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River Ave. Blues » Matt Snyder

DotF: Florial returns; Frazier goes deep twice in Scranton’s win

July 5, 2018 by Mike Leave a Comment

It’s been a while, so let’s update the minor league standings today. First, some notes:

  • In case you missed it earlier, LHP Justus Sheffield will represent the Yankees at the Futures Game in two weeks. The rosters will be officially announced tomorrow and it’s possible the Yankees will send a second player. Not sure who it would be though.
  • The Yankees have signed Georgia Southern RHP Blakeley Brown (24th round) to a $132,500 signing bonus, reports Jim Callis. He counts as $7,500 against the bonus pool. The Yankees have less than $10,000 in bonus pool space remaining before having to give up next year’s first round pick. The signing deadline is tomorrow. Our Day Three draft recap has more info on Brown.
  • The Yankees have also signed Vanderbilt RHP Justin Wilson (23rd round), according to his Twitter feed. Neat. I didn’t think he’d sign. MLB.com says he received a slot $125,000 bonus. He doesn’t count against the bonus pool at all. Our Day Three draft recap has more info on Wilson.
  • Matt Eddy reports the Yankees have released OF Cody Brown, OF Jonathan Capellan, SS Jose Carrera, LHP Jeff Degano, OF Cesar Diaz, OF Edel Luaces, OF Luis Martinez, and 1B Matt Snyder. Degano came down with the yips after being the team’s second round pick in 2015. The last two years he had 34 walks, five hit batsmen, and 15 wild pitches in 6.2 innings. Poor guy.
  • Here’s some video of a recent RHP Roansy Contreras start. Contreras, my preseason No. 24 prospect, has a 1.62 ERA (3.09 FIP) with 32.8% strikeouts and 9.0% walks in 16.2 innings with Short Season Staten Island this year. He’s developing nicely.
  • 1B Tyler Austin has already started running the bases, according to DJ Eberle, so it seems his stint on the disabled list will be a short one. Austin was placed on the Triple-A disabled list with a back issue last Friday.

Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (9-6 win over Buffalo) they’re in second place at 44-30 and are 4.5 games back

  • CF Clint Frazier: 3-4, 3 R, 2 HR, 4 RBI — here are videos of his first homer and second homer … hitting .317/.393/.586 with ten homers in 46 Triples-A games … he is simply too good for this level
  • 1B Billy McKinney: 3-4, 1 RBI — first game at first base this season … the plan to give him work there got put on hold when he hurt his shoulder earlier this year … 1B Tyler Austin (back), 1B Mike Ford (oblique), and 1B Ryan McBroom (day-to-day after fouling a pitch into his foot) are all hurt though, so Scranton needed someone to play first base today, and McKinney it was
  • LHP Nestor Cortes: 6 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 8/3 GB/FB — 66 of 83 pitches were strikes (80%)
  • RHP Tommy Kahnle: 0.2 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 1/0 GB/FB — 13 of 24 pitches were strikes (54%) … still sitting mostly 94-96 mph, reportedly … I dunno, shouldn’t that be enough velocity to get big leaguers out?
  • RHP Cody Carroll: 1 IP, zeroes, 1 K, 1/1 GB/FB — eleven of 16 pitches were strikes

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Down on the Farm, Draft Tagged With: 2018 Draft, Blakeley Brown, Cesar Diaz, Cody Brown, Edel Luaces, Jeff Degano, Jonathan Capellan, Jose Carrera, Justin Wilson, Luis Martinez, Matt Snyder, Tyler Austin

2013 Season Preview: The First Basemen

March 5, 2013 by Mike 48 Comments

Starting this week and continuing through the end of the Spring Training, we’re going to preview the Yankees position-by-position and on a couple of different levels.

(Star-Ledger)
(Star-Ledger)

The Yankees have only had four regular first baseman over the last 20 years, so the position has become pretty low-maintenance in the Bronx. That doesn’t make it any less important though, and this summer the club will have to rely on the most recent of those four first baseman to anchor their offense and be a steadying presence in the lineup. Robinson Cano is clearly the team’s best hitter, but he can’t do it all himself.

The Starter
There’s no doubt Mark Teixeira is one of the most important Yankees heading into the 2013 season. The club lost quite a bit of offense this winter and will be without Curtis Granderson for the month of April, meaning they can’t afford another one of Teixeira’s customary slow starts — during his four years in the Bronx, Tex has hit .209/.336/.386 in April and .271/.361/.525 in the other five months of the season. Perhaps playing in the World Baseball Classic this spring will break that trend, but I’m not counting on it.

Teixeira, who will turn 33 a few days into the season, has all but abandoned any hope of getting back to being the all-fields hitter he was prior to the 2010 season. The short porch in right field was too enticing and he completely changed his approach as a left-handed hitter, opting to pull the ball in the air rather than just drive it wherever it was pitched. That approach is great for power but lousy for everything else, as the shift and routine fly balls have sapped his batting average and by extension, his on-base percentage. Teixeira tried to get back to hitting to all-fields last year and the result was a lot of weak fly balls the other way, so the damage to his left-handed swing is been done. He remains an above-average hitter (116 wRC+ in 2012) but is now just a one-dimensional one.

On the other side of the ball, Teixeira has few peers in the field and is one of baseball’s best defensive first baseman. His range actually kinda stinks thanks to his thick lower half and utter lack of foot speed, but he sucks up every ball he can reach and is as good a thrower as you’ll find at the position. The total package is an above-average player but not an elite one despite his salary, and Teixeira is aware of that. The Yankees desperately need him to stay healthy and be productive this summer.

The Backup
With the bench still unsettled, Teixeira’s backup right now is third baseman Kevin Youkilis. Given the team’s lack of hot corner alternatives, I’m guessing the bench will feature a more clearly defined backup first baseman such as 33-year-old Dan Johnson or even 34-year-old Juan Rivera, who played more games at first (54) than in the outfield last year (46). Either way, Teixeira has been a lock for 155+ games played for most of his career and will be counted on for that many in 2013. There will be no platoons or experiments here, Teixeira is the guy. If he gets hurt and misses a few weeks, the drop-off between him and his replacement — or the replacement third baseman with Youkilis sliding over to first — is considerable.

Knocking on the Door
Johnson could either make the team or open the season in Triple-A — I don’t think either would be much of a surprise. If he does open the year on the bench in New York, 26-year-old Luke Murton would get the call as the regular first baseman for Triple-A Scranton. Matt’s little brother hit .249/.327/.464 (117 wRC+) with 25 homers in 526 plate appearances for Double-A Trenton last year, though he isn’t much of a prospect because he struggles against breaking balls and isn’t much of a defender. The righty hitting/righty throwing first baseman is one of baseball’s weakest historical profiles, so Murton is at an even greater disadvantage. He is technically knocking on the door of the big leagues since he’ll be with the Triple-A squad, but I wouldn’t expect to see him wearing pinstripes this year or any other year for that matter.

(Andy Cross, The Denver Post)
Once a catcher, but not any more. (Denver Post)

The Top Prospect
I didn’t rank a single first base prospect in my preseason top 30 list and that’s no accident. It’s a low priority position and very few players are actually drafted and developed as first baseman. Most move there from other more high-profile positions as a last resort. Prince Fielder is the most notable exception.

Anyway, New York’s best first base prospect — 20-year-old Greg Bird — has indeed moved to the position because he couldn’t handle catching full-time due to a back injury. The left-handed hitter owns a .307/.418/.446 (~159 wRC+) career batting line since signing for $1.1M as the team’s fifth round pick in 2011, but unfortunately that performance has come in only 122 plate appearances. Bird offers power and patience and he can really hit, but he’s going to have to keep producing since he’s already relegated to the lowest priority position before his 21st birthday.

The Deep Sleeper
As I said, there aren’t many first base prospects worth knowing throughout the game in general, nevermind in Yankees’ system. Bird is their best prospect at the position by a big margin, but last summer’s tenth round pick Matt Snyder could be a breakout candidate this summer. The 22-year-old hit .299/.397/.428 (147 wRC+) with more walks (26) than strikeouts (19) in 219 plate appearances for Short Season Staten Island last year, but therein lies the rub: his season ended prematurely because of a broke wrist. Wrist injuries tend to linger and impact power output for a year or so, meaning Snyder’s breakout potential is limited.

* * *

The Yankees are setup well at first base with Teixeira, though his production has slipped and he’s no longer the two-way force he was earlier in his career. He’s more of a great complementary player than a cornerstone, which kinda sucks because there is still four years left on his contract. The team lacks first base prospects — specifically at the upper levels of the minor leagues — but that’s not really a big deal at this point. They are going to live and die with Teixeira for the foreseeable future thanks to his contract anyway.

Other Previews: Catchers

Filed Under: Players Tagged With: 2013 Season Preview, Dan Johnson, Greg Bird, Juan Rivera, Kevin Youkilis, Mark Teixeira, Matt Snyder

2012 Draft: Yankees sign nine more picks

June 14, 2012 by Mike 9 Comments

Via Matt Eddy, the Yankees have signed nine more draft picks: RHP Derek Varnadore (9th round), 1B Matt Snyder (10), LHP Caleb Frare (11), LHP James Pazos (13), LHP Tim Flight (17), LHP Dietrich Enns (19), OF Danny Oh (27), LHP Eric Erickson (34), and RHP Charles Basford (37). A recent tweet by RHP Nick Goody (6) indicates that he’s close to signing as well, if he hasn’t already. Frare is the only high schooler in this group, everyone else comes from the college ranks.

The Yankees have already signed (or agreed to sign) OF Austin Aune (2), RHP Taylor Garrison (7), OF Taylor Dugas (8), RHP Andrew Benak (14), and 1B/C Saxon Butler (33). First rounder RHP Ty Hensley is supposedly in Tampa for a physical, so he should be signing soon as well. All of the team’s draft picks can be found at Baseball America, and their draft pool status can be found on our 2012 Draft Pool page.

Filed Under: Asides, Draft Tagged With: 2012 Draft, Caleb Frare, Charles Basford, Danny Oh, Derek Varnadore, Dietrich Enns, Eric Erickson, James Pazos, Matt Snyder, Tim Flight

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