J.P. To The Rescue!!! (Baseball America Top 10 Jays Prospects)

This article was published by Baseball America back on November 14, 2008 but I think its an interesting read for all Jays' fans. It provides an in-depth look at the future of our team.

According to BA's Matt Eddy, here are our top 10 prospects:

1. Travis Snider, of
2. J.P. Arencibia, c
3. Brett Cecil, lhp
4. Justin Jackson, ss
5. David Cooper, 1b
6. Kevin Ahrens, 3b
7. Brad Mills, lhp
8. Ricky Romero, lhp
9. Marc Rzepczynski, lhp
10. Brad Emaus, 2b/3b

Now the last 2 guys, I have never heard of and I think Ricky Romero got a bit of a gift even being named to this list. (He can thank his outstanding collegiate career and his #6 overall pick in the 2005 draft... Troy Tulowitzki would have been nice huh?)

Snider is a given, but a guy that truly excites me is J.P. Arencibia. After enduring countless years of Gregg Zaun's mediocre contributions, the thought of developing a solid young catcher should drive all Jays fans nuts!! Here's the book on Arencibia courtesy of http://www.scoutingbook.com/:

"A big, strong right-handed hitter from Florida, Arencibia is a catcher of the offensive variety, though he does have a strong throwing arm to go along with his bat. He's also got a great personality for leadership and should be able to handle a pitching staff if he can stay behind the plate. While at-bat, he's a dead pull slugger with plus power. He just needs to learn a little plate discipline to stop big-league pitchers from picking him apart before he can get his bat into play."



Arencibia was also recently invited to MLB's Rookie Career Development Program. Check out this video for Arencibia's thoughts on the experience.

Maybe this J.P. is the saviour the Blue Jays have been waiting for!! We look forward to seeing him behind the plate at Rogers Centre in the not too distant future.