Toronto Blue Jays: Most Dynamic Prospect?

The Blue Jays home runs hitters are great, but 20-20 and 30-30 guys are dynamic and change the game in their own way. Who was the most dynamic prospect in 2015?

The Toronto Blue Jays former GM focused Alex Anthopoulos on acquiring dynamic talent in trades and in the draft. AA loved guys with speed who could play premium positions. Alex traded for former Blue Jay Anthony Gose, with the hopes that Gose would one day develop into a force at the top of the batting order and a mainstay in CF.

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During Alex’s tenure, the focus was to draft high ceiling prospects with plus speed at premium positions like CF. This approach allowed AA to grab current CF Kevin Pillar along with future outfielders Dalton Pompey, Anthony Alford and D.J. Davis.

I hope to discover Toronto’s best speed prospects at all levels, using Fangraphs.com stats: Spd (speed score), SB (stolen bases), wOBA, wRC+, and SB Success% (calculated).

Methodology

1. Scan Jays system and collect names with high SB, triple, and double numbers
2. Reference collected names with Fangraphs Spd who put up good stolen base numbers for their 2015 teams.
3. Collected all stats for the 5 categories listed above.
4. Create 1-5 scoring system specific for each stat. One being the best score and five being the lowest score).
5. Add up the scores and the player with the lowest score is crowned ‘2015 Most Dynamic Blue Jay Prospect’

Listed below are the top 3 prospects in each of the above categories.

Spd

This category appeared to like the lower level prospects in this analysis, which is were our two leaders played in 2015.

Edward Olivares (19-yrs-old) and Reggie Pruitt (18-yrs-old) both played in the GCL and scored 8.7. This team used their speed and it showed by placing more players on this list than any other level.

Antony Fuentes (20-yrs-old) scored an 8.4 while playing in the DSL.

For context, Dalton Pompey scored 7.2

Stolen Bases

Roemon Fields (25-yrs-old) lead the system with 46 SB across three levels. Fields was followed by Anthony Alford (21-yrs-old) who stole 27 across two levels, and finally, Jon Berti (25-yrs-old) and Dalton Pompey (22-yrs-old) tied for third with 23 with Buffalo and New Hampshire.

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SB Success%

This category might have provided the least value, but I felt that it was worth including.

Josh Almonte (21-yrs-old) stole 13 bases and was caught only once for the Lo-A Lansing Lugnuts, good for 92.86% success rate. Josh was followed by 21-yr-old Juandy Mendoza (90.91), and 19-yr-old Sam Buelens (90.91).

The systems SB leader held a success% of 76.67, good for 3 points.

wOBA

In order to be considered ‘Dynamic’ a player must be more than just speed. Using wOBA, the players overall offensive contributions are considered. This is where top level talent sets themselves apart.

DSL’s 18-yr-old Yorman Rodriguez put up great numbers, supported by an amazing .420 wOBA. Yorman was followed by Alford (.388 wOBA) and Pompey (.384 wOBA).

wRC+ (Weighted Runs Created Plus)

Yorman Rodriguez, Anthony Alford and Dalton Pompey finished 1-2-3 in this category as well.

Scoring from last to first

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Anthony Alford went from dual sport enigma to the Toronto Blue Jays 2015 Most Dynamic Prospect in under a year.Alford got high marks in wOBA and wRC+ and finished middle of this pack in all other categories. Alford is considered one of Toronto’s top 3 prospects and after a strong 2015 season he will appear on MLB’s 2016 Top 100 Prospect list.

This analysis has also shed some light on other prospects in the low minors that are worth keeping an eye on over the next few seasons.