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Clever Farming-Related Title, Part III

Today, I'm going to wrap up my look at the Yankee farm system by evaluating both of their A-ball clubs, the Tampa Yankees and Charleston RiverDogs. Luckily for fans the Evil Empire, there is some talent hidden in the Yankee system even if it is buried in Single-A.

There's no reason to pretend I have anything else meaningful to say before getting into the stats, so here you go:

Tampa Yankees Batting Stats
Player Age AB BB SO XBH H BB/AB SO/AB BB/SO XBH/H
Matt Carson 23 231 19 45 20 62 0.082 0.195 0.422 0.323
Erold Andrus 20 224 20 42 17 52 0.089 0.188 0.476 0.327
Rodolfo Guillen 21 220 9 41 14 54 0.041 0.186 0.22 0.259
John Urick 23 203 19 35 26 55 0.094 0.172 0.543 0.473
Hector Zamora 23 136 19 32 14 36 0.14 0.235 0.594 0.389
Hector Made 20 132 11 20 5 30 0.083 0.152 0.55 0.167
Tom Rojas 23 125 9 25 10 34 0.072 0.2 0.36 0.294
Jared Koutnik 25 103 3 23 4 26 0.029 0.223 0.13 0.154
Joshua Ellison 21 97 7 16 4 20 0.072 0.165 0.438 0.2
Justin Christian 25 89 6 8 3 28 0.067 0.09 0.75 0.107
Jon-Mark Sprowl 24 82 17 15 4 16 0.207 0.183 1.133 0.25
Ramiro Pena   73 9 12 6 18 0.123 0.164 0.75 0.333
Bryce Kartler 25 70 9 15 3 13 0.129 0.214 0.6 0.231
Luis Robles 23 15 0 4 0 3 0 0.267 0 0


Twenty to twenty-one is considered age appropriate for High A Ball. That means Erold Andrus, Rodolfo Guillen, Hector Made and Joshua Ellison. Of that group, none have shown plate patience or power. That's more likely to make Red Sox fans than Yankees fans happy. Even though it isn't what we're really looking for, they also aren't hitting for average.

I suppose the biggest positive you can find is that they don't strike out very much, but that really seems to be more an effect of refusal to work the count than anything else.

Urick and Zamora should probably get a look in Double-A, but they need to start climbing through the system soon since both are close to being old for Triple-A and are still languishing in Tampa. It shouldn't be hard to find room for them, at least. Both Columbus and Trenton, for lack of a better word, suck.

Tampa Yankees Pitching Stats
Player Age IP K BB K/9 BB/9 K/BB
Tyler Clippard 20 68 78 22 10.32 2.91 3.55
Jason Jones 22 66.3 38 6 5.16 0.81 6.33
Abel Gomez 20 56.3 53 34 8.47 5.44 1.56
Brandon Harmsen 23 41.7 26 11 5.61 2.37 2.36
Jeremy King 23 38 33 14 7.82 3.32 2.36
Brett Smith 21 35 14 8 3.6 2.06 1.75
Jeff Kennard 23 33.3 28 17 7.57 4.59 1.65
Marvin Mosct 23 28.3 17 10 5.41 3.18 1.7
Mathew Brumit 25 27.3 16 8 5.27 2.64 2
Elvyz Quezada 23 25 27 18 9.72 6.48 1.5
Paul Thorp 24 23.3 25 7 9.66 2.7 3.57
Heath Castle 23 19 13 8 6.16 3.79 1.63
Michael Knox 21 16 13 8 7.31 4.5 1.63


I know I promised that there was talent and I wasn't lying. His name is Tyler Clippard. 10.32 K/9 is outstanding. 2.91 BB/9 is very solid. 3.55 K/BB is excellent. He's also giving up less than one gopher ball per nine. The kid is a legitimate prospect and if he continues to dominate should get a promotion in the not-to-distant future.

Abel Gomez, Brett Smith and Michael Knox are the other age appropriate pitchers on the team. Bret Smith is terrible, but both Gomez and Knox are putting up strong strikeout numbers even if their control has not yet developed. Power numbers are more important than control at this point anyway.

Knox is only a reliever, though, and his sample size is incredibly small. Gomez, despite his inability to find the strike zone on occasion appears to only be wild outside the zone as he has allowed only one ball to leave the yard this season.

The rest of the staff is not particularly impressive. Jason Jones and his obscene 0.81 BB/9 jumps out as does Paul Thorp's 3.57 K/BB. Both probably deserve to get a look in Double-A.

The team is, as the others, relatively old with a median age of 23 and an average mark of 22.6.

Charleston RiverDogs Batting Stats
Player Age AB BB SO XBH H BB/AB SO/AB BB/SO XBH/H
Tim Battle 19 250 24 94 30 66 0.096 0.376 0.255 0.455
Ben Jones 23 226 10 57 21 66 0.044 0.252 0.175 0.318
Marcos Vechionacci 18 212 18 39 15 54 0.085 0.184 0.462 0.278
Grant Plumley 23 196 10 27 11 51 0.051 0.138 0.37 0.216
Cody Ehlers 23 192 45 36 21 55 0.234 0.188 1.25 0.382
Estee Harris 20 183 18 45 18 37 0.098 0.246 0.4 0.486
Irwil Rojas 20 168 15 15 9 43 0.089 0.089 1 0.209
Yosvany Cabrera 24 128 5 22 13 40 0.039 0.172 0.227 0.325
Mario Holmann 21 81 12 17 1 21 0.148 0.21 0.706 0.048
Ryan Haag 23 80 5 9 3 14 0.063 0.113 0.556 0.214
Edwar Gonzalez 22 53 0 8 4 16 0 0.151 0 0.25
Jordan Devoir 22 45 8 19 2 6 0.178 0.422 0.421 0.333
William Plaza 22 43 7 12 2 10 0.163 0.279 0.583 0.2
Kevin Nelson 24 7 0 1 0 0 0 0.143 0  


The appropriate age for Low-A ball is "Under 21." If you can legally drink, you shouldn't still be here. That means Tim Battle, Marcos Vechionacci, Estee Harris and Irwil Rojas. None of them have quite reached one walk per ten at-bats, but Battle and Harris are very close. And Battle is only 19! Battle and Harris also have shown that they can hammer the ball putting up XBH% of .455 and .486 respectively. Unfortunately, although Tim is managing a respectable .262 BA, Estee can't seem to break .200.

Amongst the legal drinking age crowd, 23 y/o Cody Ehlers and 22 y/o Jordan Devoir stand out. Ehlers is drawing a free pass at a freakish rate. and is doing so while rarely striking out and hitting for respectable power. Ehlers is also batting .294 (.286 at the time the stats were originally compiled). I'm not sure why he's still in Low-A. Promote him and see if he can do that against better competition. Devoir, in 45 AB's, is drawing walks and hitting for reasonable power, but can't make consistent contact. I only mention him because nobody else is even managing that.

Cabrera, Gonzalez and Jones deserve honorable mention for having decent batting averages and Marcos Vechionacci deserves it for being only 18.

Charleston RiverDogs Pitching Stats
Player Age IP K BB K/9 BB/9 K/BB
Philip Hughes 18 68.7 72 16 9.43 2.1 4.5
Christian Garcia 19 61.7 63 28 9.19 4.08 2.25
Jeffrey Marquez 23 60.7 49 30 7.27 4.45 1.63
Chase Wright 22 58.3 46 32 7.1 4.94 1.44
T.J. Beam 24 40 49 12 11.03 2.7 4.08
Eric Hacker 22 35 17 9 4.37 2.31 1.89
Mike Martinez 23 29 16 6 4.97 1.86 2.67
Phil Coke 22 28.3 16 11 5.09 3.5 1.45
Josh Smith 23 27.7 29 7 9.42 2.27 4.14
Shaun Parker 23 22 13 15 5.32 6.14 0.87
Kevin Rival 25 12.3 8 8 5.85 5.85 1
Saydel Beltran 22 11 14 3 11.45 2.45 4.67
Michael Gardner 24 5 4 1 7.2 1.8 4


Learn the name Philip Hughes. If the New York Yankees weren't so insistent on trading away all of their talented minor leaguers, I'd suggest that Yankee fans go order jerseys with the kid's name on them.

Hughes and Christian Garcia are the only age appropriate prospects on the staff, but they are very impressive. Hughes is quite possibly the best prospect the Yankees have. At only 18 y/o, Philip is punching out 9.43 per nine while walking only 2.1. 4.50 K/BB is just amazing. Garcia is nearly matching him in the strike out numbers, but his control is no where near Philip's.

No other member of the Charleston staff is under 22, but a number of them are dominating. T.J. Beam, Josh Smith, Saydel Beltran, and Michael Gardner are all posting K/BB ratios of over 4.00. Remember, 2.00 is good and 3.00 is what you expect out of a top level prospect (at the appropriate level). Only Beam has pitched a substantial number of innings, however. If he's going to be given a shot, Beam needs to be promoted relatively soon as he's already old for Triple-A.

Again, the team is old for its level with both the average and median age at 22.

Update [2005-6-16 0:17:55 by Richard B. Wade]:  I left off the spreadsheets this time. If people want them, let me know and I'll add them.