September 24, 2019

By Jay Blue

Blue Jays from Away

It's that time of year that we begin our reports summarizing the season for the Blue Jays' minor league affiliates. We continue with the the Jays' Short-Season-A club playing in the Northwest League, the only affiliated minor league team in Canada, the Vancouver Canadians.

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 Vancouver Canadians were bad this season. Under manager Casey Candaele, the club was 30-46 and that was three games worse than their Pythagorean record of 33-43. The club had the worse record in their division and the second worst record in the entire league, finishing three games ahead of the 27-49 Boise Hawks.

When it came to offense, the Vancouver Canadians had the second-worst offense in the Northwest League (seventh of eight teams), scoring 3.99 runs per game, behind the league average of 4.65 with a group of hitters that averaged 20.9 years of age, 0.2 years older than the league average. On the pitching side, the Canadians were actually the fourth best club, allowing 4.58 runs per game (0.07 runs below the league average) with a group that was 21.5 years of age on average, 0.2 years above the league average of 21.3 years old.

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 Vancouver Canadians:

Yorman Rodriguez 7.17

Will Robertson 6.33

Trevor Schwecke 5.33

Alex Nolan 4.5

Tanner Morris 4

Luis De Los Santos 3.83

Philip Clarke 3.33

Dom Abbadessa 3

Ryan Sloniger 3

Adam Kloffenstein 3

Mc Gregory Contreras 2.83

Ronny Brito 2.83

Cameron Eden 2.67

Juan Diaz 2.5

Jesus Lopez 2.17

The Canadians' best players were rewarded by being at the top of the list with Yorman Rodriguez named the Player of the Game Champion for 2019!

Blue Jays from Away Player of the Year

As it rarely occurs, our top two for the Player of the Game Championship were also the top two players in our Player of the Year consideration with Yorman Rodriguez, hitting a stellar .369/.406/.510 with six doubles, two triples and four home runs in 170 plate appearances getting the nod. 2019 fourth-round pick Will Robertson heated up towards the end of the year to clock in with a .268/.365/.404 slash line for our honourable mention.

Honourable Mention: Will Robertson

Blue Jays from Away Pitcher of the Year

It was a tough decision for Pitcher of the Year as there were some candidates who came late who were absolutely dominant. That said, the fact that Adam Kloffenstein, who turned just 19 right at the end of the season, logged 64 1/3 innings with a 2.24 ERA and 1.09 WHIP, striking out 64 and walking 23 gets our nod for Pitcher of the Year. Runners up were Nick Fraze (34 IP, 2.12 ERA, 0.91 WHIP) and Alek Manoah (17 IP, 2.65 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, 27 K) were runners up.

Honourable Mention: Alek Manoah, Nick Fraze

Blue Jays from Away Reliever of the Year

The best reliever on the Vancouver Canadians, in my mind, was a two-man battle between Luis Quinones and Luke Gillingham. Quinones, who has since been suspended for taking an anabolic steroid, had a 2.97 ERA and 1.09 WHIP with 47 strikeouts and 17 walks in 30 1/3 innings and was the early favourite. But with the suspension and a reevaluation of his strong season, Luke Gillingham now comes out top. Gillingham, 25, was drafted by the Blue Jays in the 37th round of the 2016 draft out of the US Naval Academy. After pitching in Bluefield in 2016, he went back into the Navy to serve his country, emerging in 2019 with a 2.65 ERA and 1.06 WHIP over 34 innings, striking out 46 and walking 14 (with two of those walks being intentional).

Honourable Mention: Luis Quinones, Parker Caracci

If you like us here, like us on Facebook!

The 2019 Toronto Blue Jays Minor League Handbook is available now! Visit the Handbook page for more information!