Solid Pitching Down on the Farm

It has been a decent few days for pitching throughout the Yankee farm system. At Triple-A yesterday, Ivan Nova held his own against Reds top prospect Aroldis Chapman who was registering over 100 MPH on the radar gun a number of times. Nova, who has had a good year so far, had one bad inning in the second when he allowed Louisville 4 runs. After that he and the bullpen held the Bats scoreless allowing the Yankees to come back and get the win. This followed a nice performance by Jason Hirsh the day before. He took a no-hitter two outs into the 7th inning for his first win of the year.

But the best pitching efforts the past few days have been coming from the Low-A Charleston RiverDogs. After 4 innings last night RiverDog pitching had allowed only 2 earned runs over the last 34 innings. Including 23 straight shut out innings over the last 4 games. After giving up only 2 runs last night, the impressive run came to an end when the bullpen imploded allowing 5 runs in the ninth. So far this season, after a slow start, Charleston is third in team ERA (3.05) in the South Atlantic League and leads the league with 3 shut outs in 20 games.

The starting rotation has been outstanding over the last 6 games and the season:

• Schaeffer Hall (4 IP; 0 ER; 0.71 overall ERA)
• Kelvin Perez (6 IP; 0 ER; 1.05 overall ERA)
• Jose Ramirez (6 IP; 0 ER; 1.93 overall ERA)
• Sean Black (7.1 IP; 2 ER; 5.91 overall ERA) (former Seton Hall Pirate)

Though none of these pitchers have acheived top prospect status, the other starter in the rotation, Graham Stoneburner, has been a standout for the team so far. He is currently rated the No. 21 prospect in the Yankee farm system according to Baseball America. This week he was named the South Atlantic League Pitcher of the Week after throwing 14 innings over his last two starts allowing 2 runs on 11 hits, while walking 3 and striking out 16. On April 24 he had his best start giving up 1 run in 8 innings, no walks, 8 strikeouts and at one point had retired 20 straight batters. A 14th round pick in the 2009 First-Year Player Draft out of Clemson, the 22 year old leads the league in strikeouts with 30 and has a 2.16 ERA.