I attended a Sunday game between the Dunedin Jays & Daytona Cubs. Here are my thoughts on various Jays prospects, including starter Chad Jenkins.
Chad Jenkins
My first time seeing Chad. I wasn’t overly impressed.
He threw primarily a 92 MPH sinker that, at least on this day, didn’t sink too much. (for the record, I went down and watched a few AB directly behind the plate).
Chad’s end of the day boxscore line of 6 IP, 2 ER, 2 BB & 4 K ended up looking better than he pitched. The Cubs ran into two outs running on first movement, bunted into a fluke DP and hit at least three linedrive or deep fly outs.
Jenkins used a slider as his primary off-speed offering. It’s tight and in the mid-low 80’s. He was able to use it to get ahead in the middle innings. He also mixed in a change-up from time to time.
His stuff is good but I just don’t see him missing many bats in the bigs. Perhaps it was an off day. Or maybe I’ve seen too many solid arms this week (Jarred Cosart & Trevor May). But right now I don’t see Jenkins as anything more than a 4th/5th type arm at the MLB level.
Scott Podsednik
Down on a rehab assignment, Pod didn’t put forth too much effort during the game. He jogged here, ran there, jogged again. He was 0 for 4 with a walk, going deep into numerous counts.
Dewyane Wise
Wise was the offensive star of the game for the Jays. He hit a homer and double. He ran well and played a very shallow CF.
Brad Glenn
The #4 hitter and team leader in RBI. He didn’t impress or disappoint. He was just there.
AJ Jimenez
Jimenez has a very impressive arm from behind the plate. He threw out a runner that had a great jump. He also started a double play off of a squib bunt.
On the flip side he threw wildly at times, almost throwing away a snap throw to first and at one point launching a ball down the 1st base line on a bunt attempt.
AJ had a tough day at the plate, striking out three times. He had some pitch recognition issues during a few AB. At no point did he look over-matched while at-bat. Chalk this up to a bad day, as he’s still hitting over .400 on the young season.
Kevin Ahrens
He didn’t stand out at all. He was just there. While still young, he doesn’t appear to generate enough power to stick at 3B. Can his defense hold up in the middle infield? From what I saw I say no. However, things can change, as Kevin will turn just 22 in a few days.
Note: It appears that Kevin has ditched switch hitting. He hit on the right side vs RHP all game long.
Wes Etheridge
I hadn’t heard of this guy until he entered the game. 26 year old righty reliever that, to the best of my knowledge, has been playing independent ball for the past two seasons. He features a 85 MPH cutter. It’s effective at this level. Will it play in AA or AAA?
Anyone not mentioned (Contreras, Goins, Nolan, Wilson) didn’t impress in the least. If you called all four minor league depth I wouldn’t argue the point.
Haters Gonna Hate
I hate to be a downer but I just wasn’t impressed with the Dunedin Jays during this game. Outside of Jiminnez I didn’t really “feel” any of the positional prospects. And Jenkins didn’t stand out as anything more than a back of the rotation type arm. Luckily for the Jays most organizational prospect rankings confirm the lack of depth outside of SP at the High-A level.
It is kind of funny the way our minor-league assignments shook out in A-ball, with the significant pitching prospects mainly with Dunedin, and all (save Jimenez) the position prospects ending up at Lansing.
Very true.
I just checked John Sickels 2011 Jays prospect rankings and Jimenez is 35th overall!
No video?
I had some but my batteries died in the middle of recording. When I later checked the video did not record. Shame really, as I had behind the plate footage of Jenkins pitching.
Related Info:
All tickets, all season long, are $6 GA. Sit wherever you want. Season tickets are $175 and a voucher pack of 20 tickets is $60.
During the game I attended the attendance was announced at over 3000. The real crowd was 100-150 max, making this Dunedin game the most heavily papered (announced vs real) crowd that I’ve ever been a part of.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys_WOM3Wqoo
Remind us of your scouting background again?
And, what level you played at? Just curious.
See, that’s the beautiful thing about opinions, you don’t really need all that to make one.
The fact that the Jays have neglected their farm system for so many years, the bloggers opinion doesn’t surprise me.
I am no scout either but even I knew that the vernon wells contract was dumb and the escape clause for AJ Burnet to walk away with no compensation was dumber.
Fans opinions are not compromised by where they get their paycheque and we as fans always appreciate honest unbiased opinons; we can decide for ourselves how much truth is in each line.
Good job blogger. I will now be dropping by to hopefully see more of your opinions on this team; right or wrong.
Talk about Haters Gonna Hate
I do not have any professional scouting experience, nor have I claimed to.
However, I’d like to think that an avid baseball fan with an “eye”, that’s attended hundreds upon hundreds of professional games at every level from college, rookie ball – MLB, that studies sabermetric, strategy and mechanical side of the game has picked a few things up.
My scouting notes aren’t the gospel by any means. They are simply my opinion on the players. I’ve been wrong and I’ve been right, similar to most “pro” scouts.
You watch one game and then think you can write decisively on prospects?
Write decisively? How do you get that? He’s stating his opinion; he made no grand declarations. Go check out bluejays.com for the company line if that’s what interests you, I’m happy to have the honest opinion of an unbiased observer. Need some help down from your high horse?
Dude, you’re reading a blog. Its not the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Take it for what it is…baseball fans talking about baseball the way they see it.
If you disagree with his “scouting” lets hear about it, bashing his credentials is useless to everyone.
Matthias telling us about Podsednik still not running, or Ahrens not switch hitting is worth its 2 cents…your coments are a waste of the 3 seconds it took me to read it.
Thanks for the back-up everyone.
To the haters, take these reports for what they are. My in-game thoughts on prospects, there tools and make-up.
When going to a minor league game you have to rely upon what you actually see. It’s not like I (or anyone) can jump on their Iphone, hit up Fangraphs and start talking about dWAR, UZR/150, speed scores, etc.
Re: One game guy
To the ‘you’ve seen one game guy’, you should know that most games down in High-A have no more than 5 scouts at a time. The Dunedin game in question appeared to have only two legitimate scouts. The teams themselves put off-day SP in the stands to take notes, sometimes (and sometimes not) using a radar gun,. Mostly they track various tendencies, etc. On top of this you may see regular hobby scouts, you know, the off-center guys that hang around high school fields with notebooks.
It goes without saying that many draft and prospect experts at ESPN, BA, John Sickels, etc DO NOT see every prospect they comment on. Seriously, do we believe that an ESPN writer has seen an obscure 8th round pick HS out of the state of Utah. It would be nearly impossible to see every HS + College prospect. Yet they report and form opinions (likely based upon shared scouting reports).
Do prospect reporters that create top 20 lists see every prospect, in every league, including recently signed international players sent to instructional league? Once again, of course they don’t.
And I’m not trying to call anyone out on this fact. It’s common sense.
Almost everything is opinion when it comes to scouting (outside of clocked pitches and running speed). Whether pro, hobby, amateur or just random dude at the park, a 60 rating isn’t universal.
Scouting reports, no matter what the source, are open to interpretation. No one ever bats 1.000.
Just ignore the haters, it’s a great write-up. Too bad the level of prospects wasn’t that high as Dunedin doesn’t come near the Perez/Marisnick/Knecht/Crouse combination of hitters. And Wojciechowski, McGuire and even Nestor Molina probably have more upside than Jenkins.