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Welcome back to my sim of the Toronto Blue Jays’ 2020 season! It’s draft day and I kind of forgot to take good screen shots of the stats at the end of the week, so I’ll just focus on the draft and we’ll catch up on the teams a little more with the next sim on Tuesday. Here’s the full episode available on the GM Games channel on YouTube!
So the Jays had the #5 pick in the draft and I’m having a little bit of buyer’s remorse. I was originally trying to choose between New Mexico State second baseman Nick Gonzales, Texas A&M lefty Asa Lacy and high-school outfielder Dylan Crews. Ultimately, I went with Gonzales, mostly because of the asking price. Gonzales was ready to take slot value (over $5.6 million for this pick), while Lacy was asking for $8 million.
According to Baseball America, Lacy is the #3-ranked draft prospect (note: I did not consult BA rankings when I did the draft in-game), performing at a high level in his first four college starts this year that he was considered to be the top pitcher int he class. Scouts love his slider (getting comparisons to Carlos Rodon) while he was hitting 90-98 mph with his fastball.
Gonzales is ranked #5 by BA and they note that he has “more of an innate ability to hit for both average and power than most gritty gamer types.” He hit .432/.532/.773 in his sophomore year but, in the OOTP game that completed a 2020 season, he hit just .299/.387/.513 with 10 home runs in 228 plate appearances but has very high ratings from the scouts in the game.
Crews was asking for less money and is currently ranked 54th by Baseball America and I figured that he was a bit of a stretch at #5 overall.
In the second round, I went with righthanded pitcher Ian Bedell. Bedell went to Missouri, enrolling early after skiping his senior season of high school (hence why he’s still just 20 years old). He was excellent as a long reliever in 2019 and had a 0.59 ERA in the Cape Cod League last summer. He had more than a strikeout per inning in the OOTP collegiate league in 2020 and his 3.20 ERA was lower than his 3.70 ERA in real life through four starts in 2020.
In the third round we took another starter, righty Ben Hernandez. I actually liked Hernandez’s ratings better than Bedell and, apparently, so does Baseball America, who ranked him 88th in the class. They like his changeup particularly, coming out of De La Salle High School in Chicago and he’s touched 95 mph in games. You can notice that his potential rating for his changeup is 75 which is practically off the charts.
In the fourth round, I took outfielder Jag Burden, a high schooler from Huntington Beach, California, a school where the Jays have selected several guys who have played in their minor leagues including Christian Lopes, Hagen Danner and Jake Brodt.
I went with Ethan Smith, out of Vanderbilt, with my fifth pick and he’s a well-regarded righty ranked #178 by BA but they think that he hasn’t progressed much with his stuff since high school.
I won’t talk about every pick but I did get a bit of a steal in Brandon Fields in the sixth round. Fields is ranked #136 by BA and he’s noted for being a great athlete who has committed to University of South Carolina and could also play running back for them. He’s got quick hands and bat speed with a “solid-average” arm. He’s a bit raw in terms of baseball skills and has “aggressive swings” but he’s got good power.
Check out the video of the simulation to see some other highlights of my draft! We’ll be back Friday with a more regular update which will be the last one before the short-season leagues get underway!
Come back soon and go to GM Games’s channel on YouTube to watch our updates as they come out on Tuesday and Fridays!
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All photos are copyright Blue Jays from Away (2013-2020) and may not be used without permission.