River Avenue Blues

River Ave. Blues ยป Alex Smith

Austin, Bird, Jagielo, Judge among Yankees prospects heading to Arizona Fall League

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4:43pm: Norris says the Yankees are also sending a catcher to be named later to the AzFL. Maybe Kyle Higashioka after he missed the first half of the season following Tommy John surgery?

4:17pm: According to Josh Norris, the Yankees are sending OF Tyler Austin, 1B Greg Bird, 3B Eric Jagielo, OF Aaron Judge, RHP Caleb Cotham, RHP Branden Pinder, and RHP Alex Smith to play for the Scottsdale Scorpions in the Arizona Fall League after the season. I thought they might send LHP Manny Banuelos to continue pitching following Tommy John surgery, but it’s already been a long season for him. The AzFL season begins October 7th.

The Yankees are sending more top prospects to the desert this year than I can ever remember. Usually they only send one or two top prospects. Austin (wrist, groin), Bird (back), Jagielo (oblique), Pinder (groin), and Cotham (unknown) all missed several weeks due to injury this summer and will be making up for lost time. Pinder is Rule 5 Draft eligible this winter and the club probably wants some more time to evaluate him. Judge is the team’s best prospect and Smith has had a nice year out of the bullpen for High-A Tampa (2.40 ERA and 3.29 FIP). Great crop of players going to the AzFL this year.

Yankees sign Alex Smith out of indy league

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Via Josh Norris, the Yankees have signed right-hander left-hander Alex Smith out of the independent Northern League. The 27-year-old spent last season with the independent Newark Bears, pitching to a 3.39 ERA in 111.2 IP spread across 19 starts. He only struck out 56 and walked 52, however. Baseball America says Smith “has arm strength but not a lot of polish or secondary stuff at this stage.” More than likely he’s just minor league filler.