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River Ave. Blues » Minors

2008 Preseason Top 30 Prospects: The Just Misses

February 12, 2008 by Mike Axisa 29 Comments

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Pitchers and catchers will soon officially be in Tampa strutting their stuff with the hopes and promises of a new season filling the air. Times like this make us wonder how we ever managed to dread the dog days of summer. Just like the big league squad, the minor league affiliates are full of optimism with the new season on the horizon.

Overall, the farm system is in pretty good shape. There’s high end talent mixed with high probability talent, and the pitching crop at the upper levels is starting to be complimented by the position player crop at the lower levels. There’s an alarming lack of lefthanded pitchers, ditto power hitting prospects. The Yanks have surplus from which to make trades, and a good amount of guys that could be cheap injury fill-ins at the Major League level this year. Gone are days of Aaron Small, Matt Childers, Donovan Osborne and Terrence Long. There’s also a bright new crop of kids set to come up from Latin America this year, led by SS Jose Pirela and OF Kelvin DeLeon.

Unfortunately the Yanks didn’t pull off any neat trades this winter like last year (unless you count that Tyler Clippard-Jon Albaladejo blockbuster), so this year’s prospect list doesn’t include any new and fancy names. As always, the delicate balance between ceiling and probability are the main criteria for the rankings, but other stuff like performance, track record, position and handedness (tie goes to the lefty) also play a role. I had some trouble trimming the fat at the end of the list, so I decided to write-up a few extra players that just missed the cut.

The real Top 30 comes out tomorrow, but for now here’s five guys on the outside looking in. Fun starts after the jump.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Minors Tagged With: Prospect Lists

The Scranton 2007 edition of ‘Where Are They Now?’

February 11, 2008 by Benjamin Kabak 9 Comments

Here is a fun post from Chad Jennings and the SWB Yankees blog. Jennings checks in with the 14 members of the 2007 Scranton club who are no longer with the organization. Outside of Tyler Clippard, who should win a job in the Nationals’ rotation this year, things do not look good for the other 13 members of this elite club. Andy Cannizaro, we hardly knew ye.

Filed Under: Asides, Minors

Keith Law’s Top 100 Prospects

January 31, 2008 by Mike Axisa 23 Comments

RAB fave Keith Law posted his Top 100 Prospects list over at the Worldwide Leader. Five Yankee farmshands made the list, led by Joba at #3, who was also the top ranked pitcher. Jose Tabata (#21), Austin Jackson (#24), IPK (#45) and Andrew Brackman (#100) followed suit. Check it out, if for no other reason than to learn about guys named Weglarz, Gorkys and Chorye.

Filed Under: Asides, Minors Tagged With: Prospect Lists

Yanks close to signing Australian prospect

January 26, 2008 by Mike Axisa 15 Comments

According to The Canberra Times, the Yanks and Australian teenager Kyle Perkins are close to agreeing to a seven year deal. Perkins is a 16-yr old catcher at Daramalan College, and was first spotted by the Yanks last year at an Under-18 event in Western Australia. He is expected to come to the States in 2010, when he finishes school. This post is not a joke.

(hat tip to Chad Jennings)

Update: Loyal reader Ricochet points out that this is only the second Austalian teenager the Yanks have signed this month. So … um …when does Spring Training start again?

Filed Under: Minors

2008 Early Draft Preview: The Top Talents

January 25, 2008 by Mike Axisa 26 Comments

It’s getting to be that time of year again, the time when we can start looking at some prospects for June’s first-year player draft. It’s obvious now that the Yanks’ draft strategy in the early rounds is to take whatever top talent has fallen because of signability/injury concerns/etc., so I’ve decided to kick off this year’s draft coverage by looking at the best players available, since there’s always a chance they could fall.

The draft order is basically set (there are only five free agents left unsigned that will bring back compensation), and the Rays have earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first team in the history of man to have back-to-back first overall picks. It’s almost unfair considering how ridiculously stacked their farm system is, but what can you do. The remainder of the top 5 picks belong to the usual suspects – the Pirates, Royals, Orioles and Giants.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Draft Tagged With: 2008 Draft

Minor League’s Hardest Throwers

January 24, 2008 by Mike Axisa 9 Comments

It’s fitting that we follow a post about Phil Hughes’ much discussed velocity with one about the hardest throwers in the minors. I didn’t do the legwork, BA did. We’ve heard alot about the high success rate of Tommy John surgery, but the #4 pitcher on the 2002 list is a prime example of a guy who’s stuff never returned to pre-TJ levels. Having two of the three hardest throwers in the minors is pretty badass.

Filed Under: Minors

Rehab Guys: What Can We Expect?

January 18, 2008 by Mike Axisa 30 Comments

Over the last 18 months or so, some of the Yanks very best pitching prospects went down with major arm injuries. It was frustrating and almost laughable at how many quality arms went down with Tommy John surgery, but at the same time it’s a testament to the kind of pitching depth the organization has when they can lose that many guys still have arms like Hughes, Joba, IPK, Tyler Clippard and Ross Ohlendorf make contributions at the Major League level.

A popular comment amongst…uh, commentors is that “Player X [who went down with a major injury in 2007] will be ready to help the bullpen by midseason,” and you know what? That statement is completely wrong. Pitchers have to relearn their mechanics and find their control after such a long layoff, and that process can be painstaking at times. Guys who rely on command and control need even more time to get things back to once they were.

Just like Brian Cashman, I can’t predict the future, so the info presented here is basically just my best educated guess, if that makes sense. We’re all hoping these guys get healthy and dominate in 2008, but in reality we should hope that they just finish the year strong. Fun starts after the jump.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Minors Tagged With: Christian Garcia, Humberto Sanchez, J.B. Cox, Jesse Hoover, Lance Pendleton, Marc Melancon, Tim Norton

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