2018 Yankees Minor League News & Notes

[jon abbey]

Walker should be the casualty once Bird returns.

They might both go if Drury and Bird are both back and no one else goes out. I do hope Austin can stick around, but it won't be easy if everyone is healthy.

[Snatch Catch]

Green: 6 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 12:0 (!!!)

Florial: 1-4, 3B, 3 K
Wagner: 2-4,

Whitlock: 7 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 15:2 (!!!)

Vargas (youngest pitcher in the EL and 2nd youngest in all of AA): 4.1 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 K

[NelsonMuntz]

Didn’t Adams pitch today?

[SLURPEE]

@RailRidersTT

RailRiders lineup for Sunday:

Avelino 6
Higashioka DH
Robinson 8
Ford 3
Kratz 2
Zehner 7
McBroom 9
Fleming 5
Mazzilli 4


Look that lineup. wow. I missed gary denbo as player development. Kevin Reese sucks when he take over as player development after Denbo left. Where's Florial he should be in AAA by now, what Reese doing not developing prospects in minors?

#Addstoignorelist

[Yankees1962]

Didn’t Adams pitch today?

Yes, he wasn’t bad as he came up one out short of going six innings.

[CTyanks]

Yes, he wasn’t bad as he came up one out short of going six innings.

He sat 91-93 but threw a metric ton of curveballs and changeups. Kratz was actively calling the game around his offspeed stuff. I think when/if Adams is called up he starts off in relief to get his feet wet.

Florial over 36% K rate. Swinging and missing at a lot of power stuff. Ugh.

[mbn007]

@RailRidersTT

RailRiders lineup for Sunday:

Avelino 6
Higashioka DH
Robinson 8
Ford 3
Kratz 2
Zehner 7
McBroom 9
Fleming 5
Mazzilli 4


Look that lineup. wow. I missed gary denbo as player development. Kevin Reese sucks when he take over as player development after Denbo left. Where's Florial he should be in AAA by now, what Reese doing not developing prospects in minors?

This is a very outrageous comment. In my opinion, there s no basis to even begin to support this statement.

None what-so-ever.

[rpimpsner]

This is a very outrageous comment. In my opinion, there s no basis to even begin to support this statement.

None what-so-ever.

I am reminded of a quote from Billy Madison when I read that line.

[rpimpsner]

Dillon Tate has been pitching well for the Thunder so far this season. Check out our feature on him here:

https://pinstripedprospects.com/ofte...otation-31458/

[Bub]

He and Stephan both need to move to AA ASAP, Stephan because he's too good for high A and Loaisiga because he's already on the 40 man and so his timetable should be sped up a bit.

Stephan only pitches from the stretch position which is odd for a starter. I know we've seen that before in the majors, I just can't remember who. Maybe he turns into a decent middle reliever.

[Donnybaseball72]

This is a very outrageous comment. In my opinion, there s no basis to even begin to support this statement.

None what-so-ever.

Consider the source.

[ClownPickle]

Higgy straight killing it in AAA. Sell high on Romine. Carbon copy of his 2017 start.

[Stache Fan]

Gleyber's call-up was a bit of a weird moment for me, as I'm sure it was for many other posters here. I'm realizing that it's the first time since 2016 that I'm significantly more excited about the major league roster than the farm system. In 2016, the farm was all we had to look forward to, when the Yankees were mediocre and we added Tores, Frazier, and Sheffield. In 2017, the major league team took great leaps forward, but the prospect of 60 FV guys in Andujar and Torres in the pipeline still had me equally excited to watch the minors as I was for the majors. But now, the most highly regarded of those prospects have graduated, and I find myself missing the anticipation of checking Down on the Farm each morning.

There's certainly much to still be excited about in our farm. There's Florial and his potential to put up 30-30 seasons. Sheffield looks promising, Tate is picking up, and I'm sure that the combination of Abreu, Medina, and Perez will yield, at worst, our next Betances. Undeniably, though, the quality of the farm system has dropped quite a bit, lacking a bona fide blue chip guy. It's a bittersweet reminder that baseball is cyclical, that windows open and close. I know it's laughably early to be saying these types of things; our window is only opening now. Yet, following the minor leagues is my favorite part of being a Yankee fan. I love watching these guys grow and develop-- when Sanchez and Severino and Judge killed it in 2017, it felt like an affirmation of all the time we spent caring about what college-aged kids do on ballfields in Trenton and Charleston. I can't wait for the next wave. Go Yankees.

[albo4lyfe]

Stephan only pitches from the stretch position which is odd for a starter. I know we've seen that before in the majors, I just can't remember who. Maybe he turns into a decent middle reliever.

Strasburg now pitches exclusively from the stretch. He switched for injury concerns.

[ClownPickle]

Gleyber's call-up was a bit of a weird moment for me, as I'm sure it was for many other posters here. I'm realizing that it's the first time since 2016 that I'm significantly more excited about the major league roster than the farm system. In 2016, the farm was all we had to look forward to, when the Yankees were mediocre and we added Tores, Frazier, and Sheffield. In 2017, the major league team took great leaps forward, but the prospect of 60 FV guys in Andujar and Torres in the pipeline still had me equally excited to watch the minors as I was for the majors. But now, the most highly regarded of those prospects have graduated, and I find myself missing the anticipation of checking Down on the Farm each morning.

There's certainly much to still be excited about in our farm. There's Florial and his potential to put up 30-30 seasons. Sheffield looks promising, Tate is picking up, and I'm sure that the combination of Abreu, Medina, and Perez will yield, at worst, our next Betances. Undeniably, though, the quality of the farm system has dropped quite a bit, lacking a bona fide blue chip guy. It's a bittersweet reminder that baseball is cyclical, that windows open and close. I know it's laughably early to be saying these types of things; our window is only opening now. Yet, following the minor leagues is my favorite part of being a Yankee fan. I love watching these guys grow and develop-- when Sanchez and Severino and Judge killed it in 2017, it felt like an affirmation of all the time we spent caring about what college-aged kids do on ballfields in Trenton and Charleston. I can't wait for the next wave. Go Yankees.

Well said.

IMO, we're really missing high end SP talent near the majors. Dodgers just called up Buehler who is fire. I wish we had that.

Justus is intruiging but he almost has a BB/9 of 6 in AA. He needs to sharpen up over the coming months. That's always been an issue for him. Who else do we have that's close and potentially high end? I struggle to think of anyone.

[Snatch Catch]

Who else do we have that's close and potentially high end? I struggle to think of anyone.

Over the years the thing I've found is that those guys just jump up suddenly and can move pretty fast on that trajectory. A guy like Florial was nowhere but a toolsy dream entering last season and suddenly he's well into national top-100 lists and in our conversations as a major part of the future. Jose Guzman was another guy who was all talent but shot up to levels that none of us thought were likely at last year's outset. Possible? Of course. But not probable.

I know you said close, and those guys are lower level guys, but I personally think the premise holds, and it's why I'm not that worried as the farm appears to have been drained of talent. The Yankees have been doing an awesome job of bringing the raw materials into their system, and I think it's just a matter of time before the next Montgomery, Green, etc. pops up and exceeds what we thought was probable out of them.

I've really got my eye on Loaisiga in this vein. I think he's in the Majors way sooner than we'd have thought probable last winter, and he's got high-grade stuff. And obviously I feel that way about Abreu, too, if he ever toes a rubber again, that is. All it takes is that one bit of traction and these kind of guys can suddenly be ML ready and knocking on the door by the second half of this season.

[ClownPickle]

I definitely agree with your overall point. Guys seem to shoot up and come out of no where. However, the reality of a SP prospect making a ML impact is innings. A guy like Jonathan Loaisiga isn't close to being able to pitch a ML season. Has he ever thrown even 100 IP before? That's why I was always so bearish on Kap.

Monty had the innings and pedigree which always made him a ML option for me. I'm not seeing any of those at the moment outside of Sheff who has a lot to sharpen. Also as Sey recently pointed out it's hard to get excited about some of these guys putting up video game K/BB rates (eg Gallegos) in the mL.

Even though the two guys I wanted got injured, Cash needs to shift our position players into SP assets. The well is dry. Cough Littell. Cough cough.

[Stache Fan]

Another thing that's bittersweet about all these graduations is that moving forward, even our successful prospects are far less likely to see time in a Yankee uniform. We're moving into that "consolidate your assets into current proven talent" phase of the win curve. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, which the Cubs, Astros, and Indians have proven in recent years. After you fill a certain number of positions, your prospects are worth more as trade chips than they are as roster pieces. I think that time just started now.

[jon abbey]

Dunno, obviously Andujar and Torres looking like they're up for good makes AAA less fun to follow, but they still have Florial (who is still slated as the starting CF in 2020 if he stays on track), plus Frazier and McKinney once they're back for position players, and this kid Duran seems exciting.

But the pitchers are what's worth watching now, there are at least 15-20 guys throughout the system with real potential. I agree that none seem able to help us in the near term, so it still might make sense to trade Frazier or Drury to the Braves for one of their many pitchers who are close to ready, but we will need to be a little patient for our internal pipeline to start spitting out MLB-ready pitchers.