Hechavarria and Gose Headline Blue Jays 2011 Arizona Fall League Contingent

Several Toronto Blue Jays prospects used their assignment to the 2010 Arizona Fall League as a springboard to kick off a successful 2011 season including OF Eric Thames, LHP Marc Rzepczysnki, 1B Mike McDade, OF Adam Loewen and even RHP Danny Farquhar.

This year will hopefully be no different for the Blue Jays farm hands that have been assigned to the Phoenix Desert Dogs roster for the 2011 Arizona Fall League.

Leading the 2011 class are Cuban SS Adeiny Hechavarria and speedy OF Anthony Gose, who ended up being the "third piece to the Roy Halladay trade" after OF Michael Taylor was flipped for 1B Brett Wallace and then Wallace flipped for Gose.

Both players were key contributors to the success of the 2011 Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats, a team currently playing deep into the Eastern League playoffs.

Gose played in 137 games for the Fisher Cats and batted .253/.349/.415 with 16 HR and 70 stolen bases, showing the kind of five-tool production he could one day bring to the top of the big league lineup.

Just 21 years old, Gose will be surrounded by some of the best young prospects in baseball down in Arizona, and his play could very well determine whether he returns to Double-A New Hampshire next year, or if he is challenged with a promotion to the Triple-A Las Vegas 51s and the Pacific Coast League.

It's already been determined that Hechavarria will spend most of the 2012 season with the Triple-A 51s after a late season promotion there from New Hampshire. The Cuban shortstop was struggling with the bat early on in the Double-A season, but things really started coming together after he was challenged with a late season promotion.

Hechavarria hit .235/.275/.347 in 464 Double-A at-bats and .389/.431/.537 in 108 Triple-A at-bats.

It's interesting to note that Hechavarria was also struggling with the bat with the Class-A Advanced Dunedin Blue Jays early in the 2010 season, and he showed significant improvement once he was promoted to Double-A.

In 161 at-bats with Dunedin in 2010, he hit just .193/.217/.292 but was able to improve his slash line with the Fisher Cats, hitting .273/.305/.360 over 253 at-bats.

It will be interesting to see the kind of offensive production Hechavarria will put up in the 2011 AFL and whether or not his statistics will regress in his return to Triple-A as they did a little bit in his second stint in Double-A.

Either way, the bat seems to be coming around for the young Cuban (especially compared to Red Sox SS Jose Iglesias, who mustered just 10 extra base hits in 357 Triple-A at-bats this season)

Another player assigned to the AFL from the loaded Fisher Cats roster is catcher Yan Gomes, who actually posted some impressive numbers while backing up top prospect C Travis d'Arnaud. Gomes got into 79 games with New Hampshire and batted .250/.317/.464 with 13 home runs.

It will be interesting to see whether the organization keeps that backstop tandem together and moves Gomes up to Triple-A with d'Arnaud for the 2012 season. An interesting tidbit about Gomes is that he was actually born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and while he was raised in the U.S. and subjected to the First-Year Player Draft, his successful ascent towards the Majors could be a unique story that could help inspire kids to play baseball in a country so enamoured with soccer.

Joining Hechavarria, Gose and Gomes in Arizona will be left-handed relievers Aaron Loup and Evan Crawford.

Loup was the Jays ninth-round pick in the 2009 draft and pitched in 48 games for Class-A Advanced Dunedin this season. He recorded five saves, posted a 4.66 ERA and struck out 56 batters while walking 27 in 65.2 innings pitched.

Crawford was the Jays eighth-round pick in the 2008 draft and was converted to full-time relief after making seven starts for Class-A Lansing last year. He performed very well out of the Dunedin Blue Jays bullpen in the second half of the season, and continued that success with Double-A New Hampshire this year. He appeared in 45 games and struck out 62 batters against just 21 walks in his 51 innings pitched. Crawford saved two games and posted a 3.35 ERA.

Both pitchers are turning into significant organizational depth, and could compete for a role in the Blue Jays bullpen in 2012 or 2013.

The team will likely assign two or three more players to the Desert Dogs before the 2011 Arizona Fall League season kicks off in early October, so we'll take a look at those other players when the announcement comes.