Sanchez’s grand slam helps Thunder to blowout win

April 6, 2014 by Mike Axisa 39 Comments

Triple-A Scranton Game One (3-0 loss to Syracuse in seven innings) make up of Friday’s rainout

RF Ramon Flores, LF Zoilo Almonte & DH Russ Canzler: all 0-3, 1 K
3B Scott Sizemore: 2-3, 1 2B, 1 K — three weeks and four days until he can opt-out
1B Corban Joseph & C John Ryan Murphy: both 0-3
RHP Chase Whitley: 1.2 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 0/1 GB/FB — 31 of 47 pitches were strikes (66%)
RHP David Herndon: 1.1 IP, zeroes, 2/1 GB/FB — nine of 12 pitches were strikes … I guess he didn’t opt out of his contract last Sunday
RHP Graham Stoneburner: 3 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 4/1 GB/FB — 25 of 37 pitches were strikes (68%)

Triple-A Scranton Game One (5-0 win over Syracuse)

CF Ramon Flores, DH Scott Sizemore & 2B Jose Pirela: all 0-3 — Flores drove in a run … Sizemore walked and struck out twice
RF Zoilo Almonte: 1-4, 1 RBI, 3 K
1B Corban Joseph: 1-4
3B Zelous Wheeler: 2-2, 2 R, 2 2B
SS Carmen Angelini: 2-3, 1 R, 2 2B, 3 RBI
RHP Brian Gordon: 5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 HB, 4/4 GB/FB — 46 of 73 pitches were strikes (63%)
LHP Cesar Cabral: 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 1/0 GB/FB — only two of ten pitches were strikes
LHP Fred Lewis: 0.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K — six pitches, four strikes

Double-A Trenton (11-5 win over New Hampshire)

CF Mason Williams: 0-3, 1 R, 1 BB — he’s been on base in all four games so far, plus he has yet to strike out this season
LF Ben Gamel: 2-4, 1 R, 1 K
3B Rob Segedin: 1-3, 2 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K
DH Gary Sanchez: 1-2, 2 R, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 2 BB, 1 K — first homer of the year is a grand slam
RHP Joel De La Cruz: 6.1 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 1 HB, 11/4 GB/FB — 61 of 90 pitches were strikes (68%)

High-A Tampa (8-5 loss to Lakeland)

CF Jake Cave: 2-5, 1 R, 1 2B
SS Cito Culver: 1-5
DH Eric Jagielo: 1-5, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 3 K — first hit of the year is a homer
RF Peter O’Brien: 2-4, 1 RBI, 1 K — right field, huh? let’s get weird
3B Dante Bichette Jr.: 0-4, 1 R, 1 K
2B Angelo Gumbs: 1-4, 1 R
LHP Daniel Camarena: 4.1 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 1 WP, 5/4 GB/FB — walked only eight batters in his final 17 games and 78.1 innings last season
RHP Kyle Haynes: 2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 4/1 GB/FB — he’s the guy they acquired from the Pirates for Chris Stewart over the winter

Low-A Charleston (4-1 win over Augusta)

SS Tyler Wade: 0-4, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 E (fielding)
RF Aaron Judge: 1-3, 2 R, 1 BB — three walks and only two strikeouts so far
3B Miguel Andujar: 3-4, 1 R, 1 2B, 3 RBI, 1 K
RHP Brady Lail: 6 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 9/3 GB/FB — probably the biggest sleeper in the organization, kid has good stuff and he can really pitch

28 this year

Only 15 ABs but Jagielo with 9 K’s. That’s crazy.
- Cool Lester Smooth
  
  He’s pretty much jumping straight from college to one of the least hitter-friendly leagues in professional baseball. There’s going to be an adjustment period.
ProspectWatcher

Jagielo’s strikeouts so far have me a bit worried but nice to see him hit a home run.
CountryClub

All of Trenton’s runs came in 1 inning.
- Caballo Sin Nombre
  
  The Trenton game had 16 runs scored and only 4 LOB.
forensic

Scranton really OOGY’d it in game 2. Cabral to Tateyama to Lewis to get 3 outs.
Yankee$

Has Angelini found his Kundalini ?
W.B. Mason Williams

Stoneburner’s name tool has to get him a callup eventually right?
vicki

eric jagged one.

also, pete o’brien is BECOMING shelley duncan.
- Angelo
  
  I buy it completely.
- Jorge Steinbrenner
  
  I laughed.
Ed

Sizemore is hitting. Hope we don’t lose him at end of month.
- Angelo
  
  Unless Solarte and Anna both play at a high level, I’d expect Sizemore to take one of their spots if he continues to hit like this.
  - RetroRob
    
    I suspect Sizemore will replace Solarte on the MLB roster on May 1 and Ryan will replace Anna whenever he’s ready to come off the DL.
    
    Solarte can certainly make it a difficult move if he keeps hitting, but he’ll cool and depth wise it will make sense to have Sizemore on the MLB team with Solarte in the wings in AAA. This is the only way to keep both of them.
    - forensic
      
      You’re still losing someone else though. We’ll have to see how they’re all playing at that point to see if it’s worth losing someone else or if it’s better to just risk losing Sizemore.
      - RetroRob
        
        The other option is they convince Sizemore to not trip his first out clause and wait to the second one. With the Yankees infield situation, Roberts on a one-year deal, Jeter retiring, third base a black hole, Sizemore might think it’s worth remaining with the Yankees.
        
        Or course, as we saw with Nunez, the Yankees just might do something unexpected to keep Sizemore. If he’s playing well in AAA, I think they’ll hesitate to let him walk.
    - Cool Lester Smooth
      
      Yeah, each of Solarte and Anna have all of their options, right? It only makes sense for them to be floaters this year, considering that Sizemore has to stick.
      - forensic
        
        Yeah, Solarte and Anna have their options, but the real issue is still (just like it was to get Solarte active) who to drop from the 40-man if they want to add Sizemore. And it’s complicated even more now if they somehow get forced into the position of needing to add Canzler for more regular 1B time if Tex may be out longer (but not quite long enough for a 60-day DL stint).
        
        Cool Lester Smooth
        
        Is Sizemore not on the 40? I thought he was.
        
        I’d probably dump Romine, personally, but the team clearly has a higher estimation of him than I.
        
        forensic
        
        Nope, he’s not on the 40-man. I also wouldn’t have much problem at all dumping Romine, but I agree the org doesn’t seem interested in that. It’s too bad, 5 catchers on the 40-man is a tough way to survive.
        
        RetroRob
        
        He’s not. I took a look at the 40-man and there is not an obvious cut.
        
        Claiborne? He wasn’t great the latter part of 2013 and was horrible in the ST, yet they may evaluate him differently and perhaps want to hold onto the reliever depth. I’ve seen Flores’ name mentioned here, but I don’t see that happening. Cabral? If they’re cutting a reliever, I’d rather hold the lefty and cut Claiborne.
        
        How is it that Campos is on the 40-man? I know he has upside, but how long has he been in the minors that he was forced onto the 40-man? He’s not going anywhere, but just surprised a player way down in A ball is taking up one of the spots.
        
        RetroRob
        
        The other option, and one they might be working on, is a trade. Moving Romine or moving Ichiro. Keep hitting Ichi…
        
        forensic
        
        This is already 6 years in the minors for Campos, and as you mentioned he still hasn’t even made it to high-A ball yet (and is once again being ‘babied’/started slowly by the org). He was rule 5 eligible this past offseason and the Yankees chose to add him.
        
        And yeah, most of us were really surprised that they chose to use a spot on a guy that far away and who’s proven so little. It’s a very questionable decision, yet not one they haven’t done before. I think it’s part of why they keep running into tough 40-man decisions and even running out of options on some guys.
        
        Jorge Steinbrenner
        
        Campos being on the 40-man is our new irrational fear of losing the next Jose Quintana.
        
        My thought is that Sizemore replaces Romine on the 25-man, since that was a pretty needless call-up pretty much dictated by a pretty bad 40-man situation.
        
        I understand Turley probably doesn’t need to be out the 60 days, but do we really care all that much is he’s out about a month longer than needed. I’d so 60-day DL him unless it’s type of thing that would bring up some sort of grievance. If not, I’d DFA Claiborne for him. Something has to give at some point here. Too many catchers on the 40-man, and too many MiLBers with either limited upside or too far away from helping the big league team.
        
        YankeeGrunt
        
        They burn an option year on guys if they put them on the 60 man (because it’s a major league DL). That’s why they rarely do that with prospects.
Paco Dooley

Cito with at least 1 hit in every game – not a fantastic BA, but he is consistently getting hits thus far – i hope he can pull it together!
- RetroRob
  
  He was over .300 coming into today, although 17 ABs does not a season make. It would be great if he picked up where he left off a A+ last year. The overdraft no longer matters. It’s can he provide some value, even as a defensive player on the MLB level at some point.
Angelo

I really hope Jagielo cuts down on those strike outs. That’s pretty insane. Austin Aune-esque.
Dropped Third

Was at the scranton game. Gordon looked fantastic. I chatted with Luis Sojo for a while and what a good guy he is. Super friendly and down to earth guy.
The Other Matt

Interesting to see that Tampa had Peter O’Brien play RF. I wonder if they are looking at the depth they have at catcher and feel he might be a better fit for a corner outfield position moving forward. His bat certainly profiles there. Going forward, he would be a decent option to have there, should he continue to progress, considering you have two low power outfielders in Gardner and Ellsbury. And really looking forward, come 2016 Carlos Beltran might be almost exclusively a DH, with few appearances in right field, so it makes sense to groom a few people for that spot (Tyler Austin, Zoilo Almonte, Aaron Judge).
- vicki
  
  he played 38 games at third there last year too. he wasn’t so good with the glove.
capitalT

Segeding is hitting great after missing a year. Is he a legit prospect
- Cool Lester Smooth
  
  Not really. He’s very old for the level and he’s always injured. Poor man’s David Adams.
- RetroRob
  
  I’ll fall in somewhere between legit prospect and Cool Lester’s comment. Segedin was definitely considered a prospect, but as Cool Lester noted he has had some injury issues. His age at AA is less of a concern to me because of that. He could re-establish himself with a solid year. He’s off to a good start, but it’s just a few games.
  
  So I guess what I’m saying is he probably worth keeping an eye on. Some players are filler, with no chance no matter what they do to be considered a prospect. I don’t think Segedin is in that category. He has (or had) skills, and if he can make it up to AAA this year then he might force his way into the conversation, but the odds are against him.
  - Angelo
    
    Couldn’t have said it better myself
nycsportzfan

Jesus Monters- Turned into Pineda and Campos(montero not done well)
Gary Sanchez- Well on his way, monster upside
Louis Torrens- Same type potential as Sanchez.
????????????

Were killing it with Catchers in the system.
- Dropped Third
  
  Not to mention we also have Cervelli, Murphy and Romine.
  - nycsportzfan
    
    agreed.
Wayne

Brady Lail should have the best year out of our starters in minors this year. rookie Davis I would see what I could get for him at trade deadline if we need to make a trade. I would not give up brady lail for Jeff Samardizia if anyone is thinking about it in yanks front office. He is not worth it. Trade Rookie Davis for jeff samardizia but not Lail his delivery is to good and he throws 94 already at age 21. He has a fastball changeup he can throw that not many young starters have and a breaking pitch. He also got a good built with the tree trunk legs guys like Seaver had. Just has to continue and he will be up here by 2016. Future rotation 2016 could look like: 1 Michael Pineda 2 Brady Lail 3 Bryan Mitchell.