Blake Rutherford Archives - Page 5 of 6

DotF: Holder fans 12 in relief as Scranton clinches playoff spot

August 28, 2016 by Mike Leave a Comment

The minor league season is winding down, so let’s update the standings. But first, some notes:

OF Blake Rutherford is done for the season with a minor hamstring injury, reports Bryan Hoch. He should be good to go for Instructional League next month though. Pulaski’s season ends Thursday and there’s no reason to push it. Seems like the Pulaski social media person was sick of being asked about Rutherford’s status though. Rutherford finishes his pro debut with a .351/.415/.570 (169 wRC+) batting line and three homers in 33 games.
OF Clint Frazier has been placed on the 7-day DL with a hamstring strain, reports Kelsie Heneghan. That explains why he was lifted for a pinch-hitter last night. Hopefully it’s minor and Frazier can come back after the seven days and play in the postseason.
RHP Chance Adams has been shut down for the season, Double-A Trenton manager Bobby Mitchell told Matt Kardos. He reached his innings limit. Adams finishes the year with a 2.33 ERA (2.96 FIP) and a 29.1% strikeout rate in 127.1 total innings. He was a reliever before this season, remember. They don’t want to push him too far. Big loss for Trenton’s playoff rotation.
And finally, OF Jhalan Jackson made an appearance in today’s Prospect Report following last night’s five-hit performance, so make sure you check that out.

Triple-A Scranton (3-1 win over Rochester) the win clinches a postseason spot, which is cool … they’re 84-49 and have the best record in all of Triple-A … their regular season ends a week from tomorrow

LF Ben Gamel: 1-3, 1 R, 1 RBI
2B Rob Refsnyder: 1-3, 1 BB
DH Chris Parmelee: 2-4, 2 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI — tied the game with a solo homer, then gave them the lead with an RBI single
CF Mason Williams: 1-4
RF Jake Cave: 1-4, 1 K
RHP Bryan Mitchell: 3.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 1/0 GB/FB, 1 E (pickoff) — 53 of 84 pitches were strikes (63%) … I suppose he could come up when rosters expand on Thursday, though I’m guessing he’ll stay in Triple-A and pitch through the postseason to make up for all those innings he missed with the toe injury
LHP Tyler Webb: 1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 0/1 GB/FB — 19 of 28 pitches were strikes (68%)
RHP Jonathan Holder: 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 12 K — 41 of 53 pitches were strikes (77%) … holy crap what a game … Holder struck out eleven straight batters at one point … the one hit was a pop-up that fell in because none of the infielders called for it too, so the one guy who did make contact (John Ryan Murphy!) didn’t square it up … the three pitchers combined for 22 strikeouts in nine innings

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DotF: Solak continues hot streak in Staten Island’s loss

August 18, 2016 by Mike Leave a Comment

Got a bunch of notes to pass along:

OF Blake Rutherford is day-to-day with an “undisclosed injury,” the team announced. It’s reportedly his knee. He tweaked it running out a ground ball last week. Rutherford “appeared to take part in pre-game practice” today, whatever the hell that means.
1B Chris Parmelee was placed on the Triple-A DL, reports Shane Hennigan. Parmelee left last night’s game with back spasms. He is not on the 40-man roster and I’m not sure he was going to get a September call-up anyway, but this won’t help his case.
RHP Domingo German was activated off the High-A DL, the team announced. That’s good. No idea what was wrong with him, but it couldn’t have been anything serious if he came back this soon. German returned from Tommy John surgery earlier this year.
RHP Diego Moreno was called up to Triple-A Scranton and RHP Gio Gallegos was sent down the Double-A Trenton, according to Hennigan. Matt Kardos says Gallegos is staying in Scranton for the time being. It’s just a paper move to temporarily clear a roster spot.
Chris Crawford (subs. req’d) spoke to a bunch of scouts about starting pitcher prospects who could come up soon and dominate out of the bullpen right away, a la Edwin Diaz of the Mariners. RHP Domingo Acevedo was mentioned as a candidate. “I don’t think he’s gonna strike out every [dang] hitter like Diaz seems to, but with an 80 fastball and that hard power-change, he could miss plenty of bats,” said the scout.
LHP Jordan Montgomery earned some love from Jim Callis for being an under-the-radar prospect. “He’s unlikely to become more than a No. 4 starter, yet his track record makes it likely that he’ll surface in the back of a big league rotation. Look for him to get his first shot in New York at some point next season,” wrote Callis.
Chad Jennings spoke to 1B Tyler Austin about other players in the system who have bounced back from down years, like himself. “With him being finally healthy and playing every day, I think (his potential is) showing. It’s exciting, and it’s an exciting time for him,” he said of C Kyle Higashioka.
Alec Dopp posted a bunch of scouting reports after traveling around the NY-Penn League. OF Timmy Robinson, OF Dom Thompson-Williams, and RHP Nick Green all received write-ups. I like Green. The Yankees seem to do well with “generic righty” profiles like that.

The minor league regular season ends in about two and a half weeks, so let’s update the standings. It’s been a while since I’ve done that.

Triple-A Scranton (9-3 loss to Pawtucket) they’re 78-48 and have a 3.5-game lead in the North Division … their regular season ends Monday, September 5th

DH Ben Gamel: 1-5, 1 K
RF Clint Frazier: 2-4, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 K — threw a runner out at the plate … 13-for-40 (.325) in his last nine games, but only two extra-base hits (double, triple)
3B Rob Refsnyder: 2-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 K — 10-for-23 (.435) since being sent down
C Kyle Higashioka: 0-4, 1 K
LF Cesar Puello: 2-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI
CF Jake Cave: 0-3, 1 BB, 2 K
LHP Tyler Webb: 2 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 1 WP, 0/2 GB/FB — 31 of 53 pitches were strikes (58%) … making the spot start because they played two doubleheaders earlier this week, and their rotation is all out of whack
LHP Chasen Shreve: 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 1/2 GB/FB — 20 of 30 pitches were strikes … great, now do this in the big leagues, Chasen
RHP Ben Heller: 1 IP, zeroes, 1 K, 1/0 GB/FB — eight pitches, six strikes

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Yankees land seven players on MLB.com’s midseason top 100 prospects list

August 2, 2016 by Mike Leave a Comment

Last week the crew at MLB.com rolled out their midseason top 100 prospects list as well as their updated individual team top 30 lists. I intentionally waited to post this stuff because I had a feeling the Yankees were going to make some noise at the trade deadline, and sure enough, they did. Five trades total, including four that qualify as “sellers” trades.

Astros IF Alex Bregman sits in the top spot of the midseason top 100 — we saw him make his MLB debut in Houston last week — and is followed by Red Sox 2B Yoan Moncada and Phillies SS J.P. Crawford in the top three. The Yankees have seven players on the top 100. Three the seven were acquired within the last week. Here’s the list:

22. OF Clint Frazier (acquired in Andrew Miller trade)
24. SS Gleyber Torres (acquired in Aroldis Chapman trade)
25. 2B/SS Jorge Mateo
30. OF Aaron Judge
37. C Gary Sanchez
62. OF Blake Rutherford
93. LHP Justus Sheffield (acquired in Andrew Miller trade)

So that’s some list, huh? Three top 25 prospects, four top 30 prospects, and five top 40 prospects. Three of those five are in Triple-A too. That’s is pretty damn awesome. You can see MLB.com’s updated top 30 Yankees prospects right here. The scouting reports and everything are all free. I’m not going to regurgitate everything here. Here are some thoughts instead.

1. Andujar climbed quite a bit. Prior to the season MLB.com ranked 3B Miguel Andujar as the 15th best prospect in the system. Now he ranks eighth. That doesn’t sound like a huge jump, but four of the guys ahead of him in the midseason update weren’t in the organization prior to the season. His jump was really more like 15th to fourth when you ignore the new additions. Andujar’s breakout this season has been really impressive and it feels like a long time coming even though he’s still only 21. He’s six months younger than Frazier. These international signees get old quick, if you know what I mean. Prospect fatigue sets in early.

2. Adams climbed too. RHP Chance Adams has been a both a statistical and scouting marvel this season, as he’s made the transition from reliever to starter rather easily. He was 21st on the preseason list and is 14th now, ninth when you ignore all the recent additions. “While Adams has a deep enough repertoire to start, he’s not a big guy and it remains to be seen how his health and stuff would hold up with a significantly bigger workload,” said the write-up, and I think his size is important. Adams is listed at 6-foot-0 and the concern with short-ish pitchers is always the ability to drive the fastball downhill and avoid fly balls and homers. His 43.8% grounder rate and 10.8 HR/FB% aren’t exactly good signs. That said, Adams looks like a really safe bet to be at least a big league reliever long-term. What a scouting and player development story he is so far.

3. Green makes the leap. RHP Chad Green was not included in MLB.com’s preseason list. He now ranks 22nd, or 16th when you ignore the new guys. That’s a pretty significant jump. “Green’s fastball already was his best pitch when he worked at 90-94 mph with some occasional life. Now he’s sitting at 93-95 mph and touching 97,” says the scouting report. What is it with the Yankees getting their pitching prospects to add velocity? Green and a bunch of others have done it, including Adams and RHP James Kaprielian. There have been others as well. I’ve been impressed with Green’s arm despite his meh big league results to date. He was the second piece in the Justin Wilson trade, and, at least according to MLB.com, he’s jumped over RHP Luis Cessa to become the top piece.

4. Enns makes it. Finally some love for LHP Dietrich Enns, who has had tremendous results since returning from Tommy John surgery last year: 1.37 ERA (2.88 FIP) in 170.1 total innings. The scouting report isn’t as exciting as the numbers — “Enns’ lone plus pitch is his changeup, a low-80s offering that dives at the plate,” said the write-up, which also says he has an 87-92 mph fastball, a low-80s slider, and a slow curve — but he’s making people take notice, and that’s pretty cool. This guy was a 19th round pick and an organizational arm before having his elbow rebuild. Now he’s a prospect, albeit a fringe one who might not be more than a swingman at the MLB level. That’s still a really great outcome given his draft slot.

5. No Solak? I was surprised to see 2B Nick Solak absent from the top 30. I had him 13th on my post-draft top 30 before all the trades, so either I’m really high on him or MLB.com is really low. Probably the former. Solak has bat control and plate discipline, plus he can handle a middle infield position, and that seems really valuable to me. He’s the most notable omission in my book. Even with the new additions, I consider Solak organizational top 30 material rather easily.

6. No Austin either? 1B/OF Tyler Austin didn’t make the top 30 either — he also didn’t make my post-draft list, for what it’s worth — and that surprised me. I guess not everyone is sold on his big bounceback year yet. Brian Cashman did mention Austin by name as a possible call-up candidate yesterday and we’re going to find out pretty soon how the Yankees value him. Austin is going to be a minor league free agent after the season, so either the team will add him to the 40-man roster and keep him, or likely lose him to another club that offers a greater opportunity.

Four Yankees make Keith Law’s updated top 50 prospects list

July 14, 2016 by Mike Leave a Comment

Earlier today, Keith Law posted his midseason list of the top 50 prospects in baseball (subs. req’d). Astros IF Alex Bregman, the No. 2 pick in last year’s draft, now sits in the top spot. Several of the top prospects coming into the season have graduated to MLB, including Dodgers SS Corey Seager and Twins OF Byron Buxton. Nationals RHP Lucas Giolito and Red Sox OF Andrew Benintendi fill out the top three behind Bregman.

The Yankees landed four players on Law’s list: OF Aaron Judge (No. 23), C Gary Sanchez (No. 36), OF Blake Rutherford (No. 43), and SS Jorge Mateo (No. 50). Welcome to the top prospect lists, Blake. Law says Judge has “made some progress in his plate coverage this year” and Sanchez has “become sort of adequate behind the plate and hit for increasing power the last two years.” Adequate defense and power definitely makes for a starting catcher.

As for Rutherford, the write-up says he is an “advanced enough hitter with above-average present power and should be able to (start 2017 in full season ball) given how well he performed against good competition last summer.” Law is probably the high man on Rutherford. You might see him on various top 100 lists in the coming weeks and months, though I don’t think anyone else will rank him as high as No. 43. Not yet, anyway.

The Mateo write-up is rather scathing. Law says it is “time for him to start performing up to the level of his tools,” specifically by cutting down on his strikeouts (21.5% in High-A this year) and making hard contact more consistently. “If the rumor that Mateo wanted a promotion to Double-A is true, that’s great, but he needs to understand that hitting .266/.323/.396 won’t get him there. Harder contact and all-the-time effort will,” wrote Law.

Even with the last two months being the worst of Mateo’s career, the Yankees still landed four prospects in Law’s top 50, and that’s really awesome. Remember, RHP James Kaprielian made Law’s preseason top 100 list as well, so there’s some high-end talent in the system. Rutherford and Mateo are years away, but Judge and Sanchez are knocking on the door of MLB, and that’s pretty darn exciting.

Yankees sign first round pick Blake Rutherford to overslot $3.282M bonus

June 29, 2016 by Mike Leave a Comment

The Yankees have taken care of their most important piece of 2016 draft business. The team has signed first round pick Blake Rutherford, they announced this morning. He is heading to one of their two rookie level Gulf Coast League affiliates. Here’s a photo of the contract signing.

Jim Callis says Rutherford received a $3,282,000 bonus. That’s the absolute maximum the Yankees could give him without forfeiting a future first round pick. Here’s our Draft Pool Tracker. The Yankees have less than $200 of bonus pool space remaining, so they won’t be signing any late round picks to overslot bonuses. This seems like it was a “here’s the most we can offer, take it or leave it” negotiation.

Rutherford was widely considered a potential top ten pick heading into the draft. Keith Law (6th), MLB.com (8th), and Baseball America (9th) all ranked him among the ten best players in the draft. Here’s a quick little study I did looking at similar prospects, and here’s a snippet of MLB.com’s free scouting report:

The left-handed-hitting outfielder from the Southern California high school ranks can do just about everything on a baseball field. Rutherford has the chance to be an above-average hitter with above-average raw power. He’ll record average to plus run times, and his speed helps him on the basepaths and in the outfield. Rutherford is a solid defender in the outfield, though most feel he’ll move to right field in the future. The good news is his bat should profile just fine if that move does happen.

The Yankees have a pretty lousy track record with first round picks. Only two of their first rounders since 2007 have even reached the big leagues. Andrew Brackman (2007) threw 2.1 innings in pinstripes and Slade Heathcott (2009) appeared in 17 games last year. That’s it. Obviously some of the recent picks are still in the minors, but still, that’s almost ten years with zero impact from first rounders.

Now that he is officially signed, the 19-year-old Rutherford slots in neatly as one of the Yankees’ five best prospects, joining Jorge Mateo, Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, and James Kaprielian. We could argue the exact order all day. Point is those guys are clearly the five best prospects in the organization, even after Kaprielian’s elbow injury.

The Yankees have signed all of their picks in the top ten rounds, the picks tied directly to the bonus pool. They exceeded their bonus pool by $290,800 this year and will pay $218,100 in tax. The team has spent the maximum 5% overage and paid the penalties in each of the last few drafts now.

Curry: Yankees making progress in talks with first round pick Blake Rutherford

June 28, 2016 by Mike Leave a Comment

According to Jack Curry, the Yankees are making progress in contract talks with first round pick Blake Rutherford. “Stay tuned,” said Curry’s source. Jack is the single most plugged in reporter covering the Yankees, so not only is there no reason to doubt his report, I’m going to assume a deal is pretty close to done at this point.

Slot money for the 18th overall pick is $2.44M, and as our Draft Pool Tracker shows, the Yankees currently have $3.28M or so in bonus pool space remaining. I should probably note I had an error on the Tracker page. I previously said the team only had $3.14M in bonus pool space, but one of the calculations was wrong, so it’s actually $3.28M. My bad, yo.

The signing deadline is Friday, July 15th this year. That’s two weeks from Friday. It’s not uncommon for first rounders to wait until the deadline to sign — James Kaprielian did it last year — but hopefully Rutherford signs before that. The Yankees may not be offering the full $3.28M at the moment, so Rutherford he try to wait them out.

Pretty much everything you need to know about Rutherford is right here. I also looked at similar players drafted in recent years. He’s in pretty excellent company. Rutherford was a projected top ten pick heading into the draft, though he fell to the Yankees due to signability concerns.

Draft Signing Updates: Rutherford, Martinez, Widener

June 20, 2016 by Mike Leave a Comment

1B Tim Lynch, who signed with the Yankees last week as their ninth round pick, used to be a huge autograph hound, writes Ken Rosenthal. He once brought Lorenzo Cain donuts to get him to sign a card, which completed Lynch’s signed Bowman set. Pretty cool story. Check it out.

Here is the latest round of 2016 draft pick signing news. You can see all of the Yankees’ picks at Baseball America. Here’s our first set of signing updates and our reviews of Day One, Day Two, and Day Three of the draft, in case you missed them.

Scouting director Damon Oppenheimer told George King there “is progress going on” in talks with California HS OF Blake Rutherford (1st round). “I don’t have a timetable, but we are making progress,” he said. Oppenheimer also said the Yankees are making progress with California HS RHP Nolan Martinez (3rd). Rutherford and Martinez are the team’s only unsigned picks in the top ten rounds, which are the rounds tied to the bonus pool.
South Carolina RHP Taylor Widener has signed, according to Baseball America. No word on his bonus, though I assume it is $100,000 or less. That’s the maximum teams can give players drafted after the tenth round without it counting towards the bonus pool.
Florida HS RHP Jordan Scott (14th) has signed, also according to Baseball America. Scott actually tweeted out that he had signed, but it has since been deleted. Guess he jumped the gun. There’s no word on his bonus.
New York JuCo LHP Tony Hernandez (15th) has signed for $100,000, reports Josh Norris. That’s the max allowed without anything counting towards the bonus pool.
Eastern Kentucky 3B Mandy Alvarez (17th) round has signing and is already playing for Short Season Staten Island. No word on his bonus, but I assume it is $100,000 or less.
Fordham RHP Greg Weissert (18th) told Jesse Foster he is planning to sign. He’s supposed to head down to Tampa soon to take his physical and sign his contract.
Texas HS OF Evan Alexander (19th) seems to have signed, according to his Twitter account. He traveled to Florida yesterday, indicating he’s in Tampa for his physical and contract signing.
Fullerton RHP Miles Chambers (20th), USC OF Timmy Robinson (21st), and Maryland JuCo OF Joe Burton (24th) have all signed, according to Baseball America. No word on their bonuses.
Florida HS OF Ed Luaces (25th) has signed, he told Robert Pimpsner. He is currently in Tampa working out and will be assigned to one of the minor league affiliates soon.
Lander RHP Will Jones (28th) has signed according to his Twitter feed. No word on his bonus, but as with pretty much everyone else in this post, I assume it’s $100,000 or less.
California HS C D.C. Clawson (34th) told Steve Breazeale he plans to follow through on his commitment to BYU unless the Yankees make a last minute over-slot offer. Clawson is one of the players the Yankees took as a backup plan in case Rutherford doesn’t sign and leaves them with a bunch of unspent bonus pool space.
Virginia HS RHP Zach Hess (35th) indicated he will not sign on Twitter. Like Clawson, Hess is one of the players selected as a backup plan in case Rutherford doesn’t sign.
Stony Brook RHP Tim Honahan (36th) has indeed signed. Stony Brook broadcaster Jeff Bernstein posted a photo of Honahan signing his contract on Twitter. No word on his bonus. Last week we heard Honahan was planning to sign.
Wisconsin-Milwaukee RHP Brian Keller (39th) has signed, he told Steven Tietz. He’s in Tampa working out now. “There will be workouts, and then I’ll be assigned (to one of the minor league affiliates),” said Keller to Tietz.
Wisconsin HS RHP Nate Brown (40th) told JR Radcliffe he will not sign, but appreciates being drafted. “Now I have a love for the Yankees I didn’t have before. Three years from now, if they come in and (draft me) and don’t offer me as much as I’ve been (hoping for), there’s still that deep feeling in my heart that three years ago, they saw something that the other guys didn’t,” he said.

By my unofficial count, the Yankees have now signed 24 of their 40 draft picks. Teams usually sign 25-30 draftees each year. The Yankees still need to get Rutherford and Martinez locked up, though it seems like only a matter of time until that happens. Rutherford probably won’t sign until the July 15th deadline though. Here’s our Draft Pool Tracker.