River Avenue Blues

River Ave. Blues » Minors

The Final DotF: Park, Gittens have big games in Trenton’s win

by

RHP Nick Green has been placed on the Double-A Trenton injured list, the team announced. He joins RHP Trevor Stephan and RHP Nick Nelson (and others) on the shelf. Also, RHP Garrett Whitlock was removed from yesterday’s start after one inning, though he remains on the active roster. No word on what’s wrong with any of these guys. The injury bug that bit the big league team has spread through the minors too, apparently. Sheesh.

The Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders were rained out. No word on the makeup date yet.

Double-A Trenton Thunder (4-2 win over Erie)

  • SS Hoy Jun Park: 3-3, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 CS — 13-for-34 (.383) with five doubles and three triples in his last eight games
  • LF Ben Ruta: 1-3, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 1 K — this game *lowers* his batting line to .403/.506/.582
  • 1B Chris Gittens: 2-3, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 BB — 12-for-27 (.444) with three doubles, one triple, three homers, eight walks, and six strikeouts in his last eight games
  • DH Brandon Wagner: 0-3, 1 BB
  • RHP Rony Garcia: 5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 8 K, 1 HB, 3/1 GB/FB — 55 of 101 pitches were strikes (54%) … some control issues, but that’s a fine Double-A debut for the 21-year-old, who has been pressed into duty here because of all the injuries

[Read more…]

DotF: Miller, Katoh have big days in Scranton’s doubleheader

by

Both RHP Trevor Stephan and RHP Nick Nelson were placed on the Double-A Trenton injured list recently. That’s not good. I’d say both are unlikely call-ups this year, but they are possible trade chips, and injuries could throw a wrench into things. Hopefully it’s nothing serious, whatever the injuries are.

Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders Game One (7-6 win over Syracuse in ten innings, walk-off style) completion of yesterday’s game, which was suspended due to rain after the top of the first inning

  • 1B-2B Brad Miller: 2-5, 2 R, 1 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K — here’s video of the homer, which was a bomb … the team says it went 482 feet
  • SS Cliff Pennington: 1-5, 1 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 SB — walk-off homer … three homers in 15 games … the MLB ball and Triple-A pitching makes for a hell of a combination
  • RF Trey Amburgey: 2-4, 1 2B, 1 BB
  • C Kyle Higashioka: 0-3, 1 R, 2 BB, 1 K — first game since being sent down
  • 2B-3B Gosuke Katoh: 3-4, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 E (fielding) — now hitting .353/.431/.686 through 15 Triple-A games
  • RHP Drew Hutchison: 5.2 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 5/3 GB/FB — 72 of 107 pitches were strikes (67%)
  • LHP Rex Brothers: 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 1 WP, 2/0 GB/FB — 26 of 44 pitches were strikes (59%) … 15/4 K/BB in 9.1 innings

[Read more…]

DotF: Gil dominates, Charleston flirts with no-hitter in win

by

RHP Chad Green will work as a starter/opener with Triple-A Scranton, manager Jay Bell told Conor Foley. In other words, they’re going to make sure he gets regular work rather than be subject to the ebbs and flows of bullpen life. They’re not going start him every fifth day and stretch him out. Green will instead throw two or three innings every three or four days, that sorta thing.

The Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders had their game suspended due to rain after the top of the first inning. Here’s the box score. The game will be completed as part of a doubleheader tomorrow.

The Double-A Trenton Thunder were rained out. They’ll play a doubleheader tomorrow.

High-A Tampa Tarpons (5-3 loss to Clearwater)

  • CF Pablo Olivares: 0-5, 2 K
  • SS Oswaldo Cabrera: 1-5 — hitting .310/.363/.361 through 19 games … he turned only 20 in March, so there’s not much power yet, but everything else has been good
  • DH Dermis Garcia: 0-2, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K
  • LF Isiah Gilliam: 0-4, 1 R, 2 BB — threw runners out at first and second bases … seven assists in 17 games in the outfield this season … he had seven assists in 104 games in the outfield last year
  • C Donny Sands: 1-3, 1 BB
  • RHP Miguel Yajure: 5.1 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 HR, 5/5 GB/FB — 64 of 98 pitches were strikes (65%) … 16 runs in 20.1 innings so far for one of my not top 30 prospects

Low-A Charleston RiverDogs (8-3 win over Columbia)

  • CF Brandon Lockridge: 2-5, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 3B
  • SS Wilkerman Garcia: 3-5, 2 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 CS — had been 2-for-12 (.167) in his first three games since being recalled from Extended Spring Training
  • C Josh Breaux: 2-5, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 K — multiple hits in three of his last six games after having multiple hits in three of his first eleven games
  • LF Canaan Smith: 2-4, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI
  • RHP Luis Gil: 5 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, 5/1 GB/FB — 49 of 80 pitches were strikes (61%) … 26/11 K/BB in 17.1 innings through four starts, and that’s pretty cool
  • RHP Shawn Semple: 4 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 4/5 GB/FB — 46 of 66 pitches were strikes (70%) … figures he has his first less than stellar outing of the season when they’re going for the combined no-hitter … he gave up the first hit leading off the seventh

The Short Season Staten Island Yankees, Rookie Pulaski Yankees, and two Rookie Gulf Coast League Yankees teams begin play in June.

DotF: Diego Castillo and Isiah Gilliam stay hot in Tampa’s win

by

Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (4-3 loss to Rochester in ten innings, walk-off style)

  • SS Cliff Pennington: 3-4, 1 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 SB — took old pal Twins RHP Zack Littell deep … two homers in 18 games, which is usually a full season’s worth for him
  • 2B Brad Miller: 1-4, 1 K — 1-for-9 (.111) with three strikeouts in two games
  • DH Ryan McBroom: 1-5, 1 2B, 1 K
  • 1B Gosuke Katoh: 2-3, 1 BB — .319/.396/.681 through 14 games
  • RHP David Hale: 6.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, 1 HR, 7/2 GB/FB — 72 of 109 pitches were strikes (66%) … 2.12 ERA with an 18/3 K/BB in 17 innings … I mentioned this earlier today but it’s worth repeating: Hale has supposedly taken well to some suggested adjustments from the analytics group and has increased his velocity and spin rate this year … it probably won’t lead to anything, but maybe?

[Read more…]

Thursday Notes: Franchise Values, Roki Sasaki, Mock Drafts, Broadcast Rights

by

(Ezra Shaw/Getty)

The Yankees continue their nine-game, three-city West Coast trip with the series finale in Anaheim later tonight. Until then, here are some miscellaneous links and notes to check out.

Yankees again ranked MLB’s most valuable franchise

Once again, Forbes has ranked the Yankees as the most valuable franchise in baseball. The franchise is valued at $4.6 billion right now, up from $4 billion last year. The Dodgers are a distant second at $3.2 billion. The gap between No. 1 and No. 2 is the same as the gap between No. 2 and No. 8. Here’s part of the write-up:

The New York Yankees are the most valuable team ($4.6 billion) and had local revenue of $712 million last year, the most in MLB and more than the bottom six teams (Miami Marlins, Tampa Bay Rays, Oakland Athletics, Kansas City Royals, Cincinnati Reds and Baltimore Orioles) had combined. The Dodgers ($3.3 billion), Boston Red Sox ($3.2 billion), Chicago Cubs ($3.1 billion) and San Francisco Giants ($3 billion) round out the list of teams worth at least $3 billion.

Forbes estimates the Yankees’ revenue at $668M and operating income at $28M last year. If you believe the Yankees (or pretty much any team, for that matter) only made $28M in profit last year, I have a few bridges for sale in Brooklyn. Forbes has been compiling their estimated franchise values more than 20 years now, and the Yankees have topped the list every single year. If they ever slip into second place, someone’s doing something wrong.

Yankees among team scouting Roki Sasaki

According to Yahoo! Japan (via NPB on Reddit), the Yankees are among the many MLB teams scouting hard-throwing Japanese high schooler Roki Sasaki. Sasaki’s fastball was recently clocked at 101 mph, according to Dylan Hernandez, which broke Shohei Ohtani’s national high school record. Here’s some not great video of the kid in action. Sasaki reportedly throws a slider, curveball, and splitter. No word on the quality of his secondaries or his command.

Japanese high school players can sign with MLB teams as international free agents after they graduate, though it never happens because Nippon Pro Baseball would freak out. They want the best Japanese players to play in Japan before coming to MLB. MLB goes along with it to help maintain a good working relationship between the two leagues. Will Sasaki change that? Who knows. Is he even good? Who knows! Teams are already scouting him though. They’re starting to build the information bank.

Baseball America’s mock draft v1.0 and v2.0

Draft season is heating up and Baseball America (subs. req’d) posted their first and second mock drafts in recent weeks. For whatever reason they’ve decided to have one mock draft page that gets updated, not separate pages for each mock draft version. That’s … weird. Also kinda inconvenient.

Anyway, both mock drafts have the Orioles taking Oregon State C Adley Rutschman with the top selection. He’s such a stud. Switch-hitting catcher with a .420/.584/.821 batting line who projects to be an above-average defender. Baseball America had the Yankees taking New Jersey HS RHP Jack Leiter in their first mock draft and Florida HS 3B Rece Hinds in their second mock draft.

Imagining Hinds playing in Yankee Stadium in a few years is fun, and New York’s gamble on a previous large, righthanded-hitting power hitter with swing-and-miss concerns paid off nicely—RE: Aaron Judge.

Leiter is indeed Al’s son and he’s arguably the best prep pitcher in the country. Not huge velocity, but great secondaries and excellent command. The question is signability. Leiter is strongly committed to Vanderbilt and he and his family presumably do not need the money. The Yankees have a big bonus pool and can offer a huge overslot bonus, but it may not matter. Leiter may be an impossible sign.

I have no real opinion on Hinds at this point. He does fit the Yankees’ profile as a very athletic and very toolsy high schooler with unteachable power though. It’s a little too early to start matching teams and targets, especially late in the first round. Instead, I recommend sifting through MLB.com’s top 50 draft prospects list. Southern California kids are always a good place to start with the Yankees.

MLB wants to gain control of local broadcast rights

According to Ron Blum, Major League Baseball has put in a bid to purchase regional sports networks from Disney in an effort to gain control of local broadcasting rights. The Yankees have right of first refusal and already have a deal in place to buy back controlling interest in the YES Network. MLB is trying to purchase the remaining networks. From Blum:

“There’s tremendous revenue disparity in our game, and I think that if we had more of a national model closer to where the NFL is it would solve a lot of those competitive issues for us, kind of level the playing field.” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said Wednesday. “I think that all of the difficult issues for baseball, if you took that revenue disparity out of the picture, would be easier.”

Long story short, MLB wants to pool all the local television money together, then distribute it evenly among the 30 teams. That’s how the various national television contracts (FOX, ESPN, etc.) work and that is the long-term goal locally. Doesn’t seem all that close to happening, but MLB is working on it. The good news? Such a broadcast model would likely mean the end of local blackouts. That would be a huge plus for cord-cutters everyone.

Yankees’ bonus pools set for the 2019 draft and 2019-20 international signing period

by

(MLB)

We’re well into April now and the weather is starting to heat up, which means we’re approaching draft season and the annual international signing period. I don’t anticipate much draft or international free agency coverage here given our looming shutdown (sorry), but here is this summer’s amateur bonus pool information, via Carlos Collazo and Ben Badler.

2019 Draft Pool: $7,455,300

Despite finishing with the third best record in baseball last year and thus picking near the end of the first round, the Yankees have the 20th largest draft bonus pool this summer after adding a pick in the Sonny Gray trade. Going from the 27th largest pool to the 20th largest pool with the trade ain’t too bad. Last year the Yankees had no extra picks and the sixth smallest pool at $6,115,100.

As always, the bonus pool money is spread across picks in the top ten rounds. Here is slot bonus value assigned to each of the Yankees’ picks this year:

30. $2,365,500 (first round)
38. $1,952,300 (Competitive Balance Round A — pick from Sonny Gray trade)
67. $976,700 (second round)
105. $554,300 (third round)
135. $414,000 (fourth round)
165. $309,500 (fifth round)
195. $241,000 (sixth round)
225. $190,100 (seventh round)
255. $160,800 (eighth round)
285. $148,900 (ninth round)
315. $142,000 (tenth round)

Teams can take money from one pick and spend it on another, and the Yankees (and pretty much every team) have done that aggressively the last few years. They take college seniors with no negotiating leverage in rounds 6-10, pay them small bonuses ($10,000 or so), and use the savings on other players. Fail to sign a player and you lose the slot money associated with the pick, however.

Penalties for exceeding the draft pool are pretty harsh. Exceed your pool by 5% or more and you have to give up next year’s first round pick, and the penalties only get worse from there. The Yankees have routinely exceeded their draft pool right up to that 5% threshold (last year they exceeded their pool by 4.8%) which incurs a 75% tax on the overage. Their “maximum” pool this year (bonus pool plus 4.9% overage) is $7,820,609.

The Diamondbacks have the largest pool this year at $16,093,700. That is more than $2M more than any other team. Arizona gained extra picks for losing Patrick Corbin and A.J. Pollock to free agency, and also for failing to sign last year’s first rounder. The Red Sox have the smallest draft pool at $4,788,100.

2019-20 International Bonus Pool: $5,398,300

Unlike the draft pool, international bonus polls are based on market size. Teams get dropped into one of three buckets (small market, medium market, large market) and each bucket carries its own bonus pool size. The Yankees are of course in the large market bucket, so they get the smallest bonus pool. The international pool is a hard cap, though bonuses no larger than $10,000 do not count against the bonus pool.

Teams can trade for additional bonus pool space — they used to be able to add an additional 75% of their bonus pool, though this year it drops to 60% — and the Yankees have aggressively traded for international bonus pool space the last few years. They traded for the maximum and I expect them to do the same this year. The additional 60% means the Yankees can max their bonus pool out at $8,637,280 this signing period.

The 2019-20 international signing period opens July 2nd and the Yankees have already been connected to two high-profile prospects: Dominican OF Jasson Dominguez and Dominican OF Jhon Diaz. Dominguez is said to be a significant prospect, so much so that the Yankees are expected to give him a $5M bonus. That would be the largest international bonus they’ve ever given out, and also the largest bonus of the hard cap era overall.

Small market teams have a $6,841,200 pool this year. The Phillies, Dodgers, and Nationals have smaller pools than the Yankees because they forfeited bonus money to sign qualified free agents over the winter. Also, the Braves are limited to $10,000 bonuses the next two signings periods as part of the penalties for past international signing period violations.

DotF: Deivi Garcia strikes out ten in Tampa’s loss

by

Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (5-0 win over Rochester)

  • LF Trey Amburgey: 0-4, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K — remember when he got off to that great start? he’s now 3-for-32 (.094) in his last eight games
  • 2B Brad Miller: 0-5, 2 K — organizational debut after signing a minor league contract the other day
  • 1B Ryan McBroom: 1-5, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 2 K — took old pal Twins LHP Daniel Camarena deep
  • RHP Chance Adams: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, 4/2 GB/FB — 65 of 100 pitches were strikes … his best start of the season and his best start since last July … forgive me for wanting to see more before getting excited
  • RHP J.P. Feyereisen: 3 IP, zeroes, 3 K, 4/1 GB/FB — 26 of 43 pitches were strikes (60%)

[Read more…]