YEEP 7/20/11: Tampa is the new Charleston

Evil Em VP of the day: DJ Mitchell. 7 IP, 9 K, ER. Image: River Ave Blues

AAA SWB. W 6-1 vs Columbus. W: DJ Mitchell
Russo: 3/4, R, BB, SB (8). He's been great since his beginning of the season funk. Honestly it was probably just him feeling down because he knows he'll never be more than a backup 2B for the Yanks. Glad to see him playing better again. I really hope he sticks somewhere eventually, because he might be good enough without Cano to block him.
Montero: 1/4, R, 3 RBI. Apprently all three guys scored on a single. Impressive.
JoVa: 1/3, 2B, 2 RBI, 3 K. Hit, homerun, or strikeout. It's almost ridiculous at this point.
DJ Mitchell: 7 IP, 4 H, ER, 2 BB, 9 K. He has put together a fine season. Good for him.
JC Romero: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 K. 1.5 ERA this season in the minors. He might be better than Logan now.
Kensing: 1 IP, BB, 2 K. He might be better than Logan now.

AA Trenton W 13-12 vs. Erie. W: Whitley
1/5, R, 2 K.
CoJo: 2/5, 2 R, RBI. Started off 0-3, then had 2 hits in the comeback. Maybe I never gave this kid enough credit.
Austin BRomine: 3/4, 4 R, HR, 2 RBI, BB. Great game from him, brought his average up to .282, that's his 5th HR of the season, really quite impressive from a catcher.
R-Ly Lyerly: 2/4, 3 R, HR, 2 RBI, BB, K, E. That's his 6th HR of the season, and he continues to prove he can hit for average. He's got to do better in the field though.
Melky Mesa: 2/4, 2 R, RBI, BB, K, E. He's 14 for his last 37, with 4 BB and 3 SB. the power numbers aren't there yet, but I suspect if this hot streak continues they will soon follow. Melkman delivering.
Boilin Zoilo Almonte: 3/4, 2 RBI. His average is .333 in Trenton so far, picking up right where he left off in Tampa after a 3 game adjustment. He really might have put himself on the radar this season.
K-Flan Flannery: 1.1 IP, 2 H, BB, K. I've been pushing for his promotion for a while now, and I'm glad the front office finally came around, well deserved.
Chase Whitley: 2 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, K. He's had a tough time since the promotion, I'm hoping he figures it out soon.

High A Tampa: W 10-3 vs Jupiter. W: Quintana
Honest Abe Almonte: 0/5, R, BB, K. After a brief hot streak, back to his old self. 2 for his last 22.
Eric Chavez: 4/5, 2 R. It won't be long now, especially with our needs at 3B.
Mustelier Musketeer: 2/4, 2 R, 2 HR, 3 RBI. He has done nothing but rock the ball since his arrival here. I don't know where they found this guy but it sounds like he might be able to help the major league team soon they way he has dominated the pitching he has seen so far.
Rob Seggy Segedin: 2/4, R, 2B, 2 RBI, BB.
Castrol GTX Castro: 1/2, RBI, BB, K.
Jose Quintanadana: 6 IP, 4 H, ER, 2 BB, 6 K. He's 7-0, and he has been flat out dominant as a starter. I wonder how this kid slipped under our radar for 2 years before we finally realized he should be a starter.
Preston Claiborne: 2 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 2 HR. Yucky.

Charleston. W 6-5 vs Lexington. W: Ramirez. S: Montgomery
Eddy Sosa: 1/4, R, 2 K
Ray-Flo Flores: 2/4, R, 3B, 3 RBI, K. He has stopped walking almost altogether (1 in his last 10 games). A hit in each of his last 3 games though. I still think that for now being more aggressive will help him.
Sanchize: 0/4, 2 K. I'm just gonna keep telling myself... he's young, he's young, he's young, he's young.
Higgy Higashioka: 0/3, BB, K. Cooldown mode.
Jose Ramirez: 6 IP, 10 H, 2 ER, BB, 7 K. I think this was a good start. If instead of the 4 E his team had, there was 4 outs, his start would be 7.1 IP, 10 H, 2 ER, BB, 7 K.
Kahnle: 2 IP, H, BB, 4 K, 0 ER. Gonna need more like this to salvage his season (4.91 ERA)
Monte Montgomery: 1 IP, 2 H, K, 0 ER. He has Mark Melancon written all over him. This time around I say we give him an extended shot. (2.25 ERA in Charleston, 6 saves already).

Short Season Staten Island. L 4-5. L: Recchia
Mad Mase Williams: 1/4, R, BB, K
Cheeto Culver: 3/5, 2 R. Don't sleep on this kid.
Angelo Bubba Gumbs: 2/5, RBI, CS (6)
Ben Gamel: 1/4, 2B, K.
Cody Grice: 3/4, RBI. That's what I'm looking for from him. More please.
Gotham City Cotham: 1 IP, zeros. 8.1 scoreless in SI.
Paullus: 1 IP, 2 K.

GCL Yankees: 12-3 Raping by the GCL Tigers. L: Rutckyj
Janitor Custodio: 0/3, BB, K
Jose Rosario: 0/2
Jorge Alcantara: 0/3, 3 K. A lot of these DSL guys are cooling down in a major way now.
DAdams: 0/3, R, BB. They must have faced a pretty good pitcher today, although I don't see anything special about this Duffey kid. 28th rounder.
Yeicok Calderon: 1/1. Left the game for an unknown reason.
Justin James: 3/3 in "relief" of Calderon. He has been excellent so far, sporting a .353 average.
Isaias "the hata" Tejada: 1/2, 2B, R. (.379 avg by a very young catcher)
Ravenous Ravel Santana: 1/4, HR. That's his 6th. He has to get that average up though. I'd like to see him go on a tear soon.
Rutzkried Rutckyj: 1.1 IP, 3 H, 8 R, 7 ER, 4 BB, K, HR, 2 E. As good as he was to start the season is as awful as he's been since then. His last three starts have lasted a total of  6.1 innings, and he's let up 14 earned runs in that time, raising his ERA to 6.87.
Nothing else worth talking about in the pitching department. Horrible game for everyone involved on the GCL Yankees.

YEEP 7/15/11: Who's the new guy?

Evil Em VP of the day: Jose Quintana. 7 IP, 9 K, 0 ER. That'll get you the MVP. Image thanks to... you guessed it, fourseamimages.com

AAA SWB: W 7-3 vs. Toledo. W: Flores
Russo: 2/4, HR, 2 R, 4 RBI, BB. Busy night for him.
Montero: 1/5, RBI, 3 K
JoVa: 2/4, 2 RBI, K
Laird: 0/2, K. He was ejected. Played LF today.
DJ Mitchell: 4.1 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 5 BB, 4 K. I bet no one is up in arms about him not eclipsing 5 IP today.
Whelan: 1 IP, 2 H, ER, BS. He's back.
Wordekemper: 1 IP, K, 0 ER.
Kensing: 1 IP, K, 0 ER. I mention him because I read somewhere he was clocked at 93-94 recently.

AA Trenton W 3-1 vs. Reading. W: Garrison, S: Schmidt.
Ray Kruml: 0/4, R, K
CoJo: 1/3, BB, CS
Austin BRomine: 0/2, R, 2 BB.
R-Ly Lyerly: 1/4, K, RBI.
Boilin Zoilo: 0/4, 2 K. Newly promoted, obligatory adjustment period.
Melky Mesa: 2/4, 3B, 2 RBI. Nice game for him.
Nothing to speak of pitching wise. Steve Garrison had a good start, but he doesn't excite me.

High A Tampa: W 1-0 vs Palm Beach. W: Quintana, S: Burawa
Mustelier: 1/4, R, 2B. Promoted from GCL. I guess he's on the fast track. They did this instead of my suggestion to promote Shane Brown. I'm okay with it (not that Cashman cares that I'm okay with it) because both need to move quickly to be useful.
Walt Ibarra: 2/2, BB, picked off. He's 15 for his last 30.
Seggy Segedin: 2/4, K, E. He's starting to heat up at Tampa after a short adjustment period.
K-Roll Roller: 0/3, 2 K
Castrol GTX Castro: 0/3, K, E.
Jose Quintana (Jose Quintanadana): 7 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 9 K. Look what I can do. You thought I was a RP non-prospect, but I'm 22 years old and I can pitch mofo. Oh, and I forgot to mention, I'm lefty... :-/ hehe.
Daniel Burawa: 2 IP, 3 K 0 ER. That's it!

Low A Charleston: L 8-4 to Greensboro. L: Evarts
Eddy Sosa: 0/5, K
Ramon Flores: 0/5, K
Sanchize: 2/4, R, 2B, K, HBP. He's got a little pattern going of 2 hit games followed by no hit games. Overall, he's actually been pretty good lately though.
Nothing worth talking about in the pitching performances here.

Short Season Staten Island: L 2-1 to State College. L: W. Rodriguez
Cody Grice: 0/3, RBI
Cheetoh Culver: 0/4. In the midst of a mini-slump. At least he's not striking out though.
Angelo Bubba Gumbs: 1/4, K, SB (7). He's done a nice job on the basepaths. Still trying to decide who I like better between he and Culver.
Shane Brown: 2/3. He just won't stop hitting. Gotta love the resilience (.475 avg, that's right, AVERAGE, in 61 at bats).
Gerritse: 2 IP, K, 0 ER.
Tracy: 2 IP, 2 K, 0 ER.

GCL Yankees W 12-6 v Blue Jays. W: Polanco.
Janitor Custodio: 1/5, 2 R, 2 B, RBI. 15 for his last 44, 6 2B, 5 BB, 9 SB, 0 CS. (.420 OBP).
Jose Rosario: 3/4, 2 R, HR, 3 RBI, BB, K. Never realized that this kid is still only 19. They must see some serious potential with him to have put him in the GCL last season despite poor numbers. Looks like he might be fulfilling some of that potential now. He's 15 for his last 36 (.416), with 3 BB, 2 HR and a 9 game hit streak in his last 9 games.
DAdams: 2/4, 2 R, 2B, 2 RBI. Played a full game... at DH. They are just being reaaaaally cautious.
Junior Bichette: 1/4, R, BB, K. 4 games in a row with at least 1 hit.
Yeicok Calderon: 1/3, R, 2B, RBI,BB, K, SB (5). Getting tired of RAB misspelling his name.
Ravenous Ravel Santana: 1/3, R, 3B, 2 RBI.
Edwin Rodriguez: 2 IP, H, ER, BB, K
Checo: 1 IP, 3 K.

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.