Breakout Prospects for 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011 at 8:55 pm by Gary Wallace
After a lengthy hiatus, Gary Wallace returns with his top prospects to make some noise in 2011.
The rough qualifying conditions for candidates are a young player without a great deal of previous success.
Position Player: JR Murphy, C
2010 Stats: .255 / .327 / .376, 7 HR, 36 BB, 64 K
After being selected in the second round of the 2009 draft, expectations were high for John Ryan Murphy. The triple slash line above would tell us he fell well short of them, but there’s more to the story of JR’s 2010 season.
Murphy’s plate discipline and approach was the story surrounding him at draft time and he certainly showed it his first full season. He was solidly above average in walk rate (9.6 BB%, 7.8% SAL average), strikeout rate (17.1 K%, 20.4% SAL average) as well as, shocker, walk to strikeout ratio (.56 BB/K, .38 SAL average). Given that JR was roughly three years younger than his competition, this represents a very strong foundation for the young backstop.
JR really seemed to turn a corner in the latter half of the season, hitting six of his seven home runs and posting a .760 OPS after the all-star break. If he can carry that momentum with him into 2011, as well as benefit from some improvement on his batted balls, specifically flyballs, we could be looking at another great catching prospect in the Yankee minor league ranks.
Pitcher: Bryan Mitchell, RHP
2010 Stats: 45.2 IP, 3.94 ERA, 7.69 K/9, 4.53 BB/9, 1.77 K/BB, 1.270 WHIP
Bryan Mitchell was taken in the sixteenth round of the same draft that produced the aforementioned Murphy and signed for well above the recommended slot bonus (.8M). Mitchell works in the low 90s with his fastball and backs that up with an absolutely great curveball, one of the best in the entire Yankee system. His changeup is still very much a work in progress, but it’s his good velocity, Mark Newman said he was up to 95 MPH last year, coupled with a knockout secondary pitch that makes him a strong prospect.
Mitchell is positioned to make the jump from the Gulf Coast League to the Sally League, not an easy thing, similar to Jose Ramirez last year. If we’re lucky, Bryan will experience the same success JoRam did with the RiverDogs. There aren’t a ton of pitching prospects in the lower ranks of the minors and Bryan Mitchell is certainly one to watch in 2011.
Tags: farm system
If Murphy and Gary Sanchez develop, that’s FOUR top young catching prospects (Romine and The Jesus). Top that.
My name says it all.
my response says it all.
also if you’ve ever looked at the defensive spectrum, you’ll notice one position stands out as the hardest to find, particularly when you ask that warm body to hit better than jose molina.
And what if i return to ’07 numbers?
Trade bait is always useful to a perennial contender like the Yankees – especially young catchers that can hit.
If only there was this system in MLB in which you were allowed to swap, “trade” if you will, one player for another to the mutual benefit of both parties.
I agree, developing mulitple players at a position that your franchise has historically excelled at developing is stupid, at least until the league allows these “swaps” I mentioned earlier.
umm Can any those catching prospects be turned into a major league starting pitcher for 2011?
In reality, only one or two of the four will work out at the big leagues. So yeah, it is a convenient luxury.
Yeah, 4 catching prospects and no one to throw to them.
Manny Banuelos says ‘hello.’
Who’s he? Has he ever thrown a major league pitch or just minor league pitches? What if he doesn’t make it? Will you still be singing the same tune? All this website does is talk about how great the prospects are and yet none of them equal out to the spoken greatness. Until he gets up to the majors and proves he an pitch you can just shut your mouth and go back to thinking that you are good enough to run any major league club just solely based on how many baseball games you’ve watched.
He’s a minor league pitcher who is going to be throwing to minor league prospects.
See what I did there?
I do but again, does that translate into Major League success? At this point no. See what I did there?
Your strawman is awesome. Please show me where I said anything about major league success.
People are complaining that we have four catching prospects and there is no one to throw to them. In reality, there are some decent pitching prospects to go along with those catchers as well.
Good point. Good points aren’t welcome around these parts.
Snap! I’d better go punch Zeus AJ in the eye and make a break for it!
You guys are fucking GAY. THIS^
Whoever this GAY fellow is must be quite lucky.
Are prospects supposed to have lumps?
your gayness is alarming, Little Stevie Janowski
You’re maturity ceases to amazes me. How clever, naming yourself after a fat, out of shape fictional ball player. YOUR gayness is alarming, Kenny. Roll tide.
I choose Eric Duncan.
Is he still in the system? That kid’s name popped up like 8 years ago.
hey…my Jorge can still catch
Does it still count as a “golden shower” if it streams through his fingertips first? Or is Jorge abandoning his callous-inducing regimen now that he will be DH’ing?
When the Yankees start a former catching prospect at all 9 positions in a few years, man, you’re all gonna feel stupid.
Whatever happened to Brackman?
Just like every other kid this site has blown steam into he’s probably going to rot in the minors or end up a success when Cashman deals him for a “proven” starter.
Cashman’s dream rotation for 2011 was supposed to be this: Chien-Ming Wang, Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy, and Andrew Brackman. This was stated back in 2007. Amazing what can happen in the future, isn’t it?
Wang got injured what can you do about that? 1/4 though isnt bad and Brackman still has promise…
You’re a fucking moron. Brackman is 25 going on 26 and still hasn’t thrown pitch 1 in the majors. Unless he’s Warren Spahn reincarnate then I don’t want to hear about his promise.
He had TJ last time I checked it fucking sucks to have TJ
hey handjob Randy Johnson, who like Brackman is 6’10″, didn’t miss a year due to Tommy John surgery and he made his professional debut at roughly the same age…keep your thought and hands to yourself next time you leprechaun
So you’re telling me that because Andrew Brackman is 6’10″ like Randy Johnson it automatically means he has the same stuff, movement, velocity,luck, and mental capacity to that of Randy Johnson. Do you hear yourself when you talk or are you too busy listening to your motivational tapes in your pick up truck? You sir, are a fucking idiot. Roll tide.
Where was this “stated”?
On here.
The OP said it was “Cashman’s dream”. Show me where Cashman made this statement.
He told me this confindentially in bed back in 2007.
Well ok, that’s all I wanted to know
Well now you know the source. Didn’t that help ease your pain and get your bills paid.
Trust Cashman. He has certainly groomed a ton of pitching prospects since 1998.
Hughes. And….let my fat ass think a minute….
Think about it while you wait for a treadmill.
Or while you wait for a bagel and matza ball soup, you dumb fucking Heeb.
/cross-reference’d
Heebs?
You will be relieved to hear that I was able to get a treadmill today. My fat arse needed it.