Projected 2015 Rosters #2: Lansing Lugnuts Hitters

Rowdy Tellez
Rowdy Tellez will provide the thump for the Lugnuts to open 2015

 

This post is the second part of an eight-part series that will be my attempt to predict the Opening Day rosters for the Blue Jays’ four full-season minor league teams which start their seasons on April 9.

 

You can find the “Countdown to Baseball” article about Rowdy Tellez, today’s featured potential Lugnut hitter, by clicking the link but remember, you need to register on the site to read it!

 

 

To recap, this exercise is actually pretty tricky when you get down to the nuts and bolts of it. Trying to predict which players get assigned to which team is a challenge because we’re doing this over a month before the season opens, right about the time that minor league spring training opens. A great performance or a poor performance can move a player up and down while we can’t see the refinement or improvement of skills to make the kinds of judgements as to whether the organization deems a player to be ready for a particular level.

 

This is all an educated guessing game and I’ll probably get a few right, a few wrong and there’s always one or two roster decisions that completely surprise me. The Lugnuts’ first official game is April 10 against the Lake County Captains but they play their Crosstown Showdown on April 9 against the Michigan State baseball team.

 

I highly recommend reading Lansing Lugnuts’ announcer and media director Jesse Goldberg-Strassler’s thoughts on where the 2014 Lugnuts will wind up. It made for interesting reading and Jesse has shared with me his thoughts about the 2015 roster which I certainly took into consideration when putting together my list.

 

One of the toughest things about the starting the season is that several players find themselves on the outside looking in at the end of spring training. I won’t try to speculate about which players might get released. We’ll assume that everyone will find a spot somewhere and, because of that, the roster sizes might look a little big.

 

Catchers

 

Dan Jansen
Seth Conner

 

Other catchers

 

Max Pentecost
Michael De La Cruz
Justin Atkinson?

 

The injury to Max Pentecost is clearly what pushes Jansen into a starting role for the Lugnuts in 2014. Recently undergoing shoulder surgery that will keep him from throwing until the end of May, Pentecost is on the shelf which opens up the space for Jansen who was one of the nicest prospect surprises of 2014 until a knee injury (sustained when stepping on home plate) finished his season prematurely. Despite that, Jansen was my Player of the Year for Bluefield and, from reports that I got from Clayton McCullough, has really developed a lot in his two years in the Jays’ system.

 

Seth Conner is a veteran minor league backup who has spent a lot of time in Vancouver over the last few years. I think he’ll get a Lansing assignment to open the season although the city isn’t new to him at all.

 

Finally, I think a wild card could be Michael De La Cruz. De La Cruz played last year in Vancouver and he’ll be 22. He doesn’t have the best defensive numbers but he might be okay with the bat. Brett Wellman and Kevin Garcia were the only two other college catchers who the Blue Jays drafted in 2014.

 

Justin Atkinson
Justin Atkinson

 

So, according to Jesse Goldberg-Strassler, Justin Atkinson has been working on moving behind the plate. Does he return to Lansing where he had a pretty good 2014 with the bat or does he move up to Dunedin?

 

First Base

 

Rowdy Tellez
Ryan McBroom

 

You’re looking at a pretty powerful 1B/DH combo for Lansing in 2015. Tellez is one of the premiere power-hitting first base prospects in the system and, after a sluggish start with Bluefield last year, he recovered nicely, ending up in Lansing at the end of the year and really showing me a lot in terms of plate discipline and approach as well as in-game power.

 

McBroom had a huge year in Vancouver last year after being drafted in the 15th round. While he cooled down at the end of the year (it could have been due to fatigue after a long college season), he still hit five home runs in August and tied for the Northwest League lead with 11 dingers.

 

Second Base

 

Timothy Locastro
Gunnar Heidt

 

Tim Locastro
Tim Locastro

 

At second base for the Lugnuts, I’m kind of torn on who is actually going to get the bulk of the every day at bats. I’ve got one of those good feelings about Heidt who fell in the draft after a wrist injury sapped his power in his final year of college. The Jays picked him up in the 13th round and I’ve read people comment that it could be one of the big steals of the draft. He hit solidly with the Canadians last year and, after resting for the offseason, could have a big 2015.

 

I’m also a fan of Tim Locastro. The guy just gets on base. However, last year he didn’t walk a lot but got hit by an incredible number of pitches. Is that a skill that is projectable? Still, he doesn’t have a lot of power and Heidt may well have more of an upside.

 

Third Base

 

Alexis Maldonado
Ryan Metzler

 

In his second season with the Blue Jays, Maldonado showed some big improvement, increasing his contact skills as well as his power numbers, going from one extra-base hit in 116 plate appearances with Bluefield in 2013 to nine in 168 plate appearances in 2014. Maldonado hit .303/.365/.382 for Vancouver last year.

 

Metzler was a 2014 draftee and while he hit only .239 in Vancouver, he also had a .351 OBP. He’ll probably be a semi-regular after having been a shortstop in college. He played 20 games at third and 13 at second in 2014 for Vancouver.

 

Shortstop

 

Richard Urena

 

Richard Urena
Richard Urena

 

Urena is, hands down, going to be the Lugnuts’ shortstop in 2015 after his way to Lansing was cleared by the trade of Franklin Barreto. The best defensive shortstop in a crop of international free agents, Urena had a stellar year with the Bluefield Blue Jays, winning the R. Howard Webster Award as the team’s MVP with a .318/.363/.433 line. He’s got loads of gap power which will play well in Cooley Law School Stadium and he’ll be among the youngest players on the Lugnuts.

 

Other Infielders

 

Aaron Attaway
Lane Thomas

 

Attaway is another college 2014 draftee who struggled a bit but still showed some good patience at the plate, posting an OBP that was almost 150 points higher than his .206 batting average. He also had six doubles and two triples in 121 plate appearances in Bluefield and would be a good fit for the Lugnuts as a utility guy after having played games at second, short and third for the Bluefield club.

 

Thomas is kind of a wild card. A high school draftee last year (in the 5th round), Thomas is being looked in almost equal time as a third baseman and center fielder. He didn’t show any weaknesses when adjusting to the professional game, hitting a combined .281/.369/.398 between the GCL and Bluefield and his numbers actually went up a ton when he moved up to Bluefield. After the Fall Instructional League and Spring Training, the Jays could decide that Thomas is ready for higher ball, although I think there’s a greater chance that the 19 year old could stay back in extended spring training before getting a Vancouver assignment.

 

Outfield

 

Josh Almonte
Chris Carlson
Jonathan Davis
Roemon Fields

 

Josh Almonte
Josh Almonte

 

These are the three outfielders who I think will almost certainly be in Lansing in 2015. Almonte was a 2012 draft pick who blossomed in Bluefield last year. As a guy with three years of short-season ball experience and, at the age of 21, it’s time for him to move up.

 

Carlson was a college draftee last year and only hit .312/.409/.381 with Vancouver. There’s no point in keeping him there in 2015.

 

Jonathan Davis
Jonathan Davis

 

Jonathan Davis is a 22 year old 2013 draftee who had a solid first year in the pros before struggling with injury and trying to switch hit in 2014. Despite that, I think that he’s in Lansing to get his work in over a full season.

 

Fields is a guy who was delivering the mail before the Jays signed him as a non-drafted free agent at the end of 2013. He didn’t play that year but he led the Northwest League in stolen bases in 2014 and could very well be in center field for the Lugnuts in 2015.

 

I will qualify my convictions with the fact that there are a lot of other names coming up and any of these guys could be left in extended spring training.

 

Other Outfielders

 

Anthony Alford
Boomer Collins
D.J. Davis
Lane Thomas

 

Anthony Alford
Anthony Alford

 

Here’s where the big questions come. Will the Jays send Alford back to Lansing (where he played five games last year or are they going to count his Australian Baseball League time as counting towards A-ball experience and send him to Dunedin?

 

D.J. Davis
D.J. Davis

 

The same question refers to D.J. Davis. Is he going to be in Lansing or Dunedin? Do the Jays want him to repeat the level despite showing tremendous tools but the lack of skill development that led him to setting an all-time record for strikeouts in a year for the Lugnuts?

 

Boomer Collins

 

Boomer Collins was an undrafted free agent in 2013 and dominated the GCL that year before putting up mediocre numbers in Vancouver last year. He’s already 25 (will be 26 in June) and he needs to get into full season ball this year.

 

Finally, there’s Thomas. My read on the situation is that the Jays are really high on him but will want him to get everyday at bats somewhere. With this group of outfielders, there’s the chance that he gets the playing time at third base if he’s with Lansing but I think his playing time in Vancouver (if that’s where he ends up) doesn’t come at the cost of anyone else’s.

 

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