NY minor league prospect news (2021 edition)

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
I mentioned Everson Pereira two posts up, today he has 2 HRs in the first 2 innings, 6 RBIs. If this wave of young international position players starts performing in full-season ball for NY, their system ranking is going to take a nice jump up.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
Some of the mock drafts have NY taking a SS and I know you don’t draft for need in MLB but their system is already so crowded with SSs. I hope they take the top college pitcher left, maybe Bednar.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
Three more picks before NY, I still want Madden but I bet they end up with Hoglund, who is recovering from TJS, like their Clarke Schmidt pick a few years ago.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
Ooh, CIN takes a SS at 17, that helps. Two picks left, I know the Blue Jays are going to fuck NY with the pick right before.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
Four college SPs still left from the top 20 on the Fangraphs rankings:

12: Ty Madden
14: Gunnar Hoglund
17: Jordan Wicks
19: Gavin Williams

NY will be able to pick from at least two of these.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
Awesome, Fangraphs' #63 ranked player. I need to stop following baseball.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
Well, Volpe looked like a bad pick and he is already a top 100 guy (BP put him at #49 this week!), so I will stay optimistic. I would have taken Madden though.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
Madden still falling, what the fuck do I know. It is true that NY has a ton of impressive middle infield prospects but not much at 3B specifically, which is where Sweeney seems to profile.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
Also there have been a bunch of developments I haven't gotten a chance to write about yet here, but one is that Alexander VIzcaino and Freicer Perez both made their much awaited (by me anyway) season debuts, one inning each in the FCL.

VIzcaino is already on NY's 40 man, one of the SP prospects they protected over Whitlock, and supposedly has a remarkable changeup, big-league ready already (the changeup, not him).

Perez had become more a legend than a pitcher, a 6'8" guy who hasn't pitched since 2018 but is still just 25. He had a great year at 21 in 2017 in low A, 123.2 innings and a 2.84 ERA but he has basically not been healthy since. I definitely wrote about him some back then here.

Clarke Schmidt is another, he has been out all year but should finally be in rehab games soon.

So clearly NY has a much better idea of their own pitching depth than I think anyone outside the team does, who is healthy and when they expect people back and where they slot them in. It just seemed to me like an ideal draft spot to take the college SP they liked the most, plenty of options. Ah well.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
Also we all think of NY messing up their first round pick every year (often true) but their track record of position players in the top three rounds in the past two drafts is fantastic:

2019: Volpe-1st, Josh Smith-2nd
2020: Austin Wells-1st, Trevor Hauver-3rd

Those four are all killing it in their first full minor season so far, mostly in low A but Smith in high A now too, OPSs:

Smith--1.135
Volpe-1.078
Hauver-.962
Wells-.906

That's only about 700 combined ABs but early returns look good on all. Hopefully Sweeney will be added to that list. Right now Volpe/Hauver/Wells hit 1/2/3 for Tampa, who are the highest scoring minor league team in any league. Everson Pereira was just added as cleanup hitter behind them (9-18 and a 1.494 OPS in his first 4 games, 9 RBIs), maybe Sweeney will slot in there somewhere too later in the season.
 

Wingack

Yankee Mod
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 14, 2005
34,360
In The Quivering Forest
Also we all think of NY messing up their first round pick every year (often true) but their track record of position players in the top three rounds in the past two drafts is fantastic:

2019: Volpe-1st, Josh Smith-2nd
2020: Austin Wells-1st, Trevor Hauver-3rd

Those four are all killing it in their first full minor season so far, mostly in low A but Smith in high A now too, OPSs:

Smith--1.135
Volpe-1.078
Hauver-.962
Wells-.906

That's only about 700 combined ABs but early returns look good on all. Hopefully Sweeney will be added to that list. Right now Volpe/Hauver/Wells hit 1/2/3 for Tampa, who are the highest scoring minor league team in any league. Everson Pereira was just added as cleanup hitter behind them (9-18 and a 1.494 OPS in his first 4 games, 9 RBIs), maybe Sweeney will slot in there somewhere too later in the season.
Add in Sweeney and that is 4 out of 5 guys swinging lefty bats. Seems to be purposeful.
 

terrynever

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Aug 25, 2005
21,717
pawtucket
Also we all think of NY messing up their first round pick every year (often true) but their track record of position players in the top three rounds in the past two drafts is fantastic:
Maybe Yanks would do better with first-round picks if they tanked four seasons in 10 years. That improves your chances of getting a premium pick.
 

StuckOnYouk

Member
SoSH Member
Jun 26, 2006
3,538
CT
Does the MLB draft even matter to NY? Their bread and butter has been annihilating the competition in the international free agent market it seems.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
Does the MLB draft even matter to NY? Their bread and butter has been annihilating the competition in the international free agent market it seems.
They have done better in the draft in recent years also, especially in the lower rounds. They have a bunch of hitters from the last few drafts doing well that I mentioned above, but also their 5th and 6th round picks from 2019 are both already in the AA rotation.

NY has made five picks so far this year, one thing that most of the players have in common is that they were rising quickly on rating boards just before the draft.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
So it looks like I had the right idea about NY taking pitchers over hitters, just not in the first round. 6 of their next 8 picks have been pitchers, and 8 of 9 so far have been college players, just one high schooler.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
The current SS depth in NY's minors is impressive:

AAA: Hoy Jun Park. Part of the acclaimed (and mostly duds) 2014 international signing class, Park is not a huge prospect but has blown up since being promoted to AAA a few weeks into the season. He leads AAA East in a bunch of offensive categories, with an 1.172 OPS and 6 HRs in 86 ABs.

AA: Oswald Peraza. Peraza is the most highly acclaimed of these guys, leading all of the minors in DRS and his bat has caught up this year. He has also already been promoted once, high A OPS was .917 and AA OPS is .867 (47 ABs). He is the most likely of these guys to be the regular Yankee SS in the future.

high A: Josh Smith. Smith was a 2nd round pick from LSU in 2019, he turns 24 in August. He has also been promoted once already (after a late start to the season), but he has massive offensive numbers in both leagues, 1.275 OPS in low A (39 ABs) and now a 1.058 OPS in high A (38 ABs), 8 HRs in 77 ABs between the two levels.

low A: Anthony Volpe. Volpe was NY's first round pick in 2019 out of high school (teammates with Jack Leiter), he just turned 20 in April. He has a 1.020 OPS in 153 ABs, 8 HRs.

not assigned: Alexander Vargas. Just 19, he was a big international signing in 2018 and will presumably be in the GCL when it starts next week.

not signed yet: Roderick Arias, the 16 year old stud who NY is supposedly signing in January, every Instagram pic he posts he is wearing a Yankee hat. He is a star prospect, with Lindor comparisons.
With Volpe up to high A tomorrow, I wonder how that will affect the rest of this, every level has a SS who is crushing it except the important one, Gleyber. The exciting and aggressive move would be to jump Smith over AA straight to AAA to split 2B/SS with Hoy Jun Park. Smith is three years older than Peraza and leading the entire minor leagues in wRC+ (https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/minor-league/?pos=all&lg=2,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,14,12,13,15,16,17,18,30,32,33&stats=bat&qual=y&type=1&team=&season=2021&seasonEnd=2021&org=&ind=0&splitTeam=false&players=&sort=19,1), Peraza is already on the 40 man.

Also it almost certainly means Alex Vargas will be up to Tampa after just 9 games in the FCL. He is still 19 and Fangraphs already has him as their #78 prospect in MLB, so that is exciting.

As for outfielders, promotions for The Martian are always welcome, but he hasn't hit much in his first seven games. Alcantara would be nice too but it's unclear if he is healthy, I think that the success of last week's Everson Pereira promotion hopefully has NY decision makers a bit more aggressive with guys who are crushing their levels.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
OK, Alcantara is out for a few more days, maybe Ryder Green, NY's 3rd round pick in 2018 out of high school, he is 21 years old and has gone 4-14 with 11 walks in his first seven FCL games, a .615 OBP.
 

AMS25

Member
SoSH Member
Feb 29, 2008
3,121
Holland on the Plains
As an OU baseball fan, I've followed the career of Tyler Hardman (5th round pick) for the last couple of years. He hits for power and average and was one of the bright spots for the Sooners this year. Alas, all of his offensive prowess was for naught, as the Sooner starting pitchers were either awful or inconsistent. No sooner would Hardman and the Sooners stake a lead than the OU pitchers would give it right back. Sigh.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
As an OU baseball fan, I've followed the career of Tyler Hardman (5th round pick) for the last couple of years. He hits for power and average and was one of the bright spots for the Sooners this year. Alas, all of his offensive prowess was for naught, as the Sooner starting pitchers were either awful or inconsistent. No sooner would Hardman and the Sooners stake a lead than the OU pitchers would give it right back. Sigh.
Interesting, thanks for this. I saw someone compare him to Luke Voit, they must love his hitting potential to take a 1B only that high.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
So here's what we know so far about today's promotions:

Anthony Volpe, Jake Sanford and Pat DeMarco from Tampa to Hudson Valley. All three were 2019 draft picks, Volpe is increasingly looking like a stud.

Jasson Dominguez, Ryder Green, and Aldenis Sanchez from the FCL to Tampa. Dominguez we all know, Green was a 3rd round pick out of high school in 2018 who is 21 now, and Sanchez is the guy they just got from Tampa in exchange for Mike Ford.

What we don't know yet is who is getting promoted from Hudson Valley to make room, I would think Smith or Duran at the least. Also I'm pretty surprised Alex Vargas didn't get promoted to Tampa in this group, hopefully soon.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
One of the guys I have written about the most here, Glenn Otto, is finally getting the promotion to Scranton he should have gotten a couple of weeks ago. His last two starts have been a combined 13 scoreless innings, with a 20/0 K/BB ratio, I don't think it's impossible we see him in NY this year.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
Update on this after another 4-0 night from NY minor league teams:

Scranton: 23-11
Somerset: 23-13
Hudson Valley: 20-14
Tampa: 27-10

Total: 94-48 (107-55 pace)
Scranton 38-20
Somerset 39-21
Hudson Valley 40-20
Tampa 41-18

Total: 158-79 (108-54 pace)
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
Yankee fans should pay for Mike Axisa's RAB Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/RABthoughts), he did an updated NY prospect list post-draft, including this year's results. I'm posting it to show how quickly Volpe and Peraza (I would have them in the reverse order, but either way) are flying up the prospect rankings.

===========================

  1. OF Jasson Dominguez (No. 1 preseason)
  2. SS Anthony Volpe (No. 11 preseason)
  3. SS Oswald Peraza (No. 10 preseason)
  4. RHP Deivi Garcia (No. 2 preseason)
  5. RHP Luis Medina (No. 4 preseason)
  6. RHP Luis Gil (No. 5 preseason)
  7. C Austin Wells (No. 6 preseason)
  8. OF Estevan Florial (No. 7 preseason)
  9. SS Alex Vargas (No. 9 preseason)
  10. SS Trey Sweeney (2021 draftee)
Volpe and Peraza are the big risers and Schmidt (No. 3 preseason) is the big faller because he can’t stay on the field. The next five are Hauver, OF Kevin Alcantara, 2B Ezequiel Duran, C Antonio Gomez, and RHP Yoendrys Gomez in some order, and I’m willing to listen to arguments that any of those five belong in the top 10 over Sweeney.

===========================

Glenn Otto still gets no respect even with a minors leading 103 Ks in 65.1 innings, a ridiculous 103/14 K/BB ratio in AA, at least he just got promoted. Not sure how Josh Smith is behind Hauver, Schmidt and Vizcaino will hopefully both pitch their way back in there too. Yoendrys Gomez is stretched out to 60 pitches now in low A, he should get a promotion soon too considering he is already on the 40 man.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
Almost every draft pick in the first ten rounds under the current rules signs and the deadline this year is very soon (I have read both August 1 and August 15, not sure), so not usually much drama here.

The two NY picks to keep an eye on whether they sign or not are both high school pitchers, 3rd round pick Brock Selvidge, a LSU commit, and 20th round pick Sean Hard, from NJ and a BC commit. Selvidge I'm sure they knew his number coming in to pick him that high, the over slot signings are always announced after the under slot ones. Every announced NY signing so far has been at least a bit under slot, I think around $700K total 'savings' so far plus the allowed 5% overage and we'll see if they have enough to keep BC one notch less Hard next year.

https://futurestarsseries.com/2021-mlb-draft-sean-hard-603rd-overall-new-york-yankees/
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
I'm not going to post every draft signing and most guys are signed already, but those two were both overslot, well over in Selvidge's case. Sean Hard is the one to watch now, but nice talent infusion overall either way for NY in this draft.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
Anthony Volpe is skyrocketing up everyone's prospects list, any top 100s he is not yet on, he will be on soon. He made mlb.com's prospect team of the week again, along with Duran and Luis Gil.

"Few players have boosted their prospect stock this season as much as Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe, whose rise will be reflected when we update MLB Pipeline's Top 100 Prospects list and organization Top 30s next month. A 2019 first-round pick out of The Delbarton School (Morristown, N.J.), where he teamed with 2021 No. 2 overall pick Jack Leiter, he batted .215/.349/.355 in his pro debut before the coronavirus pandemic limited him to remote development last year.

Known for his bat-to-ball skills and high baseball IQ as an amateur, Volpe now is displaying power as well. He slammed his first three High-A homers last week and now has 15 in 65 games between that level and Low-A. He leads the Minors with 44 extra-base hits and 69 runs while also ranking second with a 1.078 OPS, fifth with a .455 on-base percentage and seventh with a .623 slugging percentage

Volpe's exploits last week earned him his third Prospect Team of the Week accolades of 2021. That ties him for the most for any player this year, matching Rays left-hander John Doxakis, Pirates first baseman Mason Martin, Padres outfielder Joshua Mears, Yankees right-hander Glenn Otto and Athletics outfielder Cody Thomas."

https://www.mlb.com/news/prospect-team-of-the-week-july-26-2021?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713

Murderer's Crow

Dragon Wangler 216
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
23,473
Garden City
I'm surprised Boston is at 13. I thought they were lower but I guess the trades of the last couple years have helped. And jeeze louise. The Rays are just so much more stacked than everyone else.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
I'm surprised Boston is at 13. I thought they were lower but I guess the trades of the last couple years have helped. And jeeze louise. The Rays are just so much more stacked than everyone else.
They will come back to the pack when Franco graduates soon, but yeah.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
Five of NY's new draft picks are in the FCL lineup today for their professional debuts, first round pick Sweeney just singled in his first AB.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
Deivi Garcia shelled again in AAA, 6 hits and 4 earned runs in the 1st. Basically a completely lost season for him, especially considering he was healthy all year. He is still quite young, though.