This Week in the Toronto Blue Jays Minor Leagues: May 23rd- June 1st

Hello again boys and girls it is time to see what has been going on down on the farm. There has been a few minor league vets added to the Buffalo and New Hampshire to help with all the player moves that have been going on up on the Big Club. So lets get to it….we left off on May 23rd so we will start on the 24th and go until June 1st. If you missed the last This Week in the Toronto Blue Jays Minor Leagues, check it out here.

May 24th

The Buffalo Bisons had two veteran RP added to their roster in Esmil Rogers, and Mickey Storey.

The Lansing Lugnuts placed 3B Justin Atkinson (a personal favorite of mine) and RHP Adaric Kelly on the DL, activated OF Ian Parmley from the DL, and RHP Brad Allen was assigned to the Lugnuts.

May 25th

The Bisons assigned RHP Austin Bibens-Dirkx back to New Hampshire after appearing in 10 games with one start. RHP Deck McGuire was assigned to the Bisons from New Hampshire and sent Radhames Liz to New Hampshire.

New Hampshire placed LHP John Anderson on the DL and received C Hector Gimenez from Charlotte Knights in a minor league trade.

May 26th

The 26th saw a number of catchers finding new homes due to the C Hector Gimenez acquisition the day before. The Bisons sent C Jack Murphy to the Fisher Cats and brought up C A.J. Jimenez from the Fisher Cats.

The Fisher Cats sent LHP Tony Davis down to Dunedin Blue Jays and in a corresponding move, RHP Arik Sikula was promoted to the Fisher Cats. The Fisher Cats sent SS Jorge Flores to the D-Jays.

May 27th

OF Brett Carroll was placed on the DL by the Bisons and to fill Carroll’s spot the Bisons called-up speedy OF Kenny Wilson from the Fisher Cats.

Peter Mooney was assigned to Dunedin Blue Jays from New Hampshire. The Fisher Cats also added OF Melky Mesa, activated OF Mike Crouse, and placed 3B Andy Fermin on the DL.

May 29th

LHP Matt Boyd was sent back down to Dunedin after an unsuccessful promotion to the Fisher Cats. In a corresponding move the Fisher Cats added recently acquired RHP P.J. Walters to the rotation.

The D-Jays sent the 24-yr-old native of Hawaii, Kamakani Usui, back to extended spring training after 4IP of scoreless relief to make room for Boyd’s return.

May 30th

The Bisons added LHP Mike Zagurski to the roster, sent RHP Bobby Korecky to Toronto, and welcomed back RP Rob Rasmussen from a short stint in Toronto.

The Lugnuts placed LHP Shane Dawson on the temporarily inactive list.

May 31st

The Bisons placed veteran RHP Shawn Hill on the DL, and sent the top prospect Marcus Stroman back up to Toronto to start this time.

The Lugnuts placed RHP Brad Allen on the DL.

Affiliates In Review

Buffalo (27-28)

The had a rough end to their month as they went 2-7 and are now a game under .500. Alex Anthopoulos has really been utilizing his Triple-A team and it is a testament to the talent on the Bisons roster.

Player of the Week – Despite not playing in a game since the 29th of May OF Brad Glenn gets his second player of the week by hitting .500/.537/.658 with 4 double, a triple, and 10 RBI.

New Hampshire (23-35)

The Fisher Cats have been playing better lately and went 5-6 since last we checked in on them. The Fisher Cats have been getting some really good pitching lately with two shutouts in a row on May 30th and May 31st. However, they are in last place in the Eastern League Eastern division.

Top Prospect Aaron Sanchez (2-4, 4.10 ERA) really struggled in his last two May starts with an 0-2 record and allowed 12 runs over 6IP. Sanchez did have an impressive start on June 3rd going 5.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, and 7 K for only his 2nd win.

Player of the Week – I am going to give this one to RP Richard Bleier for his work in the Fisher Cats bullpen. Bleier made 4 appearances between May 23rd and June 1st. He pitched 8.2 for a 1-1 record, limited the opposition to .262 batting average for May, and hasn’t surrendered a run in his previous 8 IP.

Dunedin (40-18)

The D-Jays hold a 3-game lead in the FSL North over the Lakeland Flying Tigers. They are 6-4 in the past 10 games and continue to play good baseball. On May 27th and 29th two of the D-Jays top pitchers, Daniel Norris and Taylor Cole, pitched 7-0 shutouts as the D-Jays continue to get quality pitching from their starters.

Player of the Week – RHP Taylor Cole started 3 games between May 23rd and June 4th, amassing a 1-1 record. The record doesn’t show how well Cole pitched in those 3 starts, where he threw 19.2 IP, and allowed 14 H, 3 ER, one walk, and  25 K. Cole gets the POW because of his amazing GO/AO rate of 3.00, 2.33, and 1.33 in his 3 starts.

Lansing (28-30)

The Lugnuts went 5-7  since May 23rd and are 7 GB of first place. The Lugnuts got their hats handed to them in a couple of their recently losses, but none worse than on May 23rd when they got beat up by Fort Wayne 6-17 and on May 27th when they loss 4-14 to South Bend. The Lugnuts will need better pitching if they hope to get back in the race this year.

Player of the Week – C Jorge Saez has been swinging a hot bat over his past 10 games to the tune of .333/.452/.394. Saez collected 11 hits in 33 at-bats, with 8 BB and 5 K. I really like the plate discipline that Saez has shown during that stretch.