Keith Law’s minor league organizational rankings are out, and the Yankees are 9th overall. After the Montero trade, this seems about right. The Yankees have a fairly deep, if bifurcated, farm system – solid guys like Austin Romine, David Phelps, and Adam Warren supporting high ceiling prospects like Dellin Betances up top, and tons of new faces at the bottom levels, but little in between. Keith Law makes a comment about this:
“I might be jumping the gun here, but I see a lot of star potential on their bottom few affiliates, including new acquisition Jose Campos from Seattle”
Full comment at the ESPN insider-only link here.
I find the bottom parts of the Yankee farm system very interesting. If we divide our top-8 low-level prospects into tiers, this is what you get:
- Tier 1: Gary Sanchez – Sanchez is clearly the better prospect of his peers, showing enormous power for his age, and the potential with some seasoning and hard work to stay at catcher. He’s probably a bit underrated by Yankee fans, judging by the comments I read.
- Tier 2: Jose Campos, Mason Williams, Dante Bichette – All three of these guys are, in my book, basically different versions of the same prospect. Each has two or so standout tools, a strong 2011 short-season performance under their belt, and tons of potential to improve. With some luck, they will track each other across the minor leagues straight up into New York. It’s not all that unlikely that all three make it to the majors. They each have a little bit of “the whole is better than the sum of their parts” element to them too.
- Tier 3: Ravel Santana, Tyler Austin, Angelo Gumbs, Cito Culver – I think right here is where the Yankees start to have some real depth. Unlike Tier 2, these guys are all very different. Cito Culver is a solid, defensively-oriented, fairly low ceiling prospect who is still a very solid guy to keep around. Angelo Gumbs, on the other hand, combines up-the-middle defense (though far from gold glove) with a high ceiling bat. Ravel Santana has the same story,but significantly out-tools the already-athletic Gumbs. Tyler Austin couldn’t be more different – he’s a slugging first baseman who hit the crap out of the ball in 2012. This group is better than you think.
Is this group of 8 prospects better than any low-level group in recent Yankee history? Many or most of these should play at Charleston at some point this year. The group is definitely deeper and more talented than the Heathcott/Murphy/Nuding/Sanchez-led 2010 squad. The 2008 squad was very strong, with Jesus Montero, Austin Romine, Brandon Laird, Zach McAllister, Jairo Heredia and Brad Suttle leading the charge. But really, I can’t see any Charleston squad from the past decade that can come close to matching a Gumbs/Williams/Campos/Bichette/Sanchez/Culver/Austin group of prospects.
Needless to say, this bodes very well for the future of the Yankee farm system. Only one player from this list was in the 2011 draft class, which I regard as very strong. The new CBA may hamstring the Yankee player development, but not before they reap at least one last great crop from the farm.
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8 Responses to Just how good is the low Yankee farm system?
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TIQ IQ
I wrote a piece on Charleston here:http://ctyankeeblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/why-charleston-riverdogs-will-be.html
it might be just me, but i would probably put ravel santana in the 2nd tier
i would too but he he did just have a bad injury
No Slade Heathcott, Brett Marshall, or Nik Turley in your write up Nick?
i was only focusing on Charleston in this post
Given the way the Yankees are currently constructed, I think it is better for them that most of their high end talent is at the lower levels. With so many veterans inked to long term contracts, these kids would be blocked anyway. This makes the upper level prospects expendable because most of them wont receive a chance to prove themselves at the big league level, and since the upper level prospects have more trade value, this is a double good thing.
It will allow the Yankees to let their higher upside prospects develop while the vets keep the big league club competitive. When those contracts expire you can slide in whichever prospects make it. Very good position to be in for the Yankees
I know he’d be in Tampa, not Charleston, but man if they could add Jorge Soler to their system… Off the charts talent at the lower levels.
Is anyone watching spring training that is writing this stuff. You better recognize the grice kid or he is gonna sneak up and ambarass u all. Good to see gumbs get some press. Someone finally woke up on him.