A few minor-league matters
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Jul 05, 2008 
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A few notes from around the organization:
* Rough night for J.B. Cox as he allowed four runs on four hits in two innings and took the loss for Scranton.
* Mark Melancon (3-0, 2.10) has allowed 20 hits and fanned 32 over 34.1 innings. He has walked only six.
* Zach McAllister has a 2.47 ERA at Tampa. He took a brutal loss last night (8 5 2 2 0 9). The former third-round pick is having an eye-opening season.
* The legendary Pat Venditte picked up a save last night, getting four outs for Staten Island. He has yet to allow a run as a professional. His line over eight games: 8.2 2 0 0 6 9. Far too many walks, obviously. It’ll be interesting to see if his stuff translates at higher levels.
thanks pete
Yeh thanks Pete. The pitch that hurt Cox was a sinker he left up, he tried to put enough sinl and just made really one bad pitch last night, the good is that his velocity is at 90 mph right now.
Venditte faces Gardner………what happens?
whats the scouting report on McAllister, i heard he is throwing his fastball faster than ever or something like that, how fast is he throwing and hows his secondary pitches?
Across all the blogs n boards out there, I haven’t seen any love for Phil Coke(7-3, 2.86). This kid is putting up stud-like numbers in Trenton (7 2 0 0 2 6 – yesterdays line) and i think i wanna go see his next start if it’s in the Jerz.
Add to that the coolest name in baseball, and youve got yourself a prospect.
As Yankee fans we really need to hope Brett Gardner starts hitting… If he could bat .260 he would be a huge boost to this team and of course if he draws his walks, which I suspect he will….. He had reached base 3 times since being up and has scored all three times, just think about that…..
Groundout to short
Lineup is out.
Brett Gardner is in left field.
Gardner lf
Jeter ss
Abreu rf
Rodriguez 3b
Giambi dh
Betemit 1b
Cano 2b
Cabrera cf
Molina c
Mussina p.
Need to start mentioning Anthony Claggett at Trenton AA soon. He’s been lights out.
Phil Coke is worth keeping an eye on. But left-handers are hitting .360 against him, and he is inconsistent with his breaking ball.
Zach McAllister is also worth watching, but the Yanks have a number of RH pitchers who are higher up on the food chain.
JB Cox has looked good. Two cheap hits, an intentional BB, and his first gopher ball of the season made his line of last night look terrible, but every scout that’s seen him sees a major leaguer in the making.
“Phil Coke is worth keeping an eye on. But left-handers are hitting .360 against him, and he is inconsistent with his breaking ball.
Zach McAllister is also worth watching, but the Yanks have a number of RH pitchers who are higher up on the food chain.
JB Cox has looked good. Two cheap hits, an intentional BB, and his first gopher ball of the season made his line of last night look terrible, but every scout that’s seen him sees a major leaguer in the making.”
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At this rate, there won’t be many pitching prospects higher up on the food chain than McAllister. He is 20 years old, and prettty much forced the Yankees’ hand in terms of being promoted to Tampa. There were quotes made early in the season that McAllister & Betances would not rise above Charleston this season. His performance forced their hand.
Coke has been dynamite since May 1st. They may have to start looking to him for a start WHEN Ponson implodes again. With Horne still battling back from injury and Marquez currently injured, Coke could very well be jumping to the top of the list of guys they may bring up for a start. (I am not a fan of Karstens, despite his recent stretch of good starts)
“whats the scouting report on McAllister, i heard he is throwing his fastball faster than ever or something like that, how fast is he throwing and hows his secondary pitches?”
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The knock on McAllister last year was that he tipped his breaking pitches. He threw them from a slightly different arm slot than he threw his fastball, and teams caught on.
He worked on it in the off-season and spring training, and has improved greatly in this regard. Also, the Yankees’ philosophy is pretty much to scrap sliders and teach curveballs when pitchers enter the organization. That wasn’t working for McAllister, so they gave him his slider back. He also throws a very good changeup.
His fastball is 90-93 consistently – can top out at 94-95 at times. I don’t know if he will develop much more arm strength, but if he does, the sky could be the limit for him.