A pair of pitching prospects are quickly climbing up the Jays' system.
Bad news for fans of the Vancouver Canadians is good news for fans of the Toronto Blue Jays, as Noah Syndergaard and Justin Nicolino are on their way up to the single-A Midwest League to join the playoff-bound Lansing Lugnuts.
The late-season promotions are the latest achievements in a year filled with progress for the two teenaged pitching prospects, both of whom rank up high among the farm system's cache of young arms.
For Syndergaard, the right-hander selected 38th overall in 2010 who turns 19 on Aug. 29, Lansing will mark the third organizational rung climbed since beginning the campaign with the rookie advanced Bluefield Blue Jays and moving up to the short-season A-ball Canadians.
For Nicolino, the 19-year-old left-hander chosen 74th overall in the same draft, the bump to the Lugnuts is a reward for a dominating campaign in Vancouver, where in 52.1 innings over 12 games, nine of them starts, he allowed only 39 base-runners and a pithy six earned runs.
It didn't take either very long to make a strong impression.
"First off they both have great body language, you can see it in their face, 'I want to pitch, I want to after these hitters and I'm not going to shy away,'" says Rich Miller, the Blue Jays roving hitting instructor who is acting manager of the Canadians.
"Syndergaard basically will go after hitters. He's going to be a power pitcher but he does throw strikes. Nicolino is not afraid to pitch inside, he can change speeds, he's got a good breaking ball, and a good changeup."
Though their promise is similar, their pitching styles are not.
Syndergaard, an imposing six-foot-five and 200 pounds, is a soft-spoken Texan from the small town of Mansfield who does his talking with a fastball that sits in the 94-98 range.
Like Nicolino, he also features a changeup and a curveball, the latter of which needs work. One scout said the pitch shows promise, but that he needs to refine its consistency and find ways to better disguise it, since there's a very noticeable drop in his arm speed when he throws it.
"Once he starts facing better hitters they're going to pick up on that," said the scout.
The curve has been an area of focus for Syndergaard, since he was able to cruise through high school without a breaking pitch. He's been throwing 10-12 per outing so far.
"This is the first year I've really had to develop a curveball, it's a work in progress and I'm doing a pretty good job at developing it," he says. "There are still some rough areas with it. There are some I throw really good, and sometimes I'll slow my arm up and it's not very good."
Still, he's ahead of many other power pitchers his age since his fastball command is well beyond his years.
Consider that in 50 innings of work over 11 games, nine starts, between Bluefield and Vancouver, Syndergaard has walked just 16 batters. That level of command with his velocity is a nasty combination.
"It's something I pride myself on," he says. "Most people that throw hard, they have command issues but I feel like I can control my fastball pretty well. I'm pretty consistent (with my delivery) about 90 per cent of the time. Every now and then I'll fall to the first base side and my arm will drag, but other than that I feel like I'm pretty good at my delivery."
The Blue Jays selected him with the compensatory pick they received for not signing 2009 selection James Paxton, the Canadian lefty who is dominating for double-A Jackson in the Seattle Mariners system.
Syndergaard was eager to get started after he was drafted, even though he had committed to Dallas Baptist University to both pitch and play first base.
Giving up hitting was the most difficult part of his decision to turn pro.
"Growing up I've always been known for my bat, and I picked up pitching a few years after I started playing baseball and realized I had a pretty good knack for it," he says. "I miss hitting so much. Sometimes I pick up a bat and just swing it.
"I tried my hardest to try and get some pitcher's BP going on. They won't allow it."
He'll have to wait for interleague play in the majors to get back in the cage, and he's got a timeline in mind for that.
Disappointed when he didn't make the Canadians roster out of extended spring, he didn't expect to reach Lansing until next season, with the goal of finishing the 2012 season with high-A Dunedin.
"And in about two or three years, hopefully I'll be in the big-leagues," he says.
If that does indeed happen, Nicolino may very well be right there alongside him.
Chosen with one of the compensatory draft picks the Blue Jays received when Marco Scutaro left for the Boston Red Sox, the six-foot-three, 160-pound left-hander from Orlando pitches in the low to mid 90s with an admirable edge on the mound. He says he learned early from his parents to never accept defeat, and approaches each outing with a mentality to outfight his competitors.
"I don't let anyone scare me no matter how big the guy is, or how big his name is," says Nicolino. "From a young age I was taught to establish inside fastball, the inside part of the plate, because if you've got a guy in there that is confident against you, it sets all your pitches behind.
"Being the type of person I am, I go in hard and I use my off-speed pitch away to set them up basically. I'll go in anytime in the count just to show guys I'm not scared and that home plate is mine."
Such a maturity of pitching thought is why a second scout expects him to rise quickly through the Blue Jays system.
While Syndergaard overpowers his opponents, Nicolino picks them apart.
"He goes hard in, soft away with plus stuff," said the second scout. "He's got a real good idea of how to pitch."
The curveball is the pitch Nicolino has made the most progress with this season. After taking part in the instructional league last fall, he spent the winter living on his own in Clearwater, Fla., so he could work out at the Blue Jays complex in nearby Dunedin, and while there struggled to find an effective grip for his hook.
Once spring training arrived and he had checked into the team hotel, Nicolino would sit in his room trying to come up with different grips, eventually landing on something that worked. "I went with it and the next thing you know, I have a curveball, changeup, two-seam and a four-seam, and it's going good."
Still, he feels the key developmental moment of his season came during a July 4 outing at Eugene, when he allowed three runs, two earned, on four hits and three walks in four innings of a 7-3 loss to the Emeralds.
"I went out there, kind of lost my control, went out of my delivery a little bit, and ended up taking our team out of the game by one big inning," he says. "I told myself after that, watch the video, see how your delivery was, and set a standard for yourself. I wasn't going to get out of my delivery anymore. I'm going to adjust it if I feel that I'm out of my delivery."
It's another example of the advanced perspective that belies his age. An only child born to parents from big families, he never had anything handed to him and his sensibilities are rooted in the desire to achieve fostered by that upbringing.
"I never had anything given to me, I always hard to work for it," he says. "It makes you grow up and living on my own at 18 years old also makes you grow up. Coming to a league like (the Northwest League), mostly college guys, you've got man up and mature and show them you can pitch."
Both Nicolino and Syndergaard have done that, and now a new test begins.
