Here’s what Baseball America had to say today on Mark Melancon -

You don’t often see a middle reliever make it to POTD status, but consider the Yankees needs in the bullpen, Mark Melancon could go from pitching the sixth and seventh in Trenton to the big league bullpen very quickly. The Yankees love Melancon’s makeup, and his stuff (low 90s fastball and a power curveball) isn’t bad either. After not pitching at all during the 2007 season as he recovered from Tommy John surgery, Melancon, 23, has lived up to the Yankees’ high hopes this season. He had a solid start to the season with high Class A Tampa, but he really took off after a promotion to Trenton in mid-May. Melacon allowed one unearned run on two hits in two innings on Sunday, lowering his ERA with Trenton to 1.14. He’s allowed only 12 hits in 23 2/3 innings, and has a sparkling 21-to-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Between Mark Melancon, David Robertson, J.B. Cox, Anthony Claggett, and Dan McCutchen (if the Yankees convert him to the pen), the Yankees have some good, young, right-handed relief prospects who are close to being ready for the majors. (I guess you could include Ross Ohlendorf in here too.)

When you add these guys to Edwar Ramirez and Jose Veras, who have pitched well this season (to date), the potential is there for the Yankees to have a very strong bullpen sometime around 2009 or 2010. If it does turn out that way, Brian Cashman and Damon Oppenheimer will deserve a gold star for a job well done.