Friday, July 6, 2007
Action
-So…I’m sure most of you’ve noticed, but since arriving in Tampa, Austin Jackson has been hitting and hitting very well. Jackson was 3 for 5 today with a homer and a triple. In 50 FSL ABs he’s hitting .420/.483/.640 with a 6:8 BB:K ratio. This has boosted his season line to .288/.362/.421. I was ambivalent about Jackson’s promotion to Tampa despite poor numbers and me being a stathead. The reason was that despite poor production, Jackson was making consistent hard contact and it seemed that he was suffering from some bad luck. Well…in Tampa his luck has completely turned around. Given the poor state of things in the Yankee farm system on the position player side, if Jackson can continue to hit well, not this well, but well enough, he could be the second best offensive prospect in the system by this offseason.
-Zach McAllister has a 5.19 ERA, but he’s striking out a batter an inning and generating almost 5 outs on the ground for every out in the air. Other than a poor first start, he’s rolling. Nice to see.
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Dellin and The Rain
-Dellin Betances both walked and struck out 6 batters today in 4.2 innings. On the year, Dellin has walked 13 guys in 18 innings. I ranked Betances slower than most others did this past offseason and this is why. Despite an impressive GCL debut, I didn’t feel ready to throw away all the concerns regarding his polish pre-draft. He’s got great stuff, no doubt, but I expect him to struggle a bit before really hitting his stride as a pro.
-Brett Smith pitched a 5-inning no-hitter today, but in the process he walked 7. Smith has been coming back to Earth and, despite the lack of runs or hits, the abundance of walks shows that this trend is continuing.
Joba Just Makes Me Happy
-Joba Chamberlain had, arguably, the best performance of his pro career last night. Chamberlain dominated hitters with his fastball, curveball, slider, and even the change. On most nights, Chamberlain can work with 2 or so of those pitches and he’ll be fine, but on this night, with all them going it was unfair. There was no point in the game where it seemed like the opposition had a shot and Chamberlain might have even had a higher K total had the strike zone been just a bit more favorable. I mentioned this on John Sickels’ site tonight, but Joba is an impressive guy to observe. His fastball is TREMENDOUS and if he’s commanding it and the rest of his stuff is even ok, he can dominate rather easily.
-I mentioned this in the Liveblog, but it needs to be repeated, Phil Hughes’ first minor league rehab start will be this Monday. That means he should be back by the last week of July, which means no more Kei Igawa in the rotation.
-Jose Tabata was 4 for 6 with a double. I don’t know if he just got healthy from his cyst issue or if he just decided to turn it on, but Tabata has been excellent at the plate as of late. Tabata has 16 XBH in 285 ABs, but 7 of those are in his last 93 ABs.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
The Outfield
-At the present time, the Yankee outfield has amounted to a bunch of suck. Damon, Abreu, and Matsui look done as far as being good to great players and Melky Cabrera has an uninspiring overall line despite hitting for an OPS of roughly .800 over the last two months. Because of this, Brett Gardner’s season is gaining importance. Gardner has added gap power to his arsenal this season and after another productive stretch of games his OPS is over .800. He’s going to turn 24 at the end of August and is repeating the league, so I’m not going to act as though he’s a great prospect, but if the Yankees promote him to AAA and he continues to be similarly productive he will have placed himself in the ‘08 OF picture. In a way, it’s kind of sad, but the Yankee OF is going to need a major overhaul.
-On the topic of future Yankee OF, Jose Tabata finished the month of June at .346/.420/.436. I would love to see even more power, but right now he’s representing himself well enough. Given their history of handling offensive prospects, I would say Tabata is on the verge of being promoted and might have that occur if he has another hot week. There might even be some pressure to fast track Tabata considering next year’s dreary OF picture.
-The Alan Horne AA Experience continues to perplex. After 7 more dominant innings of 1 run ball, Horne now ranks 2nd in the EL in Ks and ERA. He’s not overly young. RunElvis (hat tip to wherever I saw this, but I can’t remember) is in the AAA rotation. There’s no reason for him to still be in AA. None.
-Don’t look now, but Brett Smith’s hot streak is apparently over. Smith has given up 19 ER in his last 29 innings. Brett has had a nice run, so hopefully he can rekindle whatever he was doing enough to get traded for something useful.
-John Flaherty tried to reason that Kei Igawa gave the Yankees a start you can take from your 5th guy over the weekend. I disagree. Igawa gave up 4 runs on 3 homers in 6.1 innings. That’s not good and it’s not really acceptable from anyone in your rotation. If Igawa continues to suck and he’s given no indication for anything else to be assumed, Steve White might be the millionth Yankee pitcher to debut. White’s peripherals are poor, but he has a flashy ERA and a big fastball, which at this point might be enough to give him a leg up on the competition. Such an awful season. Phil Hughes please come back.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Command
-Tyler Clippard looked like the Major League Tyler Clippard last night. This is not a good thing. Tyler struggled to hit the catcher’s mitt and the results were not pretty. Guys with averagish fastballs need to throw strikes. Clippard, outside of one 3 start hot streak, has struggled to do that this year. As a result he’s struggled overall. Hopefully he can have as big a second half as he did last year.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Promise
-Zoilo Almonte was one of the Yankees big international signees a little while back and after what seems like forever, he’s finally made his way stateside. Despite the fact that it seems like Almonte’s been around forever, at least to me, he’s still only 17 and is off to a very nice start for a 17-year-old in the GCL. Almonte was 2 for 4 with a double today and is hitting .393/.452/.643 through the first 8 games of the GCL season. He has 3 walks and 5 strikeouts in that 28 at bat stretch, which is nice to see from a guy who posted a 28 to 52 ratio in 192 Dominican Summer League at bats last year.
-Austin Jackson and Jose Tabata were both 1 for 4 today as they hit back-to-back blasts. I’m still not sold that Jackson’s hot start is anything more than just that, a hot start, but it’s nice to see him adding some power. One thing that is certain is that Austin’s make marked improvements in his K rate. Based on subjective as well as objective information, I feel that what’s occurred is that Austin’s gotten a better idea of which pitches to hit. He’s striking out and walking less because he’s learning that it’s ok to attack pitches early in the count if they’re your pitch.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Frustration and Semantics
-While Scott Proctor was busy giving the game away, Chris Britton pitched 2.1 more shutout innings for Scranton. Britton’s season totals are now 36-33-12-9-11-42-2 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR) and a 2.25 ERA. There has to be at least ONE reliever in this awful, awful, awful bullpen that he’s better than. He should be given the opportunity to show this.
-Ian Kennedy was solid over 5 innings for Trenton. I think the Yankees are beginning to attempt to cap his innings a bit. Either that or he’s just been more inefficient than usual. Kennedy is a guy whose scouting reports always mention control and command. He also has 30 walks in 89 innings on the year. The walk rate seems high for someone with such a reputation especially given that Tyler Clippard posted lower rates over his minor league career only to come to the bigs and walk the park. However, the difference here is that despite low walk totals, Clippard’s always been a guy noted for being somewhat wild in the zone. The result is that despite typically low walk totals, Clippard might throw fat strikes, reflected in his less than stellar HR rate. On the other hand, Kennedy seems to know when to pitch around guys and how to throw quality strikes, as he’s only given up 3 homers thus far despite being a flyball pitcher. Some of that low homer rate is luck and some of it is skill. How much of it is skill is going to be a huge part of determining Kennedy’s value as a prospect.
-Ivan Nova struggled with his control and got knocked around, 4-8-8-8-4-2-1. Nova’s ERA is now up to 3.74. While he was able to overcome his peripherals and post a pretty ERA in the early portion of the season, his peripheral stats and ERA are beginning to line up.
-Angel Reyes, a popular preseason breakout pick, continues to do just the opposite. Reyes walked 3 guys in less than 2 innings and has now walked 9 in 3 NYPL innings. Taking into account his Sally League numbers, he has 30 walks in 34 innings. The diminutive hard throwing lefty is looking more and more like the last diminutive hard throwing Yankee lefty prospect, Abel Gomez.
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