Yankees Farm Review: Things That Went Right, Part 1

The first thing we're going to talk about on plus side of the farm rebound, is the work of the Yankees overseas scouts.   Of course, most scouts would come up with some hits if they were given a 30M payroll, and the Yankee scouts used their's to lop the top off of this year's 7/2 market.   But more importantly, for this year, some of those same scouts' bargains from summers past started to really kick ass, lead by Luis Severino.   In 2014, Severino emerged as the latest in an intermittent line of undersized Yankee aces, that includes Ford and Guidry.    Parcells would call Severino short, rather than small, as he has massively strong legs that generate a lot of his power with somewhat subtle movements.

On the player side, Luis Torrens and a few of the other recent era signings popped, most notably SS Jorge Mateo.   Dig this, Mateo was in the GCL and getting on base, then stealing bases for the first few weeks of the season, then he got hurt and missed most of the season.   He was still basically in rehab when he played in the playoffs.  Still, he was so impressive that BA listed him as the #4 prospect in the GCL.  Imagine if he'd played the whole season.

Other guys, like Miguel Andujar had at least breakout parts of their seasons.   There were also a bunch of 19 and 20 years olds in the GCL who looked impressive, but we'll have to see them against older comp to know if they're real or not.

But the performances of so many of the recent, Hal Era IFA's in short season and full season ball, speaks well of the scouts.  And those same scouts are the guys that signed Dermis Garcia and all those other hitters in July.   You can bet some will eventually impress.   So, that part of the program is going right.