The New York Yankees absolutely love taking talent in the
draft out of Southern California and the state of California in general but
every once in a while they take a local kid with a ton of talent and they did
just that with their seventh round pick in this year’s draft. With their
seventh round pick the Yankees took Jersey boy Keith Skinner, a catcher, with
the pick and have almost immediately signed him to begin his professional
career. Sounds like a great time to meet him. This is Meet a Prospect: The
Keith Skinner Edition.
Skinner began his collegiate career in Fairfield, New Jersey
before transferring to Seminole State for the 2014 season. Skinner spent a year
there before spending his final two seasons at North Florida College. It may be
because of all the bouncing around that Baseball America did not have Skinner
ranked in their Top 500 list but it definitely wasn’t because of his stats.
This season Skinner, a catcher by trade, batted .382/.466/.486 with 16 doubles
and 40 RBI in his age 22 season.
Skinner is a big guy for a catcher standing 6’1” and 185
lbs. but scouts believe he could stick back there going forward. Skinner
unfortunately has not been a big power guy which is evident by his triple slash
but he has produced doubles power that could always translate into power later
as he grows into his frame and his body. I remember when Robinson Cano could
only hit 10-15 home runs a season and he grew into his frame later on as well
to add power so there is no reason Skinner couldn’t either, not to compare the
two players whatsoever.
All told the Yankees signed the seventh best hitter in the
Atlantic Sun Conference at an absolute bargain thus giving them flexibility to
get either Blake Rutherford and/or Nolan Martinez signed. Great news and a
local guy, what’s not to like. Welcome to the team Keith and welcome to the
Yankees family!
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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)