Niemelä finds twine, help on the way for Minten & Voit, Woll stays hot: Leafs Prospect Roundup

<div>Niemelä finds twine, help on the way for Minten & Voit, Woll stays hot: Leafs Prospect Roundup</div>

The Leafs picked up a convincing road win against Philadelphia in their 41st game of the campaign on Sunday night, marking the official halfway point in the regular season. Most of the prospects we’ve been following here each week are also gearing up for the stretch drive of the season, making it an ideal time to take a look at the bigger picture that is the Leafs’ prospect pipeline.
Later today, we will be kicking off TLN’s 2022-23 Midseason Leafs Prospect Rankings by profiling a few honorable mentions who just missed out on cracking the organization’s top-20 prospects. The rest of the week will feature a countdown of the top-20 so with plenty of prospect coverage on the way, this week’s Leafs Prospect Roundup will be a quick hit edition.
Let’s get to it.
Matt Knies and the Minnesota Golden Gophers split a weekend set against fellow Leafs prospect Veeti Miettinen and the St. Cloud State Huskies. Knies had his usual center back by his side as Logan Cooley returned from the World Juniors, and after being held off the scoreboard in a shutout loss on Saturday, they teamed up to give the Gophers an early lead on Sunday. Knies posted up in front of the net on the powerplay …

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Author: Nick Richard / The Leafs Nation

BJN Radio – Ep. 114: Thoughts on the Mariners, wild-card weekend predictions, and more!

After the long, winding road that was the 2022 season, here we are.

Toronto will host playoff baseball for the first time since 2016 when the Seattle Mariners come to town to play the Blue Jays in a three-game wild-card series.
We talked about the head-to-head between the Blue Jays and Mariners this season and how the two teams stack up in terms of offence and pitching. After that, we talked about who’s primed for a big moment in these playoffs and we made predictions for the entirety of wild-card weekend.
You can listen to the episode here… 
POINTSBET IS LIVE IN ONTARIO

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Author: Cam Lewis / Blue Jays Nation

That was not Next Level

After going 6-1 on a critical road trip against the Yankees and the Red Sox, the Blue Jays were welcomed home to a 12-0 defeat at the hands of the Los Angeles Angels. It was quite the outburst for the Halos, as they had only pushed across seven runs during their previous 12 games.

The first three innings of the game were the big difference tonight. The Angels were able to mix hitting Mitch White pretty hard with some poor Blue Jays defense to score seven runs between the 2nd and 3rd innings.
White escaped a base-loaded jam in the 1st inning (an inning that featured an error from Vladimir Guerrero Jr.), and in search of a quick second inning, he would load the bases once again. With runners on first and second, Andrew Velazquez bunted sharply towards Guerrero. Vladdy fielded the ball, thought about throwing to second or third to get a lead runner, but thought too long, as Velazquez reached first in time before Guerrero could make a decision. Instead of having an out with two runners on, there were no outs and loaded bases.
One batter later, David Fletcher scorched a ball off the fence that would score two runs. Fletcher nearly missed a grand slam by about two feet, as h …

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Author: Evan Stack / Blue Jays Nation

“2021 Jose Berrios” shows up as Blue Jays top Phillies 4-3

After a 7-game road trip that included going 1-2 against the Oakland A’s, a fly ball deflecting off of Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s glove for a home run, and a potential inning-ending double play going through the webbing of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s glove, the Toronto Blue Jays needed a win on Tuesday night to turn things around.

Well, they sure got it, thanks to a solid night from Jose Berrios and the Jays’ timely hitting.
Berrios was dialed in from the start, retiring Kyle Schwarber, Rhys Hoskins, and Nick Castellanos in order in the top of the 1st. Schwarber, Hoskins, and Castellanos were a combined 1-for-9 against Berrios. He also struck out the side in the 3rd inning against the same three batters, arguably the best three hitters in the lineup right now for the Phillies (since these are the ones who made the trip).

José Berríos, 94mph Two Seamer and 83mph Curveball, Overlay.
Two Seamer = 20 inches of runCurveball = 17 inches of break pic.twitter.com/QTauIjvCM3
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 12, 2022

Berrios had command of all his pitches. His fastball, changeup, and curveball all had exceptional movement. Dan Shulman and Pat Tabler were quick to note that Berrios was trusting his curveball, and it showed as he fooled batters all night, including a beautiful backdoor breaking ball to strike out Darick Hall in the 2nd inning.
Berrios’ final line: 6 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, and 13 K’s. *Chef’s kiss*. I would argue that the three runs allowed are not indicative of his overall performance. Definitely what we needed to see from the 131-million-dollar man!
The bullpen decided to keep fans’ heart rates to a minimum, with nice outings from Tim Mayza, Yimi Garcia, and Jordan Romano.
As for the offense, Teoscar Hernandez, Matt Chapman, and Gurriel all had run-scoring doubles of dif …

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Author: Evan Stack / Blue Jays Nation