Each year, Keith Law follows his top 100 prospects list with a list of sleepers not in the top 100 who might take large leaps in the upcoming minor league season. Last year’s list is peppered with prospects that are now highly regarded, with Arodys Vizcaino being the Yankee entrant in 2009. In 2010, the Yankee sleeper is Jose Ramirez:
Right-hander Jose Ramirez is long and loose with room to fill out, but can already run his fastball up to 95-96, locate it to his glove side and turn over a changeup. His main drawback is the lack of an average breaking ball.
Ramirez, the Short Season Pitcher of the Year, was 6th on KLaw’s top 10 Yankee prospects list, behind Montero, Banuelos, McCallister, Romine, and Heathcott. He was only 18th on John Sickels list, but Sickels did tout him as a sleeper for 2010 as well. Greg over at Pending Pinstripes has been high on Ramirez for a while now, and recently profiled the large righty:
After the 2008 season, the Yankee pitching gurus tweaked Jose Ramirez’s delivery. He now has a much easier delivery with a stronger finish. I believe he added some weight, and that also contributed to the added velocity. Towards the end of the year, he was sitting 94-95 with his fastball and topping out at 96. Right now though, his most impressive pitch is his changeup. He throws it from the same arm slot as his fastball and it is very deceiving. At times, it flashes being a plus plus pitch for Ramirez. His third pitch is a curveball that definitely needs some work, which is the one knock on Ramirez right now.
The Yankees seem to be doing a good job utilizing their financial advantage in the international talent marketplace, unearthing gems such as Vizcaino, Ramirez, and Banuelos. Unless MLB institutes an international draft, this should be a source of talent for the Yankees for many years to come.
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9 Responses to Law: Keep An Eye On Jose Ramirez
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TIQ IQ
Here’s to the Yankees wanting to get younger and develop prime prospects.
. . . and then turning around trading them for Javier Vasquez and Curtis Granderson.
Please, The players lost in both trades weren’t much except for Austin Jackson.
I’m confused by this comment. The development of prospects enables the team to trade certain of them for fortifications for the never-ending quest to win championships. You’d rather have Austin Jackson, Ian Kennedy and Arodys Vizcaino in the minors or Curtis Granderson and Javier Vazquez in the majors?
I don’t think he meant it as a bad thing. Maybe I’m just reading it differently cause I’m an upbeat person, lol. Hell, I still think Johnny will be a Yankee!
You’re probably right. I couldn’t really tell the tone of his comment so I gues it was a potentially pre-emptive strike in favor of developing prospects and then trading them for established All-Star caliber talent when the circumstances dictate such a trade.
I just want the Yankees to spend like 20 million on international prospects this year. I genuinely worry about a world wide draft, because that will completely squash the chances of the Yankees using the advantage that they have; money. The Yankees need to act like the high school basketball players before David Stern initiated the “High Schooler’s need to go to college” rule; jump in now, before the chance gets taken away. High upside, top of the line kids should get signed up; if there are 10 high profile ball players, instead of signing one of them, they should get 5-10 of them.
That said, players like Jose Ramirez will probably still be available to the Yankees. It’s the Jesus Montero types that will not be available. I mean, even though he was draft eligible, Albert Pujols fell to like the 13th round or so, so there is talent to find.
Does anyone know if Jose Ramirez will start the season in Low-A Charleston? Considering Ramirez has done his time in SS ball, I can’t imagine he’d start anywhere else but Charleston. If so, we’ll be able to follow both JoRam and A-Viz in Low-A ball. Pretty awesome if you ask me.
This worldwide draft possibility in a couple years troubles me as well. I think we’ll hear more about this new draft’s viability in five months when the International signing period arrives and when the Yanks scouting dept goes ape-sh^t and signs Sano v.2.