Team Canada Takes On Canada's Team - The Toronto Blue Jays
March 19, 2018
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Canada Spring Training Coverage - Florida
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Team Canada Takes On Canada's Team - The Toronto Blue Jays
It was a special day for baseball, Canada and the entire country as the Junior National Team took on a loaded roster of minor league prospects from the Toronto Blue Jays with some major league talent on the mound in Marcus Stroman.
For the national team, top draft prospects were on the mound in starter Ben Abram, Eric , and Tate Dearing while position prospects Noah Naylor and Denzel Clarke were in the lineup, along with top 2019 infielder Cesar Valero.
This trip has to have a little different outlook when we look and evaluate players. When you get together the top prospects in Canada you expect them to put up wins and dominate their competition. With this being the first time players have had the chance to get outside and see live pitching and be their first form of competition outside against professional players, they more likely than are going to come out on the wrong side and have more failures than they are used too.
This does however allow for scouts and coaches to see how they handle failure, test their compete level in situations they might not find themselves in with their own club teams, track their body language and see how they can keep their composure.
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Ben Abram RHP / Georgetown District, ON / 2018On this day, Abram attacked the zone early on but didn’t miss many bats. One of the top prospects in minor league baseball, Bo Bichette got to the Oklahoma commit in the first with a homerun to left field and Abram, although gave up 7 hits in his three innings of work, only walked one and was able to get through three. |
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Eric Cerantola RHP / St. Trinite, ON / 2018Cerantola, the Mississippi State commit followed up Abram with two innings, working around some control issues with his fastball and curveball but was still able to escape with only giving up one run that unearned. He kept his composure while flashing some curveballs that buckled a couple hitters and had to depth and downward breaking actions to them. As he gets more innings under his belt in 2018, expect for Cerantola to settle down and get into a rhythm. |
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Tate Dearing RHP / OF / Earl Marriott, BC / 2018Rankings StateRank: 2 / POS: 2
Tate Dearing followed in the 6th and 7th, and the Polk State commit looked to be in control early, retiring the first two hitters he saw with one being on a really good curveball, but left a couple pitches up and had some tough luck with an infield single that extended the inning. Dearing did show a fastball/curveball combo and was around the zone for the majority of his appearance, striking out two and walking none. |
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Braden Halladay RHP / OF / Calvary Christian, FL / 2019A special moment in the game was seeing Braden Halladay take the mound to a warming reaction from the fans. The son of the late great Roy Halladay, Brade, a Penn State commit worked a scoreless 8th inning and left everyone in the park with chills. It easily was the coolest moment of the day and I certainly was weak in the knees watching the events take place as Halladay was not only a favourite of mine growing up, he was a role model and a hero for so many young canadian players and most likely one of the main reasons kids picked up a ball and wanted to be pitchers. |
The offensive side saw Canada score three runs on six hits with Laron Smith out of Alberta and Ontario native Denzel Clarke contributing with extra base hits and RBIs on the day. Damiano Palmegiani Uncommitted 2019 catcher Ryan Faragher added the third RBI for Team Canada with an infield groundout. Young left-handers in TJ Schofield and Justin Thorsteinson also added base knocks for Team Canada while Clarke had a multi-hit game with an infield single earlier in the game.
At the end of the day, it was a great experience for the National team players as they got to be big leaguers for the day, play in a spring training park in front of 3000 fans.
With the final score of 11-3, there was definitely lots to take away for the young high school players and as they continue to get their legs underneath them, this group will be exciting to follow for college coaches, professional scouts, and those who just have a passion for Canadian baseball in general.