DINGERS FROM THE 6IX
by Quinn Sweetzir
You would think a left handed pitcher with a career minor league ERA of 3.32 would get serious attention as a potential building block of a franchise. You would think a 23 year old with a combined ERA of 2.93 across the top three levels of the minor leagues would get the attention of a potential rotation cornerstone. You would think prospect with solid command, a clean delivery, and above average movement would get the attention of a being at worst, a Top 100 prospect. Yet despite doing all of the above, I’m willing to bet most of you have never even heard of Ryan Borucki. Borucki currently ranks as the Blue Jays 14th ranked prospect by mlb.com and was quoted as having a fastball “with late movement that helps him generate ground-balls.” MLB’s list also gave Borucki a grade of 50 on the 20-80 scale, which translates to roughly league average or 2 WAR per season. Despite this positive outlook, in past seasons, pitchers like Conner Greene and Sean Reid-Foley have gotten far more attention despite generally having inferior results to Borucki. The reason for this likely rests at least partially in fastball velocity, where Borucki tops out at 92 compared to 97 for Reid-Foley and 101 for Greene according to their respective Baseball Prospectus player pages. It’s easy to be wowed by high radar gun readings yet despite this Borucki has managed to achieve superior in game results compared to these peers. Although extra velocity certainly wouldn’t be a detriment to Borucki, it’s also been proven that good results are often possible in spite of weaker average velocity. As a result, perhaps this is a case where we need to consider more than just a pitchers velocity in evaluating the overall talent level of a particular pitcher. Beyond just their individual results however, another reason to discuss Borucki is his potential to help the team this season. Borucki made his first career start at AAA yesterday, tossing six innings of shutout ball with six strikeouts. The Buffalo Bisons’ schedule would result in this being his final minor league start of the season. A promotion of this type at this point in the season is likely an indication that Ryan Borucki is going to get major league playing time this September. Players don’t usually get called up to a higher level just to make one extra start before the season ends, which therefore makes it more likely that Jays management decided to increase the level of competition which Borucki is going to face before a call up to the highest level. In addition, Ryan Borucki is already on the Blue Jays 40 man roster, and the Jays would therefore be able to call him up with no losses in terms of personnel on this roster. The expansion of September rosters should also enable a Blue Jays team which is out of contention for a playoff spot to try playing some of their younger prospects with less limited or no big league experience. Unless the Jays elect to finish the season with a 6 man rotation, I do have a somewhat difficult team seeing Borucki get time as a starter. Marcus Stroman, J.A. Happ, and Marco Estrada are not going to be removed from the rotation unless injury strikes, the club wants to evaluate Joe Biagini’s potential as a starter next season so it’s unlikely he ends up leaving the rotation. This leaves Brett Anderson as the only starter I could possibly see Borucki replacing in September, although I anticipate the Jays would be interested in keeping Anderson in this role in order to evaluate his potential as a potential swingman candidate. Given his career history however, it’s reasonably likely that Anderson could get injured some time between now and the end of the season, in which case, Borucki should be the replacement. Even if it’s not in a rotation capacity, the signs seem to indicate that Borucki will still be called up to the big club. If Borucki was to come up in a relief capacity, then he could still be quite useful. The bullpen has been severely overworked this season, and a recent decline in performance among relievers like Roberto Osuna, Danny Barnes, and Ryan Tepera should indicate that additional rest is required. I suspect that Borucki could often be used as a multi inning reliever in order to limit the usage of these three as much as possible, and the expansion of September rosters should keep this possible on days when Borucki is unavailable to pitch. Ryan Borucki is an under appreciated, legitimate, major league prospect with left handed starter’s potential. Although he’s been overshadowed in the past his results indicate that he is a much better prospect then we’ve been led to imagine. His potential call up to the big leagues later this month should be a further indicator that Borucki is an arm on the rise, with enough talent to contribute meaningfully to the big league club in the future. It’s time we all starter talking about Ryan Borucki, he’s the best Jays prospect you’ve never thought about. |
Photo used under Creative Commons from Keith Allison