Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Two Yankees Appear in Baseball Prospectus Top 101 Prospects List


Another day of Prospects Month here on the blog and another Top Prospects list to bring you, this time the list from Baseball Prospectus ranking the Top 101 Prospects in Major League Baseball. We wouldn't be here reading this if there weren't a couple of Yankees that made the list so let's get right down to it. There is no shock here that both Aaron Judge and Luis Severino made the list representing the New York Yankees.

Aaron Judge ranked 49th while Severino ranked 51st which is surprising to see Judge actually ranked ahead of Severino. You have to pay for the write ups so I cannot exactly bring those to you unfortunately but if you were wondering the Twins Byron Buxton still occupies the top spot.

USA Today’s Top 100 Players You Need to Know


Every year the USA Today compiles a list of the Top 100 players you need to know heading into the next season and releases it to their readers. This week the list started with the #76 - #100. We wouldn’t be talking about this list if a member of the Yankees weren’t on it and that member was Luis Severino at the #85 spot.

This is, according to the full write up SEEN HERE, not necessarily a top prospects list as much as it is a way to list the prospects that could make the most impact in 2015. Of course that has to take into account MLB readiness, how close they are to the majors, whether their path is blocked etc.

See below for the excerpt on Severino and remember to click the link, AGAIN SEEN HERE, to read all the write ups from the USA Today.


85. Luis Severino, RHP, Yankees: The Yankees have been conservative about moving young pitchers — especially starters — to the majors, but times are different in the Bronx. The rotation certainly could use a boost sometime this season, and Severino's mid-90s power stuff could be tough to ignore if he's dominating Class AA. He'll be a 21-year-old in his fourth pro season in the USA, so his workload could be a factor. He increased to 113 innings last season and will be monitored closely.

Greedy Pinstripes Top 28 Prospects List: #19


Prospects Month is in full swing and we're already up to our 19th best prospect in the farm system, Dante Bichette Jr. I know I am probably higher on him them most and I almost put Ty Hensley here, or anywhere after him, but I needed to see more from Hensley. I felt the same way about Bichette Jr. coming into the season in 2014 and he bounced back in a big way in my opinion. Disagree if you want but D is #19 for me. 

Here is the write up from Kyle McDaniel on Bichette Jr.:

Dante Bichette, 3B Video: Bichette is the son of the slugger by the same name; Junior came on late in his draft spring out of an Orlando-area high school to be a sandwich round pick. He’s had a hard time since signing of controlling his at times out of control swing that produces above average bat speed and raw power. He’s slowly making progress by having a more controlled two strike approach, but the Yankees would like to see him use that approach on every swing. After some fiddling, he seems to be close to dialing it in, but he has an adjustment period at each level and still hasn’t tapped into his power in games as much as he could. He’s also fringy at third base, with some scouts wanting to move his above average arm to right field, but the Yankees will leave him at third, as they see enough tools to be average with some work.

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19. Dante Bichette Jr. 
20. Domingo German
21. Slade Heathcott
22. Nick Rumbelow
23. Jose Ramirez
24. Ramon Flores
25. Gosuke Katoh
26. Chasen Shreve
27. Taylor Dugas
28. Johnny Barbato

Meet a Prospect: Kyle Davies


The New York Yankees continued to stockpile pitching right before Spring Training this week when the team signed RHP Kyle Davies to a minor league deal with an invitation to Spring Training. It’s Prospects Month here on the blog and while Davies has enjoyed success with both the Atlanta Braves and the Kansas City Royals I still wouldn’t consider him an established player. With that said I feel comfortable still calling him a prospect and introducing him to you all today. This is Meet a Prospect, Kyle Davies Edition.

Hiram Kyle Davies was born on September 9, 1983 in Stockbridge, GA (about an hour and 45 minutes away from me) and graduated from Stockbridge High School. Davies did enough in High School as a pitcher and was drafted and signed right out of high school by the Atlanta Braves. Davies turned down scholarships from Georgia Tech and others before the Braves made him a professional baseball player. With injuries to both John Thomson and Mike Hampton the Braves called up Davies along with other “Baby Braves” (a term coined in 2005 when a slew of prospects were called up at once) and Davies made an immediate impact not allowing a single run in his first three starts. Davies let that momentum take him into a starting job out of Spring Training in 2006 before a torn groin muscle forced him to miss 10 weeks of the season. Davies was never the same in a Braves uniform after that posting consecutive ugly seasons as a starter that forced him to be traded to the Kansas City Royals on July 31, 2007 for Octavio Dotel.

Davies tenure as a Royals player started right where his Braves tenure left off allowing five earned runs in three innings in his Royals debut. Davies can also be remembered as the pitcher that gave up Alex Rodriguez’s 500th home run of his career before a right shoulder impingement injury ended his Kansas City career prematurely and led to him being released on August 10, 2011. Davies signed a pair of minor league deals with the Toronto Blue Jays and the Minnesota Twins but continued to battle shoulder injuries before his minor league deal with the Cleveland Indians in 2014.


Davies 2014 season was uneventful but healthy and will look to bring that same health to New York for the 2015 season. While a long shot to make the team it never hurts to have that depth and insurance in Triple-A and Davies can be just that for the Yankees. Welcome aboard Kyle and the best of luck to you in your tenure here. 

Looking at the 2015 Draft: 19th Best Prospect



Continuing our look at the 2015 MLB First Year Players Draft we take a look at the #19 ranked prospect expected to enter the draft. As always we will include the mini scouting report from MLB.com as we introduce the #19 prospect, Kyle Cody. Cody is a Junior and RHP from the Kentucky Wild Cats. 

Here is the write up from MLB.com:

Scouting grades: Fastball: 65 | Slider: 55 | Changeup: 45 | Control: 50 | Overall: 50

As a huge right-hander who didn't experience much success in his first two years at Kentucky yet projects as a first-round choice following his third, Cody is following Alex Meyer's career path. Meyer significantly improved his slider and command as a junior, and Cody will need to do the same to cement his status.

A Wisconsin high school product drafted in the 33rd round by the Phillies in 2012, Cody had the highest radar-gun reading (97 mph) at the 2014 Cape Cod League All-Star game. His 6-foot-7, 245-pound frame allows him to generate velocity with little effort and maintain it deep into games. He usually works at 93-96 mph and uses his height to throw on a tough downhill plane.

Cody upgraded his consistency and command of his low-80s slider and mid-80s changeup during the summer. If he can continue to do so, he'll profile as a workhorse starter. If not, he could approach triple digits with his fastball coming out of the bullpen.

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19. Kyle Cody
20. Cody Ponce
21. Riley Ferrell 
22. Chris Betts
23. James Kaprielian
24. Jake Lemoine
25. Beau Burrows
26. Richie Martin
27. Kyle Tucker
28. D.J. Stewart

Quick Hit: John Sickels Top 20 Yankees Prospects


The whole reason we started Prospects Month over here on the blog, well aside from the fact that I love prospects and I am a self-professed prospects humper (trademark pending), is the numerous Top Prospects lists we see around this time of the year. Yesterday John Sickels took his shot at ranking the top Yankees prospects. You will see a lot of the same here, no real head scratchers or bold picks, but I bring them to you nonetheless right here.

1. Luis Severino
2. Aaron Judge
3. Greg Bird
4. Robert Refsnyder
5. Gary Sanchez
6. Jacob Lindgren
7. Ian Clarkin
8. Luis Torrens
9. Miguel Andujar
10. Jorge Mateo
11. Tyler Austin
12. Eric Jagielo
13. Domingo German
14. Jose A. Ramirez
15. Bryan Mitchell
16. Jake Cave
17. Angel Aguilar
18. Alexander Palma
19. Ty Hensley
20. Austin DeCarr

This Day in New York Yankees History 2/10: Another Day Another Steroid Apology


On this day in 2005 Jason Giambi apologized to his teammates, the Yankees fans, and to baseball fans everywhere for "letting them down" last season. Giambi never used the word steroids but we all knew that was what it was about, although he did accept full responsibility for the controversy.


Also on this day in 1971 the Yankees announced that Bill White would be joining Phil Rizzuto and Frank Messer on the WPIX broadcast team, becoming the first black man to do play by play regularly for a Major League team. White was a former All Star first basemen and would stay in the booth for 18 seasons before leaving in 1989 to be the president of the National League.