BoyBan Becoming ManBan

Manny Banuelos has a bright future as a potential MLB starter. Image thanks to baseball instinct

According to Joe Girardi, Manny Banuelos (ManBan), widely considered to be the best prospect in the Yankees system, looks even better this year than last. Last year in AA he struggled with his control, but was otherwise pretty dominant all season.

When asked what he thought of Banuelos' performance in the Braves game today Joe said, "I thought he attacked the zone better and was able to get his secondary pitches over."

So far this spring, Banuelos has posted impressive numbers. He's thrown 4 innings with 3 hits, 2 walks, and 3 strikeouts. He hasn't yet allowed a run. The 2 walks came in his first outing on a windy day. I can forgive him. The key going forward will be to maintain the control he showed today over a full season.

Joe Girardi told ESPN New York, "I think his command can improve, and when that improves I think he’s a major league pitcher. Obviously we love the talent and what he can become.”

That control is probably the only thing standing between ManBan and the Yankees starting rotation. He represents an important piece of a possible young core of starters for the next 4-5 years, including Nova and Pineda. CC will also be around for a while, so if Banuelos can show continued success we could be looking at our 1-4 starters for the foreseeable future. Filling out the #5 spot is as easy as David Phelps, Adam Warren, DJ Mitchell, and possibly Betances or they could always go the Hiroki Kuroda 1 year free agent route. 

Banuelos spent most of last year in AA, throwing 95.1 innings there. He then threw 34.1 innings in AAA Scranton-Wilkes Barre. The statistics were a bit underwhelming, but there are a few important caveats when looking at ManBan's numbers. First of all he was just 20 in AA and was the youngest player in the International League when he played in AAA. The second caveat may or may not partially explain the issues he had with control last year. He was on an innings limit. The Yankees' idea of an innings limit is different than some other organizations. Some organizations just let a guy loose and shut them down when they reach a certain number of innings. In New York, they limit guys to 5 inning outings so they can pitch all season. In the case of Banuelos, and maybe Betances too, this may have made it more difficult to get into a groove. Looking closer though, many of Banuelos' outings last year approached 100 pitches at the 5 inning mark, so it would have been inappropriate to keep him in the game anyway.

Regardless of innings limitations and age, the numbers were still pretty damn good. Overall he had a 3.75 ERA in 129.2 innings, allowing 130 hits, 9 homeruns, and 71 walks. He struck out 125 batters for a strikeout rate of 8.7 K/9 IP. His WHIP was concerning at 1.55, but overall he performed exceedingly well as a 20 year old kid in AA-AAA.

There is no question that Banuelos has a bright future. As a left handed pitcher with a 93-96 mph fastball that he has been able to control for most of his career (besides last), his upside is that of an ace. He could see time in the majors as soon as this season, with a September call up not out of the question. He should compete for a spot in the rotation next season, and could preempt the need for a free agent starting pitcher next year.

Some good prospect links

The Yankee Analysts synthesized Keith Law (ESPN), John Sickels (Minor League Ball), Jonathon Mayo (MLB.com), John Manuel (Baseball America), Mike Axisa (River Ave Blues), EJ Fegan (TYA), and Brad Vietrogoski's (An A-Blog for A-Rod) lists to come up with one master top 10 prospects. Hint: Manny Banuelos was #1 by a long shot. http://www.yankeeanalysts.com/2012/02/standardizing-the-top-yankee-prospects-38735

River Ave Blues talks about Burt Reynolds, but not that Burt Reynolds. He's Robinson Cano's cousin and the Yanks just signed him to a minor league deal. http://riveraveblues.com/2012/02/yankees-sign-robinson-canos-cousin-burt-reynolds-64431/

Manny Banuelos, D.J. Mitchell, and Cesar Cabral threw live batting practice yesterday. They faced Ray Kruml, Kyle Roller, Ronnie Mustelier, and Shane Brown, also Yankees farmhands.  Reported by LoHud here... http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2012/02/22/wednesday-morning-notes-live-batting-practice-comes-early/

Andrew Marchand talked with Manny Banuelos over at the ESPN New York Blog http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/yankees/post/_/id/27460/banuelos-i-need-to-improve-fastball

Chad Jennings at LoHud Yankees Blog talked about the one remaining spot in the bullpen, and who will occupy it here... http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2012/02/22/the-one-spot-thats-left/ , a couple of our minor leaguers are mentioned in the article as possible candidates.

George Kontos has an oblique strain, but it looks like he'll start throwing again soon.
David Phelps, Adam Warren, Brett Marshall, Dan Burawa, and Chase Whitley all faced live hitters today. LoHud's Chad Jennings was on the case... http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2012/02/23/thursday-morning-notes-officially-im-nothing/

Greedy Pinstripes did a piece on Zoilo Almonte here...  http://www.thegreedypinstripes.blogspot.com/2012/02/meet-prospect-zoilo-almonte.html.

A while back, they also did one on Tyler Austin. http://www.thegreedypinstripes.blogspot.com/2012/02/meet-prospect-tyler-austin.html
Enjoy!

YEEP 8/16/11: Bad News and Losses

Evil Em VP: Adam Warren

Unfortunately Ravel Santana did in fact suffer a brutal injury to his ankle. He shattered the ankle and tore many ligaments during the injury. Sounds like he got his foot jammed up against second base in a SB attempt. Gary Sanchez is also out for the season with his broken finger.

In other news, looks like we ended up signing 21 of our 50 picks from the draft. I'll go through each one in a separate post.

AAA SWB: L 0-2 to Durham. L: Warren
Kevin Russo: 0/4 (.275). 4 for his last 36 (.111). Slumpy McSlumperson over here.
A-Rod: 1/3. I don't see the point in this. He can help us now, why wait until the end of the week.
Montero: 1/4, K (.283)
Laird: 0/4 (.262). Speaking of Slumpy McSlumperson, 4 for his last 29 (.128).
Adam "the Warden" Warren: 5 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, BB, 8 K (3.33 ERA on the season). Great outing, too bad he had to get the loss.
DJ Mitchell: 1 IP, K, 0 ER (3.52 ERA). I guess he's in the bullpen now that our rotation includes ManBan, Dellin Betances, Warren, Pendleton, and soon to be David Phelps.
Kontos: 1 IP, 2 H, 0 ER (2.75 ERA)
Brack Attack: 1 IP, K (6.78 ERA). Folks, we officially have an Andrew Brackman sighting. That's 2 outings in a row with no runs, 3 in a row that are not so bad. I'm ready for the disappointing appearance that inevitably will follow though.
Whelan: 1 IP, zeros (2.25 ERA)

AA Trenton: Double Header:
Game 1: L 0-6 to Erie. L: Hall
Krum: 0/3 (.252)
CoJo: 0/3, K (.265). Continues to regress. David Adams is ready for AA Cojo, watch yo back.
Austin BRomine: 1/2, BB (.285). I bet there's at least one person who can't wait for Montero to be promoted. Not so sure how much he'll be rooting for Jesus to succeed though, hehe. Glad to see Romine back though.
R-Ly Lyerly: 0/3, K (.244)
Melkman Mesa: 0/3, K (.237)
Kruml: 1/3 (.286)
Boilin Zoilo Almonte: 0/2, K (.250)
Shaeffer Hall: 5 IP, 8 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 3 K (4.4 ERA). I think we're approaching the time when he becomes a full-time LOOGY.

Game 2: L 2-8 to Erie. L: Arbiso
Kruml: 1/2, R, 3B, BB, K (.287)
CoJo: 0/3, K (.263)
Boilin Zoilo Almonte: 1/3, 2B, 2 RBI (.252)
Melkman Mesa: 1/3, K (.238)
Pope: .2 IP, 3 H, 4 ER, BB, 2 K (4.91). And there goes all of the good stats he put up there for a while.

High A Tampa: L 5-12 to Lakeland. L: Casanova
Honest Abe Almonte: 1/5, R, 2B, K (.252)
Walt Ibarra: 2/4, 2 R, K, E (9) (.293). All I do is hit hit hit no matter what! He's done it over 355 at bats this season.
K-Roll Roller: 3/4, R, 2B, RBI, BB, K (.282). 16 for his last 33 (.485) with 2 HR, 10 RBI, 4 BB in his last 10 games. He's got 15 HR on the season between the two levels in 357 at bats. The only catch? He's 23.
Luke Murton: 1/5, K (.283)
Dee Mack: 1/4, RBI, BB (.312)
Seggy Segedin: 0/4, K (.231)
Castrol GTX Castro: 0/4, (.297). Finally dipped below .300.
Jose Quintanadana: 5 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, BB, 5 K, HR (2.86 ERA). That ERA is climbing with every start.
Burawa: 2 IP, 4 H, ER, 2 K (3.41 ERA)
Casanova: Shelled for 6 ER in 1.2 IP

Low A Charleston: L 4-5. L: Gipson
Shane Brown: 1/2, RBI, 3 BB (.274). Looked impressive at the plate today.
Ray-Flo Flores: 0/4, BB, 2 K (.265)
Higgy: 0/4, K (.238) Officially back to his old hitting self.
Gipson: 4 IP, 2 H, R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K (2.00 ERA). Nice spot start. He must have been demoted for this reason because it couldn't have been his performance. He's been pretty good for Tampa.
Dott: 3 IP, BB, 3 K (1.35 ERA)

Short Season A All-Star Game
Mad Mase Williams: 0/1, RBI, K
Stevenson: 0/2, 2 K
Gamel: 0/1
Evan DeLuca: 1 IP, H, 2 BB, 0 ER
Pinder: 1 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, BB, K
Congrats to all of the guys who got to play in this game.

GCL Yankees: L 5-6 to GCL Pirates. L: Cowsert
Jose Rosario: 1/3, 2 R, RBI 2 SB (11) (.308). He didn't forget how he was playing before the injury I guess.
Janitor Custodio: 1/2, R, 3B, RBI, SB (25) (.324). Excited to see him in full season, hopefully next year.
Matt Duran Duran: 1/2, R, 2B, 2 RBI, BB, K (.265). Not bad for an 18 year old at this level.
Bichette Happens: 2/3, RBI, BB, K (.344). A great way to start his career as a Yankee. Everyone knocked this pick, but so far, so good.
Justin James: 0/1 (.278)
Daniel Lopez: 1/4, R, 2B, K (.293)
Gabe Encinas: 5 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 8 K. (5.32 ERA) The 8 K are impressive, but he's gonna have to put together some stellar starts to salvage the season.
Edwar Rodriguez: 2 IP, 3 H, ER, K (3.31 ERA)
Mad Cowsert Disease: 1 IP, H, ER, BB, 2 K (2.41 ERA). He's been so good for us, he deserves to not be judged on this loss.