-With Pedro Feliciano on the DL for pretty much forever, the focus on Lefties in the Yankee system becomes far more acute. Near the top of that list (forget Manny Banny this year) is , who is the 6′ 10″ 28 year old lefty the Yanks signed out of the Mexican League. He’s off to a fast start (2-0 0.00 ERA 0.833 WHIP 8.7 SO/9) but Yankee officials want to see more. Donnie Collins of SWB Yankee blog has the update:
For instance, Cashman said Sisco’s fastball was hitting 95 mph in the Mexican League when they signed him in the offseason. Now, the Yankees report it’s resting in the low 90s.
“Although you’re seeing the (stat) line, and it looks good, you’re still not seeing what we saw when we signed him out of Mexico,” Cashman said. “I’m not saying he can’t become a choice, but I wouldn’t say we’re waiting on him right now. His lines are better than what he’s throwing. Even though he’s throwing better, we still want to give him more time to get to where he needs to get to. He might become a choice at some point for us, but he’s not right now.”
-Hat tip to NoMaas, this is very, very funny. But to be fair, if you look through that list you’ll notice it’s populated by a lot of great players. Most of whom weren’t table setters like Derek, which is a key distinction.
-Fun fact of the week from a NY Times Yankee beat writer:
: It took A-Rod 128 at-bats last year to hit his 4th homer. In 2011? 29.
Twitter
-So the Plan To Phix Phil begins in earnest. I guess all the folks who dismissed the early camp concerns about Phil’s velocity as “another media narrative” missed this one. There are many crutches people rely on, but the “narrative” one has become among the most tired and overused of all in recent years. Almost as bad as “clutch” is from other camps.
-Speaking of overused cliches, we get it that velocity and missing bats isn’t everything. Anyone who’s paying attention that doesn’t have blinders on knows that. But velocity does increase your margin for error, just ask Phil Hughes. Velocity is like money. It isn’t everything, but its a nice thing to have and makes your life (as a pitcher) easier.
-Nothing to do with Baseball, but this is just cool.
-For those of you who follow the Yankee farm system, OF Ramon Flores made it onto this week’s Baseball America Prospect Hot Sheet in the ‘Helium Watch’ section. Here’s what they said:
• Ramon Flores, lf, Yankees: Can you call a 19-year-old Venezuelan outfielder who signed for $775,000 a sleeper? Perhaps, since the 5-foot-10 left fielder is still fighting an uphill battle with his lack of size, but his swing and ability to get on base are hard to question. After hitting .329/.436/.481 in 189 plate appearances last year in the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League (where he ranked as the league’s No. 13 prospect), Flores had an adjustment period in a brief call-up to Charleston at the end of the year. The sweet-swinging lefthanded hitter is off to a better start this year in the South Atlantic League, hitting .407/.515/.556 with more walks (5) than strikeouts (3) in his first 33 trips to the plate. While teammate Slade Heathcott’s tools stick out in a more obvious fashion, Flores is the RiverDog with more advanced feel for hitting and for the strike zone.
Between Flores, Heathcott and Gary Sanchez, that Charleston lineup is going to be fun to watch this year. Jesus Montero and Slade Heathcott also made the list since they’re off to hot starts this year, but you would have known about that already if you read Sean Potter’s Minor League Update on Friday.
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Can you elaborate on your objection to the “media narrative crutch” please?
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Steve S. Reply:
April 17th, 2011 at 9:30 am
It’s become cliche, a substitute for any actual debate or conversation. The Phil Hughes velocity issue was dismissed as just another media narrative by some out of ST, and now no one could credibly deny there wasn’t something to it (along with his inability to locate, which is likely connected). Rival scouts were commenting on it, yet still some refused to give it any credence whatsoever.
I’m just calling for people to be a bit less dismissive, a bit more careful in their analysis.
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Got it, thanks!
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Steve S. Reply:
April 17th, 2011 at 9:42 am
Thanks for reading!
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On Banuelos: if he throws 80 innings in AA, with the results we hope for, and it’s the All-Star break, with the Yankees in a tough race for the division or the wild card, and there is no lefty in sight, I think that the Yankees bring him up to the majors to be the lefty reliever they need. To some extent, that impedes his development, but there’s also the desire to win this year.
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Justice Beaver Reply:
April 17th, 2011 at 3:01 pm
To some extent…? That crushes his development! he would only throw around 110 this year if he’s lucky. 140, 170 200… It would take 3 more years for the smallish lefty to make that up, and doing it in higher stress innings for the big club. If the Yankees do that, they are complete idiots. No chance.
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T.O. Chris Reply:
April 17th, 2011 at 3:26 pm
I have to agree with the Justice (hilarious name btw) if you actually want to destroy all the work that has been done developing Banuelos so he can be a LOOGY for this seasons “win-now” philosophy, Yankee fans have gone to a level I never thought I’d see us reach. Because at that point we aren’t just risking throwing away bright future for actual Series titles, we are simply throwing away bright future to win an extra game or two in a season with little to no real hope of a WS run as is.
If we are being honest with ourselves this team needs a major overhaul in the rotation from it’s current makeup if we want to even get an ALCS birth, let alone win the whole thing. Just because we are New York and when we don’t win a title it’s a “failure” doesn’t mean we should let that blind us to the fact that when we make these decisions we should actually be close (as in that piece away from) to a Championship team.
As it stands now we need Hughes to come back with either great command or more velocity, we need a trade for at least a solid number 2 type starter, AJ to continue his stellar pitching, and maintain an injury free rotation until the end to have a shot.
Banuelos needs to spend a good majority of the year in Double A starting and if and when he dominate that level as he has shown he should, he should be sent to Scranton until he needs to be shutdown based on innings. Anything other than that would be an awful decision and would likely cause a major setback in a very promising career.
The difference in a WS title and not is almost never just a lefty reliever, and for us that is definitely not the case. It doesn’t make sense to use dynamite to fish a river, use the fishing pole and be patient.
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