Breakout Candidate: Graham Stoneburner

Here begins an occasional series on the breakout candidates in the Yankee system. We'll start right off with Graham Stoneburner, a righty power pitcher the Yanks took last June in the 14th round of the draft. Of course, they had to pay him a 6 figure signing bonus to get him to quit Clemson. Stoneburner is a fastball, slider, change-up guy. Without any adjustments from the Yanks Stoneburner was cranking it up to 96 in his 1 inning of professional work. As you probably know, the Yanks have a 30 day rule, where they don't change anything about a pitcher's mechanics until they have watched him for 30 days.


And this is why I think he's going to be a breakout player. Stoneburner was unhittable in his inning of work and then in instructs without the Yanks touching him. Unlike Joba and Brackman who hit the 30 day plateau in Hawaii then saw their velo jump when adjustments were made, Stoneburner won't get his adjustments till now. So there's every reason to believe the Yanks will find a little more velo and sharpen up the slider and the change. They'll keep him at starter for now to build armstrength and cause starters are more valuable, but he has the stuff to make an impact as a reliever if he can't master that third pitch. Anyway, if the change comes quickly, he could really move starting this summer, sort of like Joba and Ian did a few years ago. Keep an eye on him.