With the addition of Colin Curtis to the bench yesterday, four fifths of the Yankee bench is completely homegrown and developed by the organization. This strategy of a homegrown bench speaks well about the Yankees’ development of talent.
While it’s true that the Yankees haven’t had much high-end talent in terms of position players lately, they’ve done a decent job of making sure that what talent they do have is utilized in some way at the Major League level.
Because the Yankees tend to use their minor leaguers as bench pieces–at least until they prove they can’t be used–they are able to keep their bench costs down. And because they do this, they use guys who can be sent back down to the minors if they don’t perform.
It’s basically the same way they construct the bullpen (non-Mo division) and it allows them to have great flexibility. Both the bench and the bullpen are incredibly volatile parts of a Major League roster so the fact that the Yankees generally avoid sinking costs in those spots by using cheap, easily replaceable players is definitely to their benefit.
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5 Responses to A Musing on the Homegrown Bench
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TIQ IQ
do they do this effectively though? sure it is more efficient, but i think you could argue that their bullpen and bench are the weak points of this team.
They have more interchangeable bullpen parts in the minors. It was a strength last year using mostly homegrown guys, and I think it will be again.
The bench, however, I agree on. None of these guys are legit major leaguers except Cervelli (who is strictly a backup), so having them all be homegrown doesnt mean a ton to me.
I like the experimental approach on the bench thus far, though I’d like to see Miranda get more time when he is better (apparent foot injury). He adds pop and excitement. Other possibilities include Jorge Vasquez (if he catches fire at AAA) and even Brandon Laird (if he is promoted to and does well at AAA).
The bullpen needs some serious work. Park has turned out to be about as good a signing as Latroy Hawkins was, and it’s time to do the same thing they did with Hawkins when he was ineffective — let him go and give someone deserving at AAA a shot (e.g., Melancon, Nova). Why not see if Royce Ring can be better than Boone Logan? Albaladejo has been doing exceptionally well at AAA — see if he can carry that lightning to the MLB club this year.
Bottom line — it’s time to start making pen adjustments to see if any of our internal options work out better than the likes of Park (and poor internal options like Logan). That way if the internal options just don’t pan out this year, Cash make a trade…
I’d love to see nothing more than Melancon get the time he needs to gain confidence at the MLB level and stick — I think all he needs is the opportunity and the time.
While its great that the bench is home grown, I wish it wouldn’t suck so much.
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