Minor League Report: Setting up the next week, health updates for several top pitching prospects, and more!
3 days ago
It will be a tough upcoming week for the Blue Jays affiliates.
It’s the fourth series of the season for the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats, the High-A Vancouver Canadians, and the Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays, while it’ll be the fifth series of the season for the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons.
This is the off-day version of the Minor League report, where we set upcoming series in the minor leagues for the Jays. Moreover, we’ll look at some recent unfortunate news, and any transactions that have occurred.
As always, let’s start with the Buffalo Bisons.
The Bisons play the Iowa Cubs
Unfortunately, the first game of the series has already been rained out, with a double header scheduled for April 25.
The Bisons are currently second in the International League East with a record of 12-8. They are a half game behind the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders, who are 13-8, losing 3-2 to the Durham Bulls on Tuesday afternoon.
According to the game notes, Paxton Schultz was set to be the starter on Tuesday, but will likely start Wednesday’s game. Other scheduled starts for the week prior to the postponement were Paolo Espino on Thursday, and Chad Dallas on Friday.
The Cubs’ affiliate has a 13-8 record, and occupies the first spot in the International League West.
New Hampshire takes on Binghamton again
The first game of the series will be on Tuesday at 6:35, with left-handed starter Trenton Wallace starting the game. If the rotation continues the way it has, Michael Dominguez will get the start Wednesday, Devereaux Harrison on Thursday, Adam Macko on Friday, and Trent Palmer on Saturday.
After a great start to their season, the Fisher Cats have dropped to 7-8, thanks to a five-game losing streak at the hands of the Portland Sea Dogs. They are three games behind the Boston affiliate, and are third in the Eastern League Northeast division.
The Binghamton Rumble Ponies are the New York Mets affiliate, and have a 6-8 record this season.
Vancouver faces a tough test in Spokane
The Colorado Rockies affiliate started the season 8-0, and are currently 11-4 for the second-best record in the Northwest League. Vancouver, on the other hand, have a 7-8 record as they’ve faced Spokane and the Eugene Emeralds, two of the tougher teams in the league this season.
Chris McElvain will start Tuesday’s game (at 10:05 PM ET) and if the rotation remains the same as the past week, Kevin Miranda will get the start on Wednesday, Geison Urbaez on Thursday, Ryan Jennings or Rafael Sánchez on Friday, one of the two on Saturday, and Pat Gallagher on Sunday.
Eugene currently occupies the top spot in the Northwest League with a 12-3 record, while Spokane’s 11-4 record is second. Vancouver is currently third in the league with their 7-8 record, but are already five games out of the top spot in the division. Of course, they’ll have a chance in the second half to go to the finals and there’s still a lot of time to turn their game around, but they have to win some of these games.
Dunedin plays the 9-6 Jupiter Hammerheads
Both the Dunedin Blue Jays and the Jupiter Hammerheads have a 9-6 record, and both teams are second in their division, as Jupiter is in the Florida State League East, while the D-Jays are in the West. It is worth mentioning that Jupiter’s -15 run differential is the third-worst in the league, while Dunedin’s +19 is the third-best.
Connor O’Halloran will get the start for Dunedin on Tuesday, with fellow 2023-draftee Juaron Watts-Brown getting the ball on Wednesday, Grant Rogers on Thursday, and to be determined on Friday.
The rotation is a little bit in flux, which brings us to the next section…
Health updates on some top pitching prospects
So this isn’t great news.
On Monday evening, several sources reported on the health of pitching prospects Ricky Tiedemann, Brandon Barriera, and Landen Maroudis.
It was already reported that Tiedemann had “left elbow discomfort”, which is a very scary sounding injury for a pitcher with velocity. MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson reported he’s meeting with team doctors. The Blue Jays first-round pick in the 2022 draft, Barriera, is meeting with Dr. Keith Meister with an elbow injury, which isn’t great for obvious, unsaid reasons.
Maroudis had an MRI on his right fore-arm, a less scary injury but something worth monitoring, as you never want to see a pitcher injure any part of the arm.
Let’s hope the best-case scenario happens for all three of these young men.
Transactions
There wasn’t much in terms of transactions over the past few days. Catcher Jose Ferrer was activated and assigned to the Vancouver Canadians. Glenn Santiago started off his season well with the Fisher Cats, but will be heading to Vancouver as well.
Bo Bonds was activated from the 7-day IL, while Riley Tirotta will head back to New Hampshire after a rehab stint with Dunedin.
As always, you can follow me on Twitter @Ryley_L_D.
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