Down on the Farm

[ChrisLDuncan]

We have the 4th best farm in baseball, according to Baseball Prospectus, and the best pitching prospects in all of baseball




BRAVO BRIAN CASHMAN BRAVO!

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/ar...60f8cb0f3e8c76

[monkey333]

Here's a guy we could give more focus on:

http://yankeesprospects.com/player.php?id=250&pos=200

I really stood out for DSL team last year. Does any one have good information on him?

First I've heard of him. Last season's BA dependent OBP scares me but he's nineteen so who knows, I'll wait to consider getting excited.

I don't really agree with the 4th best overall but top pitching is reasonable.

[monkey333]

So heading into the season soon, and we Yankee fans finally have a reason to keep an eye on the farm. Who does everyone have as their "under the radar" prospects to watch for '07? My list:

Pitching:
Angel Reyes(Young, stud stuff, and.....LH! I think he can give us a legit LHSP prospect.
Zach McCallister(Former finess pitcher but now he's filled out and throwing heat, very young)
Ivana Nova(Young Latin pitcher, good stuff and control)

Hitting:
Marcos Vechionacci(OK so not under the radar but I expect the tools and the periphs to turn into performance)
Austin Jackson(See above. Made good strides last year)
Francisco Cervelli(Good defense, solid offense; we may have a real catching prospect, save Montero).

I took some of the easy ones so you guys would have to dig deeper.

[AcidLake]

My list:

Pitcher:

Alan Horne: He has Brett Myers stuff, but unfortunatley, he has Russ Ortiz control. Despite allowing only 105 hits in 122.2 innings and striking out 122, he also had 61BB's-resulting 4.86 ERA last year in high-A. He has great stuff with 93~95mph range fastball touching 97mph with nasty 12-6 curve compared to AJ Burnett's. If he can improve his control like George Kontos, he could be stud.

Jonathan Hovis: Despite leading in ERA column in whole NCAA league as a reliever (1.17), Hovis was undrafted. He was signed later by Yankees and was an instant factor of SI Yankees winning championship. His stats in pro ball pretty much resembles his college stats. In my opinion, he's another steal of draft next to Joba and Betances. He throws at 91mph fastball with slider, but he also has impressive sinker (87~91mph range) that he throws with sidearm delivery.

George Kontos: Despite posting very mediocre numbers in NCAA, he was drafted as 5th rounder as scouts thought that he had very impressive moving stuff. As he came to pro ball, the coaches fixed his control-resulting him as one of the best pitchers in SS-A league. He was also playoff hero of SI Yanks. He features 91~94mph fastball with great slider. His fastball velocity kind of reduced after he improved his control though, but his slider is always a threat to batters.

Hitters:

Gerardo Rodriguez: He showed off his power in GCL last year. Driving 28 runs in 38 games with 3 HR's and 14 doubles. He used to be catcher, but he converted to 1B after the GCL season. I see Adam LaRoche power potential in him if he develops properly. He's also raw

Carlos Urena: I don't know a lot about this guy, but I've seen his name in scout.com and nyyfans forum. According to scout.com, he's the best 5-tooler of the team and may be compared to Vlad. (we can only hope) Like Montero, we'lll see more of him when he comes to GCL/SS-A.

Wilmer Pino: He's a 2B prospect who just had a breakout season in SS-A last year. Based on his stats, he has good hitting, great speed but below average power/eye.

[Mariano_Rivera]

Does Phillips Hughes count as under the radar?

[monkey333]

Does Phillips Hughes count as under the radar?

Maybe to someone in a third world country of something....even then that's a stretch.

[ChrisLDuncan]

He's even on movie covers












Credit www.nomaas.org with the image

[AcidLake]

Here's a good scouting report on Ohlendorf from Pinstripe Potentials blog

Stuff: Ohlendorf has undergone a transformation since he first began pitching. A superb athlete, Ohlendorf only moved to the mound in his early high school years, and quickly started throwing very hard. He was clocked around 92 or so by the time he graduated, and he drew a lot of interested from big-time Texas programs near his home in Austin. However, Ross cared much more about academics, and was able to get in to Princeton on his academic qualifications alone. It turns out that was the ideal choice for his future baseball career, as the Princeton team was more interested in cultivating their players rather than cutthroat winning. Ohlendorf eased his arm in to that of a true power pitcher, pumping his fastball up to 98 mph. He also learned a changeup and improved his curveball. However, his control was lackluster and he often got himself in to high pitch counts. The Diamondbacks dialed down his velocity quite a bit, but the result was a huge boost in control. They also tweaked his delivery for more top-down action. Some people say that he throws a 2-seamer, while some say that he simply slowed down his 4-seam fastball. I can't offer an opinion.

Control: Aluminum bats took their toll on Ohlendorf in college, and he consistently walked more than 3.80 batters per 9 innings. The Diamondbacks made it their prerogative in 2005 to get him to challenge batters and pound the strikezone. He cut his historically bad walk rate nearly in half, and pitched a considerable amount of innings for the first time in his career as a result. In 2006, he got even better, pitching 182 innings and walking just 29 in 28 starts against 129 strikeouts. The declining K rate is a concern, as he struck out 8.25 per 9 in 2005 but just 6.33 per 9 in 2006.

Health: Princeton was the right place for Ohlendorf's developing arm. He didn't have to pitch as much before or during the season as many of his college peers. Ohlendorf is a completely healthy pitcher at age 24, not missing a start since he was drafted in 2004. He has pitched 339 innings over the past two years.

Performance: Ohlendorf was one of the minor's best workhorses in 2006, pitching 182 innings in 28 starts. He posted a 3.29 ERA in a major hitters park. He posted a 1.55 G/F ratio, down from 2.13 in 2005. He solved his hittability problems from 2005, when he allowed 181 in 157 innings, to allow 186 hits in 182.2 innings. As previously mentioned, his strikeout rates declined significantly, which is a major cause for concern. He succeeded because he allowed a very low home run rate (13 in 2006, .64 per 9) and for the most part prevented runners from reaching base (1.47 BB per 9). However, he's going to have to regain some of those strikeouts if he is going to be an effective major league pitcher.

Comparison: I see Ohlendorf as a David Bush type if he make the majors. He can't afford to lose any more of his strikeout rate, or else he'll never get enough major league hitters out to be an effective pitcher. If everything goes well, he has the ability through his control to pitch 220+ innings pretty regularly of 4.30-4.60 ERA baseball.

My Take: I'm mixed on Ohlendorf. The prospect graveyards are filled with players who had great control in AA, but poor strikeout rates. Still, Ohlendorf has a lot of things going for him. He is a healthy speciman with great control. He doesn't have a lot of miles on his arm, but has handled big workloads. I think that he can remain a starter, but needs to move quickly. He doesn't turn 25 until August, but is way down in the Yankee depth charts. If he doesn't succeed at AAA fairly quickly, he is in danger of being passed by a half dozen promising young Yankees. Nardi Contreras and the Yankees have become famous lately for improving the changeup/curveball combination of pitchers, so maybe they can find his strikeout touch again. If I had to rank him in the top-30, I'd probably place him in the middle teens somewhere. At the very least, Ohlendorf is a smart guy with an engineering degree from Princeton, so he has a happy future somewhere out there.

I think he's kind of pessimistic about this guy. I see him as another Wang-type pitcher. Except it's known that he has good curveball. Wang's slider hangs a lot and often gets clobbered

[monkey333]

I think he's kind of pessimistic about this guy. I see him as another Wang-type pitcher. Except it's known that he has good curveball. Wang's slider hangs a lot and often gets clobbered

That's not pessemistic at all. He has him pitching 220IP of low to mid fours ERA, that would be amazing to get out of him, anything else would just be gravy.

[Mariano_Rivera]

http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/news/...=.jsp&c_id=nyy

[Mariano_Rivera]

I got the BA Prospect Handbook a week ago and they rank the Yankees 6th. They include Japanese pitchers and this is before the RJ trade. With the R.J. deal they probably move into the 5 spot at least

[ChrisLDuncan]

I got the BA Prospect Handbook a week ago and they rank the Yankees 6th. They include Japanese pitchers and this is before the RJ trade. With the R.J. deal they probably move into the 5 spot at least

Yeah BA Prospect Book is pretty good, I can't wait until BP's book. I subscribe to Prospectus, and I like their analysis. I know they have the Yankees in the top five.

[Mariano_Rivera]

Someone needs to update the first post.

[monkey333]

Big man Joba Chamberlain looking, well still big, but definately fit for once.

For anyone that doesn't know about Mr. Chamberlain go do some research, he's going to fly this year.

http://story.scout.com/a.z?s=303&p=2...%2f625034.html
Subscription required^

[DoubleX]

Here is a good article at NJ.com (the Star Ledger) about how the Yankees have revamped their farm system.

[DoubleX]

For all you J.B. Cox fans out there, the word is he has had Tommy John surgery. Looks like we won't be seeing him until the middle of 2008, at the earliest. Though it's been said that pitchers actually can come back stronger from Tommy John surgery and throw harder, so here's hoping for that. Rivera had Tommy John surgery before breaking in, so perhaps this is a sign in some weird way.

[Mariano_Rivera]

For all you J.B. Cox fans out there, the word is he has had Tommy John surgery. Looks like we won't be seeing him until the middle of 2008, at the earliest. Though it's been said that pitchers actually can come back stronger from Tommy John surgery and throw harder, so here's hoping for that. Rivera had Tommy John surgery before breaking in, so perhaps this is a sign in some weird way.

CHeck the link. it isn't TJ surgery but he will miss 2007.

[monkey333]

For all you J.B. Cox fans out there, the word is he has had Tommy John surgery. Looks like we won't be seeing him until the middle of 2008, at the earliest. Though it's been said that pitchers actually can come back stronger from Tommy John surgery and throw harder, so here's hoping for that. Rivera had Tommy John surgery before breaking in, so perhaps this is a sign in some weird way.

Heard about this a few days ago. But thankfully it isn't Tommy John. The elbow ligament is being repared rather than being replaced, a la TJ. Heard he might not even miss the entire season. Hopefully it doesn't steal any velocity.

Kevin Whelan will be my shining star in the pen this year.

[clipper]

I miss his injury (was it last year?) but am thankful it wasn't TJ. I like Cox and hoping he could help Mo in the closer role (IMO) or set up.

Yankees signed Eric Burke LHP, 2.3 in ST. He was not in my BP and either Arizona or San Diago. We need some LHP. His quote "I'll pitch right handed between my legs if they ask". Will start in AAA.

I still want to see Sanchez get healthy and back in the pen.

Clipper

[DoubleX]

I still want to see Sanchez get healthy and back in the pen.

I'm curious to see Sanchez out of the pen as well, but given that he missed pretty much all of Spring Training, my guess is that he probably won't have a chance to make the big league team any earlier than middle/end of May, and that might be an early estimate.

[Mariano_Rivera]

I'm curious to see Sanchez out of the pen as well, but given that he missed pretty much all of Spring Training, my guess is that he probably won't have a chance to make the big league team any earlier than middle/end of May, and that might be an early estimate.

I think that Sanchez might have the ability to be an elite reliever. Still he has a lot of potential to put in the bullpen. We'll have to see.

[monkey333]

Matsui's hurt and I say call up Sir Tabata(kidding of course but still):
.667/.700/1.922

Also almost all of our starters(Hughes, Clippard, Marquez, Horne) have gone
~5IP~2-3ER ~5K

[monkey333]

Chase Wright is making a believer out of me. Kennedy also pitching well. Clip got hurt by the D of the SWB infield last night. 4IP 2ER 1BB 4K.

Oh, and Keith Law is dumb...
l
V

[TonyStarks]

Heard about this a few days ago. But thankfully it isn't Tommy John. The elbow ligament is being repared rather than being replaced, a la TJ. Heard he might not even miss the entire season. Hopefully it doesn't steal any velocity.

Kevin Whelan will be my shining star in the pen this year.

Phewwww....thank you lord.

[ChrisLDuncan]

Have you seen Tabitha's stats in high A?

.444 BA / .500 OBP / .722 SLG / 1.222 OPS