I mentioned Everson Pereira two posts up, today he has 2 HRs in the first 2 innings, 6 RBIs. If this wave of young international position players starts performing in full-season ball for NY, their system ranking is going to take a nice jump up.
Add in Sweeney and that is 4 out of 5 guys swinging lefty bats. Seems to be purposeful.Also we all think of NY messing up their first round pick every year (often true) but their track record of position players in the top three rounds in the past two drafts is fantastic:
2019: Volpe-1st, Josh Smith-2nd
2020: Austin Wells-1st, Trevor Hauver-3rd
Those four are all killing it in their first full minor season so far, mostly in low A but Smith in high A now too, OPSs:
Smith--1.135
Volpe-1.078
Hauver-.962
Wells-.906
That's only about 700 combined ABs but early returns look good on all. Hopefully Sweeney will be added to that list. Right now Volpe/Hauver/Wells hit 1/2/3 for Tampa, who are the highest scoring minor league team in any league. Everson Pereira was just added as cleanup hitter behind them (9-18 and a 1.494 OPS in his first 4 games, 9 RBIs), maybe Sweeney will slot in there somewhere too later in the season.
Maybe Yanks would do better with first-round picks if they tanked four seasons in 10 years. That improves your chances of getting a premium pick.Also we all think of NY messing up their first round pick every year (often true) but their track record of position players in the top three rounds in the past two drafts is fantastic:
Is this year 1 of the tank seasons?Maybe Yanks would do better with first-round picks if they tanked four seasons in 10 years. That improves your chances of getting a premium pick.
Is this year 1 of the tank seasons?
I doubt it. Yanks prefer mediocre to tanking. It's not a winning strategy when it comes to the draft.Is this year 1 of the tank seasons?
They have done better in the draft in recent years also, especially in the lower rounds. They have a bunch of hitters from the last few drafts doing well that I mentioned above, but also their 5th and 6th round picks from 2019 are both already in the AA rotation.Does the MLB draft even matter to NY? Their bread and butter has been annihilating the competition in the international free agent market it seems.
With Volpe up to high A tomorrow, I wonder how that will affect the rest of this, every level has a SS who is crushing it except the important one, Gleyber. The exciting and aggressive move would be to jump Smith over AA straight to AAA to split 2B/SS with Hoy Jun Park. Smith is three years older than Peraza and leading the entire minor leagues in wRC+ (https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/minor-league/?pos=all&lg=2,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,14,12,13,15,16,17,18,30,32,33&stats=bat&qual=y&type=1&team=&season=2021&seasonEnd=2021&org=&ind=0&splitTeam=false&players=&sort=19,1), Peraza is already on the 40 man.The current SS depth in NY's minors is impressive:
AAA: Hoy Jun Park. Part of the acclaimed (and mostly duds) 2014 international signing class, Park is not a huge prospect but has blown up since being promoted to AAA a few weeks into the season. He leads AAA East in a bunch of offensive categories, with an 1.172 OPS and 6 HRs in 86 ABs.
AA: Oswald Peraza. Peraza is the most highly acclaimed of these guys, leading all of the minors in DRS and his bat has caught up this year. He has also already been promoted once, high A OPS was .917 and AA OPS is .867 (47 ABs). He is the most likely of these guys to be the regular Yankee SS in the future.
high A: Josh Smith. Smith was a 2nd round pick from LSU in 2019, he turns 24 in August. He has also been promoted once already (after a late start to the season), but he has massive offensive numbers in both leagues, 1.275 OPS in low A (39 ABs) and now a 1.058 OPS in high A (38 ABs), 8 HRs in 77 ABs between the two levels.
low A: Anthony Volpe. Volpe was NY's first round pick in 2019 out of high school (teammates with Jack Leiter), he just turned 20 in April. He has a 1.020 OPS in 153 ABs, 8 HRs.
not assigned: Alexander Vargas. Just 19, he was a big international signing in 2018 and will presumably be in the GCL when it starts next week.
not signed yet: Roderick Arias, the 16 year old stud who NY is supposedly signing in January, every Instagram pic he posts he is wearing a Yankee hat. He is a star prospect, with Lindor comparisons.
Interesting, thanks for this. I saw someone compare him to Luke Voit, they must love his hitting potential to take a 1B only that high.As an OU baseball fan, I've followed the career of Tyler Hardman (5th round pick) for the last couple of years. He hits for power and average and was one of the bright spots for the Sooners this year. Alas, all of his offensive prowess was for naught, as the Sooner starting pitchers were either awful or inconsistent. No sooner would Hardman and the Sooners stake a lead than the OU pitchers would give it right back. Sigh.
Scranton 38-20Scranton: 23-11
Somerset: 23-13
Hudson Valley: 20-14
Tampa: 27-10
Total: 94-48 (107-55 pace)
They will come back to the pack when Franco graduates soon, but yeah.I'm surprised Boston is at 13. I thought they were lower but I guess the trades of the last couple years have helped. And jeeze louise. The Rays are just so much more stacked than everyone else.