By Jay Blue

Blue Jays from Away

The Toronto Blue Jays got their second day of the draft going by selecting their first Canadian, selecting Oakville, Ontario native Dasan Brown out of Abbey Park High School as the 88th overall pick in the third round.

Dasan Brown is the top-ranked Canadian in the 2019 draft and he's been given a 70-run grade by MLB.com but is seen to be a bit raw with the bat by MLB.com. In the mold of someone like Mississauga, Ont., native Dalton Pompey (although Brown is not a switch hitter), he's a guy who has potential to be a four-or-five tool player but, according to MLB.com, "he needs to add strength and has trouble impacting the ball at times," although some scouts noted that he was scouted with the Canadian Junior National team in the spring, facing professional minor league teams.

MLB.com had Brown ranked #103 in their system while Baseball America had him at #96, noting that he posts sub 4.1-second home-to-first times. BA likes his upside as a centre fielder and called his athleticism "dynamic." They think that he could spend two years in rookie ball in order to learn how to hit, calling him "mostly a fastball hitter who has a line-drive approach and rarely elevates the ball."

Brown is committed to Texas A&M and Baseball America thinks that he "could be a player who teams prefer to see go to school, develop physically and prove he can hit," but with the Jays as the selecting team, and knowing that they'll lose the money out of the draft pool if they fail to sign him, it's much more likely that they'll sign him below slot and hope he punches his lottery ticket to develop those tools.