Starting out as Vancouver Canadians
Key piece in Josh Donaldson deal among team’s alumni
In honour of the Vancouver Canadians honouring Kevin Pillar with a bobblehead night Thursday at Nat Bailey Stadium, we’re catching up with several other former members of the club today.
Pillar, the Toronto Blue Jays outfielder, didn’t play a regular-season game with the C’s, but was called up from the rookie-level Bluefield Blue Jays in time for Vancouver’s 2011 playoff run.
He hit .391 (9-for-23), with a home run, four runs batted in and five runs in five post-season encounters, helping Vancouver to its first of three straight titles in the short-season, single-A Northwest League.
The first 1,000 fans at Thursday’s game receive the Pillar souvenir. It should be noted the C’s had lineups hours in advance when they gave out Roberto Osuna bobbleheads earlier this month.
This eight-game homestand opens up tonight with Childhood Cancer Awareness Night. C’s president Andy Dunn promises “a memorable evening.”
Some former C’s: Andy Burns
Burns became the eighth product of the single-A version of the C’s since they signed on as a Toronto affiliate in 2011 to go on to play for the Blue Jays when he was called up from the triple-A Buffalo Bisons and pinch hit in a May 9 game against the San Francisco Giants.
The 6-2, 205-pound infielder/ outfielder has played 10 games in three different stints with Toronto this season. The 26-year-old from Greenville, S.C., is currently with the International League’s Bisons.
Burns started at third base with Vancouver for a portion of the 2011 campaign.
Franklin Barreto
The shortstop on the 2014 C’s team that lost out in the league championship to the Hillsboro Hops was a key part of the trade that saw the Blue Jays pry Josh Donaldson away from the Oakland Athletics.
Barreto is still just 20 years old, but he’s already made it to the double-A Texas League, with the Midland Rock-Hounds. According to baseball-reference.com, the native of Caracas, Venezuela, is nearly four years younger than the league’s average position player.
In Vancouver, scouts raved about his bat speed. They weren’t so keen on a 5-10, 190-pound frame sticking at shortstop, and the Oakland brain trust has been using him a bit at second base this season.
Barreto started slowly this year, hitting .236 in the first half, which led to his ranking plummeting in various prospect lists. (He went from No. 23 in the MLB.com pre-season to No. 50 at the mid-season, for instance.) A .423 average in 19 July games shot his stats back up. Going into Tuesday, he was hitting .271 in 106 games, to go with nine homers, 42 RBIs and 26 steals.
Balbino Fuenmayor
Fuenmayor looked like he was on his way to a big-league call-up with the Kansas City Royals last season until he tore an anterior cruciate ligament in July. Instead, that finished his year.
It would have been a marvellous tale, considering the Royals had taken a flyer on Fuenmayor, who played independent league ball in Quebec City in 2014 after the Blue Jays released him.
The first baseman from Valencia Edo Carabobo, Venezuela, had played seven seasons in the Toronto system, including 128 games with the C’s in 2011 and 2012.
He got into 89 games last year between double-A and triple-A and hit .358, with 17 homers, 66 RBIs and 62 runs.
Fuenmayor played his 89th game this season with the triple-A Omaha Storm Chasers on Sunday and the production has been decidedly different: .304 average, six homers, 38 RBIs, 27 runs.
The 6-3, 230-pound Fuenmayor hit four long balls in 21 July games after hitting just two in 58 games in April, May and June, so things do seem to be trending the right way for the 26-year-old.
Art Charles
The towering first baseman, who was a major power threat during Vancouver’s 2012 championship run, is in independent ball this season with the New Jersey Jackals of the Canadian-American Association.
Through 77 games, the Bakersfield, Calif., native had produced 19 homers and 73 RBIs, to go with a .345 average.
The Philadelphia Phillies had landed the 6-6, 220-pound Charles in a Feb. 23, 2013 trade from Toronto for minor-league right-hander Michael Schwimer. Charles, 25, hit .215, with eight homers and 45 RBIs in 91 games with the double-A Reading Fightin Phils in 2015.
Chuck Ghysels
The closer, known for his animated, fist-pumping celebrations during Vancouver’s 2013 championship run, was released by the Blue Jays the following March. The 26-year-old from Springboro, Ohio, played independent ball the past two seasons. The 5-11, 225-pound righty is not listed as playing anywhere this year.
Tom Robson
The 23-year-old righty from Ladner pitched a gem at the Nat in Vancouver’s 2013 championship clincher, scattering three hits over six and one-third innings in what became a 5-0 victory over the Boise Hawks.
The 6-4, 210-pounder required Tommy John surgery in July 2014. He made a two-game return to the C’s last season, and he’s split this year between the advanced single-A Dunedin Blue Jays and the single-A Lansing Lugnuts. He’s struggled to find his pre-surgery form: going into Tuesday, he was 1-for-6, with a 7.65 earned run average in 22 appearances at the two levels.
Justin Atkinson
The 23-year-old catcher/infielder from Surrey played 64 games with Vancouver in 2013 and then another 52 last season. Now in Lansing, he was hitting .195 going into Tuesday.