"The entire Yankees bullpen could form their own kibbutz and move to Israel and he still wouldn’t get the call. "

Wouldnt theo trade for them before they could leave the country if they did that?

Colter will not get a shot because his fastball is straight as an arrow, and has no offspeed stuff.

Colter will not get a shot because his fastball is straight as an arrow, and has no offspeed stuff.

I was under the impression, from watching him pitch, that he's awfully similar to Jeff Nelson, in that he throws sidearmish, with a baby frisbee slider.

Reading about Yankees prospects and realizing that some of them could actually get shots with the club is half unnerving. Strange, strange feeling.

The Staten Island Yankees (low A ball) are actually loaded with pitching ...

David Seecombe 2.15 53/26 K/BB in 71 IP
Jason Stephens 2.82 52/19 K/BB in 67 IP
James Conroy 2.04 67/20 K/BB in 66.1 IP
Cory Stuart 0.83 50/13 K/BB in 32.2 IP
Jason Schmidt 0.27 47/8 K/BB in 33 IP

The last two are relievers, and the sample size is small, but still ... 0.27 ERA and a nearly 6:1 K/BB ratio ...

The Yankees are nearly devoid of hitting prospects, scarily so. Gardner probably only got mentioned because he's the best of a thin crop. They'll have to cross their fingers and hope that Duncan, Cabrera, Jackson and Henry develop ... or just spend gobs of money ... I'd really like to see them develop more of thier own talent, of course ...

"Colter will not get a shot because his fastball is straight as an arrow, and has no offspeed stuff. "

not when i saw him. it wasnt great stuff and i think he might only put up a 4.40 or so ERA in the bigs but it was better than you make it out to be

Tapeworm, staten island is less than low A. its not uncommon to see overseasoned guys put up great numbers in the NYP and hten get exposed further on. that being said those are nasty numbers.

"The entire Yankees bullpen could form their own kibbutz and move to Israel and he still wouldn’t get the call. "

Wouldnt theo trade for them before they could leave the country if they did that?


Well, Elijah "Pumpsie" Green and Gene Conley once tried to hop a plane to Israel when they were mid-60's BoSox.

It's pretty strange that he would mention Jackson, when Tabata was arguably the best prospect in the GCL this past season.

Jason Stephens 2.82 52/19 K/BB in 67 IP

Still, Mark Prior he's not... ;)

BTW, how old is Stevens now? It seems like he's got to be at least 21 or 22.

Yeah, those guys are old for the league. Stephens is 20, but the rest are 22 or 23. And no, no Priors in that bunch. But perhaps a couple of decent relievers. I should have known, however, that the Yankees would stack their low-minors team with old veterans (relatively speaking, of course) to win a league championship. The playoffs are happening now, I think.

Staten Island is A Ball. I just consider "short-season" ball "low" A. I guess it's sort of "really low" A.

22 or 23, playing for the SI Yankees? I suppose it's nice they know how to use the SI Ferry; I think they may all have to get jobs working there in 2-3 years.

I think they may all have to get jobs working there in 2-3 years.

Most of them, yes, but since Stephens is 20, he might have a shot at something. And even though Stuart and Schmidt are "old," they did both have K rates of about 13 per 9IP. Definitely over their heads, but they should be in AA next year and could possibly have careers as useful middle relievers. I'm just surprised that there's anything resembling minor league pitching in the Yankees' system. They seem to have a decent crop on the way, with Hughes DeSalvo and a few others.

And as straight as Colter Bean's fastball might be, he has to be better than Wayne Franklin. I'd rather have Roosevelt Franklin out there.

You don't know how good a pitcher Colter Bean is until you see him play everyday.

Many things you could say about Colter Bean's fastball. Straight is not one of them. Think of his fastball as Carson from "Queer Eye".

SI is a significant pitchers' park. In addition, the Yankees put many of their high draft picks there (at least to start off) unlike most teams in the NY-Penn league.

A) If his fastball were really that straight, then even AA players could hit it. Fastballs, with nothing else, won't fly anywhere really. It smacks of "good face" talk.

I love kibbutz talk, keep it up.