Almonte picks up three hits in Triple-A loss

by 36 Comments

Father's Day Open Thread
Yankees (barely) hold on for 6-5 win over Angels

Update: The Yankees have promoted RHP Rafael DePaula to High-A Tampa, reports Ben Badler. This has been inevitable for a few weeks now, he simply dominated Low-A ball.

Turns out that RHP Jose Ramirez‘s promotion to Triple-A Scranton is permanent, VP of Baseball Ops Mark Newman confirmed to Josh Norris. It was originally expected to be a one-time spot start with LHP Vidal Nuno on the DL and RHP Chris Bootcheck in the big leagues. Ramirez had a 2.76 ERA (4.26 FIP) in 42.1 innings for Double-A Trenton this year, his first time at the level. So yeah, aggressive promotion.

Just as a reminder, the Short Season Staten Island season starts tomorrow. The two GCL Yankees teams start on Friday, and yes, they will play each other.

Triple-A Scranton (5-4 loss to Lehigh Valley in 11 innings, walk-off style)

  • LF Zoilo Almonte: 3-6, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI — 13 hits in his last 30 at-bats (.433)
  • SS Albert Gonzalez: 3-5, 1 2B, 1 RBI — I know about the left/right stuff, but he has to be better than Reid Brignac, no?
  • RHP Ivan Nova: 6.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 9/5 GB/FB — 65 of 103 pitches were strikes (63%)
  • RHP Dellin Betances: 0.1 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 1 HB, 0/1 GB/FB — only seven of 17 pitches were strikes (41%) … first real bad outing as a reliever

Double-A Trenton (2-1 loss to Altoona)

  • CF Ramon Flores, DH Slade Heathcott & RF Tyler Austin: all 1-4 — Flores and Austin each struck out once, Heathcott twice … Austin stole a base
  • RHP Mikey O’Brien: 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 8/3 GB/FB — 53 of 89 pitches were strikes (60%)

High-A Tampa is off until tomorrow for the All-Star break.

Low-A Charleston (2-1 loss to Augusta)

  • CF Jake Cave: 0-3, 1 BB, 1 K
  • SS Cito Culver: 1-4, 1 R
  • 1B Greg Bird: 2-4, 1 K — seven hits in his last 11 at-bats (.636)
  • C Peter O’Brien: 1-4, 1 K, 1 PB
  • 3B Dante Bichette Jr.: 0-4, 1 RBI, 2 K
  • LHP Dietrich Enns: 4 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 1/1 GB/FB — 40 of 61 pitches were strikes (66%) … 69/14 K/BB in 44.1 innings
Father's Day Open Thread
Yankees (barely) hold on for 6-5 win over Angels
  • Different Josh

    When do we bring up Almonte? Cashman has been singing his praises for the last two years, and god knows he cant be worse then Wells.
    Also don’t know much about Enns. Is this his first year on the radar? What is he like as a prospect?

    • Robinson Tilapia

      I’d think Zoilo would be in competition with Musty if Neal fails in his role, of if there’s further injury and Boesch isn’t back yet.

      I expect that Zoilo will definitely be in the conversation for 2014.

    • JonS

      They just brought up Neal.

  • Govin

    Wow I did not remember Dietrich Enns getting drafted last year. I read up on him Dietrich Enns opens eyes. We’ll see what he does but always good to see some of the under the radar guys doing well.

    • Govin

      That first link doesn’t go anywhere, this one should work.Dietrich Enns opens eyes.

      • Richard Leo

        a lefty with three pitches,that is impressive

      • Robinson Tilapia

        We focus so much on the sexy names that we always forget that a prospect can come from anywhere in that draft. I hope he continues developing well.

      • CountryClub

        He was just promoted to Tampa.

  • Tim B

    Alberto Gonzalez is definitely better than Brignac. Also i thought Nix & Brignac can play first base but we saw Adams play yesterday. Whats the point of 2 UT’s when your not gonna use them at a position they can play and have Adams who plays 3B/2B (did he play SS this year?), at a position om pretty sure he hadnt played before. So yeah get rid of Brignac and callup Gonzalez. He didnt play bad at all. He made a few nice defensive plays. Nova needs to stay in Scranton. 103 pitches in 6.1 innings isnt that impressive. Culver hasnt been that good to me. I thought he was supposed to be good. He was drafted early in the draft. Almonte needs to be brought up. I like the Ramirez promotion. Betances needs a better steike ball ratio. When is Pat venditte coming back? I’d like to see Bird & Enns both get a promotion. Id say they deserved it.

  • Richard Leo

    Enns is great this year,but anyone notice Cesar Vargas is also pitching well,better than our Campos.

  • forensic

    First real bad outing as a reliever???

    Is 8 baserunners and 3 runs in 2.1 innings not bad?
    Is 4 baserunners and 2 runs in 1.2 innings not bad?

    • Richard Leo

      Lower your expectation you will be happier

      • forensic

        I don’t think expectations go low enough to be happy about Betances’ career or performances.

        • Richard Leo

          i still believe Betances could turn into a usefull reliever

      • Robinson Tilapia

        Greg?

  • Ron

    Love that enns is getting stretched out as a starter. If he can maintain velocity, this guy might be our Matt Moore. #wishfullthinking

    • Greg C

      Did I miss something? I didn’t hear from anywhere that they were stretching him out.

  • Laz

    Bit aggressive on Ramirez, maybe they view him as having an impact next year.

    • Greg

      Aggressive as opposed to passive, I suppose. They could’ve left him in AA and waited til his HR/FB inevitably regressed, but what would be the point in that? He’s 23 and it’s obvious from his ratios that he has nothing to prove there, seems as good a time as any.

  • EndlessJose

    Think the yankees are aggressive to bring him as a reliever?

    • Laz

      No reason to make him a reliever unless he can’t make it as a starter. Didn’t we learn from Joba.

      • Richard Leo

        Bring him as a reliever not always mean make him a reliever

        • Cool Lester Smooth

          But, but, look how irreversibly damaged David Price, Shelby Miller, Matt Moore, Max Scherzer and Chris Carpenter have been by pitching out of the pen for a little bit early in their careers!

          • JobaWockeeZ

            lol.

            I don’t have to look it up but I already know none of them were treated like 2009 Joba. No one has argued that 2007 was bad. It’s 2008 to 2009 that ruined Joba’s career.

            • Greg

              Pffft

              His career was ruined before the treatment that people pretend ruined it even began. He was absolutely great as a starter in 2008, then he hurt his shoulder, and after that he was never anywhere close to what he’d been. Check out his velocity charts on brooks or fangraphs and you can see the drop off clearly. That whole Rules narrative needs to die.

              • TomH

                Agree 100%.

  • Laz

    When do they sit the turd?
    His ops in almost 50 pa in June is .236.

    • Laz

      Fail.

  • RetroRob

    I wonder if the Ramirez promotion is one of the first signs of Gil Patterson’s approach. I seem to remember he advocated pushing players quickly to keep challenging them.

    • Bo Knows

      Gotta be, I much prefer this route than the policy they’ve been doing before

  • Wayne

    Watch we are going to put José Ramirez as a reliever in the beginning of the year then start him halfway through the year and he will hurt his arm. Career over!!!! Damn!!

  • Wayne

    Or the yankees will trade José Ramírez away because they think michael Pineda is the answer! What a awful trade that is going turn out to be!!!!!

  • nycsportzfan

    I’ve been saying Enns needs to be promoted. I mean, what will it take from this kid to get that promotion?