to 2 per inning for him on Tuesday against Fresno. Unlike Romero, Mills did allow more than 1 hit per inning, 7 in 5.1 innings, but he was also able to manage 9 Ks within those 5.1 IP and only walked 1 batter. Mills threw 97 pitches, 65 of these for strikes.

While Ricky Romero was mowing down White Sox hitters like they were from little league, Luis Perez (AA) was doing his best to emulate the performance in AA New Hampshire’s tilt against Reading. The only hit he allowed in the game through 7 innings was to Domonic Brown, while he also walked 2 in the game. Normally this performance would rival others in the organization on any given day as the best performance, but it just so happened to be an exceptional day for the Jays so it just seems par for the course.

Perez now has a 0.00 ERA while Mills has a 0.79 ERA, and both earned their first wins of the season. You have to believe Jays management is feeling a little pitching drunk right now, as all of their pitchers seem to be firing on all cylinders. Even the pen was very effective Tuesday in AAA, as Jesse Carlson, Sean Henn, and Rommie Lewis (3rd save) gave Mills strong relief over their 3.2 shut out innings and I mentioned the Antolin outing above.

HiA Dunedin – Ryan Page tried to match the efforts of Romero, Mills, and Perez, but fell a little bit short for Dunedin despite doing very well. He pitched 6.1 innings, allowed 6 hits, got 1 K, and only allowed 2 ER.

Ryan Shopshire (LoA), meanwhile, has a great day as well, going 6 strong innings while allowing only 3 hits, 3 walks, and getting 4 Ks while only allowing 1 ER. Dustin Antolin actually got the win after he came on to bail Ryan out in the 7th inning and finished the game himself with 3 shut out innings where he didn’t allow a hit, a walk, and had 2 Ks. Those are both great showings from these 2 pitchers, and if Antolin keeps this up he could get stretched out to start. He hasn’t given up a hit or a walk in 5 innings pitched this season.

Offensively for the AAA, AA, and LoA levels:

AAA – Brett Wallace went 2 for 3 for LV, raising his average to .278
AAA – Jarret Hoffpauir, Jesus Merchan, JP Arencibia, and Christian Colonel were the only other LV hitters to get a hit
AA – NH hitters, meanwhile, got 9 hits overall, with David Cooper and Jonathan Diaz leading the way with 2 each
AA – Darin Mastroianni (1 for 5) and Eric Thames (1 for 4) each stole a base
AA – Jonathan Jaspe and Calix Crabbe each hit a triple while no home runs were hit by NH
HiA – Brian Van Kirk was the hero for Dunedin as he ht a HR and stole a base after going 2 for 4 in the game
HiA – Yan Gomes also pitched in with a 2 for 4 day
LoA – Oliver Dominguez hit his 1st HR of the season, went 2 for 4, and stole 2 bases – what a spark plug
LoA – Bradley Glenn hit a key pinch hit HR in the 9th inning that gave Lansing a sweep over Great Lakes

All-in-all, Tuesday was one very encouraging pitching day throughout the organization’s levels! All teams seem to be getting the wins they deserve, and a winning attitude is taking root at all levels. Great stuff for the Jays organization.

Lugnuts Lose, Schimpf Goes Deep

Mat Germain — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 11:36:27 +0000

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again – the Jays quite possibly have yet another Aaron Hill in the making down in LoA in 2B Ryan Schimpf. The LSU product drove one deep in his first game of the season, going 2 for 5 with 4 RBI in the loss. The other Ryan, SS Ryan Goins, also went deep once and was 1 for 4 on the day. Kenny Wilson did his best to set the table for the Ryans and others as he got on base 3 times (1 double, 2 walks, 1 SB) while Eric Eiland went 3 for 5 at the bottom of the lineup. However, Balbino Fuenmayor and Mark Sobolewski both went 0 for 5, making it hard for the team to drive in any runs.

Ryan Shopshire had some issues in his first start of the season, allowing 4 walks, 7 hits, and 4 ER while striking out 2. However, the relief was great in this game, as both Dustin Antolin and Nestor Molina went through 2 squeaky clean innings a piece striking out 3 each with no hits or walks allowed. Evan Crawford came out after that and the game went to extra innings. He allowed the winning run to score, but not without a fight. The run was scored after he allowed a lead off single, then 2 straight groundouts pushed that runner to 3B. The runner was driven in by Didi Gregorious (what a baseball name) with a single and resulted in Crawford taking the loss for the game.