Oh man, check out the Large Adult Sons in the Gulf Coast League

The best thing about this season has, by far, been the success of Toronto’s farmhands. From Vlad Jr. beating the absolute piss out of Double-A to Ryan Borucki, Sean Reid-Foley, and T.J. Zeuch killing it all the way to guys like Ryan Noda and Kevin Smith breaking out at the lower levels, it’s been a treat to follow.

To add to the excitement, short-season ball is getting rolling! You know what that means? More Large Adult Sons!

The Gulf Coast Blue Jays are stacked. Toronto’s top two draft picks, slugger Jordan Groshans and new family heirloom Griffin Conine jumped from the draft to the GCL. Groshans is already killing it as he’s got five hits and three walks through his first 13 at bats. Conine just signed so he’s just getting rolling, but he had a three-for-five with a double in his second professional game.

Perhaps the most exciting prospect in short-season , though, is 17-year-old Brazilian phenom Eric Pardinho. Toronto’s biggest international signing from last summer got his professional career started yesterday with four innings of one-run ball for Bluefield in the Appalachian League. This is a pretty aggressive start for a prospect as old as Pardinho is, but the Jays did the same thing two years ago with another advanced teenager, Vlad Jr.

He was apparently touching 97 miles per hour (this was talked about on reddit, so be wary of the source) with his fastball.

Toronto’s other big signing from last summer’s international market Miguel Hiraldo is also off to a hot start to his professional career. Hrialdo, through 15 games in the Dominican Summer League, already has 15 hits and eight walks.

Obviously these are super small sample sizes and all that, but still, it’s exciting to see the newest wave of Blue Jays prospects getting off to a hot start at short-season ball. The farm system is starting to look really, really damn good.