THE YANKEE NON-ROSTER INVITEES & 2 GUYS I LIKE

Photo: New York Daily News

Spring Training is coming folks! That being said, the Yanks have announced their non-roster invitees.  Among them are the prospects that we are already falling in love with... Gleyber Torres. Clint Frazier. Justus Sheffield. James Kaprielian.

Now look, I believe to a point that the Yankees already know who will be taking the field April 2nd in Tampa, but there are a couple of kids that I believe could help out at some point this season too. Here's a glimpse of some other guys...

Photo: Pinstriped Prospects

J.P. Feyereisen is a player the Yankees received for Andrew Miller. I got to talk to J.P. quite a bit during the Arizona Fall League. He seemed to be pretty excited about the trade. 

Feyereisen is a hard thrower that sits between 94-96. He is still a work in progress and I believe he will start the season in either Trenton or Scranton. His pitching coach in the Arizona Fall League Steve Schrenk, from the Philadelphia Phillies organization, had this to say about him:

Photo: Martin Griff

"He’s got a good fastball but needs to work on his off-speed pitches. He needs to throw that breaking ball for strike one."

Photo: MLB.com

Dustin Fowler was drafted in the 18th round in 2013. Before all the moves this past summer, he was ranked in the Yankees top 10 prospects. I got to see him in 2015, and he does have a ton of promise... he has speed and developing power. Read that HERE, but here's a quote from Outside Pitch Sports Network:

Photo: Pinstriped Prospects

"Getting his first taste of Double-A ball, Fowler proved why he belonged with the Trenton Thunder. Over a 132-game span, he sported a batting line of .281/.311/.458 and rounded out the back of his baseball card with career highs in home runs (12), RBI (88), doubles (30), triples (15), runs scored (67), and total hits (152). Fowler’s 25 stolen bases were five shy of the career mark he set back a year prior."

It's gonna be an exciting spring.  To get a full Spring Training roster list, check it out HERE.

--Michael Carnesi
BYB Writer

YANKEE PROSPECT WATCH: JUSTUS SHEFFIELD

As we approach the home stretch to spring training and our Yankees prospect watch series, we will follow up on number seven prospect Miguel Andujar with a newly acquired member of the Yankees organization, number six prospect according to MLB.com, LHP Justus Sheffield.

(Photo: Mike McCann/WFAN)

Acquired from the Indians along with Clint Frazier and two other prospects, Ben Heller and J.P. Feyereisen, in the Andrew Miller deal, the former first round pick out of Tullahoma High School in Tennessee is currently ranked as the 78th best prospect in all of baseball according to MLB.com and the Yankees top pitching prospect.

Topping out at 97 and sitting in the 93 mph range, Sheffield has good arm-side life on his fastball and adds a slider and a changeup to his three pitch repertoire. When asked, Yankees GM Brian Cashman had some very good things to say about Sheffield as reported by the New York Daily News:

Photo: New York Daily News

"Justus Sheffield is sitting, if not at the top, towards the top of our pitching prospect side,” says Cashman. “He’s right up there with (James) Kaprielian, Chance Adams and (Luis) Severino, fighting for ‘I’m the best.’ Who’s to say he is or isn’t? Sheffield’s a three-pitch mix guy -- fastball, changeup, slider. He’s a 20-year-old that sits at 93 (mph) and tops out at 97, with an above-average slider and above-average changeup. We’ve been very excited about his makeup and development.”

Last season Justus began the season in high-A Lynchburg in the Indians organization before heading to high-A Tampa once acquired by the Yankees. In Tampa Sheffield got off to a great start in the Yankees system going 3-1 with a 1.73 ERA over five starts while striking out 27 over his 26.0 innings pitched. His success in the Gulf Coast League prompted the Yankees to give him a start with Double-A Trenton in which he allowed just two hits over four innings while striking out a very impressive nine batters!

For his career, Sheffield has averaged over a strikeout and inning and his slider is a good swing and miss pitch. He has walked 3.3 per nine innings pitched though and will have to continue to develop better command and make better pitches within the strike zone.

  (Four Seam Images/AP)

Although there is improvement to be made, as there is with all 20 year-olds (Sheffield turns 21 in May), there is a lot of upside and Cashman has already said that the 20 year-old will begin the season with Trenton, a very good challenge for the young man.

Photo of: Jordan Montgomery

Along with the above mentioned young men, James Kaprielian, Chance Adams and Luis Severino, the Yankees have a great group of young pitching prospects who are not too far away from the big leagues and a couple like Jordan Montgomery and Dietrich Enns who are knocking on the door. If even two or three of those six become legit middle-to-front of the rotation starters, the Yankees should be set up for success for the foreseeable future. As much as some have given Brian Cashman a hard time, the last two years or so he has really built a formidable list of prospects that should propel the Yankees back to the glory days in just a few short years, hopefully sooner!

Sheffield has the makings of a two or three type starter. He had a hiccup in 2015 in in which he was arrested for aggravated criminal trespassing and underage drinking and although he is ashamed of it, he sees it as a learning experience and a chance to continue to mature. He seems to have moved on, grown up and by all accounts, minus the one blemish, has a very good reputation.

Photo: Scout.com

I will be following Justus and the rest of the arms closely this summer as they continue their journey that we all hope will lead to success in the Bronx. Even my dad, who has been very disappointed in the Yankees and lost some interest over the past few years, says he is excited about the youth movement and watching the kids this summer!

Next week we dive into the top five as we profile one of the most inexperienced prospects but also one of the kids with the highest upside, 2016 first round pick, OF Blake Rutherford.

We are less than four weeks away from pitchers and catchers… Not that I’m counting.

--Dan Lucia

BYB 'Series' Writer
Follow me on Twitter: @DManLucia

GUESS WHERE DILLON TATE'S ABOUT TO PLAY?

Great news for the Yankees' Dillon Tate. They will be adding him to the roster of the Scorpions in the Arizona League this season! Nice!  According to YESNetwork.com,

"On Saturday, two more Baby Bombers were officially added to the Scottsdale Scorpions roster: RHP Dillon Tate (No. 11 prospect in Yankees system per MLB.com) and RHP J.P. Feyereisen (joined system in Andrew Miller deal).

Tate, 22, was the centerpiece in the Yankees' deadline trade with Texas for veteran slugger Carlos Beltran, and has made seven appearances this year for the Single-A affiliate Charleston RiverDogs. In those outings, Tate went 1-0 with a 3.12 ERA and 15 strikeouts in 17 1/3 innings. 

Tate was the first pitcher selected in the 2015 MLB Draft, and the fourth player taken overall when Texas took him out of U.C.-Santa Barbara."

Tate is a kid that I am very excited about, and depending on her schedule, I may ask BYB writer Jeana Bellezza to try and hit a few games and get an up close look at how Tate looks live in the Arizona League.

Anyway... a small yet important note.

Carry on.

#REDTHUNDER IS WHAT THE YANKEES NEED!

The Yankees brass, in particular Hal Steinbrenner, decided it was time to pull the trigger on an overhaul on Sunday and dealt Andrew Miller to the Cleveland Indians for OF prospect Clint Frazier, LHP Justus Sheffield, RHP Ben Heller and RHP JP Feyereisen. If you followed Twitter on Sunday, most analysts were pleased with the haul and most fans were as well. Some complained, as is normal, but I think this trade could be a turning point to #MaketheYankeesFunAgain.

A couple weeks ago I wrote a piece titled just that, MAKE THE YANKEES FUN AGAIN. The boring, lackluster Yankees were in need of a facelift and I believe that got one in Clint Frazier. The young OF prospect, who ranks in the top 30 overall prospects in nearly every top 100 list, brings energy, bat speed and a full, fun bright head of red hair!

Brian Cashman was quoted and in a very un-Cashman-like way, praised the hell out of the kid.

"He's got all the tools. His bat energy is already legendary. A high energy guy who shows up to the national anthem in a dirty uniform."

That quote and a discussion with my buddy Jeff (who helped me come up with the #MaketheYankeesFunAgain story) led me to think, that #RedThunder, as Frazier said in a tweet, could be exactly what the Yankees team and fan base need to get behind.

today, I woke up a Yankee! thank you for all of the support you guys have shown me so far. can't wait to get started. #RedThunder 🔥 @Yankees

— Clint Frazier (@clintfrazier) August 1, 2016

When was the last time we saw a guy in pinstripes really, really excite the crowd? Someone that created buzz? I can’t remember much as of recently. 

Greg Bird and Luis Severino a little last year, maybe. But let’s imagine a guy like Frazier hustling out a gap shot, hair flying and getting dirty and pumped up as he beats the throw to leg out an extra base hit. Envision that and what energy that could bring to the Stadium.

Now he is still a little ways away from the Bronx most likely, and that’s alright. He is still just a kid who won’t turn 22 until September. But this is the kind of player the organization needs to help bring back the interest and excitement the team has seemingly been missing over the past couple of years.

Plus, from what we have been told, that kind of energy could be contagious as he joins a crowded, and talented, OF and team in Scranton-Wilkes Barre. That will be a fun team to watch with him and Aaron Judge in the corner spots in the OF, Gary Sanchez behind the dish and many other future Yankees helping the team win. All while competing and making each other better ball players.

Nothing in life is guaranteed but I must say that Frazier and the hype that surrounds him makes me excited. Over the next couple of years we could very well see some awesome talent make its way to the Bronx.

And it all goes well, maybe it’ll be headlined by #RedThunder. That would #MaketheYankeesFunAgain.

--Dan Lucia, BYB Senior Writer
Follow me on Twitter: @DManLucia

  

FRUSTRATION IN THE BRONX! MILLER TRADED!

Hey, we just wrote TIME TICKIN' 'TIL TRADE DEADLINE, BUT IT'S STILL MILLER TIME IN BRONX! here at BYB and we were feeling pretty good.  I mean, I think deep down we knew that Andrew Miller was gonna be traded, but we just didn't want it to happen.

But we should have known.  We should have known when a fake Buster Olney decided to follow me on Twitter last night and then this morning the real Olney came out with a tweet about it. I should have known by the pouring rain in the Tri-State area last night and then me having a crappy night sleep.  We all should have known it was coming after tweets came out from every "baseball insider" in the world this morning as they were falling all over themselves to trying to be right.

We waited and we watched at BYB... and now we can confirm some info involving Andrew Miller.  He's been traded... to Cleveland and the Yankees get four!

The real Buster Olney, at 8:41am in the morning today tweeted this:

Yankees expected to get Indians prospects Frazier and Sheffield and others in the trade for Andrew Miller.

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) July 31, 2016

Hey, I rank on Olney a lot, but give him mad credit here.  He got it and I tip my cap.  Turns out Miller goes to Cleveland and the Yankees will get 4 in return.  ESPN writes:

(In Photo: Clint Frazier) 

"The Yankees will get a package of four players in return, headed by minor league outfielder Clint Frazier and pitcher Justus Sheffield...Frazier and Sheffield are considered two of Cleveland's top three prospects. Frazier was selected by the Indians with the fifth pick in the 2013 draft...

(In Photo: Justus Sheffield)
Sheffield was drafted by Cleveland in the first round of the 2014 draft...Minor league pitchers Ben Heller and J.P. Feyereisen are also heading to New York..."

And it's sad, very sad because Yankee fans got to love Miller and now there is no Miller to close things out in the Bronx.  But don't get it twisted... this is a haul, the type of haul you NEED when you dangle a guy like Miller.  It's significant, but sad all the same.

And there you have it.  Chapman is gone, and now so is Miller and that "No Runs DMC" shirt you bought can hit the trash can today, never to be worn again... you've been had.  And life goes on in the Bronx.