NY minor league prospect news (2016 edition)

jon abbey

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Refsnyder is 9th on their 2B prospect list (3rd among AL prospects behind Moncada and Tony Kemp for HOU), and of course Bird would be very high on their 1B list if he hadn't lost eligibility filling in for Tex down the stretch last year. Presumably Mateo and Judge will make their SS and OF lists respectively before the overall top 100 is announced Friday.

My not that educated guesses of which NYY prospects make their top 100: Sanchez, Judge, Mateo and maybe Kaprielian.
 

Wingack

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Pretty good showing. I am higher on that chunk of prospects than any other set the Yankees have had in awhile (including Severino) as I think the Yankees could have five or six legitimate MLB regulars.
 

jon abbey

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Pretty good showing. I am higher on that chunk of prospects than any other set the Yankees have had in awhile (including Severino) as I think the Yankees could have five or six legitimate MLB regulars.
Yeah, throw Bird in there too, and I keep saying it but I love how Cashman has attempted to fill in the level above them retroactively, with the 25 year old brigade of Didi, Eovaldi, Castro and Hicks.

One big depth hole though is 3B, Headley was pretty lousy last year and behind him they have their everyday 2B (Castro) and no good answers in the minors. I guess if Headley got hurt and Castro can actually play 3B competently as Cashman believe, then they could use him there and an Ackley/Refsnyder platoon at 2B, which is fine from a lineup perspective but likely weakens them at both positions defensively.

So I guess we will see in spring training, Castro played 32 innings there in 2008 in rookie ball, and not since then. I'd feel better about this plan if he had more of a history at his primary position of 2B, but he has almost exclusively been a SS since coming up in 2010, and one new position is hard enough to learn, let alone two.
 

Wingack

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And there may be no studs there in the bunch. But if they can fill out the rosters with homegrown (or the young guys acquired) slightly above average players and then sign a couple of top flight FA, that is one way of building a young championship team.
 

jon abbey

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Up from 20th last year even with Severino and Bird losing eligibility and trading for Ackley and Hicks and Castro and Chapman (and Didi and Eovaldi last year), seemingly on the right track.

Also in better relative position compared to the other 4 AL East teams than I'd think they've been in some time (last year in parentheses):

BOS 10th (5th)
NYY 13th (20th)
TB 14th (23rd)
TOR 25th (19th)
BAL 27th (22nd)
 

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jon abbey

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NY ended up getting both their rule 5 selections back, the Reds sent Jake Cave back today. NY is pretty loaded with top level OF depth, with Aaron Judge, Slade Heathcott, and Ben Gamel at AAA, plus Cesar Puello who the team really liked in spring training and Mason Williams on his way back from injury, so Cave was sent to AA.
 

jon abbey

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Kaprielian with his debut in high A ball, 5 3 1 1 0 9, a very impressive 60 pitches, 49 strikes/11 balls (!!!).
 

jon abbey

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Yeah, Girardi knew Kaprielian's line in the clubhouse before the game, a pretty good sign that he's hopefully on a similar track to Severino last year (also why they pulled him after 60 pitches, trying to keep his innings down early in the year).

Four hits for Aaron Judge tonight, hitting .391 after six games.
 

jon abbey

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Gary Sanchez with a walkoff blast in the bottom of the 11th just now to give SWB a 2-0 win, it landed 'on the walkway over the Syracuse bullpen'.

That is 28 straight scoreless innings collectively for the unimpressive-on-paper SWB AAA pitching staff, 13 ERs total over 7 games so far, or a 1.89 team ERA.
 

terrynever

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Yeah, Girardi knew Kaprielian's line in the clubhouse before the game, a pretty good sign that he's hopefully on a similar track to Severino last year (also why they pulled him after 60 pitches, trying to keep his innings down early in the year).

Four hits for Aaron Judge tonight, hitting .391 after six games.
That is good info on Kaprelian and a hopeful scenario. The low pitch count is telling.
 

jon abbey

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Kaprielian's second start tonight, five no-hit innings on only 46 pitches so far.
 

jon abbey

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He finishes (presumably) with a hilarious 7 1 3 0 2 4 line, 76 pitches.
 

jon abbey

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Ha, that story is great! "You know, I didn't have my best stuff tonight."
 

terrynever

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Gary Sanchez with 4 hits tonight, including 2 doubles. Up to .244. Judge with 2 hits, hitting .322 in 58 ABs. Nick Swisher with a homer, hitting .385.
 

jon abbey

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Ronald Herrera got promoted from AA to AAA today, making him the youngest player in the International League by almost a full year (20.9 to 21.8 for Jose Berrios). He is the guy NY got for Jose Pirela last winter, he doesn't seem to be on any top 30 prospect lists, but he's doing something right.

http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=622703#/career/R/pitching/2016/ALL
Herrera is back in AA after that spot start in AAA and threw eight no-hit innings tonight, combining with Jonathan Holder for Trenton's first no-hitter in ten years:

http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2016_04_26_nhmaax_treaax_1&t=g_box&sid=milb
 

jon abbey

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Also Jorge Mateo hit his second HR of the year (60 ABs) tonight, he had only two all last season and one was inside-the-park.
 

jon abbey

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And it should be noted that Refsnyder has been horrendous so far, 190/.257/.238.
 

jon abbey

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Dietrich Enns is a 25 year old lefty in AA, who has had the following ERAs the last few years:

2014: 1.42
2015: 0.61
2016: 0.00

Admittedly only about 100 innings over those 2+ seasons, but still, wow. Tonight he has a career high in Ks through 4 innings with 9, no hits allowed so far.

http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=608650#/career/R/pitching/2016/ALL
Enns with no hits allowed through 5 innings again in a very early start today, game is still going. RAB wrote about him the other day:

http://riveraveblues.com/2016/04/dietrich-enns-pitching-his-way-onto-the-prospect-map-136782/
 

jon abbey

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Bunt single in the sixth ends it. seems totally legit in a 1-0 game, especially when your team hasn't had a hit for 14 innings.
 

jon abbey

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Enns finishes with a 7 2 0 0 2 8 line, I believe that gives him 23.2 scoreless innings to start the season.
 

jon abbey

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And another impressive start in an inexplicably early game for Domingo Acevedo, 8 2 2 1 1 9, and the only earned run was on a HR with two outs in the 8th and a 3-1 lead. He really needs to be promoted to Tampa soon, 1.91 ERA and a FB that touches 100 at times.

Edit: NY's AAA beat guy just tweeted:

 

jon abbey

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Enns finishes with a 7 2 0 0 2 8 line, I believe that gives him 23.2 scoreless innings to start the season.
And he ended last year with 21 scoreless innings, he hasn't given up an earned run since August 19, 44.2 consecutive scoreless in all (last year in high A, this year in AA). That's pretty good.
 

jon abbey

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Gary Sanchez with an RBI single and a long 2 run HR in the first three innings tonight in AAA. I have to think that him for Romine will be NY's first real non-injury driven personnel move this year. Does anyone know exactly how long he needs to stay in AAA for NY to gain the extra year of control on him? That has to be soon if not already.
 

jon abbey

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Maybe it's been long enough already, Kris Bryant debuted on April 17 last year:

"teams that hold down a prospect for the first 10 to 15 games of the big league season generally gain another year of control over that player"

https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/how-the-system-screws-kris-bryant-and-other-mlb-rookies

I'm sure that NY's concern is what if they promote him, lose Romine (no options left) and then McCann or Sanchez gets hurt, but they should just deal with that situation if and when it happens and dump Romine already.
 

jon abbey

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jon abbey

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Herrera blew up in the 6th inning once he got to around 90 pitches, single (ending the no-hitter), double play, walk, triple, walk, HR, and that ended his night.

Still 13 consecutive hitless innings is impressive, especially for one of the youngest players in the league.
 

BigMike

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Also Jorge Mateo hit his second HR of the year (60 ABs) tonight, he had only two all last season and one was inside-the-park.
Mateo is hitting a ton, and drawing walks, he hit his 3rd HR tonight. What is funny is he has struggled stealing bases. He got his 8th of the season tonight, but has been inexplicably caught 6 times
 

jon abbey

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Mateo is hitting a ton, and drawing walks, he hit his 3rd HR tonight. What is funny is he has struggled stealing bases. He got his 8th of the season tonight, but has been inexplicably caught 6 times
He's also made a bunch of errors, nice to see the power though.
 

terrynever

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Yanks finally stopped torturing Refsnyder and put him in his natural position, RF. He had 3 hits tonight and is up to .266. Sanchez also with 3 hits. Judge hit his 4th home of season, slugging .813 thru 94 ABs.

Refsnyder might be insurance in RF for NY, as Judge really needs 140 games in Scranton this year.
 

jon abbey

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Ref evidently asked to play some games there, so he could be as potentially valuable as possible. The problem is he really doesn't hit enough to start at RF in the bigs.
 

terrynever

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Ref evidently asked to play some games there, so he could be as potentially valuable as possible. The problem is he really doesn't hit enough to start at RF in the bigs.
Does Hicks hit enough? I just want anyone but Beltran out there. And I want Refsnyder to have some peace away from third base.
 

jon abbey

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Leading the league in OPS at .970, that's impressive.

Sanchez and Judge are also both heating up, 1.307 and 1.154 OPSs in May respectively. They really need to promote Sanchez, it's such an easy and obvious move to maybe spark an entirely dead offense.
It has been more interesting to follow the kids in the minors than to watch the big club. Sad state of affairs.
 

jon abbey

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Mateo with a single/triple/inside the park HR day, OPS up to a league leading 1.036 now. When do they bump him to AA?

Sanchez with two doubles and a HR, his OPS now up to .928, Romine broke out just in time today to save his Yankee career for now, I think.
 

jon abbey

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Judge with another long HR (off Brian Johnson), 4 in his last 6 games and 7 for the season.
 

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Mark Montgomery with 2 shutout innings, no base runners, 4 Ks against Pawtucket tonight. He could put himself on the shuttle to NY with a few more efforts like this one. Control, or lack of it, has been his problem for the last couple of years.
 

jon abbey

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NY seems to be moving Jorge Mateo to 2B in preparation for promoting him to AA. I guess this makes sense, there are a lot of factors:

1) He hasn't been great defensively at SS, and of course Didi is.

2) They like Tyler Wade, the current AA SS, who is almost as young as Mateo (21 to 20).

3) Maybe the thinking is if Headley doesn't revert to being the solid two-way player he's been in the past, if they think Mateo's bat is ready next spring training, they try Castro at 3B and Mateo at 2B.

4) If nothing else, it gives him more positional flexibility going forward.

5) Lastly, they have a lot of SSs in the system below Mateo, many from the international signing sprees of recent years.