The Toronto Blue Jays organization is quickly becoming known as having one of the best farm systems in the game, as GM Alex Anthopoulous’ plan to revamp the organization’s scouting and development departments is well underway. One team that is certainly reaping the benefits of this new endeavour is the Class-A Lansing Lugnuts of the Midwest League.

Cooley Law Stadium, Home of the Lansing Lugnuts

To the casual Blue Jays’ fan, the Midwest League had been of little interest for many years. The players are generally young, far away from the Majors, and the majority of those had a slim chance of developing into an impact player for the big league club down the road.

However, things have changed the past few years. With the new GM’s resurgence into scouting and player development, along with the relocation of some affiliate minor league teams, the Lugnuts are becoming of more and more interest to Jays fans.

When the Blue Jays’ player development contract with Syracuse expired after the 2008 season and its Triple-A affiliate was moved to Las Vegas it left the team’s prospects spread out at affiliates all across America. Just this past offseason, the organization relocated it’s Class-A Short Season team from Auburn, New York out to Vancouver, Bristish Columbia.

While it was a homecoming of sorts for the organization to create an affiliation with the only remaining minor league baseball team in Canada, it moved yet another affiliate far out of reach of the fans in Southern Ontario.

Of all Blue Jays affiliates, the Lugnuts now play in the closest proximity to the Jays, as Michigan’s capital city is just under 500 kilometers away from the Rogers Centre.

Lugnuts outfielders Marcus Knecht and Jake Marisnick - Prospect D2J

With Anthopoulous’ beefed up farm system, the Blue Jays now have numerous prospects dotting each and every roster throughout the system. For many players, their first full season stop on the way up the ladder is with the Class-A Lansing Lugnuts of the Midwest League.

The club’s roster is always very fluid, as young players are constantly coming and going, but this season Lugnuts’ fans have been treated to the best young outfield trio in the system. 

Lugnuts outfielder Markus Brisker - Prospect D2J

Jake Marisnick, one of the system’s top outfield prospects, has played alongside two young Canadian outfielders in Marcus Knecht and Michael Crouse, giving the Lugnuts a very formidable starting outfield. Former 2008 sixth-round pick OF Markus Brisker has also been in the mix, which created an enviable problem for the team. 

All four players have been so effective this season, it’s been difficult for manager Mike Redmond to get them all into the lineup. At such a low level of the minor leagues, managers can be lucky to have three or four good young prospects on their entire roster. For Redmond, having three or four in his outfield alone is an outstanding problem to have.

The starting trio of Marisnick, Knecht and Crouse were each named starters on the Eastern Division team for the Midwest League All-Star game back in June.

Despite the fact that Crouse is currently on the disabled list, look at the stat lines for those three players and fourth outfielder Markus Brisker through August 24th. Click on Marisnick and Crouse to view the full scouting reports I filed after I saw the team play last weekend.

Jake Marisnick:

Year Age AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB BB K BA OBP SLG OPS
2011 20 419 61 133 22 6 12 72 34 43 83 .317 .393 .484 .878

Marcus Knecht:

Year Age AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB BB K BA OBP SLG OPS
2011 21 403 73 115 31 3 16 79 3 60 113 .285 .385 .496 .881

Michael Crouse:

Year Age AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB BB K BA OBP SLG OPS
2011 20 353 71 94 26 5 13 54 37 39 108 .266 .351 .479 .829

Markus Brisker:

Year Age AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB BB K BA OBP SLG OPS
2011 20 321 67 77 18 3 5 31 24 51 106 .240 .359 .361 .721

Those stat lines show four impressive young players, especially when you consider that Knecht is the oldest of the group at the age of 21. 

Watch this video clip of Marcus Knecht hitting a go-ahead grand slam for the Lugnuts

The outfield is far from the only place where the talent lies though, as C Carlos Perez, 1B K.C. Hobson, 3B Matt Nuzzo, 1B Kevin Nolan and lots of other talented young hitters have dressed for the Lugnuts this season.

RHP Drew Hutchison, likely the team’s most improved pitching prospect this year, started his 2011 season in Lansing and has ascended all the way to Double-A New Hampshire after going 6-2 with a 2.63 ERA over 14 starts to open the year with the Lugnuts.

Casey Lawrence posted a 11-8 record with the Lugnuts, with a 3.08ERA before getting promoted to Dunedin

RHP Casey Lawrence and RHP Steve Turnbull have both moved up to Class-A Advanced Dunedin where they are making strong contributions, and breakout prospect RHP Nestor Molina spent the 2010 season effectively out of the Lugnuts bullpen.

As young talent graduates to the next level of the system, new players arrive in Lansing to fill their spots. The team recently received an injection of pitching talent as both RHP Noah Syndergaard and LHP Justin Nicolino (who were both having outstanding campaign’s at lower levels) have recently been added to the Lugnuts rotation.

The haul of new prospects brought in under the current front office regime ensures that the pipeline through Michigan won’t be drying up anytime soon. For fans in the Michigan capital, and fans of minor league baseball in Toronto and the Southern Ontario region, this could be the start of a special relationship between the Blue Jays and their closest geographical affiliate.