Baseball Prospect Notes: Thursday, April 16

Some notes on baseball and random thoughts on prospects for this fine afternoon.

****Through his first nine major league games with the Toronto Blue Jays, Dalton Pompey is 6-for-34 with two homers, three walks, two doubles, seven strikeouts and a stolen base to his credit. He certainly doesn't look out of place which is remarkable given his lack of upper-minors experience, all of 43 games combined between Double-A and Triple-A.

Between his cup-of-coffee last year and April 2015, Pompey has a .205/.276/.425 slash line in 73 major league at-bats. That doesn't sound so hot, but if you look at his numbers in perspective in 162-game notation, his counting numbers come out to 19 doubles, 12 triples, 19 homers, 12 steals in 12 attempts, with a 44/118 BB/K in 455 at-bats. Given his age (22) and lack of experience that is actually fairly credible. He's been rushed and it shows sometimes but the tools are obvious and there is a potentially broad base of skills to make those tools meaningful. We need to see his OBP and batting average come up but that should happen eventually. Be patient.

****Jays fans, what is your take on Miguel Castro and Roberto Osuna so far? Is this going to work?

****Chicago White Sox pitching prospect James Dykstra threw a no-hitter last night for High-A Winston-Salem in the Carolina League. It was a seven-inning deal as part of a double-header but hey, it's in the record books now. Dykstra has been incredibly tough this year: he gave up just one hit in six innings in his first start, so we're looking at 13 innings, one hit, one walk, zero runs, six strikeouts to open the campaign.

Dykstra was a sixth-round pick in 2013 out of Cal State San Marcos. Originally an outfielder, he converted to pitching in college and shows impressively good command, with a 136/22 K/BB in 171 innings as a pro so far.  His fastball is generally in the 87-92 range and he relies a great deal on his change-up and curveball. As with most pitchers without blazing stuff, Double-A will be the separator. He'll get a chance there soon if this keeps up.

****I'm still trying to think of a title for this new mostly-daily feature. Advice given yesterday to keep it simple seems sound. On the other hand I also like the "ahead of the curve" suggestion. Right now my thinking is to have this "daily note" section (the title may change) and then a separate regular (but not daily) feature called "Ahead of the Curve" to focus on more obscure prospects that need to be pointed out.

As mentioned yesterday, this new section is mainly for impressionistic notes and commentary, meant to supplement Nick Melotte's outstanding Gameday daily thread. The main focus for community discussion will remain in the Gameday.