Jason Frasor never seemed to fit in during his two months with the White Sox, so it makes sense that the White Sox would trade him. And given that he spent his entire year in Toronto prior to his stint on the South Side, it makes sense that the Blue Jays might want him back.
So the White Sox continued their restless New Year's weekend by sending Frasor back from whence he came, trading him to the Toronto Blue Jays for right-handed pitchers Myles Jaye and Daniel Webb.
Compared to the two pitchers the Sox received for Carlos Quentin, you're not going to see either Jaye or Webb for quite a while. Jaye, 20, was selected in the 17th round of the 2010 draft, and only has 54 innings of rookie-ball pitching to his name.
Webb, who was drafted in the 18th round of the 2009 draft by the Jays, posted a 5.59 ERA over 18 games (12 starts) at A-ball Lansing. He struck out 51 over 66 innings wit a respectable 24 walks, but gave up 80 hits (including seven homers).
But as you'll see below the jump, both players were signed for well, well, well above slot, which makes them more interesting than the typical mid-second-day draft pick:
Here's some video of Myles Jaye:
Sorry -- here's Myles Jaye video.
And then some video of Daniel Webb:
Sorry, wrong Daniel Webb:
Up-to-date information from the major sources is scant, so we'll have to drill down deeper to less established places. Colin found this report of Jaye from JaysProspects.com. If nothing else, it notes that the Jays ponied up $250,000 in the 17th round, so this is kinda like the Sox spending other another team's money.
What’s good: Another young one, also only 19, he is a classic Blue Jays HS pitching prospect, tall, lanky and tons for room projection. He has smooth mechanics and delivers an 88-94 MPH fastball with ease. His low 80s slider looked real sharp at times, with hard biting downward action that saw a few swing and misses. He also looked quite athletic when covering first base, always a positive sign. He looked comfortable on the mound and knew what he was doing in the field.
What’s bad: As with a lot of young pitchers, controlling his pitches is his biggest weakness. He left his fastball up on several occasions, causing it to be hit hard. He didn’t always throw his slider for strikes or located it well enough to get the hitter to chase. He walks a few too many, but with time and learning how to pitch, that can be fixed.
Colin also tracked down a snippet from Jim Callis at Baseball America:
Toronto agreed to terms with 18th-round pick Daniel Webb on a $450,000 bonus. That ties for the second-highest bonus known after the 10th round so far this year, and is three times MLB’s recommended $150,000 maximum after the fifth round. Webb had the potential to go in the sandwich round as a Kentucky high school senior in 2008, but dropped to the Diamondbacks in the 12th round because of signability. The righthander turned down Arizona and attended Northwest Florida State JC this spring, where his fastball touched 94 mph. He did battle inconsistency with his secondary pitches and command.
Webb was originally drafted in the 12th round out of high school by the Diamondbacks and dropped that far due to well founded signability concerns. He went to JC, giving him the option to get back into the draft the following season. He's certainly more talented than the average 18th rounder.
JaysJournal.com ranked Webb as the 45th-best Toronto prospect -- which is funny, since the White Sox's 45th-best prospect is still Oney Guillen -- but the post has some interesting notes on Webb's backgrounding, including:
- "His name is really listed as Robert McDaniel Webb in Baseball-Reference, so it’s odd that he is referred to as Daniel."
That's little too similar to Robert Meiklejohn MacDougal for my likes. But how about this?
- "While in HS, the assistant stated that Webb 'broke his left foot in the first inning, but courageously pitched the entire seven-inning game, which wound up as a 2-1 loss.'"
That's Chicago Tough! Including the loss.
Gus points us to Webb's write-up in John Sickels' Baseball Prospect Book 2011:
The Jays drafted Webb in the 18th round in 2009, from Northwest Florida State Junior College. He has one of the best arms in the system, regularly clocked at 94-95 and hitting 97 at times. His slider and changeup both made some progress last year, but remain inconsistent. He had significant command issues in the New York-Penn League, and from a statistical point of viewthere isn’t much positive here. But the arm strength is there, and guys like this can take off suddenly. Grade C.