NY minor league prospect news (2023 edition)
- Thread starter jon abbey
- Start date
YES cut away because they had to show the Nets pregame, crucial.
Selvidge and Lalane (pronounced 'la-la-knee' evidently) were both really impressive, 6 2 0 0 2 11 combined.
Guys try to sit on Lalane's fastball and then look very silly when he loops a curve in. Selvidge could start at AA, more likely high A, and Lalane I assume will start in low A after being in rookie ball last season. Selvidge is just 21 (and was already up to 127.2 innings last year in low A/high A), Lalane is still 19.
Selvidge and Lalane (pronounced 'la-la-knee' evidently) were both really impressive, 6 2 0 0 2 11 combined.
Guys try to sit on Lalane's fastball and then look very silly when he loops a curve in. Selvidge could start at AA, more likely high A, and Lalane I assume will start in low A after being in rookie ball last season. Selvidge is just 21 (and was already up to 127.2 innings last year in low A/high A), Lalane is still 19.
Oh, also, just as impressive as Jones’ 2 HRs was an AB in between. He hit a high hopper with a strange spin right to the second baseman but initially he thought he fouled it off and he didn’t run. After a second, he realized, started running, and still somehow beat the ball to first. He is exceptionally fast, 43 SBs in 117 games last year.
His speed was 29.8 MPH on this play, fastest of anyone in any of the prospect games. He is a superhuman athlete who will start in AA and who has a lot of guys in front of him right now, but who might be hard to keep in the minors too much longer.
No doubt he's very fast, but that number is not possible. The fastest NFL running backs / receivers don't usually hit over 22-23 MPH. Usain Bolt was going 27 MPH at his absolute fastest in his WR 100M run.
It would be cool if Spencer Jones was the fastest human ever to live, and he showed it when beating out an infield single, but i doubt it, haha
Heh, I was just repeating it from this generally reliable Yankee prospect guy but I don't know where he got it from.
View: https://twitter.com/dmh0726/status/1770312011965989302
I do know that Jones's fastest home to third time last year in the minors tied Corbin Carroll who had the fastest one in MLB all season, so he's one of the fastest baseball players at least, which is incredible at his size.
Ah, there you have it, it's feet per second. 30 feet/second is over 20 MPH. So he hit 20+ MPH in under 30 meters (90 foot basepath).
Usain Bolt hit his top speed like ~70M into the 100M dash. So Spencer Jones is very fast. That's certainly top-tier football player athleticism at his size. Jones may be like a DK Metcalf lite.
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sprint_speed_leaderboard (pretty much every player over 30 ft/s there is significantly smaller than Jones. Maybe all of them)
It's not an average of the total time to first, just the fastest second of it.
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sprint_speed_leaderboard
AAA Scranton kicking off their season this afternoon in frigid (feels like 30s) Buffalo.
Will Warren got Yamamoto'd (5 ERs in the 1st) but NY has come back with 3 in the 4th and 7 in the 5th and is up 11-7 now. This team doesn't have too many prospects on it currently, a lot of AAAA players like Jeter Downs and Jordan Groshans, but third string catcher Carlos Narvaez has a homer and a double and 3 RBIs so far.
Will Warren got Yamamoto'd (5 ERs in the 1st) but NY has come back with 3 in the 4th and 7 in the 5th and is up 11-7 now. This team doesn't have too many prospects on it currently, a lot of AAAA players like Jeter Downs and Jordan Groshans, but third string catcher Carlos Narvaez has a homer and a double and 3 RBIs so far.
For the last few years, NY has made minor league lineups by just putting the prospects they believe in the most at the top. So Spencer Jones was scheduled to lead off for AA Somerset in their opener tonight, but he woke up with a stiff neck and was scratched. Ben Rice replaced him at leadoff, Agustin Ramirez hitting second, and they hit back to back homers to open the game and Somerset's season.
Roderick Arias with a game-winning HR in his low A debut.
View: https://twitter.com/nickflammia/status/1776457489602474351?s=46&t=0GHHaPVUX26Io0V2HIcS0g
View: https://twitter.com/nickflammia/status/1776457489602474351?s=46&t=0GHHaPVUX26Io0V2HIcS0g
When last we left Caleb Durbin (a 2021 14th round pick by ATL who Cashman got for Lucas Luetge), he was taking a run at the Arizona Fall League SB record last November. He ended up with 21 in 23 games (2nd most ever) and a 1.000+ OPS (5th in the league). He turned 24 in February and is 5'6". What position does he play? I'm glad you asked, he has had nine games so far for AAA SWB this year:
4 at 2B
1 at SS
1 at 3B
1 in LF
1 in CF
1 at DH
He is leading off for Scranton and wreaking havoc, hitting .469 with 14 RBIs and 7 SBs (0 CS) in 9 games, 1.352 OPS from the leadoff position. I thought he had a shot to make NY out of spring training before they traded for Berti, but we could definitely see him this year (he is not on the 40 man but has to be protected this offseason).
https://www.milb.com/player/caleb-durbin-702332
4 at 2B
1 at SS
1 at 3B
1 in LF
1 in CF
1 at DH
He is leading off for Scranton and wreaking havoc, hitting .469 with 14 RBIs and 7 SBs (0 CS) in 9 games, 1.352 OPS from the leadoff position. I thought he had a shot to make NY out of spring training before they traded for Berti, but we could definitely see him this year (he is not on the 40 man but has to be protected this offseason).
https://www.milb.com/player/caleb-durbin-702332
Durbin second on the MiLB power rankings (hitters and pitchers combined), right ahead of the much discussed Jackson Holliday.
https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resource/minor-league-power-rankings?pagenum=1&pageitems=100
https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resource/minor-league-power-rankings?pagenum=1&pageitems=100
Damn, bring that kid up. I've got nothing against Berti, who is fine for his role, but if Durbin is already 24, can play all over the field, and Peraza is going to be gone for a while, give him a long look now.
Edit: Unless he's mediocre-to-poor defensively all over the field.
Edit: Unless he's mediocre-to-poor defensively all over the field.
I don't think he ever played OF before this week, of course Cabrera didn't really play OF until the week they brought him up to MLB.
Thanks Jon. That's a good reminder that the Yankees aren't afraid of being aggressive if they think a prospect can handle a job.
It really sucks that Peraza is injured with DJ on the shelf. Would have been such a great opportunity for him.
It really sucks that Peraza is injured with DJ on the shelf. Would have been such a great opportunity for him.
Agustin Ramirez is a 22 year old catching prospect who is not ready for MLB but is on NY's 40 man anyway, clearly NY has high expectations. He forced himself on last season by hitting 9 HRs in 112 ABs in high A a 1.144 OPS. He got promoted to AA mid-2023 and struggled (also just 128 ABs) but he began this year back in AA and is on fire, 4 HRs in the first 5 games and a 1.151 OPS.
https://www.milb.com/player/agustin-ramirez-682663
https://www.milb.com/player/agustin-ramirez-682663
After the 2021 season, when Cashman was settling on his rule 5 40 man protectees, he traded promising but raw reliever Nick Nelson to the Phillies for two minor leaguers. One was TJ Rumfield, who had been a 12th round pick for PHI just that past summer.
Now Rumfield is 23 and has pushed his way into the fringe of the 'so who the hell is the 1B if Rizzo goes down?*' discussion. He was promoted to Scranton this week and is hitting #3 for them (NY in recent seasons seems to order the top of their minor league lineups in what they think is their potential, for instance power hitting stud Spencer Jones is currently leading off in AA), and has 4 hits in his first 2 games, 1.339 OPS (tiny sample size obv).
https://www.milb.com/player/t-j-rumfield-681198?stats=career-r-hitting-all&year=2024
*If Rizzo goes down after DJ is back, DJ is the 1B. Wells has also been taking grounders there at times.
Now Rumfield is 23 and has pushed his way into the fringe of the 'so who the hell is the 1B if Rizzo goes down?*' discussion. He was promoted to Scranton this week and is hitting #3 for them (NY in recent seasons seems to order the top of their minor league lineups in what they think is their potential, for instance power hitting stud Spencer Jones is currently leading off in AA), and has 4 hits in his first 2 games, 1.339 OPS (tiny sample size obv).
https://www.milb.com/player/t-j-rumfield-681198?stats=career-r-hitting-all&year=2024
*If Rizzo goes down after DJ is back, DJ is the 1B. Wells has also been taking grounders there at times.
Some fun games from NY's top prospects tonight:
George Lombard Jr. was NY's 1st round pick last year out of high school, he does not turn 19 until June. He is in low A Tampa and is heating leadoff every night for them, ahead of Roderick Arias (also 18, also in low A) so you can tell how highly the Yankees think of him. He has not hit too much yet but he is walking an absurd amount through 12 games, 19 walks and just 41 ABs. This happened some to Jasson Dominguez at a low level too as I recall, but looking at the numbers they are nowhere close to this (again just two weeks).
Anyway Lombard Jr. was on base six times in a nine inning game tonight, a 9-5 win, 2-2 and 4 walks (!!!).
Everson Pereira is overlooked by everyone currently behind Judge and Soto and Dominguez and Verdugo and Spencer Jones and Grisham (gold glove CF), but he just turned 23 in April and he is very hot in AAA so far;. Tonight he hit 2 HRs, so 6 in 55 ABs so far, up to a .977 OPS. If you (we) are judging him at all on his lousy 93 ABs in 2023 for NY, let's remember he was born literally the same month as Volpe (April 2001, we are old) and Volpe didn't exactly hit well last year.
Will Warren is probably down to 7th currently on NY's SP depth chart after Poteet's extremely strong spot outing this week, but he is getting better every start in AAA, six shutout innings tonight. The first one was in Buffalo in late March, very bad weather conditions:
0.1 3 5 5 3 0
4 3 2 1 2 5
5 4 3 3 2 8
6 2 0 0 1 7
TL/DR: George Lombard Jr was on base six times tonight in a nine inning game, Everson Pereira hit two HRs and Will Warren threw six scoreless in AAA.
George Lombard Jr. was NY's 1st round pick last year out of high school, he does not turn 19 until June. He is in low A Tampa and is heating leadoff every night for them, ahead of Roderick Arias (also 18, also in low A) so you can tell how highly the Yankees think of him. He has not hit too much yet but he is walking an absurd amount through 12 games, 19 walks and just 41 ABs. This happened some to Jasson Dominguez at a low level too as I recall, but looking at the numbers they are nowhere close to this (again just two weeks).
Anyway Lombard Jr. was on base six times in a nine inning game tonight, a 9-5 win, 2-2 and 4 walks (!!!).
Everson Pereira is overlooked by everyone currently behind Judge and Soto and Dominguez and Verdugo and Spencer Jones and Grisham (gold glove CF), but he just turned 23 in April and he is very hot in AAA so far;. Tonight he hit 2 HRs, so 6 in 55 ABs so far, up to a .977 OPS. If you (we) are judging him at all on his lousy 93 ABs in 2023 for NY, let's remember he was born literally the same month as Volpe (April 2001, we are old) and Volpe didn't exactly hit well last year.
Will Warren is probably down to 7th currently on NY's SP depth chart after Poteet's extremely strong spot outing this week, but he is getting better every start in AAA, six shutout innings tonight. The first one was in Buffalo in late March, very bad weather conditions:
0.1 3 5 5 3 0
4 3 2 1 2 5
5 4 3 3 2 8
6 2 0 0 1 7
TL/DR: George Lombard Jr was on base six times tonight in a nine inning game, Everson Pereira hit two HRs and Will Warren threw six scoreless in AAA.