Buffalo Bisons 2018 Report, part 1: Blue Jays from Away Awards

Danny Jansen

It’s that time of year that we begin our reports summarizing the season for the Blue Jays’ minor league affiliates. We continue our reports with the Buffalo Bisons.

 

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If you’re new to Blue Jays from Away, we summarize all eight of the Blue Jays’ minor league teams in four parts: The Blue Jays from Away Awards, Starting Pitchers, Relief Pitchers and Position Players. Players are discussed with the team that they spent the most time with (by innings pitched for pitchers and at bats for batters).

 

 

The Buffalo Bisons played themselves to an International League worst 61-77 record under second-year manager Bobby Meacham. The Bisons had some strong players but there weren’t enough of them and it was likely that youth played a big role as the club played beneath their Pythagorean Record by six games. The Bisons finished ninth out of 14 teams in the league in runs produced, scoring just around the league average with 4.15 runs per game (0.01 runs below the league average) with a lineup that was significantly younger than league average at 24.7 years of age (well below the 26.5 year average age). On the pitching side, the pitching staff was actually 0.8 years older than average at 27.0 years of age and and gave up 4.28 runs per game (0.12 over the 4.16 r/g league average).

Blue Jays from Away Player of the Game Champion

 

For those of you who followed the minor league reports here, you’ll know that I “awarded” Player of the Game (PotG) accolades on a game-by-game basis. It should comfort you to know that I’ve been keeping track of these daily awards and my rationale for the system is as follows.

The Player of the Game Awards were determined by a number of factors that included who I thought had the most impact on the game and who might have gone “above and beyond.” Many nights, there was just one Player of the Game. If there was, he earned one point. If I thought that either a) no one stood out enough to merit a single PotG, or b) two or more players were outstanding and deserved mention, I split the point up into two, three or four shares. If two players earned PotG mention, they each received 0.5 points and if three players earned mentions, they each received 0.33 points, etc. There were occasions that I felt that no one merited the award and therefore, I did not give out any points.

Here are the final standings for Blue Jays from Away Player of the Game for the Buffalo Bisons:

 

Danny Jansen 11.83
Rowdy Tellez 11.33
Anthony Alford 9.67
Dwight Smith Jr. 8.5
Tim Lopes 6.83
Jonathan Davis 6.5
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 6
Sean Reid-Foley 5.83
Reese McGuire 5.5
Jason Leblebijian 5
Darnell Sweeney 4.83
Ryan Borucki 4.33
Richard Urena 4
Roemon Fields 3.83
Chris Rowley 3.5
Lourdes Gurriel 3.33
Dalton Pompey 3.17
Justin Dillon 2.83
Sam Gaviglio 2
Nick Tepesch 2
Matt Tracy 2
Taylor Guerrieri 1.83
Conor Fisk 1.83
Thomas Pannone 1.5
Gio Urshela 1.5
Teoscar Hernandez 1
Deck McGuire 1
Gift Ngoepe 1
Ian Parmley 1
Jon Harris 1
Zach Stewart 1
Billy McKinney 1
Steve Pearce 0.5
Murphy Smith 0.5
Brandon Cumpton 0.5

 

While it was a close race thanks to Rowdy Tellez’s hot finish, Danny Jansen was the Buffalo Bisons’ Player of the Game Champion!

 

Blue Jays from Away Player of the Year

 

While Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had the best OPS of any of the Buffalo Bisons who played more than four games, he only played 30 games, leaving the next best OPS of anyone who played a significant number of games with the Bisons at the .863 number owned by Danny Jansen so congrats to Danny, a double winner of Blue Jays from Away awards.

Honourable Mention: Dwight Smith Jr., Rowdy Tellez

 

Blue Jays from Away Pitcher of the Year

 

Ryan Borucki and Thomas Pannone

There was a lot of movement with the Bisons’ pitching staff this year and as a result, the team lead in innings was Chris Rowley with 101. While Rowley had a very good year with Buffalo, we’re going to go with Ryan Borucki as our Pitcher of the Year who not only logged 77 innings with a 3.27 ERA and 1.17 WHIP, but he also grabbed a solid toehold in the Blue Jays’ major league rotation.

Honourable Mention: Chris Rowley, Sean Reid-Foley

 

Blue Jays from Away Reliever of the Year

 

 

Justin Shafer

Justin Shafer was the best reliever for the Bisons with a 1.41 ERA and 1.12 WHIP, saving 15 games for the Herd and also getting a taste of the big leagues. Veteran minor leaguer Conor Fisk also took some big strides this season while Murphy Smith and Jose Fernandez also had strong years with both making their major league debut. Luis Santos and Jake Petricka also had good numbers in limited opportunities.

Honourable Mention: Conor Fisk, Jose Fernandez, Murphy Smith, Luis Santos, Jake Petricka

 

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