The Charleston RiverDogs are loaded for 2012

The Yankees had four players featured in MLB's top 100 prospects, those being Manny Banuelos, Dellin Betances, Gary Sanchez and Mason Williams and Keith Law ranks the Yankees farm system tenth overall even with the departure of Jesus Montero.

“I might be jumping the gun here, but I see a lot of star potential on their bottom few affiliates, including new acquisition Jose Campos from Seattle, to go with the two power arms from their Scranton club (Manny Banuelos and Dellin Betances),” said KLaw with his obvious anti-Yankees bias. “The flaw in the system is the lack of near-in talent, especially position players, who could either help the big club soon or provide more fodder for trades.”

Here is the Yankees top 20 prospects:

Prospects with projected starting level

 I do not give much credit to players in the lower levels because the farther away a player is the more likely he is to completely bust, but the quantity of high level talent in the Yankees lower levels is exciting.  What will make this year especially interesting is that normally you may see 2-4 high level prospects together, but this year the Yankees will have a lot of talent in the South Atlantic leagues Charleston RiverDogs. Next year the Yankees are projected to start Nine of their top twenty in Low A Charleston, in fact the only player in the top ten who isnt starting in Scranton or Charelston is Slade Heathcott. Every member of the infield and almost every position player is a top prospect, with two members of the rotation in the top twenty as well as several other interesting names. 

Infield:

Dante Bichette Jr. 3rd will more than likely man the hot corner in Charleston after tearing up the Gulf coast league and doing everything he can to prove wrong those of us who were stunned (meaning everyone) that the Yankees took him in the 1st round. The Yankees could decide to start him in Staten Island, but the general consesus is that he will start the year in Charleston.

Tyler Austin 3rd/1st will likely start on the other side of the infield at 1st base but he could easily start at third if Bichette doesn't start the year in Charelston. For all the hype that Bichettes bat got, Austins was even better and starting him anywhere but Charelston would be unfair to the New York-Penn league pitchers.

Angelo Gumbs 2nd may move to a new position but for right now he will look to be the starting second baseman with Charelston and is the youngest of the group having just turned 19 in October.

Cito Culver SS Like Bichette last year Culver was a surprise 1^st round draft pick. Culver spent all of last year with the Staten Island Yankees and will make the natural move to Low-A Charleston. Culver had a decent year with his bat last year but his defense and speed are what people are excited about. Hopefully Culver doesn’t sink in his first try at full season ball.

Gary Sanchez C I think Sanchez will start the year at Charleston, but there is a very good chance that he will share time with J.R Murphy in Tampa. The only thing holding Sanchez back from Tampa is that he got hurt, which is the same reason why Murphy isn’t starting in Trenton. Sanchez’s bat is the best in the system now that Montero is gone and his defense is considered to be better than Montero, but still not very good. If Sanchez does start the year in Charleston he will likely be the first of the group to move up to Tampa.

Outfield:

Mason Williams OF Williams broke out last year and is now considered to be the Yankees top outfield prospect. Williams had an amazing year and he will man Center Field in Charleston, if he continues to play to the high level he did last year and matures into some power then he quickly become the Yankees number one prospect. The Yankees hope is that Williams can become a Shane Victorino type; a gold glove centerfielder with a high average and decent power. No pressure

Ben Gamel OF His brother Matt Gamel is going to be the starting 1^st baseman for the Brewers this season and while he doesn’t have the power that his brother does he will be able to play the field well in a corner spot and continue to hit for average and get on base a lot. Right now Gamel looks like a Colin Curtis type with less fielding ability, which may not sound great but players like that are always good to have.


Pitchers:

Jose Campos SP If you haven’t heard Campos was the other pitcher the Yankees acquired in the Pineda for Montero deal and is now ranked as the Yankees 5^th best prospect and best non-killer B pitching prospect. He’s only 19 but runs his fastball up to 95 and a very good curveball, to go along with a developing changeup. Campos will jump into the Low-A Charleston rotation for his first time in full season ball. He is going to be very exciting to watch.

Bryan Mitchell SP Mitchell is a project and full season ball will be his chance to show if he could put his very good stuff to good use. He will be testing the defense of this prospect laden infield as he gets a ton of ground balls.

Other prospects:
Evan DeLuca SP Another Right hander in the Charelston rotation and Just like Bryan Mitchell he has great stuff but has struggled with his command. He did do a good job last year of the ball in the park last year in giving up no home runs. However he did walk 32 batters in just 46 innings. He may not be a top twenty prospect but he is a lefty and lefties with goods stuff are always great to have.

Phil Wetherell RP,Brandon Pinder RP,Caleb Cotham RP: All three of these guys are power arms with a ton of strikeouts. Calbe Cotham has struggled to stay healthy and injury would be the only reason he wouldn’t be in Charleston’s bullpen. Pinder and Wetherell could easily move up the ladder from Charleston very quickly just like Dave Robertson.
Isaias Tejada C Tejada could start in Charelston if Sanchez starts the year in Tampa. He is another
talented hitting catcher and just shows how deep the Yankees are in terms of  backstop prospects.

Reymond Nunez 1st Nunez should probbaly be starting in Charelston but I expect that Tyler Austin will be Charelstons regular 1st baseman. If the Yankees think they can get him enough playing time at 1st and Dh then he will probably play in Charelston.

There is a lot of breakout potential in this group and some more players like center fielder Raval Santana or Outfiielder Cody Grice could start the year in Charelston.

Cashman saved it all for Friday the 13th: trades Montero for Pineada and Signs Kuroda.

Rember when you woke up on Friday the 13th thinking that the Yankees were essentially done this off season and wouldn't make any major moves after passing on Gio, CJ Wilson and not really expressing any interest in Edwin Jackson. Sure the Yankees might sign Kuroda or Oswalt, but no major changes.Yup Brian Cashman lulled us all into a state of belief that he would do essentially nothing this off season and then he changes everything.  Jesus Montero and Hector Noesi were sent to Seattle for Michael Pineada and prospect Jose Campos. Then an hour later the Yankees signed Hiroki Kuroda for $10 million. All of the sudden the Yankees went from a rotation of CC,Nova, Garcia, Hughes,Burnett with Noesi as the first call up, to having no space in the rotation for Hughes or Burnett. Now the talk is going to turn to the Yankees looking to trade Burnett or Hughes and them looking for a DH. Montero was a great prospect, but the Yankees obviously didn't view him as a catcher long term and with the Yankees getting older there really wasn't any ideal long term spot for him. The trade makes sense but the fan base definitely feels conflicted about this trade. The fact is that there really isn't any winner or loser of this trade and its hard to gauge because the players swapped were all making the minimum salary, except for Campos who is still in the low minors.
I really liked Montero and I was looking forward to seeing him play a full year, but this is a good old fashioned baseball trade were two teams adressed their long term needs. The Yankees have pitching depth, but they needed a high end starter and the Mariners needed a power bat and they made the deal. Then not to be outdone the Yankees went and signed Hiroki Kuroda to a 1-year $10 million deal to really set up their rotation. You can see my earlier post about Kuroda here and I did predict that Kuroda would sign with the Yankees in my post about the remaining free agents that I put up yesterday. The last thing that I will point out is that before this trade the Yankees had a top three offense with a questionable rotation and now they may be questionable as a top three but have a much improved rotation and are going to be the clear favorites for the AL East.