Yankees Prospect Talk
As I’ve got two bits of content and, as neither could make it as stand-alone postings, I figured I’d just combine them into one column.
First, Jim Callis of Baseball America fielded a Yankee-related prospect question during his weekly chat:
[Q]: Is it conceivable that Montero, Betances, Banuelos, Brackman, Romine, and Sanchez could all end up in the Top 100 List this year? All minus Romine are enjoying very good (Montero) or breakout seasons (the rest). As a follow up, which if any of these prospects do you believe to have All-Star caliber potential? Thanks for your time!
[Jim Callis]: Conceivable, yes. This time of year, I get a lot of questions about who will make the Top 100 and where various farm systems rank compared to other systems, and I’ll be honest—it’s hard to give precise answers without spending hours sorting through every organization. Montero is the easiest guy in that group to label a future all-star. I can say the other guys have that potential, but I want to see Romine perform better in the minors, whether Banuelos can maintain his improved velocity, whether Betances and Brackman can stay healthy and keep throwing strikes, and how Sanchez produces against better pitching. But yes, you can dream on all those guys.
Second, John Sickels provided a retrospective on his September 2008 write-up of then-prospect Brett Gardner, where he concludes:
Overall, Gardner has turned out a bit better than I anticipated two years ago, at least this year.
Anyway, just thought I’d share…
Cano, Gardy, and Frankie have all hit better than expected on the big club. Props to K.Long huh?
Your expectation of Cervelli’s hitting must’ve been reaaaallly lowwww.