Culver homers twice in River Dogs win

June 12, 2013 by Mike Axisa 53 Comments

Update: C J.R. Murphy was promoted to Triple-A Scranton following tonight’s game, reports Josh Norris. Only a matter of time now before C Gary Sanchez and C Peter O’Brien are promoted to Double-A Trenton and High-A Tampa, respectively.

VP of Baseball Ops Mark Newman confirmed to Chad Jennings that RHP Mark Montgomery is on the DL with a tired shoulder. He says it’s no big deal, but still. Never want to hear something is wrong with a pitcher’s shoulder. Meanwhile, UTIL Casey Stevenson has been promoted from High-A Tampa to Double-A Trenton according to Mike Ashmore. UTIL Kevin Mahoney was placed on the DL in a corresponding warm body move.

I don’t think I’ve updated the standings at all season, so let’s take care of that tonight.

Triple-A Scranton had a scheduled off-day. They’re 29-34 and 7.5 games back in the International League North Division.

Double-A Trenton (6-1 loss to Binghamton) 33-32 and 7.0 games back in the Eastern League East Division

LF Ramon Flores: 1-3, 1 R, 1 2B, 2 BB, 2 K
CF Slade Heathcott: 1-4
RF Tyler Austin: 1-3, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 E (throwing) — modest five-game hitting streak
C J.R. Murphy: 1-4, 1 K — eight hits in his last 46 at-bats (.174)
LHP Matt Tracy: 2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 1/3 GB/FB — 42 of 64 pitches were strikes (66%)
LHP Francisco Rondon: 3.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 2/0 GB/FB — 39 of 61 pitches were strikes (64%) … best outing of the season by far
RHP Tommy Kahnle: 1.1 IP, zeroes, 2 K, 2/0 GB/FB — 11 of 14 pitches were strikes (79%)

High-A Tampa was rained out. They’re going to play a doubleheader tomorrow. Tampa is 27-36 and 7.0 games back in the Florida State League North Division

Low-A Charleston (10-5 win over Greenville) 37-26 and 1.0 game back in the South Atlantic League Southern Division

CF Jake Cave: 2-5, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 K, 1 SB
SS Cito Culver: 2-4, 3 R, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K — second multi-homer game of the his season and his third homer in the last two days … remember, he came into the year with six total homers from 2010-2012
1B Greg Bird: 1-5, 1 2B, 1 K
C Peter O’Brien: 3-5, 2 R, 1 2B, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 2 K — 15 hits in his last 40 at-bats (.375) with four doubles and six homers
3B Dante Bichette Jr.: 0-5, 1 K
RF Taylor Dugas: 2-4, 2 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 SB — 22/32 K/BB in 56 games
RHP Rafael DePaula: 5 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 3 WP, 2 Balk, 4/3 GB/FB — 50 of 74 pitches were strikes (68%) … I don’t remember any multi-balk games during all my years doing this, but I’m sure it’s happened … 27 strikeouts in his last 25 innings (9.7 K/9) after 69 strikeouts in his first 40.2 innings (15.3 K/9)
LHP Dietrich Enns: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 1/1 GB/FB – 21 of 27 pitches were strikes (78%) … 63/13 K/BB in 40.1 innings

Just as a reminder, the Short Season Staten Island season begins this coming Monday with the traditional home-and-home series with Brooklyn. The two Rookie GCL Yankees squads kick off their season next Friday, and yes, the two Yankees teams will play each other. That’ll be neat.

Pat D

Yikes @ DePaula’s line.

And, of course, DBJ……oh, I’m tired of this already.
Troy

wow dante bichette jr sucks!!!!!!!!!! what a waste. His dad and joe had to be freaking close friends
- I’m not the droids you’re looking for…
  
  It’s not the closeness of the friendship, it’s the sharpness of the pictures.
Robinson Tilapia

DBJ crawled into Mark Montgomery’s shoulder and took a large dump in it.
- Travis L.
  
  That’s pretty shitty of him.
Mark

When is the time to promote the catchers up a level? O’Brien is going to be 23 in a month, give him some real competition.
Richard Leo

Culver hit more HRs than our top 3 OF prospects
- Bo Knows
  
  Trenton and the Eastern League in general is a major power sapper, big OF’s all around
  - Josh
    
    I’ve heard this a few times, but anyone have a link to the report/study of it? Or is this an empirical, deep fences thing?
    - Cool Lester Smooth
      
      http://minorleaguecentral.com/parkfactors
      
      Trenton, Tampa and Scranton are all terrible parks for power hitters.
Lukaszek

Can’t anything be done with O’Brien? His talents are marinating at such a low level
- Nick
  
  We can trust the organization that’s handling him.
  - JonS
    
    Because they have such a great track record at developing positional talent.
    - Cool Lester Smooth
      
      Exactly. They’ve done a very good job with position players.
      - http://www.riveraveblues.com Mike Axisa
        
        Such as?
        
        Yankee Space Parader
        
        Why don’t you offer them your expertise in developing minor league talent? Blogging is a necessary prerequisite for that sort of thing, you know.
        
        King George
        
        Ouch.
        
        Cool Lester Smooth
        
        Austin Jackson and Brett Gardner for starters. Melky Cabrera was a solid piece for years. They’ve turned Cervelli into a borderline backup catcher, which was more than anyone expected out of him. They’ve turned Robbie from just a guy into a perennial MVP candidate.
        
        And, even if the Mariners have since ruined him, they did well enough with Montero to trade him for a great young starter.
        
        Obviously not every prospect turns into an elite player like Chris Dickerson but, considering what they’ve had to work with, the Yanks have done a pretty damn good job.
        
        http://www.riveraveblues.com Mike Axisa
        
        Great, so one even average player in the last five years.
        
        Jim Is Bored
        
        You are really, really negative this year.
        
        Maybe take a few days off, let a weekend writer hold down the fort. Go on vacation.
        
        Cool Lester Smooth
        
        Since when are AJax and Gardner anything other than well above average?
        
        Dave M
        
        Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano :-)
- Brian in MA
  
  Didn’t you read above? They promoted JR Murphy to Scranton, so its only a matter of time until they shift Sanchez and O’Brien up a level as well.
Pat D

Ooh, updated promotion news. Awesome to see.
Pseudoyanks

A surprising promotion, no? He wasn’t exactly knocking the cover off the ball. More based on need, maybe?
- Cool Lester Smooth
  
  He’s been slumping a little and he’s still rocking a .355 wOBA. Seeing as how he’s been in AA since the second half of last year, he’s more than earned a promotion.
  - Need Pitching & Hitting (but mostly hitting)
    
    He was just getting bored in AA.
  - trr
    
    Yanks can be notoriously slow with their prospects, but yes, this is a bit much
CONservative governMENt

It’ll be nice if Culver puts himself back on the map. Has Aune been officially moved off SS?

I love that transition when there are those extra minor league games to track. Hoping the extra GCL team will make it easier to get DSL guys over here and acclimated.
- Greg
  
  Aune is officially an OF, but I don’t think playing SS last year was any more than a let’s-just-see-what-happens thing. He was always an OF, really.
  - Nick
    
    Aune is still playing at SS, at least he was earlier in the season. Obviously we’ll find out soon enough.
- JobaWockeeZ
  
  Culver was never off the map really. Since day one people have said his offensive ceiling, his absolute best case, is league average. Poor offensive performances are to be expected. The trick is too limit those poor performances while having a plus glove.
  
  Still on that track even though the numbers suck.
  - Coolerking101
    
    I think you’re being very, very generous. Culver is in his 4th year of minor league ball. He has a career slash line of about .230/.320 in that time. What’s worse, other than a recent power display, his bat has shown no improvement in four years. Hell, he’s repeating low A and barely hitting his weight. If he hit 30 points higher in college ball (which is pretty close to Low-A) he wouldn’t have been drafted. Outside of the Yankee organization, I’m guessing he’s not considered a prospect map.
lightSABR

Yikes. I can’t think this says anything good for Romine’s future with the team. When Cervelli gets back, either Romine or Murphy is going to become the AAA backup, and based on the promotion I can’t think it’s going to be Murphy.

A pity Romine couldn’t hit when he got to the show. Looks like it may have been his last chance.
- Brian in MA
  
  They did sparsely play him. Hard for a guy to really prove anything when you’re playing 1-2 times a week. When Cervelli comes back, Romine and Murphy will split time in AAA
lightSABR

Last chance to persuade people he can be an everyday catcher, that is. I’m not predicting they’ll release him or anything–just that he’s never going to get the at-bats he needs to finish developing.
yankeepankee

Hi all.
Not enough that Cashman and his sad band of minor league coaches and trainers ruined the arms starting pitching. Now Montgomery is down.
Cashy needs to revamp what they do with kid pitchers. Go the Rick Peterson route and confer with James Andrews and his staff on all arms, innings and training. Peterson’s pitchers rarely have major arm problems.
Csonk

Cashman & this team’s scouts wouldn’t know what to do in a whorehouse with a…oh, wait, that might be right up Cashman’s dirtbag alley! He’s better at finding a cheating spouse than a decent prospect, and using the Yankees assets to facilitate his meanderings. Take away the clown’s checkbook & incredible good fortune (however short lived) with deadweight vets and what’s he done to improve the organization? CC and ??? This team is in for some lean years ahead as we beg on the prospective front waiting for kids that never come & overspend for more has-been named vets. Cashman’s a clown, and damn near a POS man.
- pat
  
  Lol
- Coolerking101
  
  What an informative and well reasoned post. You clearly know your facts. Please go back under your rock.
- pounder
  
  Don’t hold back,tell us how you really feel.
nycsportzfan

Like I said, move Enns to High A ball for the love of god!
Robert

Romine will be a fine ML catcher. He is above average in defense.At worst he will have a Chris Stewart type career.
Congrats to JR Murphy.
- Bill
  
  He’ll be an okay backup as far as backup catchers are concerned, but probably not anything more. The bat will never be good enough to start IMO. Even in the minors he never did much against RHP as most of his damage was done against lefties. Given that at least 90% of catchers are right handed its not too hard to find a catcher with good splits against LHP.
  
  I’ll be happy to be wrong about this, but I don’t see bright future for Romine in majors. He has a future, but probably as nothing more than a backup.
Caballo Sin Nombre

I see Adam Smith pitched in relief for Charleston yesterday. I imagine batters must have a lot of trouble picking up his pitches, what with the invisible hand and all.
- pat
  
  Heyo!! History jokes. Booyah.
- Bryan
  
  Good to see a gem of a comment located in a mountainous pile of shit
  - ColoYank
    
    Thanks, Bryan. It’s a landslide a lot of the time, eh?
    - Mikey
      
      + 2
CS Yankee

RDP may need to stay in low-A all year to develop as they previous stated. it would be need to know what specifics they try to correct in low-A versus the other levels.

The bat is just one metric, could be that O’Brien needs to improve his trown-downs or some other skillset before the next level. It would be a drag if he is kept down so that Sanchez can correct his catching or hitting, but i’m would imagine that happens quite often; being held down because a higher ranked kid isn’t developing as fast.

So sad to see DBJ as his O-fers (nearly) daily when his teammates are raking.
- Cool Lester Smooth
  
  O’Brien doesn’t need to improve his throw-downs, it won’t do much good at first base.
  
  If anything, he needs to stop striking out 26% of the time in Low-A as a 22 year old from a top college program.
morris

Who takes the fall for such a miserable minor league system?
- Bwitz
  
  The players for not having good seasons this year. Cut them all and fire everyone!!!!!one1uno
  
  Some people need to learn the definitions of words before using them. Good lord.