Arizona Fall League
Manny Banuelos, Austin Romine, and Brandon Laird were selected to participate in the Arizona Fall League Rising Stars Showcase. Players were selected based up their performance throughout 2010, as opposed to their AFL numbers.
Manny Banuelos, LHP
16.0 IP, 24 H, 5 BB, 10 K, 5.06 ERA, 1.31 G/F
Banuelos' velocity remains in the high-80s, low-90s, but his control and command of the strikezone remain strong. It's also worth noting that he's been garnering more and more grounders as the season has progressed.
Craig Heyer, RHP
12.0 IP, 9 H, 3 BB, 6 K, 2.25 ERA, 2.00 G/F
George Kontos, RHP
10 IP, 16 H, 6 BB, 10 K, 8.10 ERA, 1.22 G/F
Yikes.
Ryan Pope, RHP
7.2 IP, 9 H, 1 BB, 6 K, 3.52 ERA, 1.29 G/F
Pope is going to see action in the Majors this season ... though it appears it may be with another team, as he has not been added to the 40-man roster as of yet, and is eligible in the Rule 5 Draft.
Austin Romine, C
.286/.314/.347, 0 HR, 1 SB, 2:11 BB:K, 49 AB
Romine performed a bit better this week, making a bit more contact and throwing out a base-runner for what seems like the first time in months. With the hitter-friendly context of the AFL, I'm a bit disappointed in Romine's production thus far.
Jose Pirela, SS
.185/.250/.222, 0 HR, 2 SB, 4:13 BB:K, 54 AB
He's been caught stealing twice, as well, and his glovework has been universally panned.
Brandon Laird, OF
.254/.329/.492, 3 HR, 0 SB, 6:13 BB:K, 63 AB
As of this writing, Laird has four hits in his last twenty-nine at-bats. That being said, he's now drawn more walks in the AFL than he did after his promotion to SWB, and he showed off a strong throwing arm in left, nailing a runner at third.
From here, I'm going to change things up a bit. The majority of the Yankees prospects that have seen action in winter leagues beyond the AFL are middling, so instead of providing a smattering of names and numbers, I'll focus instead on interesting names and top performers.
Mexican Winter League
Justin Christian, OF
.365/.420/.541, 3 HR, 9 SB, 7:2 BB:K, 74 AB
Christian rakes in winter ball and puts up good to great numbers in the minors. He's a fine example of a 'Quadruple-A' player.
Venezuelan Winter League
Josh Schmidt, RHP
17.1 IP, 10 H, 9 BB, 17 K, 2.08 ERA, 0.78 G/F
I think Schmidt will see some time with the Yankees this season. While he's unlikely to be much more than a middle reliever, I do think he could have some value as the underutilized ROOGY.
Puerto Rican Winter League
Albaladejo is here, as well, but has yet to make an appearance.
Rene Rivera, C
.259/.355/.481, 2 HR, 0 SB, 4:8 BB:K, 27 AB
I've seen a few mentions of the Yankees needing an upgrade behind Posada and, while I tend to agree, Rivera's one of the reasons why I'm not sure that they need to look outside of the organization. With a bit of pop, decent plate discipline, and strong defense, he looks like a solid back-up.
For more names and statistics, check out MLB.com's page for Yankees prospects playing winter ball.
