Yankee Power Prospects

For the past few years, the Yankee pitching prospects have been the pride of the fanbase, and while the Yankee comitment to accumulating front line pitching prospects has in no way abated, and equal focus has been put on acquiring patient hitters with pop lately and impressive results are now being seen in both barns on the Yankee farm. I'll try to give you 3 a day for awhile. A lot of the kids are early in their careers, so there will be a lot of projection involved. Here we go!

1. Jesus Montero 17 (he may be 18 now) - Montero just finished his age 17 season in short season A. This kid is downright scary. Not only does he have light tower power right now, and patience, and a shorter swing then he had a year ago, but he also has the Alex Rodriguez work ethic. When you combine the kind of power this kid has with that kind of work ethic, you tend to get players like Alex Rodriguez. Jesus is a catcher right now, though a lot of people think he'll end up at first/DH eventually. Who knows? I suspect that if he wants to be a catcher, he will be. We'll see. Anyway, this guy is the goods.

2. Austin Jackson 20 - Wow! There are lessons in player development all overe this guy's 2007 season. There's also humor if you get a kick out of how wrong the paid amatures at BA were for writing off AJ before he got to Tampa. See, AJ grew up splitting time between baseball and hoops, and it took him a certain # of low A Charleston ab's and curveballs to finally gain the hitting traction his explosive hands always indicated he would. Suddenly promoted to High-A Tampa after putting up a pedestrian .710 OPS in 60 games at Charleston, AJ exploded going .345 .398 .566 .964 over the next 67 games. WOW! AJ still K's a little much, and doesn't walk as much as we'd like yet (part of that was because he could hit everything at high A) his hands are the real thing and his power is developing really nicely. Action took a huge step up this year, and there is no reason not to be excited about the young man who will start at AA next season. He is a very serious prospect and I would imagine he is very much under Cashman's protection now.

3. Jose Tabata 19 - Jose had a painful season and was eventually shutdown to have his hamate bone removed. Jose's power numbers have really never come back to where they were before he hurt his wrist in 2006. Hopefully the hamate removal will allow him to develop his power has his hands and batspeed indicate he should. He gets a pass for this year, and he could be back on top of next year's list.

Update: I've been told the Jesus Montero has been impressive at the plate during instructs.