Remember Sergio Santos? If you don’t, here is a refresher:
Santos was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first round of the 2002 Major League Baseball Draft. Between 2002 and 2005, Santos steadily worked his way up through the Diamondbacks’ farm system all the way to Triple-A Tucson, where he hit 21 doubles and 12 home runs in 2005.
On December 27, 2005, Santos was sent to Toronto along with Troy Glaus in exchange for Miguel Batista and Orlando Hudson. In 2006, he hit .214 with 5 home runs and 38 RBI in 128 games with Toronto’s Triple-A affiliate, the Syracuse Chiefs. He attended the Blue Jays’ 2007 spring training, but did not make the active 25-man roster. After his struggles at Triple-A Syracuse in 2006, Toronto assigned Santos to their Double-A affiliate, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats for the 2007 season.
On May 13, 2008, Santos was claimed off waivers by the Minnesota Twins. He became a free agent at the end of the season and signed a minor league contract with the Chicago White Sox.
Basically Santos was a no glove, no bat infielder who couldn’t hack it. However, scouts loved the fact that he could throw lasers across the diamond with pinpoint accuracy. The Chicago White Sox have successfully convinced Santos to take up pitching and have sent him to the Arizona Fall League to work on his stuff. Santos’ fastball sits consistently at 95-96mph and has a nasty yet inconsistent slider. He projects as a big league bullpen arm if he can gain control of his slider. So far though, he has struggled in the AFL.
The strikeout to walk ratio is decent but the other peripherals are not. After a full season of getting reps with his slider in, perhaps he will be an improved pitcher. Only time will tell.
In other Blue Jays AFL news..
Remember how I was so hot to trot about Adam Loewen? Welllll he has kinda sorta tanked. After his hot start, the ginger Adam Loewen has wilted under the hot Arizona sun.
He has struck out in almost 50% of his at bats. I watched a few of his bats on AFL game day (yes, I am a nerd) and he wasn’t striking out on the breaking stuff. In fact he was swinging and missing at fastballs right down the middle. This says to me his bat has slowed down and he is probably exhausted from his first full season of baseball as a positional player, playing every day. Add international competition in playing for Team Canada at the World Cup and now the AFL league and you probably have a guy who is in need of a rest.
Toronto Blue Jays second baseman Brad Emaus had a big day at the plate on Halloween going 4/4 with 2 runs. He has had a respectable AFL campaign so far and will hope to build on that heading into next season whether he starts off at AA New Hampshire or AAA Las Vegas.
And what of Bobby Ray? Who wants to know? Who wants to know?
Robert (Bobby) Ray was an early season callup who spot started 4 games for an injury depleted Toronto pitching staff. Despite not having the greatest stuff, he pitched around replacement level (in large part to this guy). When the rotation got healthy, Ray was sent down and promptly landed on the DL with shoulder issues. He missed most of the rest of the season so he is down in the AFL getting some work in.
Ray has a sparkling SO:BB ratio and has almost a strikeout per inning. This tells me his control is back at the very least, which is the most important thing for a control pitcher coming off a shoulder injury. Perhaps a strong spring will catapult Ray into the running for a rotation spot in 2010? It worked for Dustin McGowan.
Loewen is struggling. On your first update he had 4 hits in 2 games, now he has only 3 in his past 13.
Emaus is stuck in no man’s land. He doesn’t have the range to play SS and he probably won’t hit enough to play a corner OF. The Jays should look to deal him and bring in some depth at the SS position.
Hopefully a Jay will break out in the second half and up his overall value heading into 2010.
I just noticed this … but is that a makeshift “C” spelt out in painter’s tape on Sergio Santos’ jersey? Talk about low budget!