Our Prospect of the Month award for June goes to (former) Charleston outfielder Mason Williams. Williams, the fastest rising star in the system over the offseason, had a tremendous output last month, breaking out of a slump that plagued him in much of May by hitting an impressive .351/.381/.617 in June. The most impressive, and encouraging, part of his performance was the explosion in power production. In addition to the eight doubles and one triple he hit last month, Williams added five home runs, including a stretch of hitting four home runs in five games from June 21st to June 25th.

Much like his hot start to the season, Williams didn’t show much interest in taking his walks, drawing a total of just three all month, but unlike that early season contact-fest, the strikeouts were there for him this month, 15 of them to be exact. A 15-3 strikeout to walk ratio isn’t exactly a good thing, but given the combination of average and power, and the five bases he stole while being caught just once, it’s definitely something everyone can live with if it’s sustainable.

(click “view full post” to read more)

While June’s “Who’s Hot” post focused mostly on position players, pitchers seem to be dominating the “Who’s Not” list for June.  Not the kind of domination you want to see from your pitching prospects.  Pitching has also seen its fair share of injuries, as Manuel Banuelos and Jose Campos are still on the DL.  Graham Stoneburner is, once again, working his way back from injury.

Dellin Betances (P, Empire State AAA):
Betances has struggled to find any consistency this year, which finally culminated in him being demoted to Trenton.  Here on IIATMS we have mused about whether Betances got promoted to Empire State too quickly, so hopefully some time in Trenton gets him back on track.  Betances did have a decent May, but everything fell apart in June.  Over five games, the big hurler was hit for a .284 average and had a 9.00 ERA.  On the season, Betances was allowing 8.32 walks per nine innings, which was just below his 8.56 Ks per nine.  The good news is that he looked pretty sharp in his first outing back in Trenton.

(click “view full post” to read more)

Tyler Austin left last night’s game early after being hit in the helmet with a pitch. That’s always a scary situation, but the word on him this morning is mostly positive. Austin was given a CT scan that came back clear, and he himself took to Twitter to inform Josh Norris that he’s “doing pretty good” this morning.

Yesterday marked the beginning of the international signing season, and the Yankees were heavily active in snatching up talent. Despite having bonus payments capped at a total of $2.9 million, the Yankees spent a combined $2.75 million on Luis Torrens and Alexander Palma of Venezuela and Yancarlos Baez of the Dominican Republic.

Torrens,the second best prospect available according to Baseball America, is the big prize here, and commanded a $1.3 million bonus, or 45% of the Yankees’ total pool. Though he signed as a catcher, Torrens is a natural infielder who played shortstop before moving to third base not all that long ago. Torrens’ selling point, however, is definitely his bat. He gets good marks for his approach, quick hands, and good loft to his swing, as well as his ability to cover the plate and hit the ball the other way. He was trained by Carlos Rios, the Yankees’ former international scouting director who also trained Jesus Montero.

The Yankees nabbed another one of Baseball America’s top five prospects in Palma, a right fielder who they signed for $800,000. Palma sticks out mainly for his body and has the sort of projectable frame scouts drool over in a 16 year old. He hits well in games as well, hitting .429 in last year’s 16u world championships. Baseball America calls his bat speed average, however, which combined with the difference in positional value shows you why there was such a relatively large drop in bonus money between Palma and Torrens.

Baez, who makes up the rest of the money allocated with a $650,000 bonus, didn’t make BA’s top 20 list, but you can see Badler’s brief scouting report on him at the link above. Badler calls him an athletic shortstop with good bat speed and above average speed.

Like the new draft rules, the new international signing rules introduced a lot of uncertainty into the system this year, and they haven’t even fully gone into effect yet. Starting next season, the amount teams will be allowed to sign will be staggered based on their performance the year prior, like the Rule IV draft is now. I suspect that’s why the Yankees put such a large proportion of their money in high upside prospects that they really like now before the cap becomes even more punitive in the future.