Good evening all. Before I start my recap of the minor league action tonight, I would like to briefly introduce myself. My name is Eric Schultz, and I was previously a blogger at Pending Pinstripes, where I covered the minor leagues (joining and eventually succeeding EJ), but when I was offered to join The Yankee Universe I jumped on it, and here I am. A lot of my posting will be about the minors and the draft (without stepping on EJ’s toes), but I hope to contribute to this site by writing on other topics as well, so stay tuned. I’m looking forward to being a part of the Yankee Universe team, and getting feedback from our readers. My posting may be somewhat sporadic over the next few weeks, until I get out of school, but I plan on writing regularly once school is over.
Princess Protection Program trailer
And without further adieu, my inaugural recap. I may experiment with the format of the recaps, so let me know what you like best. This is not a complete recap, but just highlights of the more important prospects/performances.
Scranton was off tonight
Trenton defeats New Britain, 4-1
- Zach McAllister had the best start of his short AA career, allowing just 1 run on 2 hits in 7 dominant innings, and striking out 4. His 7-10 groundout-flyout ratio was somewhat unusual (you expect more grounders from Z-Mac) but this was a typical McAllister outing when he was at his best last year: not many hits, no walks, and some (but not many) strikeouts. McAllister lowered his season ERA to 2.08.
- Michael Dunn struck out 3 in 2 scoreless to earn the save.
- Eduardo Nunez and Colin Curtis were each 1 for 3.
- Mexican free agent signee Jorge Vazquez made a big splash in his American debut, going 2 for 4 with a 2-run bomb, and also striking out twice. Vazquez, 27, slugged .529 in the World Baseball Classic and put up a sexy .339/.398/.612 line in ’08 for the Tigres in the Mexican League. Vazquez is old for a prospect, but maybe the Yankees found a diamond in the rough here. He has huge power, but it remains to be seen if he will make enough contact and walk enough to be a legitimate prospect.
Tampa blanks Clearwater, 6-0
- Wilkins de la Rosa made his return from Extended Spring Training(/injury?), and pitched effectively, allowing just 1 hit and 2 walks in 4 shutout innings, and striking out 3. He will definitely be another exciting arm to follow in this Tampa rotation.
- Jesus Montero, DH’ing, was 2 for 4 to raise his average to .367 on the season.
- Austin Romine was 1 for 3, and was also 1 for 3 in throwing out runners.
- Brandon Laird was 1 for 2 with 2 walks. He has started slow this season, and is homerless so far after hitting 23 last year.
Charleston falls to Augusta, 8-7
- Carmen Angelini was 1 for 5 with a double, a caught stealing, and 2 errors (oh, come on!), giving him 10 on the year.
- Abe Almonte was 0 for 4, snapping a 9-game hitting streak. He’s hitting .319 on the season.
That’s all folks.
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12 Responses to Greetings, and minors recap
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TIQ IQ
Great to have you aboard, Eric. The Angellini error thing is getting crazy, although Jeter was doing the same at that age. Of course, Jeter was also reaching base at an insane clip.
Also, what kind of ceiling do you see for De La Rosa?
The errors are a little out of control, but the Yankee scouts seemed high on Angelini’s defense when they drafted him, so I am hopeful he will improve. The defensive tools are there, it’s a matter of execution, and that could come with time and experience.
As for De La Rosa, his ceiling is tough to predict because he just started pitching a few years ago (he’s a converted outfielder), so there are few comparable cases. He can touch the mid-90′s with the fastball, and as a lefty with that kind of velocity he has a high ceiling. However, he is somewhat raw because he is new to pitching, so the bust potential is fairly high.
I am not sure if he has #1 potential because he doesn’t have a plus secondary offering yet (though his change and slider show promise), but maybe a #3 ceiling with a possibility of #2 would make sense. His floor is a minor league washout, and he could also end up as a bullpen lefty with good heat.
Johan Santana is probably the most successful example of a low-minors outfielder converted to the mound, and while I don’t expect De La Rosa to develop into Santana, I’m not sure anyone expected Santana to develop into Santana either. He’s definitely one to watch.
Yeah, that’s about where I had him pegged. So somewhere from a 3 to a Marte type, basically.
Welcome aboard Eric.
BTW, WDR was said to be held back in Extended Spring because his armstrength/pitchcount was not built up enough to begin starting games in Tampa. That could be organization-speak for a minor injury, but for now I’d go with that explanation.
I am a big time WDR fan, but I don’t think he has #2 ceiling. I’d say his ceiling is really as an impact reliever, like a dominant setup type. However, if everything worked out – i.e. his slider becomes more consistent and his change continues toward plus – he could become a strong middle rotation innings-eater.
I agree with you, I don’t really view him as a starter either. However, I could see him as a dominant reliever; he’s probably just starting to build arm strength and have his workload monitored.
Welcome Eric. I enjoyed Pending Pinstrips and look forward to your work here. I was wondering if you know of a site where I can quickly get minor leauge box scores for Yankee affiliates without having to go through each scoreboard on minor league baseball dot com?
Enjoyed Pending Pinstripes and your articles too… looking forward to more of the same.
Eric,
I thought that Pending Pinstripes was great last year and always get sad when a good site fades. Happily this site has come along :-)
JD,
http://firstinning.com/daily/nyy/ solid site for checking on daily yankee minors stats.
Welcome Eric…you and EJ have always been a must read for me. The best thing is; now I don’t have to jump around to read each of your evaluations.
I like comparing my evaluation of some players like; Cervelli, Brett, DeLaRosa, Almonte and Romine to yours and EJs. I must congratulate you guys on your coverage w/minors, it’s great. I’ll travel around the minors again this year, checking out a few players.
This site is putting an all-star writing team together, that…with knowledgeable serious readers, will put this site on top. Good luck guys!
Old Ranger,
Let me know when you hit up Trenton or Scranton. I’ll be out there a little bit this year, I hope. My goal is to get some high quality pictures of our players.
You got it!
Welcome aboard Eric! Just to tell everyone here: I will be out in the woods for the summer again, so I won’t be posting from June 24-August 17th, and I’ll be on vacation for some time in May too. Eric originally came on to Pending Pinstripes as a temporary replacement but was too awesome to let go after I came back.
When Moshe asked me if I had anyone in mind to fill my shoes, it took me about three seconds to send him Eric’s email address.
We hope to bring you all the high-quality minor league analysis that we provided for two years at Pending Pinstripes, but also make it more accessible to the common fan through major league connections. We’re hoping to build TYU into the #1 Yankee blog on the internet, and Eric is the perfect person to add to the team.