It’s that time of year that we begin our reports summarizing the season for the Blue Jays’ minor league affiliates. We begin (like we did last year) with the lowest level club, the Dominican Summer League Blue Jays.
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 DSL Blue Jays had a solid season, finishing 41-31, a game ahead of their pythagorean record of 40-32. They finished second in their division (the Baseball City division), seven games behind the DSL Diamondbacks 1. Of the 44 teams in the Dominican Summer League, the Blue Jays had the 14th best runs scored per game, scoring 5.19 runs per game which was above the league average of 4.85 runs per game with an offense that averaged 17.5 years old (slightly under the league average of 17.7 years). The pitching finished 19th, allowing 4.64 runs again, again, better than average, with a pitching staff that averaged 18.2 years old with a league average of 18.4 years.
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 DSL Blue Jays:
| Jhon Solarte | 9.67 |
| Pedro Hurtado | 7.83 |
| Miguel Hiraldo | 7 |
| Alberto Rodriguez | 6.5 |
| Lazaro Estrada | 6.33 |
| Santos Moreno | 5 |
| Rainer Nunez | 3.83 |
| Hanley Acevedo | 2.83 |
| Jose Rivas | 2.67 |
| Erickvi Celedonio | 2.33 |
| Ronald Govea | 2.33 |
| Junior Guzman | 2 |
| Adrian Hernandez | 1.83 |
| Gustavo Ruiz | 1.5 |
| Jose Zepeda | 1 |
| Anthony Rodriguez | 1 |
| Alexis Carmona | 0.83 |
| Brayan Mejia | 0.5 |
| Franniel Polanco | 0.5 |
| Pedro Ventura | 0.5 |
| Brayan Rodriguez | 0.5 |
| William Gonzalez | 0.5 |
Congrats go to Jhon Solarte, the Blue Jays from Away Player of the Game Champion for the DSL Blue Jays!
Blue Jays from Away Player of the Year
While Jhon Solarte had a strong season in his first professional year, another rookie was better, hitting .313/.381/.453 with 15 stolen bases (in 21 tries), hitting 18 doubles, three triples and two home runs before he was promoted towards the end of the season. Of course, I’m talking about Miguel Hiraldo.
Honourable Mention: Jhon Solarte, Anthony Rodriguez
Blue Jays from Away Pitcher of the Year
It was a two-man race for Pitcher of the Year this year with two youngsters dominating the DSL. Santos Moreno had a slightly better ERA at 2.04, slightly more innings (70 2/3), but he walked more batters, gave up more hits and didn’t strike out as many batters as Lazaro Estrada. Estrada tossed 70 innings with a 2.06 ERA and had an uncanny 0.86 WHIP, striking out 87 batters and walking only 12. Congrats to Lazaro Estrada!
Honourable Mention: Santos Moreno, Ronald Govea
Blue Jays from Away Reliever of the Year
The DSL Blue Jays didn’t have a dominant, lights-out reliever and so I will give the Reliever of the Year award to a reliever who was excellent in 16 1/3 innings with the DSL Blue Jays and actually got better in his peripheral stats after his mid-season promotion to the GCL Blue Jays. With a 1.35 ERA overall in 33 1/3 innings total, posting a 0.95 WHIP with 23 strikeouts and 11 walks, Franniel Polanco is our DSL Reliever of the Year.
Honourable Mention: Juan Acosta
If you like us here, like us on Facebook!
The 2018 Toronto Blue Jays Minor League Handbook is now available!
Visit the Handbook page for more information! Now is a great time to subscribe to the Blue Jays from Away Premium Content Section!
All photos are copyright Blue Jays from Away (2013-2018) and may not be used without permission.