Sunday, July 22, 2012

Meet A Prospect : Peter O'Brien


The New York Yankees , with their third round pick (94th overall), selected Catcher Peter O'Brien in the MLB First Year Player's Draft. Peter spent his college years at the University of Miami being the Hurricanes catcher. O'Brien signed for $460K.

This is not the first time that Peter O'Brien has been drafted, being drafted by the Rockies in 2011, but this time he decided to sign with the Yankees. He did not have much of a choice though because last year he had his senior year at Miami as a fallback and this year he did not have much to fall back on. O'Brien drives the ball to all fields and has what is widely considered as plus raw power. He is not going to light up the base paths with his speed but he is no Jesus Montero either. His arm is definitely considered a plus and he has shown great improvements at Miami after transferring from Bethune Cookman. His agility, considering his size, is also somewhat of an amazing thing. 

I like this move because after a Jesus Montero trade, a half of a season missed by Austin Romine and tons of question marks, another bad season for Kyle Higashioka, and not much improvement by JR Murphy or Francisco Cervelli the Yankees all of a sudden need a shot in the arm in the catching department. I mean they still have Gary Sanchez but he is never a guarantee after he struggled so mightily in Charleston last season. Peter is basically what he is and not much is going to change. He is a 4 year college pro so maybe he will go through the system quickly.

Peter is playing for the short season A ball team in the New York Penn League. In only 4 games in the GCL he batted .357 and slugged .500 before being promoted to the NYPL. In 9 games in Staten Island he is only batting .114 (at the time of this writing which is a little in advance) but is drawing walks and getting work in while not striking out a ton.


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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)