Kuzul

I’m getting dizzy from all the spinning the New York Yankees are doing on catching prospects Jesus Montero and, to a lesser extent, Austin Romine. In case you missed it, both were dismissed to the minor leagues after each failed miserably during spring training.

Last winter, Montero was the odds-on favorite to be the Yankees‘ starting catcher this season. Even after Brian Cashman signed the just-released Russell Martin (no great shakes himself, this spring), Montero had the backup job in the majors waiting for him on a silver platter.

But Montero was nothing short of pathetic this spring despite being given chance after chance after chance. Romine was no better. So, the decision everybody who paid even casual attention knew was coming was finally announced on Monday.

Jesus Montero and Austin Romine have each been reassigned to the minor leagues.

But now the Yankees want to pretend it’s because they want those guys “playing every day.”

“We thought it was more beneficial for them to play every day instead of maybe just getting a couple starts in the month of April,” manager Joe Girardi said. “When you look at those two young guys, we consider them front-line catchers in the big leagues some day.”

BULL ****!

Nobody in the Yankees organization gave a DAMN about Montero and, to a lesser extent, Romine “playing every day” when they were convinced one, if not both, would make the team out of spring training. It only became a very convenient excuse, uh hem, I mean ISSUE, after they each sucked so bad during February and March.

And as if all of that is not bad enough, Girardi actually had the nerve to say Montero has “showed a lot of improvement since last year.”

WTF?! Did Girardi actually WATCH this dude play??? Montero was AWFUL! HORRIFIC! PATHETIC! And not just defensively, he sucked with a bat in his hands, too! Yet Girardi actually has the NERVE to say Montero IMPROVED?

That’s an absolute slap in the face and insult to the intelligence of every single person who watched Montero play this spring.

By the way, for those who have lost count, that’s also about the 273rd time the Yankees have claimed Montero has “shown a lot of improvement.”

The guy would be the best catcher in MLB history by now if he had improved even HALF as often as the Yankees claim he has.

About the only truth to come out of the Yankees regarding this situation is that Montero and Romine have each been reassigned to the minor leagues. Everything else is P.R. bull**** spin because Cashman and Girardi don’t want to admit the truth.

Both guys positively SUCKED all spring long.

Courtesy of Yankees ‘n More

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Almost as soon as the season ended, the Yankees made the decision on Jorge Posada: He would not catch in 2011.

I don’t even think he was allowed to bring a glove to spring training.

It was assumed that this would open the door for top catching prospect, Jesus Montero, to become the Yankees every day catcher.

Replacing Posada wouldn’t be easy, but for a team labeled as “old,” a youth movement would be a good thing.

Then the Yankees signed free agent catcher Russell Martin and immediately anointed him the starter.

This left Montero to compete with Francisco Cervelli for the back up role.

Cervelli was on a tear in spring training when he fouled a ball off his foot, breaking it, and destroying his Opening Day chances and giving Montero yet opening.

Flash forward three weeks and Montero is no closer to winning a job with the Yankees than he was when camp started.

If anything, he’s even further away then he was then.

After crushing 21 home runs in Triple-A last year, Montero has failed to impress anyone in spring training and the questionable defense he brought with him has been exactly as billed.

The Yankees have now shifted their attention to a non-roster catcher on a minor league contract: Gustavo Molina. He’s not a member of the world famous Catching Molina Brothers—Yadier, Bengie and Jose—but he brings major league experience to the table, which gives him the advantage over Montero.

It’s not so much about spring training performance; through 17 games, Montero is batting .263 with no home runs. It’s about the ability to call games on the major league level, something Montero doesn’t seem able to do just yet.

But more importantly, it’s above preserving the perception of Montero as a top prospect. Baseball America ranked Montero the No. 3 prospect in baseball on their annual top 100 list.

Would Montero still hold that position if he wins the back up job, comes up and hits .200 over the first two months of the season? How quick would the fans, so ecstatic over his minor league numbers, turn on him and begin calling for Posada back behind the dish?

The other option is the Yankees other top catching prospect, Austin Romine. But he hasn’t hit much either and though he’s considered superior defensively to Montero, he’s never caught above Double-A, so the same questions which apply to Montero, apply to Romine as well.

In 14 games, Molina is batting .077 with seven strike outs in just 13 at-bats. So, it’s not about his numbers either.

This is about ensuring that if the Yankees find a suitable trade mid-season for a starting pitcher, their tradeable prospects still have some value.

If the Yankees decide to go with Molina, he’s nothing more than a placeholder for Cervelli, who could be back by the end of April. When Cervelli comes back, Molina will be gone faster than you can count to three.

Meanwhile, Montero will be in the minors, improving, among other things, his defense. Right now, any team in baseball would jump at the chance to add Montero to their minor league system. 

If the Yankees had been able to pull off a trade with the Seattle Mariners for Cliff Lee last season, Montero would already be gone.

Given the Yankees depth of catching prospects, Montero may find himself thrown into a trade once again this season.

For that to happen, he’s got to have value. Languishing as a back up catcher wont help that.  

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The New York Yankees are proud to display their best collection of minor league talent since the early-to-mid 1990s. They also have a fan base that is now more abreast on prospects than ever before, which inevitably causes love affairs and limitless hype thrust in the direction of teenagers.

There has been a heightened interest in young stars across the MLB landscape in general, as players such as Stephen Strasburg, Buster Posey, Jason Heyward, Bryce Harper, and Aroldis Chapman have captivated baseball circles.

All of this prospect hysteria has inspired me to create a list of the most hyped Yankees in team history—representing a caveat that cliffs lay waiting at each turn on the way to the mountain top.

These prospects will span more than six hype-filled decades, and will tell stories of both immortalized success and unbridled failure. Without further ado, let’s dive into the archives of Yankees minor league development:

Begin Slideshow

If anything can be taken from the first two days of spring training, it’s this: The Yankees have a great farm system. 

The Yankees are choc-full of talent ranging from starting pitchers to catchers. 

At nearly every position there are legitimate prospects that should be making their ways to the Bronx over the next couple of years. 

Most importantly, and immediately, is starting pitching and catching.

For starting pitching, the Yankees have Ivan Nova, Dellin Betances, Andrew Brackman, Hector Noesi and Manuel Banuelos. Nova has already shown his stuff in the big leagues and he looked good again today.  Now Betances and Noesi have shown why there is a lot of hype surrounding them today agianst the Phillies.

Another abundant spot is at catcher. Jesus Montero, Austine Romine, Francisco Cervelli and Gary Sanchez are the youngsters competing for a backup spot behind Russell Martin. Cervelli has already been in the majors for a couple of years now, so we know he could do the job if he wins it. However, Montero and Romine are among the best prospects in all of baseball, and either one of them has a great shot of making the final roster.

The thing that is important is that these guys do not need to be ready on day one. The Yankees mixed and matched with players like Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia, threw in Sergio Mitre and Ivan Nova, and of those four candidates two starters will emerge.

Assuming Nova makes the fourth spot, Colon Mitre and Garcia wil battle for the fifth spot.

In all likliehood, Mitre will make the team as a long reliver because he has proven to be most helpful in that job for the Yankees.

That would leave Colon or Garcia as the fifth starter to start the season. Not the most ideal situation, but it is not bad either. Either of those guys can hold down the fifth spot long enough for one of the prospects to get some time in Triple-A and then be called up during the season to take over.

That would allow for more time for these young guys to develop and would also allow the Yankees more time to evaluate the situation.

Either the fifth starter will do well and stay there, or they will do poorly.  Then the prospect can come up, and the pitcher (either Colon or Garcia) can be released. At the end of the day, that wouldn’t be a bad situation at all, because both pitchers were low-risk.

As far as the catcher position goes, it is a very similar situation. Let Martin start off as the starting catcher starting the season but work in the backup catcher a few days a week potentially. In a week’s worth of games, Martin can start four or five of the days, and a guy like Montero could start the other two or three.

This would allow for Montero to become familiar with his teammates, most importantly the pitchers he will be catching. Also, it will allow him to get big-league at-bats, which are more valuable and beneficial than facing Minor League pitchers.

Again, in this situation if Martin is doing well he will stay on as the starter and Montero would be a backup. If Martin doesn’t perform, Montero can take over as starter if he has developed enough.  

The Yankees can treat this situation similar to the way the San Francisco Giants treated the Molina/Buster Posey situation.

Once they feel the prospect is ready, let him take over as starter. However, the Yankees are in an even better position because Martin is younger than Molina and certainly is not done.

All the Yankees need to do is be patient. DO NOT trade away one of these blue chip prospects for a quick fix. The Yankees have four starters who can do just fine in games with the run support that the lineup can provide.

Wait it out and give these guys time to develop, and then bring them to the big leagues. A rotation of C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Phil Hughes, Ivan Nova, and a prospect looks pretty damn good to me.  

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The New York Yankees faced off against the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday and allowed some of their developing prospects get some playing time.

Among the crop of prospects were Ivan Nova, Dellin Betances and Jesus Montero.

Nova and Betances are two pitchers looking for a shot to pitch in the Major League rotation for the Yankees. The Yankees have two slots open and are looking for a top performer this spring to fill it.

Trading for a big-name starting pitcher is among the options that the Yankees have, but they are currently not leaning towards that approach. There have been reports that they are keeping their eyes on at least one solid American League pitcher, and that is Francisco Liriano of the Minnesota Twins.

The Twins have Liriano on the trading block, but are looking for prospects in return from any team willing to make an offer. The Yankees showed today that they have a few pieces that they can add to the puzzle and possibly make a blockbuster move sometime soon.

Nova, with two scoreless innings of work, showed scouts today that he can start off a game very well. Only time will tell if he can keep it up for five or six innings at a time.

Betances is a prospect that the front office may not be ready to give up on. He has a ton of upside and his stuff against the Phillies was dynamite. He was lighting up the radar guns with his fastball. His delivery scared a few people because it looked like it might be putting a bit too much strain on his arm, but that is something that can be closely examined with a good pitching coach. 

It has been said several times that Jesus Montero is untouchable and he very well may be, but he showed that he still has some room to improve his swing. He had an RBI in the game and looked good catching Nova. The Yankees will most likely not package him in any deal this season. 

As much as it pains fans to realize, Jorge Posada will not be around too much longer. He is headed toward the end of his career and may have one or two more seasons left in the tank after 2011. It is too early to pinpoint exactly when he may be calling it quits, but Montero is the next best option that the Yankees have.

Posada has taken on the role of designated hitter in the lineup and very soon may be more of a mentor to Montero than he has been in the past. 

Liriano is the Yankees best option in case all else fails this spring. Packaging Nova, Betances and Montero in one deal would hurt the Yankees. That is not the solution.

This spring, the Yankees’ plan should be to display the talent that their prospects have and then mix and match for a deal.

They should avoid pressing the panic button and throwing away all their best young talent. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

As pitchers and catchers are filing into camp, the New York Yankees have several issues to attend to this spring, one of the foremost being the competition between the veteran offseason pickup Russell Martin and the top catching prospect in the game today, Jesus Montero.

Montero has risen through the Yankees farm system very quickly, much in thanks to his power and run production at each level of the minors. Now with the starting catcher spot vacated by Jorge Posada in New York, the young super prospect has a chance to make his mark and live up to all the hype in the Bronx this year.

Martin is the new-comer to the Yankees and is coming off knee surgery, plus his 2010 season was cut short by a broken hip and torn shoulder in August. But he is a two time All Star as well as the owner of a gold glove and silver slugger, and at age 27, he is the veteran and considered probably the favorite to start on opening day.

If Martin is 100 percent healthy by the end of spring training, it would be hard to argue with him as the choice if the Yankees go with him. But Montero has proven that he can hit at every level thus far and by all scouting accounts he would succeed in the Majors as well. So who should it be?

In 2010, Montero got off to a slow start at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, but after a strong second half of the season his overall numbers were good, he hit 21 home runs with 75 RBIs and a .289 batting average. The average was down compared to his previous performances and he did strikeout 91 times in 453 at bats. So there are holes in his game, but at just 21 years old he is very advanced.

His defense has been called into question in the past, but last year he seemed to rededicate himself to improving his fielding capability behind the plate and did do a better job. Is he ever going to be a gold glove catcher in the majors, no probably not, but neither was the guy he’s trying to replace, Jorge Posada.

Plus, there is really no where for him to go. Sure you could send him back to the minors for another year, but that would only take another year off of his potential career lifespan, which as a catcher is probably shorter than most. That would be a complete waste of time, since it appears he is ready for the big leagues.

Martin has the experience as the veteran, but with all of his recent injury history and self admittedly not 100 percent healthy yet, I have to go with Montero. He is a bigger offensive weapon in the already stacked Yankees lineup, which the Yanks are going to have to rely heavily on this year thanks to their failed pursuit of Cliff Lee and Andy Pettitte retiring, leaving the starting rotation considerably weaker.

So Montero is the man for the job in my opinion.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The news for the Yankees this offseason has been generally negative. Missing out on Cliff Lee, the Derek Jeter contract debacle and Andy Pettitte retiring. Add a peppering of has-been players, and the Yankee Universe isn’t looking as rock-solid as it has in the past.  

There are a few questions, both big and small, for the Yankees heading into spring training. 

Begin Slideshow

We’ve tried to fill the offseason gap in fantasy baseball with our series of prospect reports, which started with Dustin Ackley back in early-December.

Now on the cusp of Spring Training starting (pitchers and catchers report in less than two weeks), it is time to put a wrap on the prospect series so we can get right into the swing of things prepping for our, and your, fantasy baseball drafts.

We hope you enjoyed the series. Here is the last one, discussing New York Yankees’ catcher of the future, or perhaps DH of the future, Jesus Montero.

When is the best catching prospect in baseball not a catcher? When he’s a guy whose catching skills are a negative and he is better suited to play other positions that won’t hurt his team. Of course, a player this bad defensively, has to be a monster with the bat.

The best bat in the New York Yankees farm system belongs to Jesus Montero. The 20-year-old native of Venezuela is the real deal and will be a fixture in the heart of the Bronx Bombers batting order for the next decade. No one questions how well he’ll hit, they only question what defensive position he will play.

Montero has been a catcher throughout his minor league career, but he has some serious deficiencies at the position. He’s big and slow and can’t throw out base runners.

Of course, the Yankees have employed Jorge Posada at that position for the last 15 years, so they aren’t averse to starting a poor defensive catcher as long as he has a good bat.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see Montero play a few games each week behind the dish while playing DH the rest of the time, but short of significant improvement behind the plate, it is hard to imagine him becoming the everyday catcher.

Montero could also end up playing the outfield in the near future and maybe first base somewhere down the road. At this point however, the Yankees are still working with him as a backstop, even if no one else in the free world sees him as such.

Montero’s bat is the real deal, but the Russell Martin signing and the move to DH for Posada means there’s no place for Montero in the immediate Yankee lineup. If Posada’s knees don’t hold up, Montero could get a call up this season. Otherwise, expect another season in triple-A, where Montero hit .289/21/75 last year.

Montero’s 2010 stats seemed like a setback after a torrid 2009 in high-A and double-A which saw him go .337/17/70. He started off slowly in triple-A, but caught fire in the second half hitting .340/15/43 from July to the end of the season.

Montero checks in at 6’4”, 230 pounds and has some serious power. He has room to pack on some bulk as he continues to physically develop. His bat will still play if he has to DH or play first base.

His OPS as a 20-year-old in triple-A was .870, so he has some ability. His walk rate increased slightly, but his strikeout rate increased significantly, so a little more minor league seasoning won’t hurt him.

A .285 average with a dozen homeruns is likely if given 200+ at bats at the Major League level in 2011. The Yankees won’t call him up to sit him on the bench and only get 5-10 plate appearances per week though. Look for Montero to start the season in triple-A and get a call up in the summer or when Posada gets hurt, whichever comes first.

Montero’s bat is so good that no one will care about his glove in about five years, so it really doesn’t matter where he plays. Of course, fantasy players will appreciate at least 20 games a season at catcher, but he’s a keeper no matter where his glove lands.

He’s likely to see some at bats this season, so a late round pick and a seat on your bench is worth your while. Keeper league players should undoubtedly pounce if he is still available.

Rick Milleman is the head fantasy baseball contributor at DraftBuddy.com. Check his annual player projections included in the Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy to help draft your championship team.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Last night, Tuesday January 25, 2011, the MLB Network Special analyzing the 2011 “Top 50 Prospects” aired, and just three New York Yankee minor leaguers made the cut.
 
Making the list…

• PLAYER MUST HAVE ROOKIE STATUS TO BE ELIGIBLE (To qualify for rookie status, a player must not have exceeded 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched in the Major Leagues or accumulated more than 45 days on the active roster of a Major League club or clubs during the 25-player-limit period, excluding time on the disabled list or in military service)
• BASED ON INPUT FROM SCOUTS AND FRONT OFFICE PERSONAL
• TIES BROKEN BY JOHNATHAN MAYO

So, which pinstripe prospects made the cut?
 
To be exact, two catchers and a left-handed pitcher out of the Bomber’s farm system graced MLB Network’s Top 50 Prospect list. Click here to see the entire list.
 

Jesus Montero No. 9

Jesus Montero has been atop the Yankees prospect list for two years, so it was expected that the 6’5″ catcher land in the top 10 across the minors, as well as being the top catcher on the list. Montero has Yankee Universe salivating in anticipation of seeing this youngster up in the Bronx in 2011. Montero is hitting .300 and averaging 30+ home-runs. Montero has a great arm, but the Yankees are still toying with moving him from catcher due to his large size. Being compared to All-Star Mike Piazza is not a bad rap to have.
 

Gary Sanchez No. 32

At just 18-years-old, catching prospect Gary Sanchez is said to be the real deal. MLB.com picked Sanchez as the third best catching prospect, so this kid has superstar potential. Sanchez has the bat of Montero and the defensive skills of Yankee prospect Austin Romine, but considering his age he looks to surpass both. 2011 will mark Sanchez’s first full minor league season, so Yankee fans will have to hold their breaths a little longer.
 

Manny Banuelos No. 35

LHP Manny Banuelos is only 5’10″, but described as having “a great feel for pitching.” Banuelos has a change-up and breaking ball that he throws for strikes. Add that to a 93-94 mph average fastball, that can clock in at 96+ at times as well. Banuelos was “born to pitch,” according to why he made the MLB Network Top 50 prospect list.
 

Are there any Yankees prospects of note that did not make the list?

• RHP Dellin Betances just missed the top 50, landing at No. 53.
• Catching prospect Austin Romine was nowhere to be found, which was shocking considering how talented defensively Romine is behind the plate. Romine’s bat is not near Sanchez or Montero, but he is no slacker.

 
Which MLB teams seem to have a lot to look forward to in the future?

• Kansas City Royals had six top youngsters, four of which landed in the top 20.

• Right behind KC is the Tampa Bay Rays, who had four prospects on this list. The Rays Jeremy Hellickson ranked No. 2 and Desmond Jennings took the No. 7 spot.

• No. 1 ranked prospect is Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim’s outfielder Mike Trout. Trout is just 19-years-old but excels in every area of the game and has a work ethic well beyond his years. Said to be a future All-Star and will be a household name for years to come.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

With the baseball season right around the corner, the baseball hot stove is scolding hot. Teams that missed out on big free agent signings are still trying to make a splash via trades. 

Some players could find themselves landing in a favorable situation, that opens the door for them to make some noise. Fantasy studs could be born next season with a change of scenery.

Begin Slideshow