YEEP 7/27/11: Cito Pujols... I mean Culver

Evil Em VP of the day: Cito Culver (2 HR, honorable mention to Jose Rosario 5/6, HR). Image thanks to rocketsports-ent.com

Here are some scouting reports on Mason Williams, Cito Culver, and Brandon Pinder. Enjoy http://www.pennleaguereport.net/2011/07/si-yanks-renegades-scouting-reports-7-21-11.html. Also, Laird was optioned back to AAA, not surprising with the return of Chavez. JR Murphy is on the DL now, I'm not sure why. Also, the Yankees signed 14th rounder Rookie Davis for $550,000, a pitcher who throws a fastball 89-92 mph and a good curveball. I have the full scouting report here... http://evilempireprospects.blogspot.com/2011/06/2011-draft-rounds-10-50-who-should-we.html

AAA SWB: W 3-2 vs Bufallo. W: Kontos. S: Whelan
Krum: 1/4, 2B, 2 K
Montero: 0/4. He's allowed.
JoVa: 1/4, R, K
Lance Pendleton: 6 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, BB, 3 K. Nice start. At some point the team should acknowledge he is a reliever and let him work on that at this level. Right now they need his innings though.
Kontos: 2 IP, H, BB, 2 K, 0 ER. Got the win. 1st time he's had two good outings in a row in a while.
Whelan: 1 IP, H, Zeros. 20th save of the season.

Trenton Thunder: W 5-1. W: Banuelos
Kruml: 1/4, K
CoJo: 1/5, RBI, 2 K. (.273)
Austin BRomine: 1/5, R, 2B, K (.285). Hang in there bro, this is when you really slipped last season
R-Ly Lyerly: 3/5, RBI. (.288) Stand by my major league comparison: Lyle Overbay (maybe it's just because they both have a Ly in their name?)
Melky Mesa: 1/5, R, K, SB (14), CS (11). (.229) A Microcosm of his season so far. He's been much better lately, but I'm skeptical of him.
Boilin Zoilo Almonte: 1/3, R, BB. (.275)
Banuelos: 6.1 IP, 5 H, ER, 3 BB, 5 K, HR. If he hadn't gone out for the 7th, his line would have been 6 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K. It was good experience for him though since he has struggled even to make it past the 5th inning recently. His ERA is 3.59 now. Not bad for a 20 year old in AA

High A Tampa: W 6-1 vs Fort Myers. W: O'Brien
DAdams: 1/5, R
Ronnier Mustelier Musketeer: 2/5, 2B, R, RBI, K. I'm interested to see if he's another JoVa, where he destroys the lower level pitching and then freaks out as soon as he has to hit a curveball/change
K-Roll Roller: 0/5, 3 K.
Seggy Segedin: 1/4, R, RBI
Murton: 1/2, 2B, 2 BB. Getting back to his early season successes.
Mikey O'Brien: 5 IP, 4 H, ER, BB, 3 K. 2.57 ERA, the next David Phelps, I'm convinced.
Daniel Burawa: 3 IP, 2 H, BB, 0 ER. After a shaky start, he has been really good here.
Gipson: 1 IP, H, 0 ER. His first three at this level were rough, since then, hasn't let up a run in his last three.

Short Season Staten Island: W 10-1. W: Oliver
Mad Mase Williams: 2/5, 2 R, RBI, K (.345). Yum
Cheeto Culver: 2/4, 3 R, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 2 BB. First two homers of the season. Funny how the above scouting report was surprised his pop hadn't showed up, and here it is.
Angelo Bubba Gumbs: 0/4, 2 BB, 3 K. Well there's the walks, I guess.
Cody Grice: 0/4, BB, K. Well there's the walk (singular), I guess.
Ben Gamel: 2/4, R, 2B, RBI, BB.(average up to .242) 11 for his last 30 (.367), 5 2B, 11 RBI, 4 BB. Pretty good. I'd like to call him Gamel the Camel because he was off to a slow start, but he holds water (crickets?).
Gotham City Cotham: 2 IP, 3 H, ER, BB, 5 K. That would be his first run in 12.1 innings of work thus far at this level, good for a .73 ERA. He also has 20 K during that time period. Coming soon to a theatre near you: Gotham City gets promoted to Charleston.
Phil Wetherell: 1 IP, H, 2 K. Lookin good Phil.

GCL Yankees: W 12-5 vs GCL Blue Jays. This team means business. I know it doesn't matter at this level but these guys really don't like to lose (22-11 and in first place).
Jose Rosario: 5/6, 2 R, 2B, HR (4), 3 RBI. (.330) Have a day Jose!
Daniel Lopez: 1/6, R, 2B, 2 K, SB (14). Daniel-son has speed to burn.
Dante Bichette: 2/5, 2 R, BB, 2 K. All the things I said yesterday +1 (7 of last 8 multi-hit games, 13 game hit streak (.336)
Duran: 0/4, 2 K. Rough first game
Henry Pena: 3/3, 2 R, 2B, 3B, 3 RBI, BB. Jeez, if someone is struggling on this team, just put them in the OF for a bit. There is so much talent in this OF it's ridiculous.
Yeicok Calderon: 1/5, R, HR, 2 RBI, BB, 2 K. That's his 5th HR. I thought he had more.
Reynaldo Polanco: 5 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 9 K, HR. 2.45 ERA in his last 5 outings (4.5 ERA total). He has 21 K in that time period, and just 3 BB. He's only 18 years old out of the DR, so this is actually pretty impressive.
Daniel D-Mart Martinez: 1 IP, 1 K, 0 ER. 20 year old out of Venezuela. 1.5 ERA so far in the GCL.

Scouting the GCL Starting Rotation

Image: Gabriel Encinas. Source: www.InsideSoCal.com

1. Gabriel Encinas - 18 yo RHP, 6'4, 210 lbs. 88-92 MPH fastball with lots of life and sink. Weak curveball. Decent changeup could be an average pitch. "Terrific competitive nature on the mound; goes right after hitters. Chance to have three average pitches, all of which he'll throw for strikes." - via MLB.com. Got him in last year's draft.

2. Gavin Brooks- 23 yo RHP out of UCLA. 6'3 220 lbs.

"His coach in college would only call for the slow curve ball but he was able to develop a harder breaking ball at Staten Island that he throws five mph faster. It’s either a harder curve ball or a slurve. Brooks calls it a slider. He throws it 78-79 mph and it has lateral movement and it breaks down. In college he threw a slower curve ball known as a spike curve ball but it’s more of a get me over pitch right now. He threw it in the low 70′s.
Brooks has a relatively free and easy delivery and his four-seam fastball has good sink and it sits between 89-91 mph. On occasion, he could throw his fastball at 94 mph. He’ll also try to throw a two-seam fastball to get ground ball outs when he’s behind in the count but it’s a new pitch for him." via YankeesDaily.com

3. Evan Rutckyj- 19 yo LHP. 6'5 213 lbs.  River Ave. Blues write up. RAB does a good job with this one.

4. Taylor Morton-19 yo RHP 6'3 194 lbs. River ave blues write up. And this one. 

5. Dawerd Cruz or Reynaldo Polanco- couldn't find anything on these two. Polanco is just 18, and has had limited experience even in the DSL, where he had a 7.67 ERA in 31.2 IP. Here he similarly got destroyed in his GCL debut, letting up 6 ER in 3 IP. Not sure where this one came from, or why he started. Maybe they got him confused with Rafael Depaula? Not sure. Dawerd Cruz has performed well in the DSL and gave us 4 strong innings of relief in the Stoneburner rehab start. He had 6 K and let up 2 hits in those 4 IP. He is 22 years old.

Overall I think it's a pretty good rotation. There are some older guys on it like Brooks and Dawerd Cruz, but Encinas, Morton, and Rutckyj are all young and projectable starters who could make an impact. It will be fun to follow these guys this season. Unfortunately, today's game with Morton pitching was rained out, but he did throw a scoreless innings before the game was suspended.