WHY THE FUTURE LOOKS BRIGHT

It’s not exactly a secret anymore: the New York Yankees have a pretty freakin' good farm system. It's true. In Baseball America’s latest ranking of baseball’s top 100 prospects, there were 6 future Yankees to be found. There are 30 teams in the Major Leagues, so for every team to have 6 prospects on the list, it’d have to be a top 180. It doesn’t take a professional minor league scout to figure out that that gives the Yankees one of the best farm systems in the Majors. And let’s tell the truth here, the teams with better farm systems than the Yanks, like the Royals and the Rays, aren’t exactly powerhouses with great talent already at the Major league level. While those teams will be relying almost entirely on their young guys as soon as they’re ready, we’ll have an already star studded team for them to join.

Sure, people like to point out our aging stars like Jeter, Posada, Mo, A-Rod, and, to a lesser extent, AJ Burnett, but the rest of our team is quite young. Think about it... Tex, Hughes, Swisher, Cano, Gardner, Granderson, and Martin. Oh, and presumably Ivan Nova. Yes, they are all 31 and younger and a few of them are under 27 and have yet to even hit their prime yet. Perhaps just as importantly, all 6 of our prospects are either catchers or pitchers. While this may not immediately seem beneficial, added depth at a position would help to put together trades if they became necessary. Moving a catcher to 1st or the outfield isn’t exactly difficult, so if A-Rod ever can’t cut it at 3rd, perhaps Tex can take the hot corner and perhaps one of the catching prospects could take a crack at 1st. No matter what happens, we are good to go for the future.

So, in light of this, I think it’s safe to say the Yankees have the brightest future in baseball, at least on paper. But the question now facing us all is “when will this bright future start?” Well, some of our top prospects are quite far off, our #2 and #3 prospects, both Gary Sanchez and Manny Banuelos are only 18 and 19 respectively, so even a 2012 debut for either of them seems like a bit of a long-shot. Some say Dellin Betances is right there, but he’s barely even pitched in AA ball and doesn’t have too many innings logged, so I see him starting in AA and ending the season in AAA. Maybe even making his debut early next season.

Austin Romine seems like a possibility at catcher, but really, what possible benefits would he provide over the also young Russell Martin? If we’re going to move someone up and make them a starter, they better provide some immediate benefit over the guy they’re replacing. This leaves just Jesus Montero, our #1 prospect, and Andrew Brackman our #5 prospect.
Jesus flew through the minors and wrecked in every single one. Brackman barely made it to AA last season, but he’s made great strides in recovering from his Tommy John surgery when he first joined the Yanks and being the only one of the 6 who played college baseball, Brackman has significantly more career innings than any of them and at 25, has 3 years of experience on the next eldest guy to boot. Wow. Both Montero and Brackman could potentially be huge contributors this year.

Brackman could help ease the Yankees back half of the rotation and Jesus Montero could potentially split time with Martin and eventually take over his starting role.

Jesus Montero was ranked the #3 overall prospect in baseball by Baseball America, behind Bryce Harper and Mike Trout. Neither of them is expected to make it the majors this season, leaving Montero as the highest ranked prospect expected to make the jump to the big leagues this year, as well as the #1 catching prospect.

The first thing anyone notices about Montero is that the ball absolutely explodes off his bat. He sends balls out of the atmosphere and straight into orbit. In 4 Minor League seasons, he’s maintained a .314 BA with 58 HRs, and an .882 OPS. Hell, even his down year was amazing, the first half of last season he struggled making the jump to AAA offensively, but after just a bit of coaching he hit around .350 and hit the majority of his 21 home runs in the second half. Any scout that says Montero’s bat isn’t 100% major league ready should be fired on the spot in my opinion because he’s predicted to hit at worst .280 with 20 home runs, and that’s a fairly conservative prediction.

Montero's defense has long been a concern, but Girardi recently said that it looks vastly improved. He said: "I think he sits more comfortable, I think his hands work better." Despite this high praise, many seemed to be convinced that he would start the season in AAA, and possibly spend all of 2011 there to develop. However, Girardi also recently said that he believes Montero can learn just as much or more catching a few times a week in the Bronx as he can catching every single day in Scranton. Now that's an interesting thought.

Jack Curry of YES, recently said Girardi seems to be planning to give Montero the backup job. I personally don’t just think he’ll be getting the backup job. No, instead I think he and Martin will initially split time and as Montero develops and gets up to speed in the pros. Evenutally, I think he'll take over the starting catcher position, and come the playoffs, the job will be his.
Now, while Montero seems to be the most obvious candidate to have a big impact with the Yanks this year, Andrew Brackman recently burst into the spotlight after reports of his incredibly impressive pitching work during a live batting practice broke. Brian Cashman, Joe Girardi, Larry Rothschild, and his parents all watched as he threw, but reports say he put on a show like none of them were even there. Brackman is ranked the 78th overall prospect by Baseball America, putting him as our 3rd pitching prospect behind Manny Banuelos (41st) and Dellin Betances (43rd), but he has significantly more experience pitching than either of them and had the best season in AA of any of them with a 3.01 ERA. While jumping directly from AA to the MLB isn’t common, it’s not unheard of, and with his extra experience and impressive 4 pitch arsenal (a fastball that’s reached 99, a changeup, a curveball with huge break, and a knuckle curve) he could end up being the big surprise out of Spring Training and become the big fix to the back of the rotation the Yanks are looking for.

Most likely Brackman will start the season bouncing between AAA and doing some relief work in the Bronx, then somewhere in the 2nd half of the season he’ll be given a few starts. If all goes well, he could earn a spot in the rotation, or at least get a spot in the bullpen for the playoffs. Some might say it’s still a long shot, but considering an impressed Girardi say “Everything just seemed to be really consistent,” I think he’s officially entered the competition to get one of the two undecided spots in the rotation. Yes, this week the groin pull will hold him back a week, but don't expect it to hold him down.

Who knows? Someone else could randomly burst into the spotlight; Cashman could go straight back on his previous statement that Betances and Banuelos will start the season in AA and be so impressed by their Spring Training showings that he may be forced to give them a shot in the Majors. Hell, Romine could come out of nowhere become a huge hitter this season or Sanchez could pull an Andruw Jones and debut before he’s even 20.

All that being said, Andrew Brackman and Jesus Montero seem to be the two players who could potentially be difference makers above the level of the minors this season, and how sweet it will be.

--Grant Cederquist BYB Staff Writer


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