Today we'll continue looking at the New York Yankees' farm system as we move on to their Double-A affiliate, the Trenton Thunder. Yesterday, we examined the Yanks' unimpressive Triple-A squad and explained the statistical measures we will be using throughout this process.
Without further ado, the Trenton Thunder:
| Trenton Thunder Batting Stats | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Age | AB | BB | SO | XBH | H | BB/AB | SO/AB | BB/SO | XBH/H |
| Kevin Thompson | 25 | 245 | 41 | 48 | 35 | 81 | 0.167 | 0.196 | 0.854 | 0.432 |
| Shelly Duncan | 25 | 244 | 21 | 51 | 32 | 68 | 0.086 | 0.209 | 0.412 | 0.471 |
| Melky Cabrera | 20 | 243 | 17 | 41 | 20 | 68 | 0.07 | 0.169 | 0.415 | 0.294 |
| Eric Duncan | 20 | 240 | 26 | 54 | 14 | 55 | 0.108 | 0.225 | 0.481 | 0.255 |
| Bronson Sardinha | 22 | 221 | 18 | 50 | 23 | 57 | 0.081 | 0.226 | 0.36 | 0.404 |
| Andy Cannizaro | 26 | 198 | 11 | 18 | 12 | 49 | 0.056 | 0.091 | 0.611 | 0.245 |
| Omir Santos | 24 | 160 | 4 | 27 | 9 | 44 | 0.025 | 0.69 | 0.148 | 0.205 |
| JT Stotts | 25 | 111 | 8 | 12 | 5 | 26 | 0.072 | 0.108 | 0.667 | 0.192 |
| Yobal Duenas | 33 | 80 | 2 | 20 | 7 | 18 | 0.025 | 0.25 | 0.1 | 0.389 |
| Jason Brown | 31 | 64 | 7 | 15 | 5 | 18 | 0.109 | 0.234 | 0.467 | 0.278 |
| Eric Crozier | 26 | 51 | 4 | 18 | 3 | 9 | 0.078 | 0.353 | 0.222 | 0.333 |
The ideal age for a Double-A player is between 21 and 22 years old. Being younger is a plus, obviously. Three Trenton position players are under the age of 22: Melky Cabrera, Eric Duncan and Bronson Sardinha. Of the three, only Duncan has shown much patience at the dish and only Sardinha any legitimate power.
The rest of the team's position players are old and unimpressive with the exception of Kevin Thompson. The 25 year old outfielder has strong internal numbers and is batting .328/.427/.536. I have to wonder why he is still in Trenton when Columbus is so old and untalented.
| Trenton Thunder Pitching Stats | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Age | IP | K | BB | K/9 | BB/9 | K/BB |
| Jeffrey Karstens | 22 | 70 | 57 | 15 | 7.33 | 1.93 | 3.8 |
| Matt Desalvo | 24 | 52.7 | 59 | 31 | 10.08 | 5.29 | 1.9 |
| Jon Skaggs | 27 | 46.7 | 30 | 22 | 5.78 | 4.24 | 1.36 |
| Matt Smith | 25 | 41 | 38 | 19 | 8.34 | 4.17 | 2 |
| Ben Julianel | 25 | 40.7 | 56 | 26 | 12.38 | 5.75 | 2.15 |
| Eduardo Sierra | 23 | 40.3 | 31 | 29 | 6.92 | 6.48 | 1.07 |
| Charlie Isaacson | 25 | 39 | 45 | 17 | 10.39 | 3.92 | 2.65 |
| Ramon Ramirez | 23 | 37.7 | 35 | 18 | 8.36 | 4.3 | 1.94 |
| Justin Pope | 25 | 33 | 24 | 11 | 6.55 | 3 | 2.18 |
| Charlie Manning | 26 | 32.7 | 33 | 12 | 9.08 | 3.3 | 2.75 |
| Carlos Artiles | 24 | 22.7 | 14 | 12 | 5.55 | 4.76 | 1.17 |
| Danny Borrell | 26 | 13.7 | 12 | 5 | 7.88 | 3.28 | 2.4 |
| Steven White | 23 | 12.3 | 9 | 7 | 6.59 | 5.12 | 1.29 |
| Aaron Small | 33 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 5.4 | 1.8 | 3 |
| Marc Valdes | 33 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 5.4 | 0 | N/A |
As previously stated, the age group we're hoping to find on a Double-A team is under 23. The pitching staff has one such prospect, Jeffrey Karstens. Luckily for the Yankees, Karstens is not only the youngest, but the best pitcher on the staff. He is not terribly far away from K'ing one per inning and his control is excellent as he is averaging fewer than two walks per nine innings. A 3.80 K/BB is very strong.
The rest of the pitchers finding success with Trenton are all 25 or older and/or benefitting from a particularly small sample size. At least it won't be hard to make room for Philip Hughes when he's ready.
Double-A Trenton is barren. The average age on the squad is 25.4 and the median 25. There are only a couple of bright spots and they're still nothing to write home about.
Spreadsheets:
Click here to download Batting spreadsheet
Click here to download Pitching spreadsheet