#6 MELKY MESA
Melky Mesa is considered to be one of the Yankees best outfield prospects with absolutely fantastic defense and a lot of raw talent and athleticism. Unfortunately he strikes out a lot and he finished last year with the Advanced A Tampa Yankees and has not advanced beyond that point despite 5 years in the Yankees farm system. That being said the Yankees did put him on the 40-man so that he could not be taken in the Rule 5 draft so they must believe at least some of the hype around Melky and if he has a good spring training he could advance up the minors ladder but he is very unlikely to reach the Bronx this season.
#5 Brandon Laird
Brandon Laird who is the brother of catcher Gerald Laird is a top prospect who has some serious power and last year he posted a slash line of .291 .355 .523 .878 with 23 HR's in 454 PA before being bumped up to AAA. Unfortunately his stats dropped off significantly in AAA and his struggles continued in the Arizona fall league, he also has spent all of his minor league career at 1st and 3rd before the Yankees decided to see him play in the outfield in the Fall league and its uncertain if he will stay in the outfield. His recent struggles and the very recent move to the outfield will likely keep him off the opening day roster but we could see him later on in the year. He is also 23 and the Yankees will likely want him to prove himself in AAA before throwing him into the majors and possibly stunt his development. However if Spring training goes well for Laird he could make the opening day roster due to his power and ability to play the infield and outfield corners.
#4 Jordan Parraz
#3 Kevin Russo
I must confess I really like Kevin Russo and as a result I may be ranking him higher than I should, but he does have something that none of the three previous players do and that is experience in pinstripes. If you are unfamiliar with him Russo is a utility player who has played at almost every position, he is also originally from Long island and grew up a Yankees fan. Russo was a hero in the subway series and won the first game of that series by contributing the only two Yankee RBI's of the game with a great double, he also had another RBI and Run scored in the next days loss at Citi field. He then had another RBI in the Yankees 3-2 win in Minnesota on May 26th and was batting .294 at the time, unfortunately that was the last RBI for Russo and he was sent down to Scranton on July 17th with .184 BA. His AAA numbers for 2010 wern't very good at .259 .333 .328 .662 and 1 HR, but with exception of his OBP those are all the worst numbers of his career so he could bounce back and the Yankees would love to have a good utility player as their fifth outfielder. Another negative against Russo is that his infield defense is pretty average and his range is good but his defense and range in the outfield are both below average and he doesn't have a lot of playing time in the outfield while in Scranton despite spending most of his time in the majors in Left Field. Despite his drawbacks Russo is extremely versatile and has MLB experience, which is why he still has a shot at making the Opening day roster.
#2 Colin Curtis
Colin Curtis was drafted in the 4th Round of the 2006 draft by the Yankees and has spent his entire career in the Yankees system and made his Major League debut this season on June 21st 2010, exactly a month later he hit a Three Run Home Run against the angels in the Bronx when he was called upon to pinch hit after Brett Gardner was ejected from the game while batting with an 0-2 count. Curtis appeared in 31 games and had more plate appearances than any other AAA call-up with 64 PA's but he only had an .186 BA, an OBP of .250 and he struck out 15 times. Curtis lacks plate disciple and is not very perceptive at the plate or running the base paths, he has struck out and failed to run to 1st when the ball was dropped and another time he failed to notice that the ball had not been caught and began running back to 1st and took an extra base hit away from Juan Miranda. Curtis does have an inspiring story as he is a survivor of Testicular cancer and has been Cancer free for ten years. LiL CC has average defense and can play all 3 outfield positions and his minor league batting stats are good but he needs to improve his approach and because of that he will likely need to spend more time in AAA to do so, but if he displays better plate disciple in spring training he could start the season in the Bronx.(Update: Forgot to mention the biggest plus for Curtis he is a lefty bat and their are currently zero of those on the Yankees bench)
#1 Greg Golson
Greg Golson was acquired last off-season from the Texas Rangers and he was drafted by the Phillies back in 2004. Golson was called up several times to the Bronx, but he made his biggest impact on the field in September and the ALDS with some fantastic defense and an unbelievable throwing out of Carl Crawford at third in September, the throw was so good he would have thrown out Rickey Henderson. Golson hit .261 in 23 PA's but it is best to go by his minor league stats due to his limited PA's in the majors. Golson strikes out a lot but he hit .263 with an OBP of .313 and had 10 HR, he also is a speedster and stole 17 bases last year in 21 attempts. Golson's great ability as a defensive replacement in the outfield and ability as a speedster make him the ideal 5th outfielder for the Yankees with the exception of Scott Posednick. The combination of Gardner, Granderson and Golson in the late innings will be a scary good outfield and he could have some potential power as he was 4th in Scranton in Home Runs. Unless Golson hits below .200 in Spring training then his only competition for 5th outfielder will be if the Yankees bring in a free agent. Have fun in the Bronx Golson, I look forward to seeing more of Gutty Gritty Greg Golson.
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