Nice email back and forth guys/girls/guys with girl names.
However; your views ares from the outside in. Let's see what an inside out view gets us ( i.e. let's take a look at what talent Brian has been stockpiling for us):
1. Brett Gardner - he played his best ball of the year in spring training. Now he is drifting back to that image of a speedy guy, with no power and who does not hit for average .
2. Jesus - our best catching prospect is barely 18, if that. He has the build of a defensive end, and is more likely a DH than a position player much less a major league catching propect. In other words, we have no Jorge Posada in the system. We have no Joe Girardi in the system. We have no Wes Westrum in the system. We have a guy named Stewart and Chad Moeller.
3. There are zero major league prospect infielders in the Yankee minors, unless there is some rookie squirreled away in the Gulf coast League. We have no one who can play first base and hit.
Alberto Gonzalez is our top infield guy defensively, and he is doing better than projected at ML level ( batting .290...an 0-4 day would drop him to .240). But he isn't Derek. He is just a guy with a good glove.
Some other high draft picks: Eric Duncan is a bust. Mike Battle is a bust.
4. Our best prospects are outfielders; Jose Tabata is really young and hitting about .225 at AA.
"Action" Jackson is really young and hitting about .250 at AA. All of a sudden, Melky looks like an MVP compared to them.
5. Pitching - Joba appears to be the goods, at least as an 8th inning set-up guy. Watch for the Yanks to ruin him by forcing a change to starting pitcher in July.
Phil Hughes reminds me more and more of Carl Pavano..doesn't have the body to play this game. It breaks down if he sneezes. Two years in the "bigs"= two extended rests and re-habs on the DL. He'll be rounding into shape on the Yankee's pennant run in Sept. And since his FB is only 90-91, not 95-96, why is he so highly rated anyway?
Ian- its great to have poise beyond your years, but it is better to command the strike zone. If he walks the first guy tonight, watch out for another 95 pitches and 3.2 innings ( 6 runs ).
Kei - I promised not to say another discouraging word about this internationaly sourced pitching prospect.
There are about 5 guys ( either top draft picks or the "meat " in recent Yankee trades ) re-habbing from TJ surgery....some of whom may return next year. And , there is a jar full of jellybeans vying for a call to the bigs, from our AAA and AA pitching corps. None of whom, by the way, are as good as Bruney was. Not yet anyway.
So far, Rasner and Karstens ( another body by Edsel ) are the best we have seen from our minor league system.
So the view from the inside out is , we are in deep trouble for a long time. Big market strategy or small market strategy.
Brian has very little in-house talent available to get this ship righted in the desperate near-term world of Hammerin Hank.
Don't look now, but Hammerin' Hank is on the line with Barry Bonds.
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Yanks have the 5th best farm system in baseball. Theres more talent there then was mentioned.
Those evaluations are like Mel Kiper's draft evaluations in the NFL. Pretty much fluff.
Whatever the criteria, the Yanks' ratings are favorably biased by views of their "pitching talent."
So far, not much reality to support that assertion.
I'm inclined to start worrying about our system. I've been a believer all along, and Bostowed is right -- there's a lot more talent down there -- but nobody seems to be breaking out.
Look at the levels, and in every league, there's a young guy or two that is just murdering the competition. None of them are Yankees. It's been like that for about two years.
I keep telling myself: Doesn't mean a thing. We have talent down there. Any day now, someone will emerge. Mirandi will start hitting. Battle will figure it out. Something.
But all these Yankee minor league prospect websites have two things in common:
a) A relentless optimism about our players. (Most of it churned by people such as myself who have never even seen these guys.)
b) A constant complaint about the mainstream sites (Baseball America, ESPN, etc.) because they don't share our total optimism.
I'm starting to wonder if we've developed a great farm system or just a great hype machine for our farm system.
As for this season: I'm pinning my hopes on two or three pitchers who will rise up from a gene pool of about 20. It could be names we've heard. It could be names we've never heard.
Also, I think Gardner can be our late innings pinch runner.
If we get that kind of harvest, I will be delighted.
Last year, the Redsocks got Pedroia, Buckholtz, Ellsbury, Delacarmen and a few others. That's why they won.
I really wish that kid Cervelli had not gotten injured in spring training. I don't think he'd be the answer now, but he'd probably be at Scranton, and we'd all be watching him breathlessly. He'd give us hope.
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