Mike Ashmore Interviews Mark Newman

Mike Ashmore has a very good Trenton Thunder blog called Thunder Thoughts, and yesterday he sat down with Mark Newman, the Yankees Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations. They discussed various topics, here is some of what Newman had to say:

- Newman said that in the 20 years he’d been with the Yankees, he had not seen the system as stocked with pitching prospects as it is now.

“It’s not really close. The scouts have done a nice job, and the pitching coaches have done a real good job. Nardi Contreras, our pitching coordinator, Scott (Aldred) here, and Dave Eiland, the big league pitching coach, they’ve done a really great job.”

“Having said that, we need to do the same thing on the position player side of the ledger as we have on the pitching side. We’ve spent most of our high draft choices on pitchers, so that’s the reason. Again, this year: first pick, pitcher, second pick, pitcher.”

- Newman is excited about the young bats in the system.

“We’ve got some stuff going on in Charleston right now with our two middle guys (Snyder and Angelini), who are good hitters and really good defenders. Our center fielder (Abe Almonte) is a quality player. Colin Curtis, we think is going to hit. Jose Tabata is down in Tampa with a pulled hamstring. At age 19, he was getting in the .250 range or .240 range here after a horrible start. He was starting to handle the ball inside a little better, which is a part of hitting that typically shows up later. We like the position players we have here, and we feel good about the group we have in Charleston.”

- Newman is really excited about Austin Jackson.

“Like him a lot. Potentially a five-tool guy. His power is emerging. It started in the second half last year, and it’s coming on this year over the last five or six weeks. He runs, he runs the ball down in the outfield, throws. So he’s a player, and we think he’s going to be a quality big league guy for us.”

- Newman did not necessarily commit to keeping Mark Melancon in Trenton all season.

“Yes (the plan is to keep him in Trenton all season), but plans are changeable. Whoever’s the next Joba, I’m not sure. But he certainly has ability, and he’s pitched extraordinarily well here. He’s still essentially in a rehab season. This is his first competition in professional baseball, and he’s doing it coming off Tommy John surgery. We didn’t expect him to do this well.”

Newman also said that Jose Tabata, who is suffering from a hamstring injury, could return some time this month. As well as discussing the standout pitchers in Trenton like Jason Jones and Phil Coke.

Check out the rest of the interview here.