Daily Duce: Monday, February 13th

Baseball Prospectus has released its top 101 prospects list for 2017, and there’s a surprise on it for Jays fans! Or… actually… there’s a surprise not on it, as Vladimir Guerrero Jr. didn’t make the list. The two Blue Jays that did: Sean Reid-Foley at 85, and Anthony Alford at 93.

Way on the other side of the Vlad love spectrum is Baseball America, as they released their top 100 list this week, and Guerrero is wayyyyyyy up at number twenty. Now that’s what I’m talking about! BA also has Alford, Lourdes Guerriel, Reid-Foley, and Rowdy Tellez in the top 100. Slightly polarizing system at the top, ain’t it?

Elsewhere at BA, Ben Badler lists a bunch of breakout candidates at different spots on the diamond and at different levels of the minors, and for his lower level third base breakout candidate he chooses intergalactic bounty hunter Bo Bichette (who is still technically a shortstop, but who Badler figures will end up sliding over to third ultimately). “Bichette has the offensive firepower to skyrocket up lists next year,” he says.

Awesome stuff from Ian over at the Blue Jay Hunter, as he takes us through the design process that led to the Blue Jays’ iconic original logo (which they, of course, now use a giant maple-leaf’d variation of). 

Elsewhere at the Blue Jay Hunter, we see Josh Donaldson teeing off at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which he took part in over the weekend. (It’s a golf tournament, son.)

Steve Buffery of the Toronto Sun has some additional details about the departure of Barry Davis from Sportsnet — something I noted in a Daily Duce two weeks ago. Davis, apparently, was given the chance to stay on with Sportsnet in a non-Jays capacity, but declined. Buffery suggests that Davis “is looking at number of new ventures in the future, including focussing on his Tom Petty tribute band We Ain’t Petty,” which is totally a quote that I typed out with a straight face, I swear. He also tips Davis to perhaps fill Scott MacArthur’s shoes on the Jays beat at TSN, as Scotty Mac has moved into hosting an afternoon radio show for TSN 1050. “Interestingly,” Buffery adds, seemingly about to dog whistle at the kind of goofs who would actually take their cues on how to think about the world from the Toronto effing Sun, “his departure seems to be following a trend in the sports broadcast industry that has seen more female sideline reporters and fewer men.”

Elsewhere in the Sun is an AP story on Marcus Stroman and the “huge raise in arbitration” he’s asking for, which for some reason gives absolutely zero context on the arbitration process or the fact that the salary Stroman is seeking is completely normal. The fuck?

At the Toronto Star, Richard Griffin gives us five questions that we can expect to be answered — or that should be answered — during the Jays’ month-and-a-half in Dunedin, which begins in earnest this week. Hey, let’s make John Gibbons’ contract status an issue!

Similarly, Jeff Blair of Sportsnet gives us five Blue Jays to keep our eyes on this spring. One interesting tidbit: John Gibbons wanted Jarrod Saltalmacchia last season, “thinking he couldn’t do any worse than Josh Thole handling R.A. Dickey and knowing there was a chance that when Salty ran into a pitch it would be a home run, as opposed to a bloop single.” All backup catchers are bad, John.

Scotty Mac does a similar thing as well, talking about the questions facing the Jays this spring in a video at TSN.ca.

Chris Henderson of Jays Journal looks at the uphill battle Ryan Goins is facing this spring, as he could end up the victim of a numbers game, if the rest of the Jays’ roster is healthy, because he’s out of options. Maybe a better question: would a team even claim Goins on waivers? Don’t they all kinda have their own Goins?

Elsewhere at Jays Journal, we go back to Bo Bichette, as the young prospect talks to Clayton Richer about the upcoming season, and seeing a bit of Troy Tulowitzki in himself. We should be so lucky!

Here’s a heartwarming Jays-related piece from Good Read Mag, as Michelle and Ryan Giesen take us on their journey through love and baseball, telling us how important their love of the Jays has been to their relationship — and how their Jays fandom is like a relationship itself.

Travis Sawchik of FanGraphs looks at some comments from Noah Syndergaard, who is reportedly coming to camp bigger, stronger, and ready to continue to push the limits of his arm — which, Sawchik suggests, could be risky for the Mets ace who I had definitely never heard of before 2014.

Coca-Cola Field in Buffalo is going to feel a little more big league this season, according to Aaron Besecker of the Buffalo News: fans are going to have to pass through metal detectors to gain entry. HELL IN A HANDBASKET!

As I noted last time I did one of these, if you’re an aspiring writer looking for exposure for your Blue Jays content, I’d love to help you out in whatever small way I can. My advice: start your own site. Once you do that, send me the link (or if you already have one and I haven’t been linking it, send it too!). I can be reached at via email at stoeten@gmail.com, or on Twitter at @AndrewStoeten. I will put your site in the RSS feed I use when compiling these posts. I will read what you write. If it’s good, I will point people to it. If it’s consistently good, we can definitely talk about having you do stuff for us. If we agree to work together and I don’t have it in the budget at that moment to pay for it, you’re welcome to do some things for us anyway, and if its gets good traffic and demonstrates value, I’ll certainly be able to make a business case to bring you on for pay.