u/GmenJays82713

#1- Trey Yesavage (#1 last week)

#2- Johnny King (#2)

#3- JoJo Parker (#3)

#4- Arjun Nimmala (#4)

#5- Yohendrick Pinango (#6)

#6- Jake Bloss (IR)

#7- Sean Keys (#5)

#8- Gage Stanifer (#9)

#9- Blaine Bullard (#8)

#10- Silvano Hechavarria (#7)

#11- Juan Sanchez (#10)

#12- Victor Arias (IR)

#13- Josh Kasevich (#11)

#14- Charles McAdoo (#12)

#15- Brandon Valenzuela (NR)

Honorable Mentions; IR-Ricky Tiedeman, Eddie Micheletti Jr, Enmanuel Bonilla, Jace Bohrofen, Tim Piasentin, Nolan Perry, Landen Maroudis, Adrian Pinto, RJ Schreck

Prospect Spotlight: JoJo Parker

To most, the consensus is that Jojo Parker has started off his professional career slow, or rather slower than expected. And the box scores back that up with a middling OPS and a bit high of a strikeout rate. But below those surface level stats he’s been much more Impressive. Parker has been hitting the ball as hard as any regular in A ball this year. He is 5th in Avg Exit Velo (91.9) among those with at least 400 pitches seen in A ball. On top of that he has put up quite an impressive 16.8% BB% good for 10th. While the swing and miss is there and questions about consistent output do linger, Parker’s metrics are promising. The Blue Jays aren’t new to raw power, Arjun Nimmala just a few seasons ago was doing the same thing in Dunedin. But Parker is different, his plate coverage is better and has more positional versatility than Nimmala. The Blue Jays typically don’t “rush” bats to the Majors, but Parker could be the outlier here, I wouldn’t be surprised if he stays in Dunedin full season, but it’s in my personal opinion he doesn’t have much to prove and improve upon at the Low A level. Give it July we might see Parker in Vancouver sooner rather than later.

Just late night trying to figure out whats wrong with Vladdy. Im less concerned now looking a bit under the hood as to what’s up with Vladdys swing.

The one thing I could find was that his attack angle is down 2 degrees from April this year and throughout his good runs in the middle of the year last year and late the year before that.

It seems that if mid April something happened to where his attack angle started taking a dive. I had a theory, on April 17th if we remember Vladdy hurt his Left index finger on a play at 1B bending his finger back. I wonder if this finger is causing more problems than he may say or at the very least it led to problems that we are seeing now.

Vladdys stats from the start of the season to April 17th vs from April 17th to Now

Avg EV: 92.7 vs 89.1

Hard Hit%: 48.2 vs 40.3

XBA: .325 vs .321

xSLG: .503 vs .445

Attack Angle: 4 degrees vs 2 degrees

Attack Direction: 2 degrees vs 4 degrees

Swing Speed: 76.3 vs 76.4

wRC+: 141 vs 91

Now there’s a couple of assumptions to be made here. The attack angle and direction swap is very interesting, though not big discrepancies it is intreating to look how big of a difference that makes to Vladdy over his career. When his attack angle is 2 degrees or less his stats are significantly worse that when his attack angle is 3 degrees or more. When it is 3 or more he has a career hard hit% of 52% and an xSLG of .650. While less it’s Hard Hit% of 49% and an xSLG of .493.

The stats also tell us to not be worried about any upper body issues as the swing speed is relatively the same and is still very good.

But the most obvious stat that I have yet to talk about is the chase rate. This is where Vladdys true struggles are coming from, he is chasing far too much. He hasn’t chased this much since 2023 when he was going through a rough mental patch. That is the biggest part I believe, that Vladdy is going through another stretch where his mental is just working his way too much into his physical output. Maybe it’s just natural, maybe some finger problems led to him trying to hard to find his swing again, maybe he’s trying to force it for the team. Whatever it is, I would be less concerned about the 500 million dollar man than others on this team, he will bounce back, and soon I bet

Im going to start doing these lists every Monday, 1 because I like it, but 2 to also spread knowledge on the Blue Jays minor lea system a bit more.

#1- Trey Yesavage

#2- Johnny King

#3- JoJo Parker

#4- Arjun Nimmala

#5- Sean Keys

#6- Silvano Hechavarria

#7- Yohendrick Pinango

#8- Blaine Bullard

#9- Gage Stanifer

#10- Juan Sanchez

#11- Charles Mcadoo

#12- Landen Maroudis

#13- Josh Kasevich

#14- Tucker Toman

#15- Jace Bohrofen

Honorable Mentions; IR-Ricky Tiedeman, IR-Jake Bloss, Eddie Micheletti Jr, Enmanuel Bonilla, Daniel Guerra, Austin Cates, Tim Piasentin

Prospect Spotlight; Blaine Bullard

Bullard one of the 3 big name High School draft picks of last years draft has started off his professional career as it was advertise. He is showing raw power in spurts mixed with athleticism on the base paths and in the outfield. He was always going to be a project, but that project has started off showing exceptional tools worth gambling on as he progresses. He has been swinging a lot and missing a lot, but if given time to put it all together could be a 30-30+ guy down the road in his professional career

The obvious answer is it’s too early to say. But just to start the conversatio, Pinangoat has had some really really good ABs but being the one and the same position and with the most options he makes most sense. Meanwhile Davis and Sosa have been pretty bad recently, Davis has options while Sosa doesn’t. I think if this keeps up you gotta keep Pinangoat and give Davis everyday AB’s in Buffalo, but that’s just my opinion.

Card art is sick, presumably 20+ new cards being added/obtainable through offline. Should be a fun grind for the first time in awhile.

Last year it was Trey Yesavage, Gage Stanifer, Khal Stephan, and Fernando Perez. This year they have a brand new cast and a much larger ceiling.

Last year deep into the spring months and early into summer most of the Blue Jays payed close attention to a cast of Blue Jays minor league pitchers that would dominate minor league hitters at a rate this fanbase hasn’t really seen before. Well I’m here to tell you, you need to pay attention again, cause this time it might be better.

Johnny King-

Easily the best of the pitchers in Vancouver and also the youngest. King is building off last years performance where he broke into Dunedin and dominated hitters his age. Now age 19 he‘s facing older competition to the same success. He seems to be sitting mid to high 90’s and is striking out hitters at a K/9 close to 2. He won’t see the rise to the Majors Yesavage did last year being only 19, but being so young and so dominant he may have a higher peak prospect ranking than Yesavage ever did.

IP- 10.1

ERA- .87

SO- 19

BB- 8

HR- 0

Daniel Guerra-

Guerra is the most intriguing of the prospects here in my opinion. He is a massive 6’6 only 22 and spins the ball really well. He just spun an 11 strikeout game recently and had silently flown under the radar going into the year. It will be interesting to see if he can build on his hot start and good year last year.

IP- 19.1

ERA- 2.33

SO- 26

BB- 10

HR-1

Landen Maroudis-

Maroudis like King was an early round HS pick this time in 2023. Like King, Maroudis started his minors career off hot but due to an arm injury in 2024 his 2025 season was extremely lackluster. Now in 2026 and healthy, he is back to being himself, he offers a solid fastball with a sharp change and slider. Expect to hear his name a lot soon.

IP- 16

ERA- 1.69

SO- 15

BB- 5

HR- 0

Austin Cates/ Danny Thompson JR-

I’m lumping these guys together, they both have the same story. 2 Guys in college with not overpowering stuff, but the command and poise on the mound that let that stuff play up a level. Many teams pass on these type of guys for the low ceiling, the Jays the past few years have made guys like these their calling cards turning in major success in these type of pitchers. Ever since Thompson and Cates have been in the org they have been dominating, if they keep it up they will rise fast and be of great value come July.

Cates-

IP- 18.2

ERA- 2.89

SO- 20

BB-7

HR-3

Thompson-

IP- 15

ERA- 0.00

SO- 24

BB- 5

HR- 0

oh yeah, and watch out for Silvano Hechevarria when he comes back too