2016 Yankees Minor League Thread

2016 has had some issues for sure, but some offense is starting to develop...

First, for the bad. Ty Hensley blew out his elbow again and is probably done. James Kaprielian continues to have elbow pain and, IMO, is headed for surgery that will knock him out for the season and probably next as well. Nick Rumbelow and Branden Pinder both went down with TJS as well.

Next, for the AAA level, which is loaded.
Aaron Judge is 2nd in HR and RBI in the IL. He dominated April, sucked in May, dominated in June and has started hot in July. He's cutting down on the K's of late and is starting to take more walks. He is about as ready as they come and really should be in the mix for RF in 2017.
Gary Sanchez has quietly been hitting well, although the walk totals have all but disappeared. His power is still solid as he's now hit 9HR in only 53 games.
Chad Green led the IL in ERA and is now in the Yankees rotation
Cave and Gamel have both produced well.
Tyler Austin has regained prospect status after a few yrs lost to a wrist injury. 7HR and a .976OPS in 28 AAA games will do that.
Luis Severino has regained his command. 1.09WHIP, 5-0 and 3.09ERA, 38/11 K/BB. Should be back in the Bronx soon
Giovanny Gallegos is another callup from AA. Has struck out 62 in 45IP to this point with only 11BB and a 1.40ERA.

AA is crappy offensively, but the pitching has been really good
Kyle Higashioka is back on the roids, hitting more HR's in the past month than he has in any single season
21 yr old Miguel Andujar was promoted from A+ ball and has raked. Power is slow to come in AA, but he hit 10 bombs in High A. Currently hitting .348 in AA in 20 games
Tyler Wade is hitting well with a .378OBP and 15 steals out of the SS position
21 yr old Dustin Fowler is holding his own in a league well beyond his years. .275BA with 17 steals, although power and BB rates are slow to come.
Jordan Montgomery, Daniel Camarena and Dietrich Enns have been pretty dominant as lefty starters. All with ERA's under 2.70
Vicente Campos has finally recovered from TJS and has been dominant in 6 starts after his callup.
Jonathan Holder is the breakout performer on this squad. Brought up after 2 games in Tampa, he has been throwing ched and has a 0.82WHIP while striking out 58 in 40.1IP out of the pen
Chance Adams was called up from High A. Converted reliever has been dominant so far. 92K in 79IP with a combined 0.98WHIP

A+ level has been inconsistent.
Abiatal Avelino couldn't hit in April, but has raked since. 19 steals is nice as is his new career high in HR at 6 in just half a season. Only 21 and can play all over the IF
Jorge Mateo is the other way around. He was awesome in April, good in May, terrible in June and pretty bad in July. 26 steals is nice still and just turned 21
Ian Clarkin lost 2015 due to a bone spur in the elbow. He's been solid and durable, throwing 91IP to this point. K rate is passable, 1.29WHIP is mediocre.
Domingo Acevedo is the big prize on the bump. Called up from A ball, he has been dominant. 74K in 65.1IP with a 1.01WHIP and a combined ERA of 2.20.
Yefrey Ramirez impressed in his debut with 11K in 7IP. He has been quite the surprise

A ball has been meh
Gosuke Katoh is finally hitting like a 2nd rounder. .297 with a near .800OPS in 26 games
Chris Gittens is hitting for some serious power with 13HR in 70 games. His problem is that he sucks as a 1b with 12 errors so far. High BB and K totals too, a DH in the making
Kyle Holder, our first rounder from last yr, has predictably been amazing defensively and has sucked offensively
A bunch of other guys pitching well with little to no future. Nestor Cortes is the most notable as he has been completely dominant with a 0.72ERA, 0.74WHIP and 10+K/9IP

Lower levels
We have a bunch of prospects of note, but short sample sizes. The big guy I saw listed was Dermis Garcia. He's now played in 10 games. He has 7 hits, but 5 of them have left the yard. He has also struck out 16 times, although a nice walk total at 6. This guy was the headliner of that big class of prospects who just migrated stateside. Still listed a SS, he has humongous power. He's likely to be a 3B, but nice to see him start off with 5 bombs in 10 games

Dermis Garcia hit his 8th HR today in Pulaski. He has 8HR, 2 doubles and 7 singles on the season with 13 walks. OPS is 1.060 and he is 18 for the whole season. Kid is starting to figure it out although needs to make some more consistent contact.

7/18---Gotta root for them against Baltimore. Won't hurt som much because they really stink this year, and will never get close to being in contentio

HR#10 for Dermis. This kid is gonna be a power beast

If we can pull off another trade or two, Nova, Beltran, etc... could be a fun time for us. I like our system a lot now. I'd like to see us target a pitcher like Sheffield for Beltran. MLB.com updated their Yankees prospects list. My own list now consist of:

1. Torres
2. Judge
3. Mateo
4. Sanchez
5. Rutherford
6. Kap
7. D. Garcia
8. Adams
9. McKinney
10. Wade

Really like Adams and McKinney has been a favorite of mine since the 2013 draft. Bumped Acevedo and Fowler off the list. Keep dumping some payroll and I hope we use that to sign Lourdes Gourriel.

Rutherford needs to move up again. The guy is hitting .446 in 17 games at Pulaski.

Moonslav, here are the rankings you asked for

Midseason BA
#19 Jorge Mateo SS
#21 Clint Frazier OF
#27 Gleyber Torres SS
#36 Gary Sanchez C
#42 Aaron Judge OF
#69 Justus Sheffield LHP
#99 James Kaprielian RHP

MLB
#22 Clint Frazier OF
#24 Gleyber Torres SS
#25 Jorge Mateo SS
#30 Aaron Judge OF
#37 Gary Sanchez C
#62 Blake Rutherford OF
#93 Justus Sheffield LHP

Are they ever going to announce the players we received in the Nova trade? I'm sure we didn't get a top prospect but I still wanna know dammit.

2 players to be named. They have 6 months to pick. They got a list and are scouting currently

So here we sit. After the big rebuild. I am happy. Very happy. And the interesting thing is, I don't know if any of the guys we acquired are going to be good, but I know that we just increased our chances of building another core. Years ago, we built a core that guided us through 5 world series titles and a mind boggling 7 world series appearances over a span of 15 years. Not everyone in that core was highly touted.

You had Bernie Williams, an INTL signee in 1985 who ended up being highly touted in the minors before coming up and taking a good 4 years to develop
Andy Pettitte was a 22nd rounder out of a community college in 1990. Took him 4 years after signing to debut
Jorge Posada was a 24th round pick out of a community college in 1990. (BTW, epic fucking draft in 90 to nab two CC players in the 20s like AP and JP). He was drafted as a SS and converted to C. Took him until 1998 to take over the starting spot.
Mariano Rivera was an INTL FA signee in 1990. He was a failed starter who caught lightning in a bottle in 96 and became the greatest closer of all time
Jeter was the 6th pick in the 92 draft. He took over the full time gig in 96 and the rest is history.

In the end, Williams was a well regarded prospect as was Jeter. The other three guys just kinda worked through the process and became legends in their own right. We don't know if the highly touted, 1st rounders like Judge, Frazier, Tate, Kaprielian, Rutherford, etc are going to be the ones forming the new core. We don't know if it's the high bonus or immediately well regarded INTL signees like Torres, Sanchez and Mateo. It could be a guy like Abiatal Avelino, Tyler Wade, Domingo Acevedo et al. But adding the talent doesn't hurt. It allows us to see which ones fail and to deal from a position of strength when the time comes.

Frazier and Rutherford out, likely for the year, with minor hamstring issues.

Frazier has had a rough transition. Sheffield has been dynamite since he came over. Feyereisen has been great. Heller has been dominant and recently promoted (gave up a 2 run dinger today). But of all the guys we got, the guy I am most impressed with is Torres. He has been as consistent as one can be, which is impressive for a 19 yr old. .791OPS with Chicago, .773 with NY. OBP's identical. He wont be 20 until right before Christmas. And once he gets out of the hell that is the FSL, he should really fly. Interested to see what he could do in AA

The Yankee contingent in the AFL are killing it to this point. Gleyber leads his team in HR and OPS. Andujar leads the team in BA. Bird leads the team in doubles. Kap and Tate have dominant peripherals in this high scoring league. The future is bright