He’s gotten hurt two years in a row and has been pretty underwhelming when healthy, he has been stuck in Tampa since late 2017. He is still just 22 and NY clearly still believes in him enough to put him on the 40 man even though he almost certainly can’t help this season, but he really needs to have a big season.I'm not sure why Florial isn't included in their top 100. Anything we should know?
"he's already getting Bo Jackson & Mike Trout comps"Also a Q and A with Jim Callis on Twitter:
View: https://twitter.com/jimcallisMLB/status/1221861466816557056
He seems to be a bit of a late bloomer, but they say in the piece that his "swinging strike percentage of 16.2 percent ranked inside the top 10 for minor league pitchers with at least 100 innings", so that seems impressive.Interesting, that is a lot of hype for a guy who has been pretty mediocre (being kind) in his career so far. Last year 4.28 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, good news of 128K in 115 innings
Great info on the status of prospects. The only question mark with the Deivi hype is the reliever talk, but I guess we’ll find out sooner rather than later as his ETA is mid-2020. Kevin Alcantara is another prospect that I’m excited about after reading the info on him on prospect1500. But like Dominguez, he’s also so young and a few years from possibly contributing.A few things today of note for NY fans:
mlb.com says that Deivi has the best curve in the minors, runners up: Matthew Liberatore, LHP, Cardinals; Matt Manning, RHP, Tigers; Forrest Whitley, RHP, Astros. Impressive company!! Someone said Deivi reminds them of Flash Gordon, which seems like a pretty good comparison from what I know.
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Best curveball: Deivi Garcia, RHP, Yankees (65) -- ETA: 2020
Garcia achieves so much spin and depth on his curveball that it's not only difficult for hitters to square up, but also for him to locate in the strike zone at times. He spent most of 2019 in Double-A and Triple-A at age 20, and his strikeout rate (13.3 per nine innings) would have ranked second in the Minors had he not fallen just shy of officially qualifying.
https://www.mlb.com/news/top-tools-among-2020-prospects?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage
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The prospects1500 site did their top 50 NY prospects list. It's incredible to see the number of teenagers here, mostly international signings, hopefully some of them blossom as hoped for. Also it's worth noting that after the top 50, he listed 11 more and said on Twitter he wanted to do another 20 because of NY's impressive system depth.
https://www.prospects1500.com/al-east/yankees/new-york-yankees-2020-top-50-prospects/
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Lastly, a glowing writeup for SP Alexander Vizcaino (#20 on the above list, needs to go on the 40 man next winter) in BA:
"Scouts from rival organizations arrived at low Class A Charleston games last summer focused on righthanders Luis Gil and Luis Medina, but they left asking about another young Dominican power pitcher.
"Who is this guy?’’ was a common response from the talent evaluators after seeing righthander Alexander Vizcaino and his high-octane fastball and tantalizing changeup that has drawn comparisons with a young Felix Hernandez and Fernando Rodney.
"Power fastball with a really good changeup—a changeup like King Felix’s early in his career," vice president of baseball operations Tim Naehring said.
Vizcaino, who turns 23 early this season, tops out at 98 mph and sits in the mid-90s. His velocity is the perfect complement to his deceptive changeup that ranges from 87-90 mph.
"It’s one of the best changeups in baseball," Naehring said. "Not the minor leagues. Not in the Yankees’ system. In all of baseball.""
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/alexander-vizcaino-owns-an-elite-pitch/
How does the international signing process work? It seems like the Yankees are often signing top prospects.The guy on nyyfans.com who seems to have the inside scoop on international signings just posted:
"BREAKING NEWS
The Yankees are projected to sign the top prospect in the 2021 class. SS Rodrick Arias. He's a switch hitting shortstop with soft hands and good range. Many scouts compare him to Wander Franco."
So that's not this July, it is July 2021, meaning this kid is probably 14 right now, making this both creepy and awesome. I will start a thread if it becomes more official at some point.
They have made it a huge focus the last 3-5 years, trading for maximum slot money most years. The whole process is shrouded in mystery, and who knows how many more years it will last before they institute an international draft, but one thing that helps NY is their team history, tons of families/kids who are Yankee fans in the Dominican Republic/Venezuela etc. Jasson Dominguez was actually named after Jason Giambi (NY version).How does the international signing process work? It seems like the Yankees are often signing top prospects.
Thanks for explaining that, and yeah Arias being only 14 is weird, but it'll be nice to see how he progresses.They have made it a huge focus the last 3-5 years, trading for maximum slot money most years. The whole process is shrouded in mystery, and who knows how many more years it will last before they institute an international draft, but one thing that helps NY is their team history, tons of families/kids who are Yankee fans in the Dominican Republic/Venezuela etc. Jasson Dominguez was actually named after Jason Giambi (NY version).
A wooing process for 13 and 14 year olds is pretty gross, but that's what you have to do to get guys like Wander Franco and Jasson Dominguez. TB also is great at international signings, so it's not just a resource thing.
The same piece has the Astros as potentially the worst system in the majors. Surprising.It's been a few years since NY has gotten much respect for their overall system in anyone's farm system rankings, but today Keith Law ranked them 6th in MLB, 2nd in the AL, behind only TB.
6. New York Yankees
The Yankees have clearly figured out some things on the development side, especially finding ways to help pitchers throw harder or throw higher-quality pitches (like boosting spin rates), and have also stayed active on the international side. Their Latin American contingent helmed one of the most lauded groups of short-season prospects I found during the process of assembling these rankings, with teams already asking for some of their GCL kids in trade talks. They’ve also got pitching coming, headlined by a risky first-round pick who’s worked out extremely well so far in Clarke Schmidt.
Also the prospects365 rankings finished today, with an impressive 16th overall for the Martian and 10 NY players in their top 186 (they ranked 200 total):
16: Jasson Dominguez
78: Deivi Garcia
80: Clarke Schmidt
105: Luis Medina
134: Estevan Florial
139: Luis Gil
167: Ezequiel Duran
174: Canaan Smith
176: Roansy Contreras
186: Kevin Alcantara
https://prospects365.com/2020/03/02/ray-butlers-2020-top-200-prospects-1-20/
Worth noting that Clint Frazier and Tyler Wade are in no man's land at the moment. Can't be ranked and don't really get MLB respect either.Have not read this year, but Eric Longenhagen's very thorough and much anticipated (by me) annual writeup of NY prospects just went up, the top 54 in the system (!).
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/top-54-prospects-new-york-yankees/