The Yankees Spring Training List
The New York Yankees today released the list of spring training invites. The list includes 27 non roster invites including 13 who signed minor league deals. Dewayne Wise is on the list, he had a famous catch in center field to preserve Mark Buehrle’s perfect game a couple of years ago. Bill Hall is on the list, he is one of CC Sabathia best friends and has been around for a while. He is a utility guy with some power. Hideki Okajima and Manny Delcarmen are a couple of ex Red Sox relievers. Okajima probably has a better chance since he is left handed. Russell Branyan was just signed, he has a lot of power but never hit for average. He is a guy who has hit two of the longest home runs ever hit at the new Yankee Stadium. Could he be the left handed DH, it is possible but they are looking elsewhere also. I will provide the whole list below with some commentary on the different guys. If you want to see the whole list with bios on all the main guys you can check out Yankees.com to see the official press release.
Manny Banuelos-He is one of the killer B’s as they are called. He is one of the Yankees top prospects. He is 20 years old and will spend the season in AAA, could he be seen in the major leagues this season? I am sure he could but the Yankees would hope for him to be in AAA at least this year and then see where they are at next year and if he could be on the big league club. He has to work on his control and then everything will fall into place. The Yankees and others are really high on him and think he can be a top of the rotation starter.
Doug Bernier-He is a minor league journeyman. He is 31 and was with Scranton Wilkes-Barre for the entire 2011 campaign. He has appeared in two games in the major leagues. They were both with the Colorado Rockies and he is 0-4 in his major league career.
Daniel Burawa-He is a right handed pitcher who is 23 years old and pitched for the two A Yankee teams last season. He was used as a reliever. I really don’t know much about him. It is good to see some of the young guys you wouldn’t normally see and sometimes they make a big impression on the major league team and you end up following them.
Juan Cedeno-He is a 28 year old left handed pitcher. He hasn’t pitched in any of the last three seasons during the regular season. He has only appeared in the Dominican Winter League. He has spent eight seasons in the minor leagues. He has been with the Boston Red Sox, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Dodgers and Detroit Tigers.
Colin Curtis-He is 27 years old and well known to the Yankees. He has been in there system for five years. He made his major league debut in 2010 and that is when he last saw the major leagues. He had a shoulder injury last year and did not play. He seems like a good guy but he really doesn’t have a place on the team. He can hope to make an impression and maybe get a call up at the end of the season or if they really need an extra outfielder.
Matt Daley-He is a right handed pitcher who has appeared in 92 career major league games. He made all of his appearances with the Colorado Rockies. He has spent most of his career in the Rockies minor league system. He is a New York Native
Cole Garner-He has appeared in 601 career minor league games with the Colorado Rockies. In 2011 he made his major league debut with the Rockies. He batted 222 in four games.
Jose Gil is a catcher who has appeared in 506 career minor league games all with the Yankees organization. He is only 25 but is overshadowed by all the great catching prospects the Yankees have in their system.
Kyle Higashioka-He is a 21 year old catcher and was the seventh round pick of the Yankees in the 2008 draft.
Brett Marshall-He is a 21 year old pitcher who spent all of last season with A Tampa. He has played in for combined minor league seasons. He was the Yankees sixth round selection in the 2008 draft. He is a promising pitcher, one of the many the Yankees have collected in their system. He is very young and has time to develop.
Adam Miller-He is a 27 year old pitcher who has spent his entire career in the Cleveland Indians minor league system. Last year was the first year he saw any action since 2008.
Gustavo Molina-He made the Yankees opening day roster last year. That won’t be happening this year unless there are injuries. The Yankees have Russell Martin set at catcher with most likely Francisco Cervelli as the back up. They also have Austin Romine who could make the team, he is the catcher of the future for the Yankees.
J.R. Murphy-20 year old catcher, one of the promising young players in the Yankees system. He has played in 182 minor league games since 2009. He was the Yankees second round pick in the 2009 draft.
Jayson Nix-He has played in 264 games over part of four seasons with Colorado, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland and Toronto. He made the Blue Jays opening day roster last year and appeared in 46 games. He batted only 169 with four homeruns and 16 RBI. He was a member of the US olympic baseball team that won the bronze medal in teh 2008 Olympics in Beijing,China.
Mike O’Connor-He is a left handed reliever who is 31 years old. He has appeared in 35 games over parts of three seasons with the Washington Nationals and New York Mets. The Yankees have been loooking for a second lefty and that is why they will continue to bring these guys in. They hope that maybe one will stick and they will have something.
Ryan Pope-He is a 25 year old pitcher who appeared in all three minor league levels with the Yankees organization last year. He was selected by the Yankees in the third round of the 2007 draft. He is the first player ever drafted out of the Savannah College of Arts and Design.
Gary Sanchez-He is a 19 year old catcher that many consider to be like Jesus Montero. A lot of scouts think he can be just as good and another reason why the Yankees were able to trade away Montero to get a good young arm. He was with A-Charleston last year and then played in the Dominican Winter league. He is rated as the Yankees fourth best prospect.
Graham Stoneburner-Have to love his name. He is a 24 year old pitcher that with the other names in their system you don’t hear much about. He is a solid minor league pitcher. They drafted him in the 14th round of the 2009 draft.
Jorge Vazquez-He is getting a lot of attention this winter. He is especially getting it since the Yankees decided to trade away Jesus Montero for Michael Pineda. Why is this, because a lot of the fans have seen the power he puts up in the minor leagues and they assume he could jump right into the DH role in New York. I would be skeptical of him because he can hit for power but he will also strike out a lot. He won’t be a high on base percentage guy. He signed with the Yankees in 2008 but prior was a 10 year veteran of the Mexican League.
Adam Warren-He is a 24 year old pitcher. He is one of the guys that Brian Cashman talks about. Cashman likes to brag about all the young pitcher that are knocking on the door. Warren is one of them.
Kevin Whelan-He was knocked off the 40 man roster but will be assigned to AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He is the last remaining guy from the Gary Sheffield trade. He was aquired in 2006.
Chase Whitley-He is 22 and has appeared in 72 combined career minor league games. He has made one start all with the Yankees since 2010. He was selected in the 15th round of the 2010 draft by the Yankees.
This is always a fun list to look at and dream about who could make the big team. If you get lucky maybe a player or two will make it on the roster. The most likely is that they stay in the minor leagues and just act as filler or if they are prospects they work on whatever it is they need to work on and then next time they will be even more prepared. They hope that if they caught a coach or managers eye he will think of them ina call-up or in future years. The Yankees do have some good young talent in their system which is ranked in the top ten in all of baseball.
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3 Rants to “The Yankees Spring Training List”
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Yes sir Mr. craigwilliams. I haven’t felt this good about a Yankee team since the late 90′s. We have a good balance of good speed and power,good OBP hitters,good defense all around(yea I know Jeter has lost a few steps but he makes up for it with his smarts),we have guys on the last year of there contracts who will be very motivated to have a good year.WE have players like A-Rod whom I think is going to have a great year.I love the Bill Hall signing,I also like Russell Branyan,I know Kevin Long will fix him,he will strike fear in the pitchers and managers hearts this year I just know it. But the biggest reason for my enthusiasm is the pitching.We have the veterans who will be motivated by youngsters and the youngsters that will learn from the veterans.We have a surplus of pitching, which is is unheard of in all my years of following the Yankees, and the finishing touch is the great bullpen,with the great Mariano,Robertson,Soriano,Hughes,Wade,Joba,exc….. And after all that we still have Kids on the farm ready for backup.It’s going to be great to see!!!
I’m glad you enjoyed this post Juan, but I can’t take credit for it. This one was made by another of our Rant Sports writers. I’ll definitely have a lot of posts up leading up to Spring Training, so stay tuned.
I am glad you enjoyed it also Juan. Craig does a great job with the Yankees but I am also posting some Yankees stuff. Thank you for the support and we look forward to your future responses. I feel pretty good about the Yankees chances also, now with the pitching being in a better position. I find it interesting to see if the Pirates will really take A.J. Burnett off the Yankees hands and then which DH they will choose to sign. Spring Training is a week away and we will really start to get into a lot of Yankees stuff then, stay tuned.