Hey there Bluebird Banter. My name is John, and I, for some reason, am a self-professed Phillies fan. I do sports writing on my own site, philadelphiasportsvoice.weebly.com, which includes a lot of minor-league profiling. However, I can only comb through the Phils system so much, so I thought it'd be a decent idea to start branching out to the rest of the league. I made my first post in this little miniseries on the Marlins system. Since I'm great at following patterns, I moved onto your AL East division mates and profiled the Rays and Orioles systems. Now I'm back on the writing kick so here we go with what's in the Jays system. Everything I write here is my first impression of what I see.

Most of the top guys in the system either graduated to the majors this year or were part of the deadline deals to acquire Tulowitzki and Price. The best prospect in the system coming into this year was pitcher Daniel Norris. He was the headliner in the trade for David Price at the deadline. #2 guy Jeff Hoffman was part of the trade to get Troy Tulowitzki as well as #6 righty Miguel Castro. Righty Aaron Sanchez was in the rotation at the beginning of this year but has since been moved to the bullpen. Whether or not he will become a starter in the pros remains to be seen as he has had more success out of the pen. RHP Roberto Osuna has jumped from High-A last year to being a part of the pro bullpen this year. He is actually pitching quite well, posting a 2.05 ERA and a 9.57 K/9. He even is starting to close for the team, something no one expected him to do coming into this season.

The prospect I like most right now is catcher Max Pentecost. Coming out of college, many scouts were high on him before the 2014 draft, The Blue Jays selected him in the first round at #11 overall. He has a swing that generates a lot of line drives but not a lot of home runs. To integrate his raw power into his game, some mechanical adjustments will be needed. What I like about him is that he already is an average to above average defender. The best catchers in the Phillies system, Jorge Alfaro and Andrew Knapp, are both raw behind the plate. However, Pentecost gives me a lot to like defensively with a plus arm and average to above average defense. He has the potential to be the rare type of catcher with average or better tools across the board, including above average speed. He had shoulder surgery during the offseason and has yet to return. As long as he can keep his plus arm strength when he returns, he has plenty of the tools necessary to become an above average starting catcher.

The best pitcher in this system according to mlb.com's rankings is righty Jonathan Harris who was drafted this year at 29th overall by the Jays. Standing at 6'3" but weighing only 160 he is very lanky. For comparison I am the same height but weigh 215, and people still call me skinny. Even with his slight stature, he already has a plus fastball that hovers around 92-94. He definitely has room to put on weight and increase his velocity on what is already a plus fastball. Harris's curve and slider both flash plus, and he has started to gain confidence in his changeup. His control is average but can definitely improve. With a combination of weight addition and work on command, Harris has mid to front of the rotation potential.

Center fielder Dalton Pompey started out with the major league team this year, but struggled in the first month of the year failing to hit at least .200 (he hit .193). After being demoted to AAA and then to AA, he finally found his stroke again and is now in AAA. A September call-up seems likely, so he will have the chance to prove he can handle the major leagues after not exactly lighting it up in his last 2 pro stints. Scouts like his plus fielding ability as well as his plus speed. Where he lacks his power, as he can generate contact with a quick swing but doesn't pack a whole lot of power into it. Reports vary on his arm, so let's call it average for simplicity's sake. Looking solely at his tools, I like his profile and think he can succeed, but he has yet to prove it at the major league level.

An weird but intriguing prospect is outfielder Anthony Alford. Out of the draft in 2012, Toronto signed him to play minor league ball in the summer, but he still went to college to play football. Now he is finally playing baseball full time, and has impressed scouts. Here's what mlb.com has to say about him:

Alford is an exceptional athlete, and his tools haven't been nearly as unrefined as feared. Though he'll need to cut down on his strikeouts, he has made a lot of hard contact and has considerable raw power he has yet to tap into. His plus-plus speed is a weapon on the bases and gives him a chance to remain in center field, while his strong arm makes right field a viable fallback position.

What I like to do in when I write these profiles is find one guy that isn't all the way at the top of the rankings but that I still like. The Jays have a surprising amount of depth in the 40/45 FV range, and right now my favorite guy out of there is lefty Matt Smoral. Smoral is a tall, long pitcher at 6'8" 220, and like many other tall pitchers struggles with his command. However, his fastball is plus at 91-95 T96 and he has a plus slider to pair with it. He didn't need his changeup as much in high school, so he is still working on it and it has yet to reach an average level. The reason many scouts don't like him is that he has been struggling with injuries for most of his pro career. Right now at high-A he is healthy, and if he can remain so, he has decent upside. I expect him to be a lefty specialist with his hard fastball and biting slider, but if he can work his way to a back end starter, then all the power to him.

To be honest, I thought this system would be pretty drained after the moves Toronto has been making this year. After combing through some rankings and scouting reports, this system isn't half bad. It isn't top 10, but it isn't bottom 10 either. Daniel Norris was the blue chip prospect of this system going into this season, but now the team doesn't really have anyone that is a standout guy. Pentecost or Harris have plenty of time and potential to become that, but right now the system doesn't have anyone that Blue Jays fans can hype about like how Phillies fans get to with J.P. Crawford and like we did with Aaron Nola. If there's one type of player the system lacks, it's a power bat that still manages good contact. Mitch Nay is the closest thing to that right now, but he still needs to develop his raw power into game power for him to be a prototypical third baseman.

Well, it was nice talking to all of you guys about this. 1250 words later you have a new guy's view of the farm system.