ICYMI: Blake Rutherford Is A Yankee!

By Bryan Van Dusen:

Some people didn't think it would happen, as they thought the Yankees had taken too big a risk, but it's true.

Blake Rutherford, the Yankees' first round pick in this past draft, has signed for $3.282 million. He was taken at #18, which is slotted for just $2.4416 million, but the Yankees were able to save a lot of money elsewhere in the draft in order to sign Rutherford.

Blake was the #10 prospect according to Baseball America, but was passed up on by many teams possibly due to concern that he was going to follow through on his commitment to play baseball at UCLA.

I'm very happy that the team was able to sign Rutherford, who could turn out to be a very nice piece of the puzzle in New York.

ICYMI: Yankees Release Jaron Long, Five Others

Every week the guys and crew over at Baseball America bring us the minor league transactions from the week that used to get overlooked in years past. If it weren't for Baseball America we wouldn't know that the Yankees released six more prospects this week including one pretty big name in my opinion in Jaron Long.

All told the Yankees released Long, the son of former hitting coach Kevin Long, along with KJ Alexander (C), Jake Hernandez (C), Chris Breen (OF), Frank Frias (OF) and another bit of a shocker in outfielder Taylor Dugas.

For the complete list CLICK HERE. 

Yankees Release Jaron Long, Five Others

Every week the guys and crew over at Baseball America bring us the minor league transactions from the week that used to get overlooked in years past. If it weren't for Baseball America we wouldn't know that the Yankees released six more prospects this week including one pretty big name in my opinion in Jaron Long.

All told the Yankees released Long, the son of former hitting coach Kevin Long, along with KJ Alexander (C), Jake Hernandez (C), Chris Breen (OF), Frank Frias (OF) and another bit of a shocker in outfielder Taylor Dugas.

For the complete list CLICK HERE. 

Baseball America: Two Yankees in Top 20 Eastern League Prospects List

Baseball American has released their Top 20 Prospects lists for the Rookie Gulf Coast League (Yankees GCL 1 and GCL 2), the Rookie Appalachian League (Pulaski Yankees), the Short Season New York-Penn League (Staten Island Yankees), the Low-A South Atlantic League (Charleston Riverdogs) and the High-A Florida State League (Tampa Yankees) and their latest list covered the Eastern League, home of the Double-A Trenton Thunder. Two members of the New York Yankees made the list, SEE THE ENTIRE LIST HERE, and those men were first baseman Greg Bird and outfielder Aaron Judge.

Judge ranked 15th of 20 on the list and Bird ranked just behind him at #16. The top of the list is topped by the Washington Nationals RHP Lucas Giolito while the Philadelphia Phillies shortstop J.P Crawford was 2nd and the New York Mets outfielder Michael Conforto was 3rd.

Luis Severino did not have enough innings to qualify for the list.