YEEP 8/8/11: Jesus, Poised to Join the Dark Side, Forgets to Bring his Light Saber today.

Evil Em VP: Slim pickens, but I have to go with Cito Culver and his 3/4, SB performance.

AAA SWB: L 1-3 to Gwinnett. L: Smith
Russo (Russeau): 0/4, BB, 2 K (.284)
Jesus Montero: 0/5, K (.285). The whispers are getting louder, it's only a matter of time before he's rockin the pinstripes. Maybe he's getting nervous.
JoVa: 1/4, K (.251). No homer today, Shelley Duncan wannabe!
Laird: 0/3, BB, K (.272)
No prospects pitched today, only organizational filler.

High A Tampa: L 3-4 to Dunedin: L: Marquez
Honest Abe Almonte: 1/4, K, CS (10), (.248). Everday I'm hovering (at .248).
Walt Ibarra: 1/4, R (.299)
K-Roll Roller: 1/3, HR, 2 RBI, K (.257). That's HR number 5 at this level. 6 for his last 11.
DAdams: 0/2, BB (.308)
Alcantara: 1/1, R (.143).
Luke Murton: 0/3, BB, K (.285)
Castrol GTX Castro: 0/3, K (.310)
Mikey O'Brien: 4 IP, 2 H, 5 BB, 6 K, 0 ER (2.09 ERA). I didn't realize he's still just 21. Look forward to seeing him in AA.
K-Flan Flannery: 1 IP, Zeros. He'll get his shot in AA next season.

Low A Charleston: W 5-1 vs Savannah. The only win for our system tonight.  W: Dott
Ray-Flo Flores: 0/2, BB, K (.264)
Higgy Higashioka: 0/4 (.241)
Sanchize: 0/4, K (.253). No biggie.
Tommy Kahnle: 3 IP, H, R, 0 ER, BB, 6 K. Just when I'm ready to give up on the kid, he throws together 7 earned run-less innings in a row with 12 K to bring the old ERA to 4.3
Dott: 3 IP, H, 3 K (1.59 ERA). I have such a great nickname for this guy. Alas, I cannot use it. Gotta be PC.

Short Season Staten Island: L 5-7. L: Cotham
Mad Mase Williams: 0/4, K (.361)
Cheeto Culver: 3/4, 2 R, K, SB (3) (.276), E (12). Atta boy, now get some more of those hits.
Gamel the Camel: 1/4, R, 2B, RBI (.296)
Cody Grice: 2/4, RBI, CS (2) (.296)
Reymond Nunez: 1/4, RBI, 3 K (.296)
Casey Stevenson: 1/4, RBI (.276)
Matt Tracy: 4 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, BB, 3 K (3.18 ERA). Got the start for some reason.
Cotham City: 2 IP, 2 H, 2 R, ER, 2 BB, K (1.5 ERA). I love the fact that Cotham City is his twitter account name, and I had no clue about that when I chose his nickname.
Arneson: 2 IP, 3 H, ER, BB, 2 K (3.00 ERA)

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.

Movers and Shakers: Promotions/demotions in the Yankees minors

 Sorry Ivan Nova, you've got a right to be a big annoyed with your demotion, but it'll be good for you in the long run dude... image thanks to espn.com

AAA

Shaeffer Hall was called up to AAA for 1 start. He did a nice job. Given that it was a spot start, I don't think it matters whether he deserved the temporary promotion or not, but he has in fact done a good job for AA this season.

Buddy Carlyle was outrighted to AAA SWB. This is really not news. Sorry.

Ivan Nova was optioned to AAA SWB due to the return of Phil Hughes. He did a great job in the big leagues. If I had it my way, Freddy Garcia would have gone to the bullpen, but Nova will have the chance to become more than a 2 pitch guy if he can work on his change-up while in SWB.

Kevin Whelan also optioned to AAA. He's injured anyway, but has done a great job in SWB this season. He deserved the promotion to the majors, but belongs in the minors when he returns from the injury.

Chris Dickerson also demoted to AAA.

AA

F Hernandez (NOT Felix) was released. Not surprising since he is garbage.

Ryan Pope was sent to AA Trenton from SWB. He was struggling a bit there, maybe he can reinvigorate himself at the level where he originally found himself as a relief pitcher.

Chase Whitley was promoted to AA. He's done a decent job so far. Had a rough first outing, but has done well since then (4.26 ERA, 6 K in 6.1 IP).

Josh Romanski to AA. The bromance as I call him, he has no runs and 3 K in 3.1 IP. Considering we got him for literally nothing, he is turning into a really solid relief prospect.

Rob Lyerly (R-Ly) was also promoted to AA. He really deserved it. I have been preaching all year long about this guy's ability to make contact. If he starts gaining some power, he will be a dangerous hitter. He has proven that he deserved the promotion so far. .305/.359/.783, 1 HR, 9 RBI in 15 g.

High A Tampa

Daniel Burawa was promoted to High A. In limited action he has performed poorly. 2.2 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 2 K. Honestly didn't feel he was ready for High A. In Low A Charleston, he had a 3.64 ERA and 35 K in 44.2 IP. That's good but in my opinion that's end of the season promotion good, not midseason promotion good. We'll see how he adjusts the rest of the season, it's a small sample size in High A so far.

Mike Gipson was also promoted to High A. He's been injured all season, but was listed on Low A Charleston at the beginning of the year, so this is a promotion. Don't have much to say about this except that he was good in Staten Island last season and I've been excited to see how he does all season.

Mikey O'brien also came from Charleston. He pitched great there, 68 K in 72.1 IP and a 3.2 ERA. He had a shaky first start, but since then has been great after the promotion. Definitely deserved this.

Nik Turley is another former River Dog, and this promotion has been a long time coming. He's been beastly in Low A, easily their best pitcher. He had a rough first start, but that's to be expected with a promotion.

Kramer Sneed, left handed relief pitcher. This promotion is one that I didn't understand, and so far I've been proven right. Sneed had a 4.18 ERA in Low A. He is left handed though, and stikes out more than 1/IP, so I guess the old addage, "he's left handed and he has a pulse," is accurate in this scenario.

JR Murphy, the catcher. I can't say enough about how much this kid deserved to be promoted. He was raking in Charleston, and outplaying Gary Sanchez at that level. He's young and he's got a sweet left handed swing. Yet another catcher to look out for in our system. With Gary Sanchez's fall from grace this season, he has eased that blow a little bit. He's struggled out of the gait, but seems to be easing into his role and improving every day, which is what you like to see.

Kyle Roller also deserved the promotion. They picked him for his bat, and he's done nothing but hit since he arrived here. He's got power, and should continue to move quickly through the organization at least until he starts seeing some real quality pitchers in AA. From there, anything can happen. He's played serviceably since arriving in Tampa (.250), but he'll have to continue to improve at this level.

Rob Segedin is another power hitting corner IF who deserved a promotion. I've had him and Roller paired together as similar players since the beginning of the season, and they have played very similarly. Segedin deserved his promotion, but has started off slow (.196) since his promotion. He's got some work to do.

Finally, Slade Heathcott earned a promotion to High A as well. Unfortunately, he has only played in 1 g since arriving due to injuries, however that game was an epic one for him. He was 3/5 with a HR and 2 R. There was speculation that he was bored in Charleston, but I have my doubts. I'm looking forward to his return.

Low A Charleston

Mark Montgomery made the quick move from Staten Island. So far he's shown why. So far he has made all but 2 of his outs by strikeout. He has 3 IP, and 9 K. Actually had 5 K in his first inning. I'd say he deserved a promotion, because he must be absolutely blowing batters away.

Kyle Higashioka moved in the wrong direction, going from High A to Charleston. The funny thing is, people have been talking about how good this kid is for about 3 years now, and I've never been impressed since he has proven over and over that he can't hit. Each year, however, he is promoted. Here's the funny part, he recently had really started to swing the bat well at High A Tampa, hitting a couple of HR in the week before the demotion, and hitting so well to the point that I actually feel he didn't deserve the demotion. Either way, he's in Charleston now, and has continued to hit better than he ever has before in his career (.279, 1 HR, 5 RBI). I actually feel bad for this kid, but the bottom line is that if he continues to hit, he will change minds. Just look at JR Murphy.

Now for the snubs. Who should have been promoted that wasn't? Or at least should be promoted soon. First of all, Dellin Betances should be promoted soon. He's very close. His main issue is control, but with the way that he has dominated AA batters, it hasn't mattered. There's no reason he can't work on that control in AAA. As for Austin Romine, I'm not saying he should be promoted, but he would be in AAA in any other system right now. I'm okay with it because Montero is a stud, but this kid has got to be getting bored there even though his playing quite well still. I still maintain that Raymond Kruml should have been promoted instead of Austin Krum to AAA. He's got better speed, and he's a better hitter. He has 29 SB already. If nothing else, he'd probably be great to have in the majors as a pinch runner in September. 

You might say that Zoilo Almonte should have been promoted to AA. I think we should give him time. He struggled a bit when he was promoted to High A in the middle of last season, decreasing his prospect stock. I say let him improve his stock in High A, this way he could be used as trade fodder this off-season or if nothing else build up some confidence. Increased prospect stock is never a bad thing. Jairo Heredia has been phenomenal, but only recently. He's another I'm glad they kept down because he has traditionally struggled with promotions. Let him get a true grasp on High A before giving him a new challenge. Ryan Flannery is the one snub at this level I disagree with. The guy has slowly moved up one level a year, each year dominating the level he's at. He's not getting any younger and yet there doesn't seem to be any sense of urgency in promoting him. Based on his picture he looks a bit obese, but hell, if you drafted him, then you thought he had something at some point. All he's done is prove that he can get guys out since he came here, I say give him a mid-season promotion for once in his career. Finally, I am not seeing any obvious snubs in Charleston, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

Overall, I think the Yankees did a good job evaluating who deserved a promotion and who didn't. I think there were a couple of mistakes as far as guys who didn't deserve a promotion, and a few where they probably should be promoted soon or should have already received that recognition. In the end, they will get their chance eventually.