Yankees Prospects: No. 8 Hector Noesi

Long and lanky at 6-foot-2 and 175 lbs., Noesi stands out for his command and a delivery that is both simple and fluid, two things that are not mutual exclusive. Although control is typically the last thing to come back following elbow surgery, Noesi has unintentionally walked just 51 batters in 326 innings since returning from TJ (1.41 uIBB/9), a testament to how well he can command the baseball. He has also been perfectly healthy since the elbow surgery, leading the farm system in innings pitched in 2010 and holding his velocity deep into games.

Noesi’s best pitch is lively fastball with a little boring action in on righties, routinely sitting at 90-93 mph and touching as high as 96 the last few years. He backs that up with quality changeup, his second best offering, and he also throws both a slider and a curveball. Neither of the two breaking balls is even an average big league pitch right now, and Noesi doesn’t command any of his offspeed pitches as well as he does his fastball. He helps himself by fielding his position and holding runners well.

Overall, Noesi's ceiling is most likely a middle or back end of the rotation type of starter at the big league level unless one of his breaking balls can improve. He will eat innings and command his fastball well, but his upside is related to the quality of his offspeed pitches. However, he still has time to work on that, and when he reaches the big leagues, I'm sure his pitching coaches will help him find a way to improve them.

Estimated Time of Arrival: Yesterday? Noesi has already received a call up, but didn't pitch at all. He'll continue to pitch in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre until he is needed in the Bronx or until he is packaged in a trade.

I like Noesi a lot because I love to hear that prospects can control their fastballs well, but I don't think he'll spend any time in the Bronx with respect to the long term. It is difficult for players without very high upsides to get their shot with the Yankees, and with Manny Banuelos, Dellin Betances, and Andrew Brackman ahead of him on virtually all major prospect lists, his chances of sticking with the Yanks are low.

Be on the lookout for prospect number 7.

Special thanks to Mike Axisa of River Ave. Blues for helping me write this prospect profile. His full profile on Noesi can be found by clicking the link above.