Big hitter going, going gone for Vancouver Canadians, slugger Addison Barger gets promotion


Teenage left-hander Ricky Tiedemann, who’s pitched well enough since coming to Vancouver that he’s in the Futures Game in L.A on Saturday, could easily be next in line to move up

Article content

The Vancouver Canadians lost top hitter Addison Barger earlier this week to a promotion and it’s easy to wonder if ace hurler Ricky Tiedemann is next in line to move up the ranks in the Toronto Blue Jays’ farm system.

Advertisement 2

Article content

The C’s, who are the Blue Jays’ high-A farm club, have a six-game series this week at Nat Bailey Stadium against the Hillsboro Hops. It will be the first set for Vancouver minus Barger, a slugging shortstop/third baseman who was bumped up Monday to the double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats by the Blue Jays.

Barger was leading the Northwest League in runs batted in (53), second in batting average (.300) and was tied for third in home runs (14). The 6-foot, 175-pound, lefty-hitting Barger was a sixth-round draft pick by the Blue Jays in 2018 out of King high school in Tampa.


NEXT GAME

Tonight

Hillsboro Hops vs. Vancouver Canadians

7::05 p.m., Nat Bailey Stadium


Going into the Hillsboro series, outfielder Davis Schneider was next best in homers for Vancouver with eight, while infielder Miguel Hiraldo was second on the team in RBI with 33. 

Advertisement 3

Article content

Vancouver hadn’t announced its complete pitching rotation for this week as of early Tuesday afternoon. Tiedemann, 19, has been the C’s Friday starter so far this year, but the 6-foot-4, 220-pound left-hander is also slated to represent the Blue Jays on Saturday at the Futures Games at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles so they could mix things up this week.

Tiedemann, who was a 2021 third-round pick by Toronto out of Golden West junior college in Huntington Beach, Calif., began this season with the single-A Dunedin Blue Jays. He was promoted to Vancouver on May 14. 

In eight starts with the C’s, he’s 2-2, with a 2.39 earned run average. His peripheral stats are the ones that leave you doing a double take, he’s struck out 54 and walked just 12 in 37 2/3 innings while allowing only 23 hits.

Advertisement 4

Article content

Between Vancouver and Dunedin, Tiedemann is 5-3 with a 2.13 earned run average and has 103 strikeouts and 25 walks in 67 2/3 innings.

Advertisement 5

Article content

Advertisement 6

Article content

He’s already young by Northwest League standards. According to baseball-reference.com, the average age for pitchers in the league is 23. The average age for pitchers in the Eastern League, where New Hampshire is based, is just shy of 25.

MLB Pipeline lists Tiedemann as the No. 64 prospect in all of baseball and the No. 4 lefty pitcher. On May 31, Pipeline had him at No. 100 and No. 9, respectively.

Vancouver (8-6) started Tuesday atop the Northwest League second-half standings, holding a slim edge over the Hops (8-7), Eugene Emeralds (8-7) and Everett AquaSox (8-7). 

Eugene (38-25), who are a San Francisco Giants affiliate, won the first-half pennant in the six-team loop. Vancouver (30-33) was fourth.

Hillsboro are an Arizona Diamondbacks farm club.

Advertisement 7

Article content

The second half schedule runs into the middle of September. Vancouver’s final series against Eugene concludes Sept. 11 at Nat Bailey Stadium. The two pennant winners meet for the league championship in a best-of-five series.

The league, with few exceptions, is playing six-game series every week that run from Tuesday to Sunday throughout the regular season. Major League Baseball called for a revamping of the minors ahead of last season and these six-game sets bring more structure and routine to the minor leagues, and the hope is that will help with player development.

Forty-three farm teams also lost their affiliation status with the change in the minors, leaving each big-league club with just four full-season affiliates. Vancouver is second on the development ladder for Toronto.

[email protected]

 

    Advertisement 1

Comments

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.

Leave a comment

x
SMM Panel PDF Kitap indir