Steve Lombardi wrote:

Evan3457 wrote:

Best means “best” in that league, Steve.

Think I don’t know that?

The point being…if the Yankees have so many wonderful pitching prospects, how come none of them, sans Zach, are among the best in their league – in terms of being a prospect or having a particular pitching skill?

It’s not “among the best”. It’s “best”.

You can be a top pitching prospect and not have the best fastball in a particular minor league; or the best curveball, or the best control. You can be a top pitching prospect, and STILL not be the best prospect in your league at this moment.

Jeremy Jeffress of the Brewers routinely hits triple-digits with his FB; he’s been commonly cited as having the best fastball in whatever league he was in by BA the last couple of seasons.

Yet, because of his lack of command, both of his pitches on the mound, and of his self-discipline off it, he’s nowhere close to being a top pitching prospect, at this moment.

The Yanks, at this moment, probably have 3 or 4 pitchers in their farm system more likely to make the majors, and be effective, than Jeffress. I have no idea who they are, but I bet there are others who post here who do.

Steve Lombardi wrote:

Betcha Mark Newman and Brian Cashman are trying to blow that notion up the Bros. Stein’s poop chutes…no?

First of all, LOL, the way you phrased that cracked me up.

Second, I have no idea if they’re trying to sell that notion to their bosses or not. To be frank, I’m not so sure that the Steinbrenners spend too much time thinking about the minutiae of the farm system assets (unless they’re thinking about those assets in the context of a trade or someone that is close to ML-ready).

MJ wrote:

I’m not so sure anyone thinks the Yanks have “so many wonderful pitching prospects” this year.

Betcha Mark Newman and Brian Cashman are trying to blow that notion up the Bros. Stein’s poop chutes…no?

one prospect to look for is melky mesa, he can hit

The point being…if the Yankees have so many wonderful pitching prospects, how come none of them, sans Zach, are among the best in their league – in terms of being a prospect or having a particular pitching skill?
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I’m not so sure anyone thinks the Yanks have “so many wonderful pitching prospects” this year.

However, for argument’s sake, let’s assume that the Yanks DO have a plethora of high-end pitching prospects. Maybe they’re just 2nd best at every one of these categories? Isn’t it possible that you can be a very good prospect but that someone in your league is better? Isn’t it possible to have more than one great pitcher in a minor league level with one outshining the other but for that other one to be no less special or talented?

Evan3457 wrote:

Best means “best” in that league, Steve.

Think I don’t know that?

The point being…if the Yankees have so many wonderful pitching prospects, how come none of them, sans Zach, are among the best in their league – in terms of being a prospect or having a particular pitching skill?

Best means “best” in that league, Steve.

Very often, the best pitching prospect in a league will take more than one of those six awards.

Also, having the best change-up, or the best control, at the A-ball level frequently indicates a NON-prospect; a pitcher who’s getting by using trickery, and who’ll be exposed at the AA and/or AAA level.

I agree completely that the recovery from TJ isn’t as routine as some people make it out to be. Although the conventional wisdom is that nowadays pitchers come back from it better than ever, the truth is that medicine is an inexact science and that some people don’t, in fact, recover their previous abilities post-TJ surgery.

I have no way of knowing if the Yanks are victims of bad luck, bad decisions or bad training methods but if I had to guess, I’d probably say that it’s a bit of all three…

Brackman, Sanchez, Betances, Kontos, Marshall, Garcia, and Cox are either recovering or have made incomplete recoveries from TJ surgery, and Kennedy had aneurysm surgery. It is impossible to accumulate talent under the circumstances.

Are these injuries the primarily result of bad luck, bad decisions, or bad training methods? I have no idea, but it does seem like recovery from TJ surgery isn’t as routine as some people like to pretend.