NoMaas.org

The Man is back in this installment of NoMaas’ MLPW.

Minor League Players the Week:

Pitcher:
Manuel Banuelos, 19, LHP, A+
9.0 IP, 12 K, 2 BB, 9 H, 3 ER

The stats you see above span two starts, as ManBan hasn’t pitched more than five innings since returning from the disabled list due to an appendectomy. The absence of Banuelos has gone overlooked this season, given the breakout pitching performances of a number of Yankee prospects (Betances, Brackman, Noesi, Stoneburner and Phelps all come to mind). Let’s not forget, however, that Manny B. was one of the top two Yankee pitching prospects coming into the season by most accounts, including our own. We ranked him as the Yankees #3 overall prospect and the number one pitcher, so it was upsetting to see him miss time in 2010. Thankfully, his injury was completely unrelated to baseball and it shouldn’t pose any problem for Banuelos moving forward.

Manny wasted little time in getting back to business. In his July 1st start, Banuelos struck out four batters and surrendered zero runs in three innings of work. His other two starts this season are encapsulated above, and the only bad thing you could say is he was a little too hittable, but that’s easily forgiven considering his layoff from pitching. All in all, it’s been a successful restart for Banuelos and we can look forward to seeing him go deeper into games as he gains back his arm strength.

Still only nineteen years old (the youngest pitcher in the FSL), there’s plenty of time for Banuelos to work his way through the minor leagues. I fully expect the Yankees to treat him with kid gloves the rest of the season.

Position Player:
Jesus Montero, 20, RHB C, AAA
.313/.467/.500 in 21 PAs

Previous Win(s) - Week(s): 10

It’s nice to still be able to reference Jesus Montero in these articles after “The-Cliff-Lee-Trade-That-Wasn’t” ordeal from last week.

While Montero’s performance on the year is unspectacular, he has been the victim of some bad luck. His career minor league BABiP is .339, but through May at AAA, he had a mark of .243. It was really only a matter of time before his numbers started turning for the better. That’s exactly what happened in June (.829 OPS, .333 BABiP), and the trend is continuing in July (.868 OPS, .353 BABiP). Enduring the first real adversity of his playing career, Montero has managed to make some significant improvements in his approach.

One encouraging development to come from Montero’s 2010 campaign to date is, what appears to be, a substantial improvement in plate discipline. From 2007 to 2009, Jesus accumulated 77 unintentional walks in a little over a thousand plate appearances, good for a rate of 7.2%. That’s nothing to write home about, but certainly not terrible. Montero’s free pass rate this season is considerably higher, currently at 10.4%. While three percent might seem small, it is the difference between drawing a below-average amount of walks and being above-average in that category. If Jesus can keep this up for the rest of the season, it will be an unmitigated positive in a year that hasn’t held many for the young backstop.

Honorable Mentions:

Dellin Betances, 22, RHP, A+
6 IP, 6 K, 1 BB, 3 H, 0 ER
Betances is putting the Yanks in a tough place. The FSL isn’t challenging him, but he’s still not very far removed from injury. I imagine they’d like to keep him in Tampa, but with performances like this, Dellin might force their hand.

Brett Marshall, 20, RHP, A
10.1 IP, 9 K, 4 BB, 8 H, 3 ER
Brett says his arm feels great, and the results seem to be in concert with that.

Jose Pirela, 20, RHB SS, A+
.259/.394/.519 in 33 PAs
The bad: average is way down. The good: power is up, walks are up and BABiP rebound is on the way.

Gary Sanchez, 17, RHB C, Rookie
.286/.375/.524 in 24 PAs
The numbers are fun to look at, but don’t read too much into them.