Minor League Mondays: An Assortment of Tidbits

Mood Music - Hallowed be thy Name by Iron Maiden

After another week of the minor league season, there are a few storylines that I'd like to draw to your attention:

Firstly, after getting off to a torrid start, New York Yankees center field prospect Slade Heathcott has cooled off considerably at the plate.  Following his May 13th brawl, Heathcott has hit .222/.267/.309 with a 29.6 K%.  While it's certainly a small sample size, an abrupt return to reality makes me dubious about Heathcott's .485 BABIP fueled April.

As of right now, the biggest impediment to Heathcott's game is the massive strikeout totals.  A player who strikes out that much, doesn't walk, and doesn't hit for much power can only be so useful, even with the ability to slash some line drives.  Thankfully, Heathcott is still in A ball and won't be called upon for several years at the very least, giving him plenty of time to work and improve in the minor leagues.

Also, second base prospect David Adams made his return to action last night, hitting two singles in his debut for High-A Tampa.  Adams has long been considered one of the top hitters in the Yankees system, but has battled with injury for most of the past year.  Last season, in 173 plate appearances at AA Trenton, Adams posted a .309/.393/.507 line, good enough to get any Yankee fan excited.

David Phelps is scheduled to start tonight for Scranton.  I would guess that Phelps would have been skipped in this start if he had been selected to replace Bartolo Colon in the rotation, but we'll have to wait and see.  With no off-days until the 23rd, it will be difficult for the Yankees to do a re-shuffling of the rotation, so I'd keep an eye on Hector Noesi.  Also, it will be interesting to see if Jesus Montero can get back in the lineup.

[Update: Phelps is actually not going to make the start tonight, so he probably is about to be called up and possibly put into the rotation.]

Last start for Manny Banuelos: 5.2 IP - 2 ER - 3 H - 3 BB - 8 K
Last start for Dellin Betances: 6.0 IP - 0 ER - 3 H - 1BB - 8 K

Call up Jesus Montero.