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.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Cool Minors Stuff
I’m going to try and switch up the format here a bit, because reporting on all the levels at once is a bit daunting for me. I’m going to focus on the interesting trends, or what have you, that I think are noteworthy.
-Alan Horne pitched another impressive game last night. Horne’s final line of 5-4-2-1-1-6-0 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR) left him with an ERA of 2.39 in 86.2 innings. As mentioned in the comments of the last post, Horne has also been deemed an “untouchable” prospect. Tremendous turnaround year.
-Brett Gardner’s been hitting for less power than he was early in the season, but his batting average is going up. It seems that Gardner was in fact sacrificing average for power in the early-going, but perhaps he’s found a balance. The weird thing in all of this is his K rate. When he was hitting for more power, he was striking out less, but now that he’s been hitting more singles, he’s been striking out more.
-Austin Jackson is 7 for his first 14 in High A, which is nice, but seeing as it is all singles, it’s probably a bit of a fluke.
-Jose Tabata has his OPS up to .750 on the strength of a .328/.418/.379 June. His numbers for the month are actually also a little better than that because of a suspended game, which has yet to be counted, where he was 1 for 2 with a double.
-The Seth Fortenberry in Low A experiment continues to perplex. Seth hit his 12th homer tonight and is OPSing a good bit over .900 since the beginning of May. I’m not sure why he’s still at the level. Time is not on his side and the Yankees aren’t doing him any favors.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Signs
Injuries/News:
Recently, I’ve been watching Scrubs on late night FOX, it’s a quality show, and I think I’ll pick up the DVDs…I really like the White Castle “like collecting” commercial…Austin Jackson was promoted to Tampa, I don’t think he’s proven it, necessarily, and I’m not sure why Seth Fortenberry wasn’t promoted, but thems the breaks…Juan Miranda and Colin Curtis were/are promoted to Trenton, per NYYFans…Futures Game rosters were announced and Joba Chamberlain was the only Yankee selected to participate in the game. This makes this year’s game considerably less exciting than last year’s Tabata and Hughes celebration, but better than the Kevin Thompson year. Yeah, somewhere between those two.
AAA:
Matt DeSalvo had a weird start. On the one hand, he struck out 10 guys in just 4.2 innings. On the other, he also gave up 10 base runners. DeSalvo’s ERA now stands at 1.96 in a little over 40 AAA innings. Matt is in a weird position. I think the best way to learn and adjust is to experience failure, but Matt is good enough, it seems, that he can post decent minor league ERAs despite peripherals indicating that he isn’t pitching as well as he could. I wonder if this makes it more difficult to drive home the point that he really needs to work on his control and command.
Eric Duncan had his 2nd awful game in the last 3. This time he was 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts. With the recent increase in strikeout rate, there’s just about no positive you can hang your hat on for Duncan. He hasn’t been healthy, he hasn’t hit for consistent power, he hasn’t hit for average, and he hasn’t controlled the strike zone. Alberto Gonzalez was 2 for 4 with a double. The 2 hits were his first in a week. The last game in which he had a hit was also a 2 for 4 with a double game.
AA:
Ian Kennedy picked up his first AA loss despite not pitching TOO poorly. Kennedy’s line of 5-3-1-1-2-3-0 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR) was not enough as the Trenton bats were asleep. The only guy in the lineup to do anything was Brett Gardner, who was 4 for 5. With Colin Curtis and Juan Miranda arriving soon, the Trenton offense should get a bit of a boost. If they can get some offense to go along with the pitching they already have, they might not ever lose again, kind of like how the Yankees were never going to lose again and then the Rockies swept them.
A+:
Reegie Corona was 3 for 4 with a walk as he attempts to reverse his trend of decreasing month-to-month offensive performance. Corona’s a really small guy, so fatigue may be why he’s slowed down both of the past two seasons. Or it could be that the league has figured him out each time. Given my aggressive ranking of him, I hope it’s the former. Colin Curtis and Juan Miranda ended their FSL careers in style, going 0 for 4. Curtis drew a walk and Miranda struck out once. Jose Tabata was 1 for 2 with a double and 2 walks. Of Tabata’s 9 doubles on the year, 3 of them have come in his last 8 games. Maybe something is finally clicking. Marcos Vechionacci was an uninspired 1 for 4 with a strikeout.
A-:
Ivan Nova posted another underwhelming line; this one was 6-6-4-4-0-4-0. My new conclusion is that Nova is throwing too many strikes, or not enough quality strikes. His stuff is good enough that he can leave it over the plate and be effective. However, because the pitches are too fat, he’s not striking out as many as he should. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Mitch Hilligoss was 3 for 5 with a strikeout as he continues to hit singles with great regularity. Seth Fortenberry was 1 for 5 with a double and a strikeout, taking over Austin Jackson’s CF spot. Eduardo Nunez was 0 for 4 with a strikeout. Hitting right handed doesn’t seem to be working out much better than being a switch-hitter. Jose Gil was 2 for 3 with a walk.
SS:
Zach McAllister’s much anticipated debut went poorly, 3-6-5-4-3-3-0. The good was that McAllister’s fastball seamed to have a lot of run to it, getting in on right-handed batters and he kept it down for the most part. Unfortunately, he kept it too down and as a result ran a lot of deep counts. He also REALLY struggled with his curveball, throwing a lot of hangers up in the zone. The other good part was that McAllister just looks like a guy with a lot of physical potential. He’s listed at 6’6’’ and 240, but looks like he still has a lot of room to add weight.
R:
The GCL guys had a fairly quiet game. Abe Almonte was 0 for 3 with a walk and a strikeout, Cuello was 2 for 4, and Zoilo Almonte was 0 for 3.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Ok Start for the Phenom
Injuries/News:
Nope.
AAA:
Eric Duncan’s second game in the 3-hole was better than his first. Duncan was 2 for 5 with a homer and a K. Alberto Gonzalez showed no sign of life, going 0 for 3 to drop to .223.
Steve White picked up the victory, but was mediocre, at best. White’s final line of 5-4-3-3-4-2-0 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR) was not encouraging. Because he’s got solid velocity, if White can string together some good outings and Igawa struggles he might be the kajillionth Yankee prospect to get a shot. Chris Britton relieved him and gave up a solo homer while striking out 3 batters in 2 innings of work and Edwar Ramirez struck out 2 in his lone inning of work.
AA:
Alan Horne picked up his 7th victory. Perhaps no one in the Yankee system has seen their stock rise more than Horne and he continued on that path with a 6-5-1-1-1-4-0 outing against the league’s top offense. Horne’s emergence will be reflected in the midseason Top 30, unveiled later today.
Brett Gardner was 2 for 5 with 3 strikeouts and Cody Ehlers was 1 for 4 with a walk and 2 strikeouts. It’s weird to see Gardner have a multi-strikeout game this year. Last year, not so much, but this year, yes. As long as it doesn’t happen too often, he’ll be fine.
A+:
Dan McCutchen went 7 strong, striking out 3 while walking 1 and allowing 2 hits. McCutchen hasn’t struck out as many guys as you would expect for someone with his stuff, but he’s been effective at keeping runs off the board. He’s also averaging almost 7 innings a start, which is a positive considering his innings eating potential was a large part of the organization’s attraction to him.
Reegie Corona and Juan Miranda struggled at the plate, going a combined 1 for 10 with 3 strikeouts. Tabata and Curtis fared better, 3 for 9 with 2 strikeouts. Curtis also stole a base.
A-:
All Star Break
SS:
Dellin Betances made his much anticipated season debut and showed flashes, but ultimately wasn’t sharp enough. The umpire was also squeezing him a bit, according to the announcer. Dellin’s final line was 4-5-3-3-2-5-0 and a couple of his hits allowed were of the infield variety. Not a great outing, but I’ll take it. I’ll also expect better going forward.
R:
Daniel Gil picked up his first victory despite having an inconsistent outing. Similar to Betances, Gil’s line showed a bit of his potential as well as some of his inexperience 3-4-2-2-0-4-0.
Prilys Cuello was 1 for 3 with a walk, a strikeout, and, surprisingly, two steals. Zoilo Almonte was an impressive 3 for 5 with 2 doubles and a strikeout. I’ve had my eye on Almonte for some time, so I’m very interested in seeing how he does.
Spotlight On:
Zach McAllister going for Staten Island on Sportsnet New York.
Depth Chart:
INF
C. Basak-Playing at AAA and hitting well enough at the level, but doesn’t offer too much with either the stick or the glove, his arm also seems a bit short at times on plays at short and third
R. Pena-Playing at AA, offers nothing with the bat, but is reputed to be a standout defender
G. Lopez-Playing at AA…a homeless man’s Hispanic David Eckstein
A. Baldiris-Playing at AA…can draw the occasional walk, but nothing else and is a poor defender
Depth
Injuries/News:
The GCL and NYPL started today, which means 150% the daily box scores to check and games to pay attention to. Yay.
AAA:
With Andy Phillips’ promotion to AAA, Eric Duncan was moved into the number 3 spot in the Scranton lineup. He responded by going 0 for 5 with 3 Ks. The Yankees are almost begging for Duncan to prove he’s ready and he’s been unable to do so. It’s a bit sad. His BB:K ratio, which was the one thing you could hang your hat on all season, has now deteriorated to 24:35. Alberto Gonzalez was 0 for 3 with a strikeout as he continues to search for new lows.
Colter Bean got the start, but didn’t pitch very well. Coming on in relief of Bean was Steven Jackson, who didn’t pitch much better. Jackson allowed 5 baserunners in 2 innings. It has to be depressing to come into the organization relatively highly touted and then, halfway through the season, you’re relieving for Colter Bean. This is not the season the Yankees or Jackson imagined.
AA:
Trenton lost to Akron and while Jeff Marquez did not take the loss, he pitched poorly enough to deserve it. Jeff walked 4 in 5 innings, showing some of the control inconsistency that has plagued him in the past. As pitching coach Scott Aldred hinted in his recent interview with Pinstripes Plus, Jeff has been somewhat surprisingly consistent this season; hopefully this is an anomalous start.
Brett Gardner was 1 for 3 with a walk and a strikeout and Cody Ehlers was 1 for 3 with a homer and 2 walks.
A+:
George Kontos pitched wonderfully, but did not get a victory because the offense took the day off and he only lasted 5 innings. Kontos would only allow 1 walk and 3 hits while striking out 6 in those 5 innings. In a very small sample, Kontos has been excellent thus far. I’d love to see him get a shot at Trenton if he does this for 3 or so more starts, but I doubt that will happen with the current logjam at the upper levels.
Frank Cervelli was 1 for 3 with a double and a strikeout and Jose Tabata was 2 for 4. Other than that, the offense was shackled.
A-:
All Star Game
SS:
Staten Island lost their season opener. They don’t have too much in the way of position prospects at the moment and their least interesting starter took the mound, so…
R:
The GCL Yankees lost, but Jairo Heredia shone. Heredia was one of the top pitchers the Yankees signed last summer and he showed why by striking out 5 while allowing 3 hits and 1 walk in 3.2 innings. Heredia is just 17 and is one to keep an eye on. Abe Almonte, Prilys Cuello, Zoilo Almonte, and Andres Dionicio all got their GCL seasons underway. Almonte is a speedy INF compared to Jose Reyes, Cuello is slugging INF compared to Cano, Almonte is a toolsy CF compared to Melky and Dionicio is a guy who plays H.
Spotlight On:
Staten Island. Dellin Betances gets his first start of the year.
Depth Chart:
1B
S. Duncan-Playing at AAA…Ready to hit the occasional homer, but won’t contribute much, if anything else…This is as good as he’s going to be
E. Duncan-Playing at AAA…Ready to draw the occasional walk, but won’t contribute much, if anything else…He should/could be better, but isn’t thanks to injuries and not doing a good enough job of capitalizing on HIS pitches
C. Ehlers-Playing at AA…Not near ready…Power is a huge question…Smaller 1B with good eye, can draw walks, solid defender
J. Miranda-Playing at A+...Big time power…Strike zone control is a bit shaky…Defense is still up in the air…Probably at least a year away despite advanced age
More tomorrow, I’m tired.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Ian and Joba
Injuries/News:
As it was mentioned in the last comments section, Trenton is currently going with a 6-man rotation.
AAA:
I’m not sure why the Yankees are going with Runelvys Hernandez in the AAA rotation, but, he took the mound last night and pitched poorly. Runelvys would take just 4 innings to throw 94 pitches. With the organization confident enough in Igawa to put him back in the major league rotation, I think they should go with an all prospect AAA rotation as opposed to running a retread out there.
Chris Britton got the win, but didn’t pitch particularly well and Edwar Ramirez relieved him and was just ok. Lukewarm outings, at best, by both of these guys should not take away from the fact that they’ve done excellent work this year.
Eric Duncan and Alberto Gonzalez continue to struggle. They are down to .237 and .229, respectively. Yeah…
AA:
Joba and Kennedy continued to roll at the AA level. Kennedy struck out 9 in 5 innings and Joba struck out 8 in his 5. Experienced college arms are expected to transition quickly and both of these guys are doing that, at the least. More encouraging than their progress has been that of Brett Gardner. Gardner is hitting .371/.465/.543 on the month and looking more and more like a prospect as the season progresses.
A+:
The Tampa players had some time off to recharge thanks to the FSL All Star Game. Corona, Tabata, and Curtis had solid games while Miranda, Vechionacci, and Cervelli were able to avoid being complete offensive drains. Miranda and Curtis should be promoted any second now.
A-:
After a hot stretch to begin the month of June, the Charleston offense has really slowed down. Austin Jackson is 3 for his last 26 and 0 for his last 18 with 9 and 6 strikeouts over those respective stretches. Another slumping hitter, Mitch Hilligoss, is 2 for his last 13. The only guy not slumping is Seth Fortenberry, who has been the steadiest force in the Charleston lineup.
Spotlight On:
Trenton.
Today is also opening day for the New York Penn League and the Gulf Coast League. Players to watch for the NYPL include Dellin Betances, Zach McAllister, and Angel Reyes. Players to watch for the GCL include Jesus Montero and Prilys Cuello.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
A Slow News Day
Injuries/News:
Knicks in 08!!!
AAA:
Kei Igawa got the win for Scranton. Igawa’s line, 6-4-1-1-2-4-1 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR), wasn’t all that impressive, but it was good enough that if Clippard has another poor outing, Igawa might be back in the bigs. I really don’t think the difference in true talent level between the two is enough to make much of a difference, so either way it’s cool. For personal fandom reasons, I’d rather see Clippard in the bigs, but I’ll survive if he’s demoted. Chris Britton continued to toil away in the minors, 3-4-2-2-0-4-0. Winning cures everything and right now the bullpen is doing a good enough job since they rarely have to be used much, but it’s hard to see why Britton is still in the minors.
Alberto Gonzalez was 2 for 4 with a double and a walk. It was the best game he’s had in some time, but his season line remains extremely uninspiring.
AA:
Brett Smith picked up his 6th victory, but didn’t pitch all that well. Smith’s line of 5-4-3-3-4-2-1 brought his ERA up to 1.99. Smith still has terrific season totals, but his recent outings seem to indicate regression to the mean.
Brett Gardner and Cody Ehlers were both 0 for 2 with 2 walks.
A+:
The Tampa Yankees won a nail biter with Dan McCutchen, 6-7-0-0-1-4-0, picking up the victory. Reegie Corona was 2 for 4 with a walk and a steal as a bunch of the offensive players had ok games. Jose Tabata was 1 for 4 with a double and a steal. Colin Curtis was 1 for 4 with a strikeout. Juan Miranda was 1 for 4 with a homer and 2 strikeouts. Frank Cervelli was 0 for 2 with a walk. Finally, Lakeland managed to keep Marcos Vechionacci at bay, 0 for 4.
A-:
Mitch Hilligoss and Seth Fortenberry had good games in an otherwise quiet night for Charleston. Hilly was 3 for 3 with a double and Fortenberry was 2 for 4 with a double. This was the first really good game Hilly’s had since the conclusion of his big hit streak, so it was nice to see. Mitch might be happier than everyone else when it comes to appreciating Vechionacci’s recent hot streak because it seems he will have to wait on something being done with Marcos before he is promoted, which makes sense. Seth…I’m not sure what the wait is to promote him.
Spotlight On:
Ian Kennedy making his 3rd AA start.
Happy Catch Up Time
Injuries/News:
Tim Norton is rumored to be done for the year with major shoulder surgery, which pretty much means he’s done as a prospect…George Kontos finally returned last night…Brett Gardner returned from the DL during my silent period…Jesus Montero WILL play this year, hopefully by the end of the month…Eric Duncan has been placed on the DL with a thumb injury that has been bothering him all season according to the SWBY blog. On the one hand, it makes me hopeful that Duncan has an explanation for his poor performance, on the other hand, there always seem to be an excuse…
AAA:
The Yankee AAA rotation was supposed to be a source of excitement, but that can no longer be said. Clippard is in the bigs, Ohlendorf and Hughes are injured, and Steven Jackson has been moved to the bullpen, finally. Matt DeSalvo and Steve White are plugging away, but neither guy is terribly impressive.
On the offensive side, there’s not much to look for as Alberto Gonzalez continues to struggle and Eric Duncan has returned to the disabled list. The June sample size is small, but thus far Gonzalez has a 2007 OPS trend of .668, .605, and .527.
AA:
The recent news at AA is far more positive. Brett Gardner has returned from the disabled list and is playing extremely well. He is hitting .455/.520/.591 in 6 games back and his season line is up to a somewhat respectable .259/.357/.384. I wasn’t a huge fan of Gardner coming into the season and I still am not, but he’s been showing enough secondary skills to make himself interesting as a potential future reserve.
Unlike Brett Gardner, Cody Ehlers is struggling since coming off the DL. Ehlers seems to be trying to hit for power as his positive BB:K ratio from has been replaced by a ratio of 3:10 in June. While it has resulted in more power, it hasn’t been enough to make his line look good as his June stands at .213/.250/.340. For the season he is at .226/.317/.315 and with Juan Miranda raking in Tampa, he might not have much time left to correct himself.
With the recent promotions of Joba Chamberlain and Ian Kennedy, the AA rotation now goes Chamberlain-Marquez-Horne-Kennedy-Smith. Wow. AAA was supposed to be impressive, but this quintet blows that one out of the water. Joba was impressive in his first AA start despite throwing a lot of pitches. However, that’s bound to happen when you strike out 9 guys in 5 innings. Chamberlain is still primarily a fastball pitcher, with his slider showing flashes, but he’s one of the few guys with a truly dominant fastball, it could probably be described as plus plus, so that’s ok for now.
During the offseason, Jeff Marquez mentioned that it was the development of his curveball that allowed him to start getting more strikeouts in the 06 season. During a recent interview with Pinstripes Plus, Marquez mentioned that he had struggled somewhat with the curve this year, but seemed to be getting the hang of it again and in his last 13 innings he’s struck out 13 men. It seems he has a good idea of how his repertoire works.
Ian Kennedy had a better go of it in his second AA start and so far so good. There are rumors Kennedy has touched 94 recently, I’m not so sure about that. If it’s true, and it becomes a consistent for him, it obviously helps his prospect status quite a bit. If not, he’s still a solid prospect.
Alan Horne and Brett Smith both continued to lay waste to AA batters. If you’re an EL hitter, you have to HATE facing Trenton. They have a team ERA of 2.38 and the second place team is at 3.51.
A+:
The Tampa lineup has been a bit of a feel good story. Marcos Vechionacci is as hot as he has been in his minor league career, Juan Miranda is hitting like Barry Bonds, Colin Curtis is proving that slow and steady wins the race, and the Tampa offense is doing all right for itself.
Jose Tabata is plugging along, doing well enough to keep respectable numbers, but not breaking out enough to need a promotion. It was recently rumored that Tabata has a cyst on his wrist, which is supposedly the source of his power troubles and wrist/hand maladies, but there has been no official word on it. Either way, to this point, Tabata’s prospect status has dimmed just a bit for me. Still an excellent prospect, it’s just that he’s looking more like a future Bobby Abreu than something otherworldly.
Francisco Cervelli is in the midst of a huge slump. He’s hitting just .188 in his last 10 games and his overall line is down to .302/.421/.407. That’s still a terrific line for a 21-year-old C in the FSL. If he can correct himself, or even just maintain his current line, Cervelli would have done a TON to enhance his prospect status this year.
Daniel McCutchen and George Kontos have replaced Kennedy and Chamberlain as the top two in the rotation. They aren’t as exciting a duo, but they get the job done. Kontos was out for a while with an undisclosed injury. It was rumored to be something having to do with the shoulder, but I REALLY REALLY think it was disciplinary action. Either way Kontos returned last night and pitched very well 4-2-0-0-1-6-0 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR) and McCutchen pitched well today 6-7-0-0-1-4-0. Hopefully, both guys can keep up the good work.
A-:
Ivan Nova continues to get the job done, but in a scary way. A guy throwing as hard as Nova, consistent low 90s and touching the mid 90s, should not have only 19 strikeouts in 43 innings. Even if his secondary pitches were all awful, and they’re not, you would expect more Ks at that level on the basis of his fastball. Until he starts getting the strikeouts up, I can’t get too excited about him.
While Nova has struggled with the lack of Ks, Mike Dunn has just struggled with what appears to be fatigue. He’s getting the job done, but not in an especially pretty matter.
The Charleston offense has been terrific lately. Mitch and Austin have been getting on base fairly consistently and Seth Fortenberry, who is in serious need of a promotion, has been driving them in. Jose Gil has continued to show flashes of power, which seems to be at the cost of his plate discipline, and Eduardo Nunez is struggling. The Yankees recently turned Nunez from a SH to a RHB, so when looking at his season numbers, keep this in mind.
Spotlight On:
Trenton, probably.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Jesus Out
Injuries/News:
Tabata is still out…Jesus Montero will likely not be playing this season due to an ankle injury, no long term effects are expected, via Pinstripes Plus.
AAA:
Duncan and Gonzalez were a combined 1 for 8 with a 2 strikeouts. It must be tough for Eric to be struggling right now with Miguel Cairo as the starting 1B.
AA:
Jeff Marquez got those strikeouts, I was looking for, but it didn’t help him have a good start. Instead, Marquez had one of his lesser outings thus far with a final line of 6-6-4-4-0-7-1 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR). With that, Jeff’s ERA is up to 2.90, so he’s still having a solid season. Not quite the breakout I wanted or expected, but good enough to keep his status amongst the system’s elite.
Cody Ehlers was 1 for 3 with a walk. It was only the 3rd hit for Cody in 20 at bats since returning from the DL.
A+:
Tampa put 8 runs and 16 hits on the board with Marcos Vechionacci having a nice game. Marcos did a great job hitting the ball hard up the middle and was rewarded with a 3 for 5 showing. Marcos is 10 for his last 30, but hasn’t shown much power in that stretch. For now, since it’s the FSL, I’ll be satisfied with a solid AVG. Reegie Corona was 2 for 5, as was Colin Curtis. Curtis struck out once while Corona did not. Juan Miranda was 2 for 4 as he continues to tear the cover off of the ball. Finally, Francisco Cervelli was 1 for 4 with a double, a walk, and 2 strikeouts. Cervelli is moving himself into elite position amongst the Yankee farm.
A-:
Mike Dunn picked up the win, but his performance is definitely indicating that he’s slowing under the pressure of pitching consistently for the first time. Dunn would exit his game with a 5-8-3-3-0-6-1 line. Early in the season, he would not have given up nearly as many hits, but for now he’s going to have to settle for getting his inning in and working on his stamina.
Dunn was able to pick up the win thanks to the Charleston batters having another great game; they’ve really been clicking as of late. Seth Fortenberry was 2 for 3 with another homer and another walk. Seth has 4 homers and 11 walks in his last 9 games. His season line is up to .283/.378/.493. I think he needs a new challenge. Mitch Hilligoss was 1 for 4 with a strikeout. Hilly’s been cooling off, which is expected when one is coming off a hit streak that lasted almost a month and a half. Finally, Austin Jackson was 3 for 6 with 2 doubles and a steal. Jackson’s season line, .279/.352/.398, really isn’t that impressive, but it just “feels” better. Jackson is hitting .310 in his last 10 games with 5 doubles and a 5:7 BB:K ratio.
Spotlight On:
The MLB Draft. 2 PM ET, ESPN2. Tune in and pray the Yankees don’t pick Andrew Brackman.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Ian Kennedy Fails His 1st Test
Injuries/News:
Jose Tabata has missed the last two games for Tampa with some minor nicks/bruises/soreness/whatever you want to call it. He’s fine…On another note; I would love to know where Tim Norton and George Kontos have been…Tyler Clippard was solid tonight. He did a much better job commanding his fastball, but is still not where he needs to be. He doesn’t seem to be ready yet, but hopefully he can continue to defy his peripherals. I’m surprised/disappointed Joe took him out as early as he did, but I guess he figured he was guaranteed to get 7+ innings out of Wang in the next game.
AAA:
Chase Wright took the mound for Scranton and was effective. Wright’s final line of 5.2-5-3-3-2-6-0 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR) was better than any of his recent outings and solid pitching overall. Wright now has 1 more K than BB at the AAA level. Today was a big day for him. Coming in to relieve Wright was Edwar Ramirez. Ramirez was scored upon for the 2nd game in a row, which is weird. His line was 2.1-2-1-1-1-2-0. One of the hits he gave up was a double to Andy Marte, which could be a good or bad thing depending on whether you still think Marte is a rising star or if his time has come and gone. Anyway, Ramirez is now at 13-8-2-2-4-19-0 at the AAA level. Britton is up, so Ramirez is next guy to campaign for.
Alberto Gonzalez led off and was 1 for 6, while Eric Duncan was 2 for 5 with a walk and a strikeout. Duncan is hitting .300+ over his last 13 or so games. Needs more power and more average. The discipline and patience are excellent.
AA:
Cody Ehlers had a tough day at the plate, 0 for 5 with 3 strikeouts.
Ian Kennedy made his AA debut and there was some good and some bad in his 5-6-4-4-0-6-1 line. The home run was on a pitch that he didn’t get far enough in, which was bad. He was able to strike guys out painting corners and changing speeds, which was good. Kennedy’s performed very well this season, but I’m not THAT excited about him yet. I don’t think Clippard is a world beating prospect and I’m not sure I’d put Kennedy ahead of Clippard. I’m willing to be convinced otherwise, and once I can see him in person, I’ll be able to make a better judgment.
A+:
Colin Curtis and Juan Miranda continued to hit well, Reegie Corona continued to struggle, and Marcos Vechionacci continued being inconsistent. Vechionacci was 0 for 2 with a strikeout and a sac fly, following back to back 2 hit games. Reegie was 0 for 3 with a walk and 2 strikeouts. Despite a recent 5 for 14 stretch, Corona is only hitting .178 in his last 10 games. Curtis was 2 for 3 with a walk and a steal and Miranda was 2 for 4 with a double and 2 strikeouts. Miranda is up to .270/.342/.475 and starting to look like he might not be a waste of money.
A-:
The Riverdogs put 12 runs and 18 hits on the board as just about everyone had a great night. 38 Games Hilligoss was 1 for 6 with 2 strikeouts, as he continues to cool down. Action Jackson was 2 for 6 with a double. Seth Fortenberry was 3 for 6 with a homer. Fortenberry needs to go to Tampa, I think. He’s already 23 and in addition to hitting .277/.372/.477 on the year, he is hitting about .290/.380/.510 since May 1st. Wilmer Pino was 3 for 5 and Jose Gil was 1 for 4 with a homer and a walk. Gil and Pino are both guys I’d like to see heat up considering my preseason faith in them.
Spotlight On:
Jeff Marquez getting the early morning start for Trenton. Marquez needs to start picking up the K rate.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Mitch-um Man
Injuries/News:
Cody Ehlers returned from the DL…I HATE studying for the LSAT.
AAA:
Eric Duncan was 1 for 5 and Alberto Gonzalez 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts as Scranton had a quiet night. On a somewhat random aside, Sean Henn outpitched Twins #1 Prospect, Matt Garza, by going 5-2-0-0-1-4-0 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR).
AA:
Cody Ehlers was 0 for 4 in his return from the DL. Ehlers is an older guy, so he needs to hit and hit now. His .222/.340/.284 line isn’t getting it done, given his BB:K ratio of 15:14, I’m hoping he can eventually break out.
Brett Smith had his second poor start in a row, as the magic seems to be running out. Smith’s line of 3-3-3-3-3-2-1 would have looked more sensible last year, but not during this year’s run of dominance.
A+:
Rained out.
A-:
Following back-to-back poor outings, Michael Dunn was able to put together a good one for Charleston last night. 7-3-2-1-1-5-1 was what it would take for the 22-year-old LHP to get his 6th victory of the year.
Mitch Hilligoss, who seems to be putting more powerful cuts on the ball as of late, was 1 for 5 with a double to extend his streak to 38 games. After 13 XBH in his first 165 at bats, Hilligoss has 5 in his last 38 and 4 in his last 20. Seth Fortenberry was 1 for 2 with 2 walks and Austin Jackson was 1 for 3 with 2 walks and a strikeout.
Spotlight On:
Alan Horne looking to continue his breakout year.
Friday, June 1, 2007
I Am A Witness
Injuries/News:
Mmmmm…Lebron James.
AAA:
Chase Wright made the start for Scranton and was…not very good. Wright’s K:BB ratio had been unimpressive in his AAA stint and now, so are the rest of his numbers. Wright could only muster a 3.2-6-7-7-4-3-3 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR) line. His AAA totals now stand at 36.2-34-20-19-18-15-5. Not very good. Despite the tremendous start at AA, Wright’s AAA performance would seem to indicate he is ill-prepared for the level. Edwar Ramirez came out of the bullpen and shut down the opposition, 3.1-2-0-0-0-5-0. Ramirez now has a AAA line of 9.2-5-0-0-2-15-0. Ramirez prospers because of a tremendous change, so he might be one of those one-trick ponies that get exposed at the MLB level. Then again, he might not be. Luis Vizcaino is uninspiring so it would be nice to see him or Britton get a shot.
Eric Duncan had a quiet night, 1 for 5 with a strikeout, and Alberto Gonzalez was 1 for 4 with a double and a strikeout.
AA:
Jeff Marquez started the game for Trenton and picked up the victory, but I’m going to say he needs to improve. The line on Jeff was 6-5-3-3-3-1-1. As you can see he only managed 1 strikeout on the night and his disappointing season total in that category is now 35 in 65.1 innings. These aren’t the types of numbers I envisioned from Jeff in ranking him higher than everyone else, but he’s been able to get the job done thanks to strong groundball tendencies. However, if his performance is going to be transferable to the major league level, he’s going to have to put up some more Ks.
A+:
Ian Kennedy continued to toil pointlessly in the Florida State League; tonight’s dominant outing entailed 7-2-0-0-1-8-0 line. Kennedy’s line in the month of May is 38.2-21-3-3-11-44-0. There’s no reason for him to be in Tampa anymore. None. Promote him, please. Promote Joba too.
Colin Curtis was 2 for 5 with a double to up his AVG to .281. In his last 10 games, Curtis is hitting .386, despite just a 2:10 BB:K ratio. Jose “Ichiro” Tabata, who in Player Journal on milb.com says he feels he’s ready for AA, still is not showing any power. The RF was 3 for 4 with a walk and a steal. With his OBP above his SLG, it’s clear that Tabata is going to make a great leadoff hitter someday. Marcos Vechionacci and Francisco Cervelli were each 0 for 3 with a walk as their discipline continued to help them contribute despite slumping.
A-:
Mitch Hilligoss now has one of the longest hit streaks in the last 50 years of minor league play or something. The Streak was extended to 37 games when the 3B went 4 for 5 today. Of the 4 hits, 1 was a homer and another was a double as Hilligoss is beginning to flash some power. If he continues to do that, I would think the Yankees will contemplate promoting him once his streak ends. The soon to be 22-year-old’s line stands at .335/.377/.437. Seth Fortenberry cooled down a bit, going 1 for 5 with 2 strikeouts. Austin Jackson was 2 for 4 with a double, a walk, and a strikeout.
Spotlight On:
Brett Smith going for Trenton.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Stealing The Show
Injuries/News:
Cody Ehlers is rehabbing and should be back in Trenton sometime within a week…Great Joba footage (hat tip to PP forums)...As for the majors, Clippard has average velocity on a regular day and today he didn’t even have that. He also didn’t have any control. He was also facing a lineup heavily slanted to RH power bats. Despite all this, he somewhat luckily managed to go 5 innings and give up just 3 runs to earn his 2nd major league victory. Given how poorly Igawa and DeSalvo pitched this week, that is probably good enough to give Clip at least one more start as the 5th starter. Actually, given that Hughes is likely out until August, we could be seeing a lot of Clippard over the next two months. For a guy who wasn’t very highly regarded coming through the minors, this might be a make or break career opportunity.
AAA:
Steven Jackson was getting results early in the game, but his stuff didn’t look very crisp and by the end of his outing, it caught up with him. Jackson’s final line, 6-8-5-5-3-5-1 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR), fits in nicely with the rest of his year, which is not a good thing. He needs a demotion or some time off to fix himself because he’s been throwing BP for the better part of the season.
Alberto Gonzalez had a quiet night, going 0 for 3 and Eric Duncan collected 1 of Scranton’s 4 hits, going 1 for 4 with a K. Duncan had good ABs, as is his custom, and a hard hit out to left center, which is another custom of Duncan’s game.
AA:
Nothing to see.
A+:
Juan Miranda’s extra base hit streak ended as his lone hit in 4 at bats was a single. Colin Curtis was the only other prospect of note to get a hit; he was 2 for 4 with a strikeout. And what about the rest of the guys? Jose Tabata, Reegie Corona, Francisco Cervelli, and Marcos Vechionacci were a combined 0 for 12 with 1 walk and 2 HBPs. Hey, at least they didn’t strike out.
A-:
The longest hit streak in SAL history now belongs to Mitch Hilligoss. Mitch was 1 for 5 with a walk and a strikeout as he got a bunt single to extend his streak to 36 games. He also stole his 7th base of the year. Austin Jackson had a rough game, going 1 for 5 with 3 strikeouts. Seth Fortenberry has been stealing the show from Mitch and Austin. The LF was 3 for 5 with a homer and a walk. His season line is up to .278/.365/.485 as he has gone 15 for his last 34 with 3 doubles, 4 homers, 7 walks, and 5 strikeouts in that span. With Fortenberry being 23 years old, it might be time for a promotion.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
The Light At The End Of The Tunnel
Injuries/News:
Steve White made his season debut tonight…Joba Chamberlain picked up his second FSL pitcher of the week award as well as the number 2 spot on the Baseball America Prospect Hot Sheet…Mitch Hilligoss’ streak has him at 18 on the Hot Sheet…Nice feature on Ian Kennedy
AAA:
Eric Duncan might be breaking out. Duncan was 3 for 3 with a single, 2 homers, and a HBP. All of this on a night when the rest of his team could only manage 3 hits. Duncan’s OPS is over 1.000 in his last 10 games. I’m not sold, but I’m paying attention. Alberto Gonzalez collected 2 of those remaining 3 hits, going 2 for 4 with 2 singles. Gonzalez is hitting .314 in his last 10 with a SLG just south of .500.
Kei Igawa, following Roger Clemens’ footsteps back to the majors, had a line of 5-8-4-4-1-6-1 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR). If Tyler Clippard pitches poorly tomorrow, Kei might be taking his spot, whether or not he deserves to, is an open question.
AA:
Nothing to see here.
A+:
Steve White, who we definitely would have seen already this year had he not been injured, made his 2007 debut pitching in Tampa. The Yankees are probably billing this as rehab while they figure out where they want everyone to be, a roster shuffle is upcoming. White’s line was pretty much what one would expect from a guy who should be in AAA, 6.1-6-1-1-1-6-1. The homer that he gave up was to Cameron Maybin, so I guess he can be forgiven for that.
Juan Miranda was 1 for 1 with a double and 3 walks. Miranda’s last 3 hits have been for extra bases, which has boosted his line all the way to .250/.324/.444. Juan even threw in his first steal of the year, for good measure. Jose Tabata continued his singles hitting, going 2 for 5 with a strikeout, and Reegie Corona continued to slump, going 0 for 5. Corona is just 4 for his last 27 and is down to .281 on the year. Colin Curtis and Francisco Cervelli were a combined 2 for 7 with a walk and a strikeout. The last prospect in the lineup, Marcos Vechionacci, had a big game, going 3 for 3 with a walk.
A-:
Ivan Nova might not have the K totals you would like in a top pitching prospect, but tonight he convinced me has top prospect ability. Nova pitched into the 7th inning for a final line of 6.2-5-1-0-2-4-0. That was good enough for his 3rd victory as well as lowering his ERA to 1.44 in 25 innings. Nova was throwing his fastball for strikes up to 93 and 94 MPH the ENTIRE game. Sometimes younger prospects have trouble maintaining their velocity, so it was impressive that he was able to do this.
Mitch Hilligoss made matters dramatic by waiting until his final AB before extending his hit streak. The hit was a double, which is nice, and Mitch also struck out once during his 5 at bats. Seth Fortenberry blasted a first inning homer and, after that, Columbus was terrified of him as he would walk his next 4 times up. Austin Jackson was 1 for 5 with 2 strikeouts. Statistically, Jackson isn’t having that great of a season, especially when considering that he is repeating the league, but on a subjective level, his ABs have been more impressive and he’s been doing a much better job making good contact.
Spotlight On:
Ian Kennedy going for Tampa tonight. Not sure what the point is. He might have a poor outing, but at this point he’s proven himself at the level.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Joba For President
Injuries/News:
Steve White will be back soon, destination unknown.
AAA:
Eric Duncan was 2 for 3 with a walk to get his average up to .231. With the walk, Duncan’s K:BB ratio inched ever closer to becoming even. Alberto Gonzalez also had a 2-hit game, going 2 for 4 with a strikeout to reach .247.
Chris Britton pitched a scoreless inning of relief, granting 1 hit. Britton’s ERA dropped to .78. In 23 innings he has given up 20 hits and 9 walks while striking out 26.
AA:
The big news out of AA was Brett Smith’s first poor outing of the year. Smith’s line of 5-7-3-3-2-2-1 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR) would have made sense in year’s past, but not this time around. It could be just a blip on the radar in an otherwise tremendous season, or it could be a sign that Smith is beginning to cool off from the season long hot streak he’s been on.
A+:
Despite not picking up the victory, Joba Chamberlain was outstanding. Joba would post a final line of 8-2-0-0-2-9-0 while tossing 98 pitches. The most impressive part of the outing was that Chamberlain seemed to get stronger as the game went on, generating a ton of swings and misses in his last 3 innings. The Yankees have been slow to promote Ian Kennedy to AA despite his dominance, and I think that can be blamed on them wanting to promote Joba and Ian at the same time. Following this start, I can’t see the duo staying in Tampa past mid-June.
Jose Tabata was 1 for 4 with a walk, a double, and a strikeout. Tabata has hit 2 of his 6 doubles on the year in the last 3 games. Most impressive in his ABs today was the patience Jose was demonstrating. Reegie Corona does not seem to be seeing the ball well, as he went 1 for 4 with a walk and a strikeout. The box score wasn’t that bad, but Reegie had a lot of swings and misses and was able to put together a decent game in spite of that. The poorest showing of the day, however, belonged to Marcos Vechionacci. Marcos was 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts and when he did make contact, it was excessively weak. Francisco Cervelli was 1 for 3 with a double and a strikeout and Colin Curtis was 1 for 4 with a walk. Both guys had the types of at bats that would have them classified as professional hitters by announcers across America. Unfortunately, while Curtis is heating up, Cervelli seems to be heading in the opposite direction. Francisco has struck out at least once in 9 straight games, including 2 games where he struck out thrice. He has 13 strikeouts in the last 36 at bats.
A-:
33. Mitch Hilligoss was 1 for 4 with a walk and a strikeout to push his streak to 33 games. Mitch has managed just 1 hit in 4 of the last 5 games, so it would seem that the streak is nearing its conclusion. Austin Jackson was 2 for 5 with a double and Jose Gil was 1 for 3 with a walk as the Charleston offense posted 6 runs on 11 hits. The member of the lineup most responsible for the scoring was Seth Fortenberry, who was 3 for 5 with his 9th double and 7th homer. Despite my love for age relative to league, I have a soft spot for Seth, so I’m happy to see that he seems to be warming up.
Mike Dunn, who definitely seems to be going through some type of fatigue, had a line of 5-7-3-3-1-5-0. It was good enough to pick up Dunn’s 5th victory of the year. As a converted pitcher, it makes sense that Dunn might have more battles with fatigue than the other guys on the farm.
Spotlight On:
Alan Horne and his 6:1 K:BB ratio going for Trenton.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Who Starts Tuesday?
Injuries/News:
Nope.
AAA:
Chase Wright won’t start Tuesday. One reason is that he pitched last night and managed a line of 5.1-7-3-3-1-4-2 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR). The other reason is that he hasn’t been all that good in his post-AA career. In 33 innings for Scranton, Wright’s K:BB ratio is an uninspiring 12:14. He still needs to learn to throw his fastball for consistent strikes before he gets noticeably better as a pitcher.
Eric Duncan’s inability to pick up base hits as well as a bit of an overcrowded roster left him on the bench for the night. Alberto Gonzalez did play and was 1 for 3 with his 5th triple and 8th walk of the season. May has brought more power, patience, and discipline for the SS, but less hits. He seems to be taking hitting advice from Eric Duncan.
AA:
Eh…
A+:
Ian Kennedy had another big outing in what has been a month of big outings. The diminutive right-hander posted a line of 5-4-2-2-1-8-0 on this particular night. If, prior to the season, you would have told me that Kennedy would not have a K:BB ratio greater than 3:1 until late May, I would have assumed he was struggling. Instead he’s been doing very well, in spite of his on and off walk problems.
The Tampa hitters were facing a Jake McGee, an excellent pitching prospect in the Devil Ray organization, and it showed. Reegie Corona was 2 for 4 with a walk to up his line to .299/.382/.386. Unfortunately, he also made his 15th error of the year. Corona has walked 9 times while striking out just 4 times over his last 10 games; this stretch has made his season ratio an impressive 23:26. Jose Tabata was 1 for 3 with a double and a walk. Tabata now has 8 extra base hits in 171 at bats. Francisco Cervelli had a pretty quiet game, going 1 for 3 with a strikeout. Marcos Vechionacci’s game was silent. The 3B was 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts. Lastly, Colin Curtis seemed to be swinging for the fences as he was 1 for 4 with a homer and 3 strikeouts. Curtis was a tough guy to strike out in the early going and even had a 1:1 BB:K ratio, but is now at 21:30 in 148 at bats, including 3:10 in his last 37.
A-:
The Hilligoss hit streak reached 31. The 3B was 2 for 4 with a double, his 12th of the season. Austin Jackson was 1 for 4 with a walk and a strikeout.
Spotlight On:
Either Marquez or Smith taking the mound for Trenton.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Vested Interest
Injuries/News:
Nothing.
AAA:
It is my belief that the Yankees have a vested interest in Steven Jackson doing well. Right now, Luis Vizcaino is pitching terribly at the major league level and Ross Ohlendorf is on the disabled list with a back problem. Alberto Gonzalez is having a mediocre AAA season, but given that he plays SS, nothing he does will really have an impact on the team. That leaves Jackson as the only part of the deal currently available to making an impact. To demote him would be to admit that another piece from that deal isn’t what the Yankees originally thought he was. That’s the only explanation I can see for why a guy who just had a start with a line of 4.2-11-6-6-2-1-1 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR) to up his season totals to 45.1-66-38-31-19-30-6 is still in AAA. I thought Jackson was a pretty solid sleeper pick going into the year, but he’s been a huge letdown.
Speaking of letdowns, the Eric Duncan struggles continued. Duncan was 0 for 3 with 2 walks. He is now down to a .217 AVG in 115 at bats, but a 21:23 BB:K ratio, which is really weird. You would think that a guy who’s displaying such terrific patience and discipline would hit for a higher average, but Duncan still manages to pop the ball up a lot. His average shouldn’t be THIS low, but he hasn’t been as unlucky as his BB:K ratio would leave you to assume. It just hasn’t been a very good year. I expect him to start hitting LHP soon, because he always has, and hopefully that will bring up his overall numbers. He is currently hitting .042/.200/.167 against them in 24 at bats.
AA:
...
A+:
Kei Igawa picked up his first minor league victory with a dominating line of 5-4-2-2-1-4-0…Igawa now has an ERA of 2.00 in 9 Advanced A innings.
The guys with the bats in their hands had some impressive nights. Well, everyone except Reegie Corona who was 0 for 4 with a walk and a steal. Jose Tabata seems to be emerging from his season long power outage because though he was 4 for 5 with all 4 being singles, he was hitting liners all over the field last night. Soon, some of those hard hit singles will begin finding the gaps, I think. Juan Miranda had a huge game, going 3 for 4 with a double and 2 homers, but his season line is still an uninspiring .244/.305/.423 with 14:44 BB:K ratio in 168 at bats. Colin Curtis was 2 for 5 with a homer, a steal, and a strikeout. Curtis was hitting the ball the opposite way in the air, including the homer, which is something he hasn’t done that much this year. Marcos Vechionacci had the quietest positive night by going 1 for 3 with 2 walks. While he hasn’t been hitting the ball with enough authority, Marcos has still managed an 8:10 BB:K ratio in 60 at bats. The key number there is the amount at bats as Vechionacci has tons of time to work on his .217/.309/.283 line. Finally, after a stretch where he was 2 for 12, Francisco Cervelli has heated up in the last 3 games. Francisco was 3 for 4 with 2 doubles, a stolen base, and a strikeout. Cervelli was another guy lacing the ball to the opposite field last night. Over the last 3 games he is 6 for 13 and his season line is incredibly impressive at .347/.439/.466.
A-:
First thing’s first, Mitch Hilligoss is now at 30 games. The 3B was 1 for 3 with a walk and a caught stealing. 30 is kind of a big number, and I would expect Hilligoss to start earning some press clippings now, even though his .324 average and 30-game hit streak have been fairly empty. Austin Jackson was 1 for 4 with a strikeout in his second game in the 3rd slot. Jackson has been hitting the ball up the middle and the opposite way a lot this season, but hasn’t had much to show for it. If he can cut back on his strikeouts and start getting lucky with some of those balls to the opposite field, he should be fine.
20-year-old Ivan Nova was the star of the game from the Riverdogs’ side. Nova’s 3rd start of the season resulted in his 2nd victory and a line of 6-2-0-0-1-4-0. Nova has just 11 strikeouts in 18.1 innings, which is initially surprising given how impressive his repertoire supposedly is, but not as surprising when considering he struck out “just” 36 batters in 43 Gulf Coast League innings last year.
Spotlight On:
Tyler Clippard. He’s facing Jered Weaver and there has to be some poetic justice to this match up. Weaver was pegged as number 3 starter and has thus far performed like an ace. Clippard was pegged as a back of the rotation guy and will be looking to prove his doubters wrong in as fantastic a fashion as Weaver has.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
The Major Leagues Are Depressing…
Injuries/News:
Nothing.
AAA:
Almost as depressing as the major league team is at this point is the minor league hitting. Eric Duncan had the best night of the non-A ball position prospects by going 1 for 4 with a single and a strikeout. Despite my whining about Duncan’s BABIP, and it certainly is low, it’s not THAT low. It’s also not as if he’s consistently made terrific contact and has been getting robbed. I mean, that’s happened, but it’s not enough to disregard the fact that it’s May 23rd and Eric Duncan is hitting .223 at AAA and hasn’t hit above .250 since 2004.
Alberto Gonzalez was 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts. Just like that, his 3-game hit streak is over. Perhaps he should have discussed how to extend that with Mitch Hilligoss.
AA:
Alan Horne followed Brett Smith’s no-hit bid with an excellent start of his own. Horne’s final line of 6.1-5-1-1-1-7-0 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR) is just another in a long line of excellent outings this year. Horne’s established himself as one of the best prospects in the system with this start and is now charging into consideration as one of the better overall prospects in baseball. He’s always had the hype/stuff, but there were questions about command/results and this year he seems to be answering those questions.
A+:
Joba Chamberlain picked up his 2nd win of the year and upped his ERA to 2.25 while posting a line of 6-4-2-2-2-7-0. Chamberlain now has 7 walks in 20 innings, which some seem to be concerned about, given what Joba did during Hawaii Winter Baseball. The reality is that Chamberlain’s control isn’t that good. He’s not going to struggle with walks, but he’s not going to be going out there posting Curt Schilling K:BB ratios either, so if he walks a man or two here and there, it’s not a cause for concern.
Jose Tabata, Colin Curtis, and Marcos Vechionacci had uninspiring offensive nights as they were a combined going 2 for 13 with 2 strikeouts. Meanwhile, Francisco Cervelli got back on track following his recent slump, by going 2 for 4 with 1 strikeout. Reegie Corona, my new favorite prospect, had the best night of all as he was 2 for 3 with a walk and 2 steals.
A-:
Michael Dunn, who hasn’t been as sharp as he was in the early going, gutted through the game for Charleston with a 5-8-3-3-1-4-1 line. Dunn turns 22 today and the time for him to be making mistakes at the A ball level is running out.
On offense, Austin Jackson had a game reminiscent of the second half of the 2006 season by going 0 for 4 with 3 strikeouts. Meanwhile, Mitch Hilligoss was 2 for 5 to extend “The Streak”. Hilly’s AVG is now up to .327. “The Streak” is now at 28 or 29 games depending on who you ask.
Spotlight On:
The Yankees have an old guy that they picked up as an undrafted free agent going for Trenton tonight. He’s got pretty horrendous age contextualized stats, but perhaps there’s more to him.
Monday, May 21, 2007
The Morning After
Injuries/News:
My child, I’ve watched you grow up to be famous
And now I smile like a proud dad, watchin his only son that made it
-NaS
In case anyone missed it, Tyler Clippard won his major league debut last night with a line of 6-3-1-1-3-6-1 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR). Clippard, in my admittedly biased opinion, looked good. Good enough to go on to a career of posting league average ERAs and 200 innings, which is really all it takes to be a number 3. Good enough to perhaps count as one of the 100 or so best prospects in baseball. He managed to make that impression despite not having the command of his change-up that he typically does. The fastball and curveball were about what one can expect from him going forward, but the change-up should be better. What was impressive was that he was able to recognize that and shy away from the pitch even though it is a bread and butter pitch for him. Given injuries and the like, Clippard is the Yankee number 4 starter and, really, should be in the rotation until Hughes comes back because he is more talented than any other replacement we’ve seen this year. Prior to him, DeSalvo was the most talented and Clippard is DeSalvo with a better curveball, better control, and more deceptive delivery.
As far as injuries, Angel Reyes is now on the disabled list for Charleston, no word as to why.
AAA:
Eric Duncan and Alberto Gonzalez were a combined 4 for 9 with a walk and a strikeout. Surprisingly, the walk and strikeout both belonged to Gonzalez who was also caught stealing. Duncan has struck out just twice in his last 36 at bats, but has only 2 hits to show for it. After walking twice in his first 110 at bats, Gonzalez has walked 5 times in his last 30 as his OBP edges closer and closer to .300.
AA:
In my last recap I mentioned that Jeff Marquez was due to receive some ERA correction and yesterday it began, 4.1-8-5-5-4-1-0. Jeff’s ERA now stands at 2.75, which, for this Trenton staff, is terrible. I expect Marquez to start getting some more strikeouts shortly because just about everything I’ve heard from people who’ve seen him pitch this year is that he is throwing the ball very well.
A+:
Speaking of throwing the ball well, Ian Kennedy was brilliant once again for Tampa, 7-5-0-0-2-9-0. Kennedy upped his record to 5-1 and lowered his ERA to 1.24. At this point, I think he’s about 1 start away from AA, if he isn’t promoted before then. Supposedly, Kennedy’s velocity has gone from the mid to high 80s of 2006 back to his sophomore year high 80s low 90s level. At that velocity, Kennedy is a far more interesting prospect.
Colin Curtis had his first good game in forever. The LF was 2 for 3 with a double and a walk. Marcos Vechionacci picked up his first hit since returning from injury as he would go 1 for 4 and Jose Tabata finally reached .300 by going 2 for 4, but still no signs of power. The most surprising news of the game was that not only was Francisco Cervelli 0 for 4, but he was 0 for 4 with 3 strikeouts.
A-:
No game scheduled.
Spotlight On:
Joba attempting to follow Kennedy’s masterpiece so that he can put himself in position to be promoted at the same time.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Good News Bad News
Injuries/News:
The good news is that there is a reason Ross Ohlendorf has been sucking as of late. The bad news is that it’s due to a lower back injury. I’ve speculated about Ohlendorf potentially hiding an injury from the second or so week of the season, so I don’t want to say I told you so, but…I told you so. Before it’s brought up that the Yankees are only admitting to the injury occurring recently, I want to say that teams rarely fully reveal the extent and duration of injuries and come on…how does a guy go from walking 29 men over the course of 182.2 innings one year to walking 19 in 34.2 innings the next year, if not for injury? Anyway, the initial diagnosis is that the injury, a strained lumbar spine, isn’t really that serious. However, because of it, the AAA rotation is now Clippard, Jackson, Wright, and the bullpen so Brett Smith, Alan Horne, Jeff Marquez, or Jason Jones could be getting the call.
AAA:
One of the three healthy AAA starters left, Chase Wright, took the mound and pitched decently. Wright’s final line of 6.1-8-1-1-1-2-0 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR) was nice because he only walked 1 person, but not so nice because he seemed to have major trouble putting hitters away. A fun fact about Wright is that he’s given up 0 homers in 40 innings between AA and AAA and…well, he gave up more than 0 homers during his stint in the majors.
Alberto Gonzalez was 0 for 4 with a strikeout and his average has dipped to .231. Eric Duncan was given the night off due to his recent struggles.
AA:
No game scheduled.
A+:
The Tampa offense could only muster 4 hits and 0 runs last night, but at the least the prospects didn’t have completely lost nights. Tabata, Corona, and Miranda were all 1 for 4 with a single. Miranda picked up a customary strikeout as well. Colin Curtis was 0 for 3 with a strikeout to drop his AVG to .237. and his OPS below .700. Francisco Cervelli, however, was immune from the difficulty the rest of his teammates had as he went 1 for 2 with a single and a walk. Cervelli now has a 15:16 BB:K ratio in 90 ABs and is having an excellent season.
A-:
One of the Yankees more highly touted international arms, Ivan Nova, made his full season debut and pitched predictably poor. While he flashed potential with his fastball, change, and curve at times, the overall results were not good. Considering that he was pitching in Ashville, I’m not too concerned. The final line of 5.1-4-4-3-3-3-1 shouldn’t be too disconcerting to anyone. Nova has terrific scouting reports, but I’m going to wait on him to develop a track record before jumping on the bandwagon.
Mitch Hilligoss was 3 for 4 with all singles and now has his AVG up to .319. An OPS of .800 is within sight as his hit streak has reached 21 games. Austin Jackson was 0 for 2 with 2 walks and a stolen base. Jackson’s BB:K ratio is a solid 15:30 and he has stolen 10 bases in 12 games. In both aspects he is showing that he has refined his game from where it was during the 2006 season. Seth Fortenberry and Jose Gil were a combined 1 for 8 with 2 strikeouts. Both hitters have been maddeningly hot and cold. Eduardo Nunez was 3 for 4 with 2 singles and his first home run of the season. Nunez now has 1 of each type of extra base hit. While his season cannot be categorized as good or promising, Nunez does seem to be making some type of progress from last year’s complete train wreck.
Spotlight On:
Ian Kennedy taking the mound for Tampa. I know…I think.
From the Comments:
What players are the Yankees targeting in the upcoming draft? Will they fall back on their bad old days or will it be more like 2006? Or more waste of times like Poterson or Duncan or Henry?
I wonder what round Mike Moustakas will go in, I’d like the Yankees to be bold and draft and sign him. Firm commitment to USC and Bora$$ is representing him.
I have no idea what the Yankees are going to do with regards to the draft. If I find out anything more concrete than that, I will be sure to discuss it, but at this point the Yankees choosing at the end of the round and the 56,490 picks that occur between the Yankees first pick and their second pick make draft speculation more difficult than normal.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Abel Reyes
Injuries/News:
Nothing new to report.
AAA:
Steven Jackson started for Scranton, but had no idea where the ball was going. Jackson’s final line was 5-3-3-1-5-3-0 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR) as he continues to struggle tremendously. While Randy Johnson hasn’t been setting the world on fire, the guys acquired for him have been playing poorly to varying degrees so it hasn’t been great from either end.
Eric Duncan and Alberto Gonzalez were a combined 0 for 7 with a walk. Shockingly, the walk was for Alberto and not Eric, but the point remains that both of these guys are struggling big time.
AA:
Nothing to see here.
A+:
No game scheduled.
A-:
So, I was checking out some splits yesterday morning and couldn’t help but think that Jose Gil was unlucky. He responded to my observation by going 2 for 5 with a double, a homer, and a strikeout. I hope the Yankees stick with Gil for a bit longer before giving up on him because he deserves a sizable amount of at bats, if for no reason than the lack of any other legitimate C prospect to take his place. Mitch Hilligoss was 2 for 5 with a single, a double, and a strikeout in extending his hit streak to 20 games. Austin Jackson continued to have a productive cooling off period by going 1 for 4 with a single, a walk, and a strikeout. Wilmer Pino was 1 for 5 with a single to get his hit streak to 9 games. Seth Fortenberry was 2 for 4 with a single, a double, and a walk. The streaky OF is hot again as shown by a 5 game hit streak in which he has gone 8 for 19 with 2 doubles, 3 walks, and 3 strikeouts.
On the mound, Angel Reyes continued his process of turning into Abel Gomez by going 4-4-4-4-6-0-2. Reyes has been very unimpressive overall thus far and I again have to wonder how he is at Charleston and McAllister or Dellin are not. I don’t fault Angel for giving up runs in Asheville, that’s expected, but to give them up by walking everyone is the problem.
Spotlight On:
Ian Kennedy taking the mound for Tampa. I think.
From The Comments:
This is going to be the section for when people post Game Reports or interesting analysis in the Comments of a previous entry. Here’s what Kyle had to say yesterday (and for the record, I agree with pretty much everything he says…unless it proves to be wrong):
I took a closer look at Tabata’s and Cervelli’s stats for this season. None of these are park adjusted, but thought they might be interesting anyway. For each stat it will go Tabata, Cervelli, League Average.
BA: .300, .352, (.255)
OBA: .380, .452, (.323)
SLG: .392, .443, (.363)
OPS+: 125, 162, (100)
BABIP: .385, .431, (.311)
BB rate (BB/AB+BB+SF): 9.7%, 13.7%, (8.4%)
XBH rate (XBH/(AB-SO): 7.6%, 11.1%, (9%)
Contact: 76.9%, 81.8%, (78.8%)
SO/BB: 2.15, 1.14, (2.29)
GB%: 60%, 42.6%, (51.4%)
LD%: 11.1%, 17.6%, (13.3%)
FB%: 28.9%, 30.9%, (28.7%)
POPUP%: 0.0%, 22.2%, (18.6%)Tabata so far really likes to hit the ball on the air, and even with the low linedrive rate, you’d expect a high BABIP with all the GB and obviously no popups. The only thing missing so far is power, and while I’m wondering where it is, he’s still very young for this league and I’m confident he has the tools to develop into a 20-25 HR, 40+ 2B hitter in his prime. I just hope the reports from BA are false, and/or he really works his ass off to get back in shape. As much talent as he has, he’s one I really worry about since we’ve heard about weight issues for two years in a row, and I’m always worried about guys that have had hand/wrist injuries.
I really like what I’m seeing from Cervelli. It looks he lifts the ball a lot, and while his BABIP is certainly flukey, I’m happy to see a lot of linedrives thus far. I can’t believe how well he’s controlled the strike zone as well, not only walking frequently, but also walking nearly as often as he’s struck out. Even with a below average IsoP, he’s hitting XBH a bit more than most players, they’re just not going for HR. I’m confident that even when his BABIP regresses he’ll still be a very good hitter.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
I Think I’m A Believer
Injuries/News:
Mitch Hilligoss played today, so apparently he wasn’t hurt.
AAA:
Tyler Clippard had far from his best stuff yesterday, but was able to battle and get pitches over when it mattered in order to post a line of 5.1-8-2-2-2-3-0 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR). Some type of correction is going to be occurring with Clippard very soon. He’s allowed 56 baserunners in 38.2 innings, which means he really should not have an ERA of 2.79. At the same time, he’s struck out 38 men in those 38.2 innings and has been very unlucky as far as BABIP. Being a faithful Clippard fan I’m going to hope that he just pitches a couple no-hitters and then the stats will line up.
Eric Duncan was 0 for 4. Again, it’s nice that Duncan isn’t striking out, but hits really need to start dropping in.
AA:
Alan Horne might have made a believer out of me yesterday. Horne went 6-4-1-0-2-8-0 to lower his ERA to 2.66. In 40.2 innings he has a 50:9 K:BB ratio. His numbers are off the charts excellent. His approach was excellent as well. Throwing breaking balls in fastball counts and throwing fastballs by hitters who knew the fastball was coming. Another start or two like this and Horne is going to be in AAA. I really missed the boat on him this past offseason.
A+:
Joba Chamberlain had the worst control of his brief amateur career with a line of 5-0-0-0-4-6-0. It’s early, but Joba is looking good.
Thanks to a completion of yesterday’s game a lot of ABs were had. Jose Tabata reached .300 by going 3 for 9 with 2 singles, a double, a walk, and a strikeout. My official stance on the Tabata weight issue is that I’m not going to believe he’s suddenly 225 pounds and grossly overweight. Tabata is a big guy, no doubt, but he’s built solidly and I’m trusting that had this changed dramatically, Pinstripes Plus would have broken the story. Reegie Corona was 3 for 11 with 2 singles, a triple, a stolen base, and a strikeout. Colin Curtis was 0 for 7 with 2 walks and is now 1 for his last 15. Francisco Cervelli was 0 for 2 with 2 walks to end his hit streak, but his BB:K ratio edged ever closer to 1. Seeing him play at SI last year and looking at his stat line, his control of the strike zone was my concern about his performance, and thus far he has made me look silly for doubting that.
A-:
Charleston played on the road at Asheville and as should be expected in that environment, lots of runs were put up. Mitch Hilligoss was 3 for 5 with 2 singles and a double to up his average to .302. Despite the .302 average, Hilly’s OPS is only .745. He really needs to show more in terms of secondary skills, especially given his age. Anyway, his hit streak is now 19 games. Austin Jackson was 1 for 4 with a double, a walk, and 2 strikeouts. Jackson seemingly isn’t as locked in as he was earlier in the week as he is beginning to strike out again. Eduardo Nunez was 0 for 2 and Wilmer Pino was 1 for 4 with a single and a strikeout. Pino now has an 8-game hit streak going. During the stretch he is 9 for 32 with 2 doubles, a home run, a walk, and 2 strikeouts. I’m not typically a fan of hackers, but would love it if Pino could get it going.
Spotlight On:
Steven Jackson going for Scranton and feeling the pressure of Brett Smith and Alan Horne’s starts to the season.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Trenton Offense, It’s Faaaannnn-tastic
Injuries/News:
Nothing new.
AAA:
Ross Ohlendorf took a huge step back last night. He threw way too many hittable pitches and his opponents took advantage of this. The final line of 2.2-9-7-6-0-4-0 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR) is indicative of the fact that Ohlendorf does have the type of stuff to just toss the ball over the plate and get good results. He has to hit his spots.
Alberto Gonzalez was 0 for 4 with a strikeout and is now down to .246 for the year. He is 1 for his last 12. Eric Duncan had the night off.
AA:
Brett Smith continues to impress for Trenton: 7-5-3-2-0-7-0. Smith’s ERA is now 1.24 in 36.1 innings and has only given up 22 hits with 36:12 K:BB ratio, no homers allowed, and more than twice as many groundballs as flyballs. All of this tells you that Smith is dominating, and numbers-wise, there are no performance holes. I’m still not completely sold, but I’m beginning to contemplate buying.
A+:
The game was smoked out and will be continued today.
A-:
Austin Jackson’s hit streak concluded at 10 games with an 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts night. Seth Fortenberry was 1 for 3 with a single and a walk and Wilmer Pino upped his average by going 1 for 4 with a single. Eduardo Nunez was 0 for 4. The most interesting part of the game was that several players were tossed prior to a pitch being thrown. Savannah and Charleston don’t like each other very much, which I guess is fitting with them being the Met and Yankee affiliates.
Spotlight On:
Tyler Clippard going for Scranton. The Yankees continue to take Rasner out at around 80 pitches, showing that they believe and probably rightly so, that he is getting the job done with smoke and mirrors. If Clippard continues to dominate, he may get a shot.
Friday, May 11, 2007
The Trenton Lineup Is Extremely Uninteresting
Injuries/News:
According to Mike at River Ave. Blues, Mitch Hilligoss is hurt. I don’t know anything beyond that, but I’m going to look into it…The rest of the injury situations remain the same so Tim Norton, George Kontos, Marcos Vechionacci, et. al. are still missing
AAA:
Postponed.
AA:
Jeff Marquez continued to struggle with the strikeouts for Trenton. Jeff’s final line was 6-6-3-3-2-1-1 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR) and his ERA is now up to 1.93. I’m not going to say I’m concerned, but I would like to take the opportunity to note that Jeff’s K rate is down and he’s not getting as many groundballs. On the plus side, his walk rate is down as well.
A+:
Daniel McCutchen started for Tampa and picked up the win. McCutchen’s line was 7-5-0-0-0-5-0, which lowered his ERA on the year to 1.80. As I’ve already noted, McCutchen is old, but so far so good. He’s also got pretty good stuff according to Pinstripes Plus and hopefully he gets to Trenton this summer so I can witness it first hand.
Reegie Corona, Jose Tabata, and Juan Miranda were all 2 for 4 with 2 singles and a strikeout. No one in this group is hitting for much power, but that can be said of everyone on the Tampa team so it’s nice to see them at least get their AVG up. When it comes to hitting prospects for Tampa, I rarely pay much attention to their power hitting statistics. I’d rather spare myself the pain. Colin Curtis was 0 for 4 to continue his recent tumble. Curtis is now 2 for his last 15. Francisco Cervelli saw his AVG drop as he went 1 for 3 with a single, a walk, and a strikeout.
A-:
Michael Dunn had his worst game of the season, 4.2-8-6-6-0-3-1, but would have been able to pick up a W if not for the umpire choosing to toss him on his first HBP of the game. Supposedly, the umpires felt it might have been related to a past incident.
Wilmer Pino was 1 for 4 with a single to extend his hit streak to 6 games. Austin Jackson continued his hot-hitting since returning from the disabled list by going 1 for 3 with a triple, a walk, and 2 strikeouts. I know you’ve heard a line similar to this before, but Jackson’s emergence is critical in a system devoid of hitting talent beyond Jose Tabata. Seth Fortenberry was 1 for 4 with a single and a strikeout and Eduardo Nunez was 1 for 4 with a single and 3 strikeouts. Perhaps Eduardo was swinging for the fences due to his recent power surge.
Spotlight On:
Thanks to the postponement, it’s the same as yesterday: Scranton and Ohlie.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Chase Wright’s Second Shot
Injuries/News:
Nope.
AAA:
Chase Wright had his second AAA start yesterday morning. Wright’s performance was exciting from a run prevention standpoint, 1 in 7 innings. He also only gave up 6 hits, which is nice as well, but unfortunately his K:BB ratio was 1:3. According to Wright, the issue yesterday was that the only pitch he had command of was his fastball.
Eric Duncan was 0 for 4 with a walk and a strikeout and is now 1 for his last 10, so he’s officially slumping again, as soon as he reached .250ish. Duncan needs to hit for average to have the potential to be an effective major leaguer. He doesn’t have great enough power or on base skills to overcome sub .250 averages. Alberto Gonzalez was 1 for 5 with a double. Gonzalez has been slumping with the average, but providing the occasional double. With someone who doesn’t walk, I’m not sure I like the tradeoff.
AA:
Nothing to see here.
A+:
Ian Kennedy continued to be effective while giving up a bit too many walks and fly balls with his 5-4-1-1-3-4-0 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR) line for Tampa. Kennedy has now walked 15 in 37.1 innings. It’s too small a sample to get worried yet, but for someone advertised with excellent control and command, it is a concern. It might be the result of nibbling.
The Tampa offense had a good day. Reegie Corona was 3 for 5 with 2 singles and a double. His average is now at .299 and Corona has been very impressive in the early going. The other prospect that has been impressing, somewhat unexpectedly, in the early going is Francisco Cervelli. Cervelli was 1 for 2 with a double and 2 walks. He now leads the league in AVG, is third in OBP, and ninth in OPS. It’s early, but Cervelli is looking like a legit C prospect. Strangely, Jose Tabata and Colin Curtis did not contribute much to the offense. Tabata was 1 for 5 with a single and a strikeout while Curtis was 1 for 4 with a double and a strikeout. Juan Miranda was also a party pooper with his 0 for 4 night.
A-:
Charleston’s offensive night was even more impressive than Tampa’s as everyone of import had a multi-hit game. Wilmer Pino was 2 for 5 with a single, a double, and a strikeout in his return to the leadoff spot. Pino was there in place of Mitch Hilligoss, who had the day off. On the bright side, Pino now has a 5-game hit streak going. Over the course of the streak he is 6 for 20 with 2 doubles, a home run, one walk, and one strikeout. Maybe he’s breaking out of his huge slump. Austin Jackson was 3 for 5 with 2 singles, a double, a stolen base, and a strikeout. Jackson’s season line is now up to .284/.349/.400 thanks to a 9-game hit streak where he has gone 14 for 34 with a double, a homer, 7 walks, 4 strikeouts, and 6 steals in 7 attempts. Seth Fortenberry was 2 for 4 with 2 singles and a strikeout while Jose Gil was 2 for 3 with 2 singles and 2 walks. I like Gil and Fortenberry more than others, but both have guys have failed to reward my faith. Finally, Eduardo Nunez seems to have found his stroke, going 3 for 5 with 2 singles and a double. After no extra base hits in his first 28 games, Nunez now has XBHs in back to back games.
Spotlight On:
Ross Ohlendorf pitching for Scranton against the Pawtucket Red Sox. Ohlendorf had his best outing of the year last time out and is, obviously, looking to build on it.
Monday, May 7, 2007
Waking Up From Slope Weekend
Injuries/News:
Cody Ehlers is on the DL retroactive to May 3rd with a sore right elbow…Brett Gardner is out 4-6 weeks with a broken bone in his right hand, given the state of the Yankee position player prospects, this is especially painful…Marcos Vechionacci will be back shortly...Matt DeSalvo had a solid major league debut. He gave up a lot of flyballs and got no strikeouts, which is atypical for him. It also worries me going forward. Outside of the box score results DeSalvo’s stuff looked fine and certainly better than Rasner or Karstens’. He threw a fastball at 87-92, a good change-up, which generated a few awful looking swings, and some get me over breaking pitches. While he really struggled with his control in the early going he was able to get out of jams without using too many pitches and eventually he settled down and cruised. All this comes with the caveat that it was against Seattle’s awful offense.
AAA:
Scranton has played 5 games since I last updated. In that time, Eric Duncan has done some solid work on increasing his batting average. Duncan is 7 for his last 18 with 2 doubles, 4 walks, and 2 strikeouts. Duncan’s average is now up to .257 and he has looked much better at the plate as his strikeout rate goes down. Alberto Gonzalez is 6 for his last 18 with 3 doubles and a stolen base. Gonzalez was in a bad stretch for a while, but he seems to be back on track. His lack of walking…ever…is really hurting his offensive value though.
Steven Jackson pitched on May 3rd and showed flashes, but was still unimpressive. Jackson seems to be having trouble keeping his arm slot up and as a result his pitches are flattening out. When breaking balls don’t break and sinkers don’t sink, they’re very hittable and the AAA batters have been proving that.
Chase Wright only gave up 1 hit in 6.2 innings, but he also gave up 5 runs, all earned, thanks to 6 walks. Wright has put up some good numbers at AA this year, but his lack of command might prevent him from reproducing those results or anything close, at AAA. When he’s not throwing his change-up it seems to be a guessing game as to where the pitch is going to end up.
Ross Ohlendorf posted a line of 6.1-5-0-0-3-4-0 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR) on May 5th in what was his best start of the year. He now has 10 walks to go before he equals his total from 2006. I’m still not sure what’s going on with him.
Tonight’s game was started by Tyler Clippard and he performed impressively. The difference between Clippard early 2006 and late 2006 was the emergence of his change-up as a legitimate out pitch. The difference between Clippard early 2007 and Clippard the last 3 starts has been improved command. Tyler’s always had good control, but his command has given him trouble at times. Right now he is nailing the corners, keeping the ball low, and tossing it high and by guys when he needs to. There were about 3 balls hit hard against him last night and he just looks great out there right now. Matt DeSalvo had a nice debut and Rasner has pitched well thus far, but if either of those guys falters prior to Clemens’ return, Clippard could get a look, especially if there is any delay in Hughes’ rehab.
AA:
Brett Smith, Jeff Marquez, and Alan Horne continued the run of dominant Trenton pitching in my absence. Right now all 3 guys are getting strikeouts, limiting walks, and getting groundballs to varying degrees. Smith, I’m still cautious about, but Marquez and Horne have a reputation for good stuff and I’m more inclined to believe that their performance is for real.
Brett Gardner was 1 for 5 with a single and a strikeout prior to getting injured.
A+:
Daniel McCutchen had a good outing for Tampa on the 4th. His line was 6-2-1-1-2-7-0. His ERA is now down to 2.50, but his peripherals aren’t that great. The sample size is small though, so we’ll see what happens. The more important pitching news to come out of Tampa was that Joba Chamberlain is finally fully recovered from his hamstring problems and made his first start of the season. Chamberlain’s line of 4-3-1-0-0-5-0 is similar to the lines he posted during the Hawaiian Winter Baseball league. Joba has terrific fastball command and since he uses the pitch a lot, he should be able to generate some low walk totals. It’ll be interesting to see if the Yankees wait on him to get some more innings under his belt before they promote Kennedy to AA.
Reegie Corona was 3 for 21 with 1 double, 3 walks, and 5 strikeouts as he is clearly in a bit of a slump. Corona’s OPS is still above .700 though and for a young middle infielder in his first taste of the FSL, that is solid. Colin Curtis is coming back to Earth a bit as he went 4 for 22 over the recent stretch with 1 home run, 1 walk, and 5 strikeouts. Juan Miranda was 7 for 22 with a double, 2 triples, 1 walk, and 7 strikeouts. Miranda has been unimpressive thus far and this hot streak appears unsustainable thanks to the strikeouts. Overall, Miranda has had a tough time controlling the strike zone and may not be as polished as initial reports touted. The hottest hitter on the team has been Francisco Cervelli, who has gone 8 for 12 with a double and 1 strike out. Cervelli’s value is highly batting average related, but any type of offensive value from a C in the FSL makes them one to pay attention to. It appears that I may have really missed the boat on Cervelli in the offseason, especially given my Jose Gil infatuation. Jose Tabata returned from injury to go 5 for 17 with 2 doubles and 4 strikeouts. Tabata is doing a good job maintaining for Tampa. That is probably all the Yankees need or want to see from him given the tough offensive environment he is playing in.
A-:
Michael Dunn had another good game for during my inactivity. Dunn is a converted LHP with good stuff and may be headed to Tampa if he keeps up his early season performance. Dunn’s line of 6-7-2-1-1-7-0 is perfectly in line with what he has been doing thus far. Whether or not he receives a promotion is likely tied to what is done with Ian Kennedy.
Mitch Hilligoss’ hit streak has now reached 17 games. Hilligoss was 7 for 23 with 1 double and 4 strikeouts over the last 5 games. Hilligoss still isn’t hitting for much power or drawing too many walks so while it’s nice to see him with a .288 AVG, you still want more. Austin Jackson went 6 for 14, all singles, 4 walks, 2 strikeouts, and 2 stolen bases. Jackson has really cut down on his strikeouts as of late and is beginning to show the promise that so many were whispering about after seeing him during Spring Training. Seth Fortenberry was 4 for 16 with a homer, a walk, and 4 strikeouts. Fortenberry continues to run hot and cold, which is especially dangerous for his prospect status given his 1983 DOB. Eduardo Nunez, Mr. Single, was 4 for 16 with a strikeout and 2 stolen bases. Finally, Jose Gil was 0 for 3 with a walk and a strikeout. Gil is a favorite of mine, but it appears the boat is sailing on his prospect status.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Clippard Smells Blood…or Hears Popped Hammy Followed by Seeing Rainout
Injuries/News:
No sign of Vechionacci, Norton, or Kontos…According to Pinstripes Plus, Joba Chamberlain should be back within the next week.
AAA:
Tyler Clippard could not have picked a better time to have his best start of the season. Facing a Toledo lineup that Matt DeSalvo had shut down about 15 hours earlier, Clippard posted an impressive line of 7-5-0-0-1-11-0 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR). With last night’s game being rained out and a doubleheader on the schedule for today, it appears Clippard is perfectly lined up to start for the Yankees during their next turn through the rotation. Clippard was able to get the job done against Toledo by using all of his pitches. He was getting a good amount of running movement on his fastball and of course the change and the curve were there. Clippard was also no doubt thinking about Kevin Goldstein’s article today in which he mused that ”[Tyler] can’t get lefties out” and cited their OBP against him this year. Never mind that the sample size for this year is small, the one thing Clippard has proven capable of throughout his career is getting LHB out. At every level he has dominated them. He’s been noted as a guy that pitches backwards, and that’s what guys who pitch backwards tend to do. Why Goldstein would make the remark, even if it was off-hand, is beyond me.
Eric Duncan was 0 for 3 with a walk and a strikeout. Duncan seems to consistently just miss as he is driving the ball, but for fly ball outs. Alberto Gonzalez was 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts and looks incredibly lost at the plate right now. He’s hacking at everything and not doing a great job covering the plate, resulting in an increased K rate.
AA:
Alan Horne took the mound for Trenton and continued the trend of pitching well at the AA level. Horne’s final line of 5-3-2-2-3-6-1 was actually one of Horne’s less impressive outings this year. Still, through 27.2 innings, he has been very impressive and while I’m not quite ready to buy into his performance yet, I’m beginning to consider it. School is out soon and hopefully I can go watch Horne in person to make a better evaluation.
Brett Gardner was 0 for 1 with 3 walks. Strangely, he did not pick up a stolen base, but he did manage to get caught stealing. You can’t be safe every time.
On a side note, Goldstein’s aforementioned article describes Jeff Marquez as a sinker/slider guy and I hate that. That implies that he doesn’t have much of a fastball and is a relatively low ceiling prospect. That is not the case. Marquez has a low 90s power sinker, a terrific change, and a solid curveball, amongst other pitches. He is a nice sleeper prospect. Generally speaking, I think my prospect views align pretty closely with Goldstein’s, but sometimes I feel he has a gap in information caused by the fact that he is 1 person apparently attempting to cover the entire minor leagues for a publication.
A+:
Ian Kennedy picked up his second win of the year with his longest professional outing, 8-3-0-0-1-4-0. Kennedy has struggled a bit with the walks in the early going, so it was nice to see him limit it to just 1 in 8 innings. He also managed 9 groundouts to 9 flyouts, which is nice considering his typical rates. Kennedy’s ERA now stands at 1.67 and he should be in Trenton by the beginning of June if he keeps it up.
Reegie Corona had a terrific day at the plate. The SS was 3 for 3 with 3 singles and 2 walks. Corona also stole a base, his seventh of the season, while being caught stealing for the first time. I doubted Corona entering the year because I looked at him as all AVG and nothing else, but he seems to be bringing walks back as part of his game. If he can do that, it makes him far more interesting. Colin Curtis was 1 for 5 with a double and a strikeout. Francisco Cervelli was 1 for 4 with a single and Juan Miranda was 1 for 4 with a double, a walk, and a strikeout.
A-:
Angel Reyes kept the walks under control for Charleston today, but once again this made him far more hittable. The hard throwing lefty posted a line of 5.1-7-4-4-1-4-1. His ERA is now up to 3.42 and he was pinned with his second loss of the season. Thus far, Reyes seems to be getting the ball up more than he did last year, but the sample size is small.
While Reyes did not do a great job of limiting the opposition’s offense, the Charleston offense did not do much either. Hilligoss, Jackson, and Fortenberry were all 1 for 5 with a single and a strikeout. Wilmer Pino was also 1 for 5, but he did not strike out and his hit was a home run rather than a single. Pino has now hit in 3 consecutive games, though it was only 1 hit in each game. Eduardo Nunez was 0 for 5 with a strikeout.
Spotlight On:
Steven Jackson, who will be looking to hang on to a spot in the AAA rotation by continuing what DeSalvo and Clippard started.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Another Hammy Ruins The Day
Injuries/News:
Let’s get the big one out of the way; Phil Hughes hurt his hamstring attempting to strike out Mark Teixeira of the Texas Rangers during the 7th inning of his potential no-hitter. It sucks that this happened and I was devastated at the time, but I take exception to Pete Abraham’s evaluation of the situation. He essentially said that this is the type of thing that would not have happened had Hughes been in the minors like the Yankees said he would. I understand what he’s saying, and it makes some sense, but pitchers are so fragile that some other random injury could have occurred while he was in AAA and how would that have looked? Rather than focus on the injury, I’d like to focus on the fact that Hughes displayed the fact that he is/was ready. He got tons of groundballs, a good strikeout rate, and had the home plate umpire not squeezed him a bit, not many walks. He was placing his fastball with precision to the outside corner, keeping his pitches down, the curve was making batters look silly, and that change-up the Yankees wanted him to work on…well, just ask Mark Teixeira about it…Moving on to the minors, Marcos Vechionacci is still out.
AAA:
Matt DeSalvo had a good outing for AAA Scranton and could get the call for Phil Hughes’ next start. The Yankees had DeSalvo slotted in as their first starter to get called up from the minor leagues following last year’s Spring Training and he’s gotten off to a hot start this year. 25.2 innings into the season, DeSalvo has an ERA of 1.05. Yes, he’s walked a lot of guys, but last night’s start was exemplary of why. DeSalvo’s final line was 5.2-2-0-0-5-5-0 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR) and he only threw 49 of his 97 pitches for strikes. DeSalvo probably has better stuff than Darrell Rasner, which is not saying much, but it is better. That said, unlike Rasner who would rather focus on throwing strikes and potentially give up a big hit, DeSalvo likes to avoid the big hit at all costs. As a result, on 3-2 pitches, he will throw something off-speed or go for a fastball on the outside corner while Rasner would throw a fastball over the plate. The result is that DeSalvo walks more guys and gives up fewer hits. Once again, I don’t think he is or will be any great shakes, but hopefully he or Rasner can hold the fort until The Franchise™ returns. By the way, for those who haven’t seen DeSalvo pitch, imagine Kevin Brown’s motion combined with Mike Mussina’s physical stature as well as Moose’s nibbling. The results won’t be as good as either guy, obviously.
Eric Duncan and Alberto Gonzalez both had quiet nights. Gonzalez was 0 for 4 and is down to .262 while Duncan’s battle to ever hit higher than .250 continues. The NJ bred slugger was 0 for 3 with a walk and a strikeout.
AA:
Brett Smith had a very nice outing for Trenton last night as everyone who touches the ball in that rotation continues to deal. Smith’s line was 6-4-0-0-1-5-0 and he now has a 1.16 ERA in 23.1 innings to go with excellent peripherals. Smith was a part of the 2004 draft class with Phil Hughes, Chris Garcia, and Jeff Marquez and was supposed to be mentioned in the same breath as those guys, but has been disappointing to this point in his career. It’s too late for a complete turnaround, but the way things are going this year, he might find himself in the majors after a few more hamstring injuries.
Brett Gardner had a tough game as he would go 0 for 5 with a strikeout. Gardner seemed to be heating up, so hopefully this is just a blip on the radar. Cody Ehlers was 1 for 1 with a single and 3 walks. He’s got the strike zone under control and the AVG is making steady progress, but the power needs to show up.
A+:
Juan Miranda showed a sign of life in yesterday morning’s Tampa game. The Cuban slugger was 1 for 4 with a bottom of the 9th 3-run homer to send the game to extra innings. He also struck out once. Colin Curtis, hitting in Jose Tabata’s vacated 3-slot, was 0 for 3 with a walk and a strikeout.
A-:
Austin Jackson had a breakout game for Charleston yesterday despite the team as a whole only managing 4 hits. Jackson was 2 for 3 with a single, a home run, 2 walks, and no strikeouts. Jackson’s ISOs are solid, but he really needs to work on his AVG as well as his BB:K ratio. Wilmer Pino was 1 for 4 with a double and a walk. After back-to-back hitless games, Pino has had back-to-back games with 1 hit; hopefully this starts something for him. The BB:K ratio is solid, but it appears he may simply be getting the bat knocked out of his hands. Seth Fortenberry, Jose Gil, and Eduardo Nunez were a combined 1 for 13. On the bright side, they only struck out once.
Spotlight On:
Tyler Clippard and the Scranton club. With Hughes out 4-6 weeks and the big league rotation consisting of Moose, Wang, Pettitte, Igawa, and Pitcher X, this is Clippard’s time to make a move. A few strong outings and he might be in the majors.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Rolie Polie Ohlie
Injuries/News:
Tim Norton was placed on the Charleston disabled list over the weekend. There’s no concrete word as to why, but I’ll see what I can dig up…Marcos Vechionacci is still out.
AAA:
Ross Ohlendorf, who has a wonderful name, took the loss for Scranton. The big right-hander’s final line was 5.2-6-4-4-2-5-2 and his ERA is now up to 4.91. If Ohlendorf wasn’t looked at as the centerpiece of the Randy Johnson trade, I would place him right next to Steven Jackson in the soon to be demoted category. For now, he’s going to get lots of time to right the ship. Unfortunately for him, he is digging quite the hole, especially in regards to his peripherals.
Eric Duncan was 1 for 4 with a single, 2 strikeouts, and a caught stealing. I’m going to attempt to not get too caught up in what goes on for Duncan day-to-day as he tends to be streaky. Alberto Gonzalez was 2 for 4 with 2 singles, a strikeout, and his 5th error of the season. Gonzalez fell into a rut for a bit there, so hopefully he’s going to warm up now.
AA:
Scheduled day off.
A+:
Jose Tabata did not play and given his removal from the game the day prior, I’m going to assume he’s hurt. We’ll see. Reegie Corona, Francisco Cervelli, and Colin Curtis all had positive offensive nights for Tampa. Corona was 1 for 3 with a single and a walk. His OBP is now up to .364. Curtis is really locked in and went 2 for 4 with a single, a double, and a strikeout. Curtis has 2 strikeouts in his last 18 ABs and has had a very impressive start to his 2007 campaign. Francisco was 2 for 3 with a single, a double, and a walk. Partly due to lack of competition and partly due to merit, Cervelli is putting a stranglehold on the title of best C prospect in the organization.
A-:
Charleston’s offensive prospects had good nights on Monday, for the most part. Mitch Hilligoss was 2 for 4 with 2 singles, a walk, and a strikeout. He is now up to .284 thanks to his 12-game hit streak. Austin Jackson had a game where he did not strike out, which is always a welcome surprise, as he went 1 for 4 with a single and a walk. Seth Fortenberry continued to heat up as he went 2 for 4 with a double, a home run, a walk, a strikeout, and 2 stolen bases. Seth is known as a toolsy OF and he showed them all on this night.
On the negative side of things, Jose Gil had one of his worst nights of his career. The C went 0 for 4 with 4 strikeouts. After a brief hot streak, Gil has gone into a huge slump and is now 0 for his last 11 and 1 for his last 18. Wilmer Pino had a better night, but is still not where he needs to be. The 2B was 1 for 4 with a single and a stolen base.
Spotlight On:
Tyler Clippard taking the mound for Scranton. And, oh yeah, some Phil Hughes guy takes the mound for the ML team as well.
Fresh Off The DL
Injuries/News:
Eric Duncan returned from the AAA DL in a big way today…Still no word on Vechionacci, Joba, or Kontos
AAA:
Darrell Rasner got the start for Scranton and pitched well before being pulled early. Rasner’s line was 5-4-0-0-1-3-0 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR) when he was pulled after 83 pitches. I can’t think of any other reason for him leaving the game this early, given how well he was pitching, so I’m going to speculate that he will be recalled sometime this week and the Yankees didn’t want to fully stretch him out.
Alberto Gonzalez had the day off, but there was a prospect in the Scranton lineup in the form of Eric Duncan. While he struck out in his first AB, Eric had a terrific day. He finished 2 for 4 with the previously mentioned strikeout, as well as a single, and a home run. The non-strikeout out was a fly ball deep to RF, but to be entirely fair, the single was also a pop to short LF so there’s some give and take there. Duncan had quality ABs and attacked pitches middle away, as is his tendency. It’s nice to see him get right back into the swing of things. It’d be nice if he could put up a big enough first half that he can become the full time 1B at the ML level.
AA:
Jeff Marquez picked up today’s victory for AA Trenton in impressive fashion: 7-7-0-0-0-6-0. The right-hander gave up some seeing eye singles in the first few innings, but settled down nicely. Most impressive about his outing was his confidence in all of his pitches, as well as the quality of said pitches. More so than Phil Hughes and Tyler Clippard when they were at Trenton, he did an excellent job of using his entire arsenal when needing out pitches. Right now, he is the Yankees best pitching prospect in the minors.
Brett Gardner utilized his speed to get a 2 for 5 night while striking out once between picking up the two singles. The CF also managed a stolen base. It was a busy day for him that even included a collision at 1B where, for a second, it seemed he might have been hurt. In the game following his hit streak being broken, Cody Ehlers got back on track by going 2 for 3 with 2 singles and 2 walks. Cody had a very solid approach at the plate today.
A+:
Daniel McCutchen found the going a bit tougher in his second High-A start. The right-hander could only muster a 5.2-7-3-3-2-4-1 line. McCutchen is really old for the level, so he’s going to have to adjust quickly to be taken seriously as a prospect.
Reegie Corona was 2 for 4 with 2 singles and a walk. Corona now has 4 walks in his last 4 games as he seems determined to provide value beyond AVG. Speaking of value beyond AVG, Jose Tabata was 1 for 1 with a single and 2 walks. Tabata has drawn 5 walks in the last 2 games. Unfortunately, he was removed from the game in the late innings. I don’t buy that the Yankees would utilize Colin Curtis as a defensive replacement for Tabata, which is supposedly what occurred, so I suspect something might be up. Hopefully, it’s just some type of slight discomfort. After coming in to play defense for Tabata, Curtis was 0 for 1 at the plate. Meanwhile, Juan Miranda continued to struggle. The 1B was 0 for 4 and is now 1 for his last 15. Next thing you know he’ll be bunting every time up…
A-:
Another day, another hit for Hilligoss. The 3B went 1 for 3 with a triple and has now hit in 11 straight games. Austin Jackson, Seth Fortenberry, and Jose Gil all had major struggles on this day though. They were a combined 0 for 11 with 3 strikeouts. Each of them has shown flashes this season, but struggled with consistency. Hopefully, they can heat up as Hilly has. Eduardo Nunez was 1 for 2 with a walk, a single, and a strikeout. Nunez has done a solid job controlling the strike zone thus far. Hopefully, the power comes next.
Michael Dunn was a bit victimized by poor defense, but still had a solid outing as far as peripherals: 6-9-5-1-1-9-2. Dunn is a bit old for the level; he will turn 22 in a few weeks, but should be given some leeway in regards to this because he is a converted pitcher. Thus far, the conversion has gone very well. In a system lacking LHP, Dunn is quickly making a name for himself.
Spotlight On:
Ross Ohlendorf taking the mound for Scranton. Ohlie will be attempting to get back on track, just like much of the AAA rotation seems to be attempting to do these days.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Up and Down with T-Clip
Injuries/News:
The New York Yankees aren’t playing so well.
AAA:
Tyler Clippard was able to pick up his first career AAA victory by showing an ability to adjust. Given the lack of an overpowering fastball, Clippard has often been told to keep his pitches down in the zone. Unfortunately for him, he was missing low at the game’s outset. It wasn’t by much, but it was running up his pitch count and putting him in poor situations with hitters. Then, from about the 3rd inning on, Clippard adjusted and began throwing high. He was able to better hit his spots while doing so and pitch better. His overall line ended up being 5.1-3-1-1-4-5-0 and the way things are going at the big league level right now, that could be enough to name him the number 1 starter. I kid, I kid.
Alberto Gonzalez was 1 for 4 with a single, a strikeout, and an error, his 4th of the season, as he continues to scuffle a bit. Hopefully, he can find his footing.
AA:
Brett Gardner showed signs of life last night by going 1 for 3 with a single and 2 walks. Getting on base 3 times in 5 plate appearances led to 2 stolen bases. Whether by single or walk, the key for Gardner is getting on base. If he can do that and continue to hit the gaps as he’s done in the early going, it would be great.
A+:
Ian Kennedy got the start for Tampa and his final line was not representative of how well he pitched. Still, 5.1-6-3-3-3-9-0 is a fairly impressive performance, but it would have looked much better had the runners he left on not been allowed to score. Similar to his performance in Hawaii, Kennedy is striking out a ton of guys, but also walking his fair share. The walks are the only thing keeping me from declaring him ready for AA.
Jose Tabata, who had been 1 for his last 12, picked up 2 hits in 4 at bats, while striking out once. Tabata is currently hitting .288 and while he isn’t showing much in the way of power or patience at the moment, as long as he keeps his average up, I’ll be optimistic. He was also caught stealing for the second time this season. Reegie Corona was 2 for 4 with a single and a double, as well as a stolen base. Corona has now collected 4 2-hit games in a row. The groove he is in is reminiscent of the way he was hitting during early 2006. Juan Miranda had a blah night as he went 1 for 4 with a single and a strikeout. Colin Curtis and Francisco Cervelli had good nights though. Curtis was 1 for 2 with a single, a walk, a strikeout, a stolen base, and a caught stealing. He had a busy night to say the least. Cervelli was 2 for 3 with 2 singles, a walk, and a strikeout. I’ve really been impressed by Francisco’s transition to full season baseball thus far.
A-:
Angel Reyes got the start for Charleston and, as has been the case for him in the early going, was able to overcome control issues and put together a solid outing. His final line of 5-5-3-2-3-6-0 seems in line with expectations. His control problems aren’t Abel Gomez bad, but they do need to be worked on. Given the amount of walks, passed balls, and wild pitches that have occurred while Reyes is on the mound it seems strange that Dellin Bettances wouldn’t be in full season baseball.
Mitch Hilligoss overcame 2 strikeouts to finish the game 2 for 4 with 2 singles. His hit streak is now at 9 games, with 3 2-hit games thrown in. Wilmer Pino had a single and 2 strikeouts of his own in 4 at bats. Seth Fortenberry was 1 for 3 with a single, a walk, and…2 strikeouts. Eduardo Nunez was 1 for 3 with a single and a walk. Eduardo has a very nice 8:9 BB:K ratio in 62 at bats, but has shown little of anything else. My boy, Jose Gil, had a rough go of it; he was 0 for 4 with a strikeout and had to deal with Reyes’ pitches.
Spotlight On:
Steven Jackson, previously on the Scranton hot seat, gets the start today. With the troubles being faced by the major league rotation leading to Hughes’ call up, Jackson is safe at AAA, for now. However, if he continues to pitch poorly and guys like Alan Horne and Jeff Marquez continue to push well, he’s going to begin feeling pressure.
Hughes Didn’t Dominate
Injuries/News:
The big news was/is Phil Hughes’ major league debut, which saw him pinned with a loss. Watching the game, Hughes showed flashes of what excites people about him, fastball command and a plus curveball. He pitched better than his overall line would show, go ahead and call me an apologist if you would like, but due to a combination of poor timing on hits, some questionable ball/strike calls, and Miguel Cairo’s throwing arm, Hughes’ final line was 4.1-7-4-4-1-5-0 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-SO-HR). While the Blue Jays were able to pick up some stolen bases on this day, controlling the running game is not a long term concern for Phil. Over the course of his career, a high percentage of the runners that have gone on Hughes have been caught stealing, it was also evident that Jorge Posada was more to blame for this than Phil.
For Hughes to truly be a big contributor to this year’s Yankee team, he’s going to have to go deeper, and that will come with time. The announcers seemed to intimate that Hughes was never allowed to throw more than 5 innings or 75 pitches last year, but that was not the case. Those measures were only put into place after it was clear Hughes was going to blow by the amount of usage the Yankees had targeted him for. As he gets used to the big leagues, Hughes will become more efficient and as the season goes on his pitch count will likely be raised to the point where he can be counted on for around 100 pitches, as was the case for much of the summer last year.
While I love the insight that Peter Abraham provides at the LoHud Yankees Blog, I find his criticism of the move to promote Hughes ridiculous. Firstly, at some point, the needs of the big league team must be addressed as best they can, which dictates promoting Hughes. Furthermore, the majority of his criticism seems to rest on the fact that Hughes pitched poorly in Spring Training, which makes no sense. Why take that handful of innings over the 200+ innings he has pitched in the minors over the last 2 years? As far as Hughes needing to learn about pitching with runners on and/or the bases loaded in the minor leagues…that makes sense, assuming you believe in the validity of those criticisms, until you consider that Hughes isn’t going to get exposed to those situations much because minor league lineups aren’t good enough to consistently put him in those positions. Finally, Pete has taken to blaming Cashman for mishandling the offseason pitching plan as a reason why the Yankees are in this position. While Kei Igawa’s first few starts haven’t instilled much confidence in me, I think it’s too early to be writing him off. That said, it’s not as if there was this great pitching market this past offseason. Ted Lilly, a guy that Abraham has advocated as being someone the Yankees should have looked into, would not have saved this rotation either.
Hughes didn’t perform great last night and the Yankee rotation is no great shakes. However, what we do know is that the difference in the quality of AAA and AA batters is not great enough that one needs to consider AAA batters as some great obstacle for Phil Hughes to overcome. His stuff is good enough. His performance record is without question. It is simply a matter of waiting for him to adjust and get his stamina up and everything will be fine. You never know when pitchers are going to get hurt, so the Yankees might as well get some use out of him now (knock on wood). Mr. Abraham, please stop worrying and trust the organizational decision makers on this one (If you told me 3 years ago that I would one day write that or something of a similar ilk, I would have laughed at you).
AAA:
Alberto Gonzalez, who is in a bit of a slump, went 0 for 2 as Scranton won a pitcher’s duel by the score of 3-1. Picking up the victory for Scranton was Matt DeSalvo. DeSalvo continued to make the Yankee front office personnel that felt he still had something left to give look good by posting a line of 6-4-0-0-1-3-0. He now has an ERA of 1.35 and an 8:18 BB:K ratio in 20 innings. This is more in line with what everyone expected Matt to do last year.
AA:
Brett Gardner was 0 for 3 with a walk and a stolen base as his AVG dropped to .182. Cody Ehlers was 1 for 4 with a single and a strikeout to raise his AVG to .219. Gardner is just in a really bad funk right now and needs to snap out of it. It’s not going to be fun to have to dig out of a .1XX hole following the first month of the season.
Overall, the Trenton offense did not do much, only providing 2 runs and 6 hits, but they didn’t need to because Alan Horne continued to pitch very well. Horne’s final line was an impressive 6-5-1-1-2-6-0. His ERA has been lowered to 3.18 in 22.2 innings to go along with a sparkling 4:28 BB:K ratio. I doubted Horne going into the season, but I’m about 2 starts away from becoming a believer. He is looking like a terrific sleeper pick by Bryan Smith over at Bronx Banter. I think either Mike from River Ave. Blues or EJ from Pending Pinstripes had him as a guy to watch as well, but I’m too lazy to check.
A+:
Seeing that the Tampa offense put up 9 runs and 14 hits might lead one to get excited about what Jose Tabata contributed, but, unfortunately, he contributed nothing on this night. The new #1 Yankee prospect was 0 for 5 with a strikeout. While he has continued to do a good job of putting the ball in play, with power, to the opposite field, Jose has not been able to get anything to drop in. This should work itself out shortly.
Juan Miranda was 1 for 4 with a double and a strikeout. Miranda has been a fairly steady performer thus far this season. Reegie Corona and Colin Curtis both had excellent games, as did former prospect Tim Battle. Battle was 3 for 5 with 2 singles, a triple, and…a strikeout. He also managed a stolen base. Reegie picked up 2 singles in 3 at bats to go along with 2 walks. The night drove his overall line up to a respectable .293/.348/.366. Colin Curtis was 4 for 4, all singles, with a walk. He is up to .291/.418/.400. I know Curtis, technically, shouldn’t amount to too much, but I like him and am very pleased by his progress thus far. Lastly, Francisco Cervelli joined Jose Tabata in having a poor night, by going 0 for 4 with a walk and 2 strikeouts.
A-:
Tim Norton followed up an exceptional outing with an unremarkable one. His final line was 5-9-5-2-1-3-0 and his ERA on the year is now up to 3.71.
The offense was not able to overcome the hole that Norton put them in. Mitch Hilligoss and Seth Fortenberry were both 1 for 4 with singles, Hilligoss had 1 strikeout in there while Fortenberry had 2. Jose Gil was 1 for 4 with a single and 2 strikeouts while Wilmer Pino had the same line, minus the single. Eduardo Nunez probably had the best night of anyone on offense and he didn’t pick up a hit. The teenage SS was 0 for 1 with 3 walks. His BB:K ratio is now a promising 7:9. In the early going, Nunez has shown signs of 2005, other than his power being absent.
Spotlight On:
AAA Scranton as Tyler Clippard attempts to keep up with DeSalvo by having his first no doubt about it good start of the year.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Phil Day
Injuries/News:
I wrote something about Hughes for The Hardball Times...Chase Wright doesn’t seem to be too down about giving up 4 homers in a row, which is nice.
AAA:
Rained out.
AA:
Rained out.
A+:
Tampa, somewhat surprisingly, was the only Yankee affiliate to get a game in yesterday. While Jose Tabata had a quiet night, Reegie Corona and Juan Miranda got some solid work done with the bat. Tabata was 0 for 3 with a HBP as his average dropped below .300 for the first time this season. It is at .296 to be exact, and he is one good game away from having his line look the way I anticipated it would in the FSL, which is pretty much the way it looked prior to last night’s game. Reegie Corona was 2 for 4 with 2 singles and a strikeout. Juan Miranda had the same line, but substitute a double for one of Corona’s singles. Reegie now has a 7-game hit streak where he has gone 12 for 31 to raise his seasonal line to .278/.321/.354 (AVG/OBP/SLG). Miranda has a 3-gamer going where he is 5 for 12 to get his line up to .277/.342/.369.
A-:
Scheduled Day Off.
Spotlight On:
Let’s be serious, folks. We’re all going to be tuned to our TVs/laptops/desktops/whatever to catch Phil Franchise/Phil of the Future’s ML debut.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Inconsistent Ohlie
Injuries/News:
Eric Duncan was officially placed on the disabled list, retroactive to last Friday…Eric Hacker has been promoted from Charleston to parts unknown. In 2005, when Hacker was dominating the SAL with Phil Hughes, I thought there might be a chance for him as a prospect, but injuries have done too much to derail in his career. Still, it’s nice to see that he’s finally leaving Charleston…Marcos Vechionacci is still out.
AAA:
Ross Ohlendorf got some poor results yesterday, with a final line of 5-9-4-4-2-4-0 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-SO-HR), but in spots he looked the best I’ve seen him this year. Ohlie was getting his fastball over at 93, 94 MPH and showing good break on his off-speed pitches. The problem for him, as it seems to have been all year, is that his control and command would come and go. There were times when he looked like the guy the Yankees held up as the center piece of the RJ deal, and then there were times when he looked like nothing more than cannon fodder. In addition, his final line would have looked better, at least ERA wise, if 2B Andrew Beattie had not dropped a sure fire DP ball in the 4th inning, which led to 2 runs getting across.
Alberto Gonzalez was 1 for 4 with a single as he continues to chug along. He also put together another highlight reel play in the Top of the 5th as he fielded a ball deep in the hole, set himself, and threw a laser to the 1B. Defensively, he has come as advertised. This is the type of play where Jeter’s lack of range would necessitate a jump throw.
AA:
Jeff Marquez had a solid go in his 4th AA start with a line of 6-7-3-2-0-3-0. He was able to generate a lot of bad contact, and while that sometimes led to well placed hits, for the most part it kept the opposition off the board. Unfortunately, he was not able to pick up the victory as the Thunder offense did not come alive until late in the game.
While the Thunder offense would score 5 runs, Brett Gardner had no part of it. The struggling leadoff hitter was 0 for 5 with a strikeout. It’s still in the early going, but Gardner’s .190 AVG is unsightly. Fortunately, Cody Ehlers seems to be heating up, just as he said he would once the weather got warmer. Ehlers was 1 for 3 with a single and a walk. His average is up to .217, he is 4 for his last 11, and he has not struck out in 4 games.
A+:
Daniel McCutchen made his season debut after serving a 50-game suspension dating back to last season. While McCutchen’s name was originally linked to steroids, it turned out that the illegal substance that got him suspended was actually prescription medication he had not made MLB aware of. Anyway, McCutchen, who is reputed to have very good stuff, was solid. His final line of 6.1-3-1-1-0-2-1 can attest to that. Once Joba makes his way back, the Tampa rotation will be rolling.
Reegie Corona had a solid night, 2 for 5 with 2 singles, and Juan Miranda did the same, but in 4 at bats. Jose Tabata DHed and went 1 for 4 with a walk and a strikeout, while Francisco Cervelli had his first entirely unproductive game in a long time. The C was 0 for 4. Tim Battle also responded to my giving up on him as a prospect by going 3 for 5 with a stolen base and…wait for it…a strikeout.
A-:
Charleston had an early morning game, which they won despite only putting up 2 runs and 7 hits. Though the offensive totals were meager, the prospects played a large part in compiling them. Jose Gil, 0 for 3 with a strikeout, was the only guy who was entirely left out of the party. Eduardo Nunez, who is still in search of his first extra base hit, was 1 for 3 with a single, and Wilmer Pino was 1 for 4 with a single. After a hot start to the season, Pino has cooled considerably and is looking to get back on track. The offense’s elder statesmen, Mitch Hilligoss and Seth Fortenberry, had the best go of it at the plate. Hilligoss was 1 for 4 with a double and a strikeout and now has a 7-game hit streak with doubles in 4 of his last 5. Fortenberry was 2 for 4 with a double and a strikeout. He has authored a 3-game hit streak with an extra base hit in each game of the streak.
Garret Patterson started the game, and while he did not allow a run in his 4 innings, I refuse to get excited about a guy born in 1982, in his second season of A-ball, who consistently struggles to throw strikes…even if he is left-handed and can touch the high 90s.
Spotlight On:
Scranton. Hopefully, Tyler Clippard breaks out of the early season funk that everyone in the AAA rotation seems to be experiencing. Alberto Gonzalez should also be good for another highlight reel play as well as a single.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Good Nights All Around
Injuries/News:
The big news of the day is that Phil Hughes will be making his major league debut on Thursday against the Toronto Blue Jays. This is roughly 2 years after Wang made his debut against The Blue Jays and one can only hope that Hughes has the type of success Wang has had, ERA wise, but with more believable peripherals. Here’s to Phil of the Future. Most of you know about him, but I most likely will do a more extensive preview prior to that start…George Kontos was placed on the disabled list for Tampa, so he did not start last night, as I expected him to in placing the spotlight on him. I doubt Kontos is actually injured and assume it’s punishment for his run-in with the law.
AAA:
No game scheduled.
AA:
Scott Patterson and a rag tag group of Thunder relievers made a spot start and pitched very well, but more importantly the Thunder offense finally got the job done. They put 7 runs and 10 hits on the board with Brett Gardner and Cody Ehlers both having solid nights. Gardner continued to be a consistent power source as he was 1 for 4 with a double, a walk, and a strikeout. Gardner has now equaled his extra base hit total from his AA stint last year. Ehlers was 2 for 4 with a single and a double in what was his first multi-hit game in 9 days. It sucks that Ehlers’ OPS is in the low .600s, but overall I’m not too worried by his start. His BB:K ratio is excellent and he’s shown good doubles power. He just needs to get some more singles and perhaps poke a couple balls over the fence.
A+:
The Tampa offensive prospects also had an overall positive night. Colin Curtis had the best night of anyone as he went 2 for 3 with a single, a homer, a walk, and a strikeout. Curtis’ start at Tampa has been very solid with an OPS .754 to go along with an excellent 9:10 BB:K ratio. When I first found out the Yankees drafted Curtis, I was upset, but reading up on him I learned to like him and hopeful of his ability to develop into something useful. Jose Tabata broke out of his slump and pushed his OPS over .800 by going 2 for 4 with 2 singles, a stolen base, an OF assist, an error, and a caught stealing. It was a busy night for the guy who now holds the distinction of Best Yankee Prospect…in the Minors. Francisco Cervelli was 2 for 3 with 2 singles, a walk, and a stolen base. Cervelli is doing a good job of easing organizational worries about catching depth with his nice start. He is now 7 for his last 18 and has stolen bases in consecutive games.
With all those guys having positive nights, a few had to have poor ones. Reegie Corona and Tim Battle were each 1 for 5 with a single. Corona threw in 3 strikeouts while Battle tossed in 2 of his own. Battle is now hitting .149 with 28 strikeouts in 67 at bats and I’m ready to say the book is closed on him as a prospect. I’m sure Tom Weber will be glad to see that. Lastly, Juan Miranda managed a single in 4 at bats with 2 strikeouts.
A-:
Yesterday I mentioned that Seth Fortenberry might be headed on one of his streaks and last night’s results seemed to agree with that suspicion. The toolsy OF was 1 for 3 with a triple and a walk. He has collected extra base hits on consecutive nights, A-Rod, eat your heart out. Jose Gil, another guy that is heating up, was 1 for 3 with a single. Finally, as far as guys on the up and up, Mitch Hilligoss continued to drive the ball to the gaps, he picked up a double in 4 at bats, as well as a strikeout. Mitch has now doubled in 3 of his last 4 games. The DP combination of Nunez and Pino had quiet nights. Nunez was the louder of the two, 1 for 4 with a single and a steal, while Pino was 0 for 4.
Spotlight On:
Scranton. Ross Ohlendorf will, most likely, step into Phil Hughes’ rotation slot and take the mound tonight. Hughes is supposedly only going to be up for as long as Mussina is out, but with Igawa pitching horrendously, there may be yet another opening in the Yankee rotation. It would also be nice if Eric Duncan could come back, pretty please, and hit, pretty please. I’m getting tired of Eyechart™.
Light Day
Injuries/News:
Most of the speculation by the press in Trenton and Scranton is pointing to Steven Jackson being the guy to get demoted from AAA. Every one of the guys in the AAA rotation has legitimate reasons for being there, so that decision is going to be a tough one.
AAA:
Due to a lack of days off following a doubleheader, a Scranton game was started by a pitcher who doesn’t figure prominently into the Yankees’ immediate plans. On offense, Eric Duncan had another day off, and as a result Alberto Gonzalez was the only player of note to get playing time. Gonzalez was 0 for 4 with a strikeout as his OPS gets closer to .700.
AA:
Brett Gardner continued to struggle to hit for average in 2007 as he could only muster an 0 for 3 with a walk outing. Gardner’s greatest tool is his speed, but if he’s not hitting for average, he’s going to have to draw a ton of walks in order to utilize that speed. It’s hard to draw a ton of walks when you hit for a low average and don’t have a ton of power. It’s a vicious cycle.
A+:
No game scheduled
A-:
Mitch Hilligoss went 1 for 4 with a single and extended his hit streak to 5 games during Charleston’s game. Seth Fortenberry, Eduardo Nunez, and Jose Gil had productive nights as well. Fortenberry was 1 for 3 with a double, a walk, and a strikeout. Given the hot and cold nature of his career to this point, this could be the start of something big for Seth. Eduardo Nunez was 1 for 3 with a single and continues to plug along the long road to respectability. Finally, Jose Gil was 2 for 4 with a double. His OPS is up to .740 and now all I need is for his BB:K ratio to even out and I can begin promoting my adoration for him once again.
Spotlight On:
Tampa. George Kontos takes the hill and attempts to give a follow up performance to the best start of his pro career.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Clip Gets Rocked
Injuries/News:
Hideki Matsui played for Tampa last night and should be back in short fashion. This is great news for the big league club, as Melky Cabrera seems to have simply had a career year last year…According to Pinstripes Plus, Joba Chamberlain can be expected back in the next few weeks…George Kontos had an interesting evening in Tampa…Eric Duncan has a bruised left hand.
AAA:
Tyler Clippard started the first game of Scranton’s doubleheader and had his worst start of the season. Clippard gave up 7 hits and 3 walks in 5 innings, which led to 4 runs, all earned, and a loss. Clippard’s issue on this day was not being able to nail the corners. Because he doesn’t have great fastball velocity, Clippard, obviously, needs to his spots. While his strike to ball ratio does not display this issue, it was evident in his K:BB ratio as well as during the game. So, there, I said it, Clippard sucked on this night and hasn’t been very good thus far in AAA. I don’t think it’s time to start thinking AAAA yet, but it definitely isn’t good for Tyler that he’s digging a hole for himself on the Carl Pavano DL Watch.
The other starter for Scranton yesterday was Matt DeSalvo. DeSalvo didn’t have a problem of missing at the corners, but rather was all over the place. Despite this, he managed to get good results as attested by his 5 inning, 3 hit, 4 walk, 4 strikeout, and 1 run performance. Yankee officials seemed to be very excited about the way DeSalvo pitched during the spring, and at the moment he is validating that by leading The DL Watch. While his walk total is far from ideal, DeSalvo is the type of pitcher that’s always going to walk guys. For others, the walks might be a sign of a complete breakdown, but Matt gets by with high walk totals and less than average BABIP rates. How effective such a skill set would be in the majors remains to be seen.
Alberto Gonzalez continues to impress with the bat. Alberto was 3 for 6 with a triple and through his first 51 at bats he is now hitting .314/.333/.451. In case you forgot, Gonzalez came over in The Big Useless deal as an all-glove no-hit middle infielder. However, as I and a bunch of others pointed out at the time, Alberto’s bat was a bit more interesting than it appeared given the context of his performance. He is validating those suspicions, at the moment, and making himself into a potential regular.
AA:
Alan Horne continued to make me look silly by striking out 7 and walking none in 5.2 innings. Yeah, he gave up 9 hits, including a home run, and 4 runs, but more important, especially with Horne is the K:BB ratio. In the early going it stands at 22:2 and his ERA and hit rate should begin to make sense in due time. I didn’t believe that Horne’s improved control at the end of 2006 was a sign of things to come, but Alan is proving otherwise.
At the plate, Cody Ehlers was 1 for 5 with a single and a walk and Brett Gardner was 1 for 5 with a double, a walk, and a strikeout. Gardner is now 2 extra base hits away from equaling his total in 217 AA at bats last year.
A+:
Reegie Corona, Jose Tabata, and Juan Miranda were all 1 for 4 with singles for Tampa. Corona supplemented his single with a walk, while Tabata threw in a strikeout in his 4 at bats, and Miranda threw in 2 for good measure. Francisco Cervelli had a more encouraging night with a 2 for 4 line. Both of Cervelli’s hits were singles and he also struck out once.
A-:
The Charleston Riverdogs were able to sweep their doubleheader with outstanding starts by Angel Reyes and Tim Norton. Reyes finally had an outing where his walk total was under control, 1 in 4 innings, and continued to limit the hits, 1, while showing off strikeout stuff, 6. Reyes was Baseball America’s pick for a breakout candidate in the Yankee farm system, probably in response to the way they overlooked him last year, and has been doing well in the early going. Last year at Staten Island, George Kontos and Tim Norton seemed to feed off each other and though they are in different locations, it seemed that Norton heard about Kontos’ spectacular outing last go around. Tim went 6.1 innings with 5 hits, 0 walks, and 10 strikeouts.
Jose Gil was 2 for 3 with a double in an attempt to make me look a little less terrible for my obsession with him. Mitch Hilligoss probably had the best day as he was 3 for 8 with a double. As I’ve stated in the past, I’m not a big fan of Hilligoss. Scouts seem to really love his swing, but when I’ve seen him play there’s been nothing about his game that impressed me. He might be an average utility player down the line, but he won’t even amount to that much if he doesn’t start hitting for a much higher average or driving the ball. Being a college draftee, he doesn’t have as much time on his side either.
Spotlight On:
Scranton. Steven Jackson is on the mound tonight.
Friday, April 20, 2007
The Good, The Bad, and The Expected
Injuries:
Marcos Vechionacci did injure himself during Tampa’s math game (hat tip to Mike). It appears to have occurred on a defensive play and should not keep him out too long. More seriously, Humberto Sanchez underwent TJ surgery on Wednesday (hat tip to Pete Abraham). I guess coming to the Yankees has done nothing to quell Humberto’s issues with staying healthy. I can’t say I’m surprised at this and it’s partially why I wasn’t sure about ranking a guy like him over someone like Clippard who’s taken the ball every time out in his minor league career (knocks on wood). As others have said, it’s a testament to the current state of the Yankee farm system that four pitchers of interest can go down to TJ and it hardly forces you to bat an eyelash. Finally, Chien-Ming Wang toed the rubber for the Tampa Yankees, got through his 5 innings of work, and will be activated in time to start next week.
AAA:
Ross Ohlendorf gave up his first home run of the season, but got his control in check and had his best start of the season. The Yankees seem to be doing their best to ease their pitchers into heavier workloads as Ohlie left following 87 pitches, 56 of which were for strikes. Ohlendorf was still getting the job done, still keeping the ball low, and for the most part still throwing strikes. However, another factor to consider might be the need to get some of the bullpen arms some work.
Alberto Gonzalez was 2 for 7 with a big triple, a strikeout, and a stolen base. Had Scranton not ended up losing the game, Alberto would have likely been recognized as the hero due to his big hit. Gonzalez has done a very solid job in the early going with his .289/.313/.400, which is respectable for a terrific defender playing in a tough league and park for offense.
Eric Duncan finally showed some single-hitting ability, which is the big question with him, but also flashed his strikeout ability as well. Duncan was 2 for 5 with a walk and 3 strikeouts, but in his defense, he did seem to have some issues with the home plate ump’s interpretation of the strike zone.
AA:
Jeff Marquez was pinned with a loss for Trenton, but really did not pitch poorly. He lost his control for a bit in the fourth and that combined with some bad luck on groundballs led to 4 unearned runs crossing for Binghamton. Marquez has typically been a slow starter in his minor league career, so it’s nice to see him doing solid to begin the year.
On offense, Brett Gardner and Cody Ehlers continued to struggle with the ol’ batting average as they were a combined 1 for 8 with 2 strikeouts. The lone hit was a single by Ehlers.
A+:
Jose Tabata did not strike out! He didn’t have a great game either, but most importantly for me, he did not strike out. The 18-year-old phenom was 1 for 4 with a single and a steal. Jose seems focused on showing off his baserunning ability and treating the FSL like he did the GCL. Or it could just be that he’s starting this year in better shape than he did his SAL season.
Juan Miranda was 0 for 3 with a walk and 2 strikeouts. He’s shown flashes in the early going, but seems to be struggling with the strike zone. Despite the big contract, I don’t expect too much from Miranda and am willing to be patient with him.
Reegie Corona, last year’s SAL surprise sensation, had the best game of anyone in the Tampa lineup. Corona was 4 for 5 with 2 doubles while striking out once. His average is now up to .263, but he’s going to have to hit even higher than that to be valuable as he does not walk much or hit for power.
A-:
Rained out
Spotlight On:
I want to say Tyler Clippard is starting tonight, check The DL Watch, but it seems that the Yankees decided to just skip his rotation turn. This might be because he warmed up, but just didn’t get to pitch during the rained out back end of the doubleheader and the Yankees want to keep him as close to regular as possible. Either that or the Yankees are just attempting to keep everyone else as close to regular as possible. So, tonight either Clippard or DeSalvo will be starting for Scranton. Either way, that game gets the spotlight.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Weekend Wrap (Friday through Monday)
I apologize for the absence; now back to your regularly scheduled minor league updates.
AAA:
Alberto Gonzalez has gone 4 for 11 with a double over the last 3 games as he continues to impress in the early going. When Gonzalez was named as part of the RJ deal, I initially wrote him off as a future utility IF, but every time I’ve looked at his performance record and scouting reports, I have just been more and more impressed by him. He definitely has a shot to start in the middle infield for some team.
Eric Duncan was 0 for 5 with 2 walks and 2 strikeouts in the same stretch. Duncan continues to struggle to hit singles. His walk to strikeout ratio is fine and he’s showing power, so he gets more rope.
Matt DeSalvo, Steven Jackson, and Ross Ohlendorf each got a start in the 3-game stretch. While it was great to see DeSalvo with a terrific outing and Jackson with another solid one, I think the most important outing belonged to Ohlendorf. Ohlie has now walked 10 batters in just 9 innings. This is a year after walking 29 in 182.2 innings. This, combined with how unimpressive his pitches have looked, in my unskilled estimation, is making me begin to wonder if he’s hiding an injury. I’m very interested to see how he performs in his next start.
AA:
Cody Ehlers was 2 for 12 with 2 walks and 2 strikeouts as he continues to do his best Eric Duncan impression. Ehlers had a huge year in the FSL last year and I’m hopeful that he can put up similar numbers this year and make himself interesting. In the early going, he’s been doing a good job controlling the strike zone, but he needs to start hitting something other than the occasional double.
Brett Gardner was 3 for 14 with a triple and a strikeout. I like Gardner’s start. I figure the average will work itself out and he’s already reached more than half of his AA extra base hit total from last year, which really puts into perspective how poor his power production was.
On the mound, Jeff Marquez, Alan Horne, and Brett Smith all turned in quality outings. Horne and Smith are off to fast starts and I’m very interested in seeing how long they can maintain that as I didn’t have much positive to say about either player this past offseason.
A+:
Last night in Tampa, Ian Kennedy picked up his first professional win. He did so in a fashion that was not particularly impressive as demonstrated by his 4 walks and 1 strikeout in 3 innings. Kennedy was not able to start as Jeff Karstens took the mound as he heads towards the conclusion of his rehab. The early returns on Kennedy’s groundball to flyball ratio are pretty scary, but hopefully it will correct itself. If not, I hope he’s a guy who can survive like that by getting tons of popups and only allowing solo homers, which would mean he needs work on that early walk rate as well.
In the past 4 games, the hottest Tampa offensive prospect has been Marcos Vechionacci. He has doubled in his last 3 games and overall was 4 for 10 with 3 doubles, 2 walks, and 1 strikeout. Jose Tabata also continues to pound the ball when he makes contact. Unfortunately, he seems to be struggling a bit with the strikeouts. His overall line is highly impressive, but his rate of production given his peripherals is unsustainable. Tabata’s fast start is reminding me of the similarly hot FSL starts of Bronson Sardinha and Robinson Cano, but hopefully he can do a better job of maintaining his production than they did.
A-:
On the positive side, Austin Jackson has only struck out 3 times in his last 17 at bats, on the negative, he’s only picked up 3 hits in that same stretch. The Yankees don’t have much in the way of legitimate position prospects so when guys like Jackson struggle, it really hurts. Fortunately for Jackson, he doesn’t stand out too much, because the entire Charleston offense is struggling. My infatuation with Jose Gil is beginning to look silly as he was 1 for 8 with 3 strikeouts in the 4-game stretch and is off to yet another slow start. Wilmer Pino is the only guy on the team hitting consistently and he was just 3 for 13 with a walk in on the weekend.
Tim Norton and Angel Reyes had similar outings in that their good stuff was able to overcome their control/command issues. Unfortunately for both, their efforts resulted in losses as the Charleston offense is just not getting the job done at the moment.
Spotlight On:
Yankees and the Indians at the Stadium for Chase Wright’s ML debut.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Jackson Debuts
4.10.07 Review:
Steve Jackson made his first start for AAA Scranton and was impressive throughout the game. While he tired in his 5th inning of work, giving up back to back home runs, prior to that he was winning me over. Similar to Ohlendorf, Jackson doesn’t seem to have amazing movement on his sinker, but is able to get ground balls by pounding the bottom half of the zone. The difference between his start today and Ohlendorf’s last time around was that when Jackson went to his breaking stuff it had more movement than Ohlie’s and he was able to get swings and misses or weak contact. Unfortunately, in the 5th inning it seemed that he got a bit tired as both home run pitches were just a bit higher than they should have been and dealt with accordingly.
Eric Duncan had a very poor offensive game. In his first at bat he worked a full count before popping up on a pitch in on his hands. His second AB was a giveaway as he quickly struck out on a fastball up and away. His third AB provided a bit of excitement as he got hold of a pitch and drilled it deep and gone, but foul. He would then strike out on another up and away fastball. Fourth time up, Duncan popped up on a pitch down and away to the CF and then in his final AB he had his most frustrating appearance. Bottom of the 9th and his team down a run, Duncan came up with a runner on. He worked the count to 2-0 and things were looking good, but then it all went bad. Duncan would then proceed to pull off on next 3 pitches, which looked to be change-ups, as he was no doubt looking to connect on a game winner, but instead just whiffed.
Alberto Gonzalez was 1 for 4 with a solid line drive single, one of the best hit balls I’ve seen from him thus far, and a walk and a strikeout. He also was finally show off his much talked about defensive tools. On a low line drive grounder to his right during the 9th Gonzalez ranged right, backhanded the ball from a crouching position, and just let loose from the same position to throw the runner out. No jump throw, no leveraging, just a very nice play.
The Riverdogs took their first loss of the season as their hitters were simply over matched by Josh Sullivan of the Asheville Tourists. On the defensive/pitching end, Tim Norton also ran into a bit of bad luck. While none of the 3 hits or foul balls that he gave up in his 4.1 innings was particularly hard hit, Norton struggled just enough with his control, 3 walks, that the opposition was able to push runs across. At the least, Norton was as advertised, stuff-wise. The vast majority of his pitches were fastballs, on this night he was 90-96, and he seemed a bit reluctant to go to his secondary stuff. The opposition could not handle his fastball in the early going, but after a while they learned to deal with it and the secondary arsenal was on and off.
Offensively, no one had a good game. Even Mitch Hilligoss’ 2 hit night was of the “it will look like a line drive in tomorrow’s paper” variety. Austin Jackson knocked the crap out of the ball a couple times, but got nothing to show for it as he still seems to just give ABs away every now and then. Wilmer Pino also drew another walk, no clue what’s going on there. Unfortunately, after he got on base he had the less than terrific idea to try and steal home. While he was caught doing so, it was kind of cool that he made the play close; he’s got some good speed.
Around The Minors:
Trenton lost in extra innings as nothing too exciting happened for their prospects. Brett Gardner was 0 for 3 with 2 walks and 1 strikeout, Ramiro Pena struck out twice but also collected a single in 6 ABs, and Cody Ehlers was 0 for 5 with a walk and the game winning RBI. On the mound, Kevin Whelan pitched 2 innings, gave up 1 hit, and struck out 2.
Tampa was rained out and will play a doubleheader today.
Spotlight On:
Scranton is the place to be as Tyler Clippard gets his 2nd AAA start and Eric Duncan looks to snap out of his funk.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Angel!
4.9.07 Review:
The best lefty prospect in the organization, Angel Reyes, had a start to remember for Charleston. The 20-year-old has terrific stuff, which he demonstrated by striking out 9 men in 3.1 innings while only giving up 1 hit. Unfortunately, he doesn’t always know where it’s going as demonstrated by the 3 wild pitches, 1 passed ball, and 3 walks during that same stretch. This looks like a line out of the Abel Gomez school of pitching, but Reyes has, in the past, demonstrated better control than Gomez ever did. It’s just a matter of him getting in synch.
On the other side of things, Mitch Hilligoss had a solid game going 1 for 5 with a triple and a strikeout while having “professional” ABs. Austin Jackson, from the box score, looks like he had a poor night as he was 0 for 3 with a strikeout, but this was not the case. He put together quality at bats and on 2 occasions he mashed the ball to the warning track, only for the opposition’s OF to make the play. Jackson came into camp with added muscle and it is definitely making an in-game difference. Seth Fortenberry had a terrific game at the plate, but was unlucky on the basepaths. Seth was 4 for 4 with 2 singles, a triple, and a home run, but was caught stealing twice, including a failed hit and run. Eduardo Nunez was 2 for 3 with 2 singles and an RBI and Jose Gil and Wilmer Pino each picked up an extra base hit. Gil’s was a homer and Pino’s a double. Pino also picked up a walk, which is always unexpected.
Around The Minors:
Matt DeSalvo begin his start in positive fashion, but had to leave quickly. The good is that his stuff was there and he could generate swings and misses in moments of need. Unfortunately, the bad was that he struggled to throw consistent strikes and put batters away, so as a result he threw 77 pitches in 3 innings, 44 of which were strikes.
Offensively, Eric Duncan had his first tough game of the year. He still worked deep counts, but ended the day 1 for 4 with an opposite field single and 3 strikeouts. Alberto Gonzalez was also promoted to 2nd in the lineup and responded by going 1 for 4 with 2 strikeouts of his own. Part of the reason for the strikeouts was Buddy Carlyle being on the mound for the opposition and while he might not have done much in the majors, he’s quite adept at getting guys out in the minors, which he demonstrated in his time in the Yankee farm system a little while back.
In Brett Smith’s first start of the new season The Thunder went 12 innings. Smith lasted 5 innings and struck out 6 while giving up 5 hits, 2 walks, and 3 runs, all of them earned. At the time he was drafted, Smith was reputed to throw in the low 90s and looked like one of the organization’s shining stars on the mound. Unfortunately, his velocity has been closer to high 80s/90 and without overwhelming secondary stuff the result has been that he plays the role of semi-interesting organizational filler.
Brett Gardner, responding to his MYB sponsored watch, was 1 for 4 with a double and 2 walks. Ramiro Pena, who according to the Pinstripes Plus folks looked terrific in spring training, finally flashed something as he went 1 for 4 with a double, a walk, and a stolen base. Cody Ehlers was 2 for 5 with a double, a walk, and 2 stolen bases. Similar to EJ Fagan, I like Ehlers better than most. When you are a hitter and perform as well as he did in the FSL last year, I take notice.
The Tampa offense put 10 runs on the board, and as would be expected, a lot of the offensive prospects had good nights. Reegie Corona, who has struggled tremendously in the early going, was 2 for 5 with a double, a stolen base, and 2 strikeouts. Given his history, I’m surprised at how much Corona is striking out right now, but it’s probably just a small sample size issue. Jose Tabata, who has also struck out a bit in the earl going, was 1 for 3 with a single, a walk, and 2 strikeouts. He also managed to pick up a sacrifice fly RBI. Marcos Vechionacci tripled his season hit total by going 2 for 5 with 2 singles. Finally, Colin Curtis was 3 for 5 with a double and Francisco Cervelli was 0 for 3, but picked up a walk.
Spotlight On:
Charleston is the place to be as Tim Norton gets his second start of the season. I’ve also come around on the roster of offensive prospects at Charleston, realizing that this is the second best prospect offense in the Yankee farm. Will Pino walk again? Will Action Jackson continue to hit it hard? Find out tonight.
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