Sunday, March 11, 2018

All Star Prospect Moments

As the days dwindle down toward the opening of the season, I settled into my lazy-boy with cheese doodles and plenty of " Gentleman Jack " on ice, and decided to share my observations on the prospect bunch in spring training.

Soon, the names you see below, will drift back to the hard work of minor league baseball, and many will fade away for a long time.

So it is fitting to point out Yankee "prospect moments" which earned my all star designation this spring;

1. Left Field - Red Thunder's catch and collision with the wall.  No Bobby Abreu wall-fear in this kid.  But he is paying the price.  As predicted by the black swan, he'll miss all of spring training.  No good deed goes unpunished.

2.  Center Field- Florial earns the award for hitting 4 triples, getting clutch hits, looking at ease in CF and running the bases like Bullet Bob Hayes.  When the July trade deadlines approach, we have to hope that Cashman makes this guy an " intouchable," as the french would say.  We will all need agita pills the way his name will be bandied about.

3.  Right Field - Billy Mckinney for his grand slam and other fine work.  Who can forget that over-the- shoulder catch of a foul pop with his first baseman's glove ( versatility award )?  He gives reason to hope that a former number one pick just needed some seasoning.  A real threat to make this team with Jacoby and Red Thunder ailing, and his growing ability at FB as well as outstanding OF skills.

4.  Third Base - Not much debate here.  Andjuhar and his homer trail.  A blistering bat and I don't recall any fielding gaffs.  But he'll be on the bus at the outset.  That decision got locked in stone when Cashman dealt for Drury.

5.  Shortstop - Kyle Holder shows up from Charleston and opened everybody's eyes.  He hit and he fielded and he ran.  Everyone is now doing research on this dude. Another player we don't want to let Cashman near.

6.  Second Base - Tyler Wade gets the designation due to his fine catch in CF.  It was a pop-up designated to drop-in, but Tyler made an over the shoulder backward, twisting catch. He has speed and a growing look of confidence.  This is the "all star prospect moment" award winner most likely to get a uniform in three weeks.  And shortstop is his best position.

7.  First Base - Tyler Austin for a walk-off homer and a confident glove.

8.  Catcher - K. Higashioka.  He really hit well ( .385) and made some points as a back-up catcher if Romine is not available.  When he played a few games for the big club last year, I predicted he would never get a hit in a Yankee uniform.  He changed my mind this spring.

9.  DH - E. Kratz He hit .364 and looks like a tractor trailer behind the dish.  Never heard of him before this spring.

Pitching awards went to : Jonathan Holder ( 1.42 ERA ) and Domingo Germàn ( ERA 1.17).

The most notable non award winner is G. Torres, everyone's pre-season designee for starting second baseman.  The Yankees top prospect, so they say.  He really did very little.  No matter, he was going to start at Scranton even if he hit .500, due to "contract opportunities" for the Yankee front office.

But he did not " flash" as we used to say in the south Mexican Dirt Field League.




14 comments:

Rufus T. Firefly said...

CashMoney is across the aisle from my seat at marlins ST game

Local Bargain Jerk said...


It's your golden opportunity: PLEASE cross the aisle and ask him if he ever reads IIHIIFIIc!

Rufus T. Firefly said...

Too late
A crowd around him at end of game

Der Kaiser said...

Always one step ahead, that guy.

Stang said...

Alphonso dishing out compliments? We are surely in the End Times.

Alphonso said...

Crashing into a wall as a compliment suggest a low bar as the standard.

Nonetheless, as our supreme boss and commander has established, all things said in or about spring training performances are meaningless, in meaningless universe.

Hail Duque.

Rufus T. Firefly said...

Andujar looked good in BP. He also made a couple of good plays in the field that made me wonder about his 'needs work defensively' tag.
Bird looked like he was still tentative in BP, but not too bad during the game.
Torres was working on bunting, which is encouraging.
Lind looked like he was trying to impress and did somewhat at least in BP.
Cave got picked off badly, and almost got picked off again.
Sanchez made 10+ good blocks at the plate (shocking, I know) and looked locked in batting in BP and the game.
CashMoney was buried in his smarty-pants phone the last three innings, so disregard anyone who played after the 7th as an actual prospect.
Yankees' fans (of the female type) are better looking than the Marlins' fans.
20 to 1 Yankees fans -- at least.
Drinks $9.50, Beers 7.50 - 8.75 depending, nathan's 4.75 -- I had 4, just because.

Oh, and "Hail Duque".

Vampifella said...

You heard of Erik Kratz before. He the only Yankee that batted 1.000 last year! They got him off the Indians scrap heap just in case both Yankees catchers had to serve a suspension for the big Tigers brawl. Turns out that they didn't really need him as he only played in 4 games and hit twice but it seems the Yanks decided to keep him around for Spring training. I think he's due to become instructional rather than a realistic player at this point in his career.

Anyway, the way it seems we could field a second Yankees team with these guys and still do better than around half of the other teams, right?

JM said...

I mean, just for his name alone...Kratz. Maybe we can nickname him Krazy Kratz. If only we can find an Ignatz for him to bean with a brick.

Boone is the obvious candidate there.

Alphonso said...

Note to Rufus; You had four beers, hot dogs, or both?

Rufus T. Firefly said...

Four hot dogs. Three beers that I remember, maybe more. Uncounted vodka and lemonade (it was kinda hot). Peanuts. I lost track since I had a designated driver. I have photographic evidence of Cash and probably when he was pulling the trigger on Walker.

Side note, I think Wade is really hurt because of the trade. "Platoon" may be who's not on the DL.

Anonymous said...

TYLER WADE JUST DISAPPEARED AS FAST AS THE G.J. DOES ON THE ROCKS.

Anonymous said...

.....BUT THAT HOLDER SUDDENLY LOOKS LIKE A REVELATION.

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