NY minor league prospect news (2018 edition)

jon abbey

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This is an amazing article if you haven't seen it yet, two specifically fascinating things in here:

1) Dermis Garcia is being converted to a pitcher in addition to 1B/3B.

2) Danny Borrell, one of NY's pitching coordinators (and a #2 pick in 2000 who never worked out), has this insane quote about NY's current crop of minor league pitchers:

"he mentioned in passing that he thinks that among the 185 arms in the system, there are 70 big leaguers, a ridiculously high percentage."

https://www.mlb.com/yankees/news/danny-borrell-molds-yankees-young-pitchers/c-287603796?tid=163658034

No idea how true that is although I do know they're loaded, but a quote like that needs to be shared.
 

jon abbey

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Chance Adams was dominant into the 7th tonight in AAA, no hits, no runs, no walks allowed through 6. He ended with 7.1 2 1 0 4 8, 102 pitches.
 

jon abbey

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Cashman quickly turns $2.5M of that newly allowed international spending money into #8 Alex Vargas:


So now NY has signed #8, 10, 11 and 12 on the mlb.com list, plus two more top 50 and one who was #34 last year.
 

jon abbey

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With so many prospects graduating or being traded, NY's top 30 prospects list at mlb.com is now the youngest in baseball, average birth date 2/10/98. They also have more pitchers on their list than any other team, including 20 RHP (5 more than any other team).

Youngest Top 30 Prospects lists by avg birthday:

#Yankees (2/10/1998)
#Indians (12/23/1997)
#Padres (10/11/1997)
#Angels (9/03/1997)
#Brewers (6/19/1997):

 

jon abbey

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He is not a prospect, but today NY got 3B Gio Urshela from TOR, their AAA teams are playing each other, so he just switched dugouts. Urshela started all five games of the ALDS for CLE against NY last season, and is an absolute magician there defensively. He is so good that despite his total inability to hit (.589 OPS in 499 PAs), Francona still started him all five games and he had some incredible defensive plays to make Tito look good.

He is 27 in October and he is probably nothing, both CLE and TOR gave up on him understandably this season, but you can not teach defense that good and that is half of it. He had a whopping .554 OPS for TOR's AAA team and today in his first game for Scranton, he left two runners on twice down two runs with two weak ABs, the last to end the game. He is seriously fun to watch play D, though, look at these two plays against NY last August:

https://www.mlb.com/cut4/giovanny-urshela-made-two-amazing-defensive-plays/c-246555102
 

jon abbey

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I have talked about Michael King a few times here this year, NY got him from MIA in the offseason in exchange for Caleb Smith and Garrett Cooper in one of their many clearing-40-man-space deals.

King was a 12th round pick in 2016 and doesn't need to be protected for a while, but he has skyrocketed through the system this season, 40 innings of 1.79 ERA in high A, 82 innings of 2.09 in AA and today his first AAA start, in which he gave up a solo HR with two outs in the seventh but almost nothing else, 7 3 1 1 1 4, to a lineup including Vlad Jr., who was 0-3 against him.

He's not a super hard thrower, I think he peaks around 93-94, but he is a ground ball machine, 12 ground ball outs today. I'm not sure he's going to stay in AAA, Adams will likely be back there soon, and they have a crowded rotation currently, but King is someone to watch in spring training.

http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=&player_id=650633#/career/R/pitching/2018/ALL
 

jon abbey

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19 year old Deivi Garcia is rapidly climbing NY's prospect list, #13 currently at mlb.com. Tonight he threw his best game yet, in low A Charleston, 6 2 0 0 0 12. He struck out the side in the fifth and the sixth, so the last six batters he faced, and the only two hits he allowed were to SF's top prospect Heliot Ramos. He has 63 Ks in 39.1 IP, 14.4 K/9.

http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&player_id=665620#/career/R/pitching/2018/ALL
Garcia was promoted to high A Tampa today and is through 7 perfect innings, 12 Ks. It is a seven inning game because it’s a doubleheader but it’s still scoreless, so if Tampa can score in the bottom of the 7th, Farcia gets his perfect game.
 

jon abbey

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Tampa didn’t score so they’re in the 8th, but Garcia came out even though he’s only at 82 pitches.
 

jon abbey

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Long writeup on Garcia in today's RAB, he is very small at 5'10", 163, but has elite spin rate on both his fastball and curve and insane strikeout numbers.
  • 2018 Strikeout Rate: 39.1% (fifth best among 1,133 minor leaguers with 50 innings)
  • 2017 Strikeout Rate: 36.6% (13th best among 1,837 minor leaguers with 50 innings)
Also he was just promoted but he is the youngest SP in the Florida State League by almost a full year. He seems a good candidate for the top 100 in the offseason if he keeps it up.

http://riveraveblues.com/2018/08/deivi-garcia-perfect-pitching-prospect-baseball-2018-176123/
 

jon abbey

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Five more scoreless innings today for Sheffield, who has now allowed 0 or 1 runs in each of his last 7 AAA starts. Combined numbers for those, 40.1 28 6 5 13 35, 1.12 ERA. He hasn't allowed more than 3 ERs in a game since June 2, and hasn't allowed a HR since June 22.
 

jon abbey

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Mike King with another awesome start in AAA, taking a no-hitter into the seventh. I'm just going to cut and paste the whole RAB writeup on him:

  • RHP Mike King: 6.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 7/3 GB/FB — 63 of 99 pitches were strikes … lost the no-hitter when the leadoff man doubled to start the seventh … 1.33 ERA and 24/5 K/BB in five starts and 31 innings with the RailRiders … 1.82 ERA and 145/28 K/BB in 153.1 innings overall … lots of innings! … he has one more regular season start remaining, so he has a chance to become the first Yankees farmhand to throw 160 innings in a season since RHP Ramon Ortiz (169.1) and LHP Shaeffer Hall (164.1) in 2012
 

jon abbey

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Justus Sheffield did an interview with Sweeny Murti today and commented on two of his fellow Scranton pitchers:

Mike King: "The Truth" (sorry Paul)
Stephen Tarpley's repertoire (not sure if this is adjectives for four different pitches or he felt so strongly he had to emphasize things): "disgusting," "disgusting," "nasty" and "nasty."
 

terrynever

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Justus Sheffield did an interview with Sweeny Murti today and commented on two of his fellow Scranton pitchers:

Mike King: "The Truth" (sorry Paul)
Stephen Tarpley's repertoire (not sure if this is adjectives for four different pitches or he felt so strongly he had to emphasize things): "disgusting," "disgusting," "nasty" and "nasty."
Giuliani does not think King is the truth.
 

jon abbey

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Close followers of Cashman in recent years knows that it is close to impossible for a guy who does not yet need to be protected the following winter to be called up that season. The one exception in recent years was Jonathan Holder in 2016, not only had they just traded Chapman/Miller but Holder had an insane AAA outing, four innings where he struck out 11 in a row and 12 of the 13 batters he faced. Yes, 11 Ks in a row. A few days later, he was up.

So, close to impossible, but not impossible. I bring up Holder because Mike King is making a similar charge, tonight throwing six perfect innings in AAA on just 69 pitches before being removed for Cessa and Adams to finish. He has already thrown 155 innings, which is another reason he will not be called up, but he did throw 149 last year (in low A!) so he does not need to be shut down yet but presumably that is why he was pulled with the perfect game intact. He has a 1.09 ERA now in AAA, 33 17 4 4 4 27. I still don't think he comes up this season, but not much more you can do than be perfect.
 

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Close followers of Cashman in recent years knows that it is close to impossible for a guy who does not yet need to be protected the following winter to be called up that season. The one exception in recent years was Jonathan Holder in 2016, not only had they just traded Chapman/Miller but Holder had an insane AAA outing, four innings where he struck out 11 in a row and 12 of the 13 batters he faced. Yes, 11 Ks in a row. A few days later, he was up.

So, close to impossible, but not impossible. I bring up Holder because Mike King is making a similar charge, tonight throwing six perfect innings in AAA on just 69 pitches before being removed for Cessa and Adams to finish. He has already thrown 155 innings, which is another reason he will not be called up, but he did throw 149 last year (in low A!) so he does not need to be shut down yet but presumably that is why he was pulled with the perfect game intact. He has a 1.09 ERA now in AAA, 33 17 4 4 4 27. I still don't think he comes up this season, but not much more you can do than be perfect.
That's a really good point of reference compariing Holder to King. Great post Jon.
 

jon abbey

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Thanks, crow. The 2017 version was Chance Adams who was dominant in 150 innings combined between AA/AAA (2.45 ERA, .193 BAA), pushing himself onto every top 100 list, but still Cashman went to Caleb Smith repeatedly before him when they needed someone late in the season.

Then Adams had offseason surgery to take out bone chips from his elbow and he has still not gotten back to 2016-2017 form. It took a landslide of events for him to be called up this year as an emergency, he is not really good enough currently to be on the 40 man right now but he is too good to be dropped off, so there he sits in limbo, just moved to the AAA bullpen this week in preparation for sitting around a lot in the Yankee bullpen in September with Loaisiga and German and Sheffield and maybe even Acevedo ahead of him, plus all the guys there now.

For reference, Holder was a 6th round pick in 2014, Adams was a 5th round pick in 2015 and King was a 12th round pick in 2016 who NY somehow hijacked from MIA after the 2017 season (along with int'l bonus money for Caleb Smith and Garrett Cooper). King has already jumped three levels this year, super impressive season from him.

http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=650633#/career/R/pitching/2018/ALL
 

jon abbey

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19 year old Deivi Garcia called up to AA for the playoffs, impressive.
 

jon abbey

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Garcia is the first teenaged pitcher to start for NY's AA team since Manny Banuelos got promoted in late August 2010 to make three starts.

Garcia is actually pitching tonight for Trenton and doing great so far, 4 0 0 0 2 4 on 70 pitches
 

jon abbey

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Also NY's 40 man roster is pretty full, but Sheffield is pushing to get promoted still. He just finished easily his best relief outing since he was moved to the pen a few weeks ago, 2.1 0 0 0 0 4 on just 25 pitches to protect a 3-2 lead over Pawtucket.
 

jon abbey

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Garcia is actually pitching tonight for Trenton and doing great so far, 4 0 0 0 2 4 on 70 pitches
He strikes out the side, all swinging, in the 5th on 14 pitches, 5 0 0 0 2 7, 84 pitches.
 

jon abbey

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Albert Abreu getting a start for Trenton tomorrow also, loving all these late season pitching promotions.
 

jon abbey

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Yeah, that one is huge, a bunch of NY's best pitching prospects have had somewhat lost on entirely lost seasons, but nice to see Abreu impressing in his AA debut.
 

jon abbey

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Scranton won their first round playoff series behind another strong start by Mike King, and will play Durham (TB's AAA team) for the Governor's Cup for the second straight season. Durham beat them last year, Scranton won it in 2016 (over Gwinnett). I think Domingo German will start game 1, he was scheduled to start game 5 if the previous series kept going.
 

terrynever

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I have talked about Michael King a few times here this year, NY got him from MIA in the offseason in exchange for Caleb Smith and Garrett Cooper in one of their many clearing-40-man-space deals.

King was a 12th round pick in 2016 and doesn't need to be protected for a while, but he has skyrocketed through the system this season, 40 innings of 1.79 ERA in high A, 82 innings of 2.09 in AA and today his first AAA start, in which he gave up a solo HR with two outs in the seventh but almost nothing else, 7 3 1 1 1 4, to a lineup including Vlad Jr., who was 0-3 against him.

He's not a super hard thrower, I think he peaks around 93-94, but he is a ground ball machine, 12 ground ball outs today. I'm not sure he's going to stay in AAA, Adams will likely be back there soon, and they have a crowded rotation currently, but King is someone to watch in spring training.

http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=&player_id=650633#/career/R/pitching/2018/ALL
King grew up in Rhode Island! Thought his name was familiar.
 

jon abbey

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Jim Callis puts NY 4th or 5th in terms of just pitching in the farm system:

"The best farm system in terms of pitching prospects belongs to the Padres. Left-handers MacKenzie Gore (No. 11), Adrian Morejon (No. 49), Logan Allen (No. 85) and Ryan Weathers (No. 99) and right-handers Chris Paddack (No. 48) and Michel Baez (No. 60) all reside on our Top 100 Prospect list. Righties Cal Quantrill and Anderson Espinoza have made it in the past, righty Luis Patino could climb aboard the next time we update it, and San Diego has depth well beyond those arms as well.

The Braves are a close second, matching the Padres with six pitchers on the Top 100: right-handers Mike Soroka (No. 15), Kyle Wright (No. 24), Ian Anderson (No. 39) and Touki Toussaint (No. 74) plus left-handers Luiz Gohara (No. 59) and Kolby Allard (No. 88). Lefties Joey Wentz and Kyle Muller and righty Bryse Wilson also can make a case for making the Top 100, and Atlanta has several other interesting arms behind them.

Settling on the third-best pitching system is a tough call between the Astros, Rays, Tigers and Yankees. Houston and New York have the deepest crops of mound talent among that group, but I'm going to give a very slight edge to Tampa Bay. The Rays have four Top 100 arms in right-handers Brent Honeywell (No. 23) and Shane Baz (No. 93) and left-handers Brendan McKay (No. 29) and Matt Liberatore (No. 64), as well as several other quality lefties, including 2018 first-rounder Shane McClanahan and Poche."

https://www.mlb.com/news/top-under-the-radar-prospects-to-watch-in-afl/c-295333936?tid=151437456