Ranking the best Yankees prospects names

Every year right around now, prospect rankings for the upcoming season are generally released. While not every top prospect is guaranteed to be a great player, the rankings are generally pretty useful.

These prospect rankings are not. Part of the fun of keeping track of the draft or minor leagues is seeing the interestingly named players. With that in mind, plus the real, legitimate prospect rankings going around, this is a great chance to look at the five Yankee farmhands with the best names.

5. Hobie Harris

Harris is indeed in the Yankees’ system right now and not a middle infielder from the 1920s. After being selected by the Yankees in the 31st-round in 2015, Harris has steadily worked his way through the minor leagues, reaching Double-A last season. He was especially impressive in High-A Tampa last year, allowing just nine runs in 37.2 inning with a WHIP under one.

4. Josh Breaux

The Yankees’ second-round pick from last year’s draft is probably the most notable prospect to make this list. Much to the delight of Nick Swisher, who got to announce it when the Yankees selected him, Breaux’s last name is pronounced “Bro”.

Hopefully in this upcoming year’s draft, the Yankees can take Breaux’s real life bro, who is named Joe Breaux.

3. Miguel Flames

Flames, sadly not pronounced like the form of fire, was one of the big names signed in the 2014 international prospect haul. He hasn’t quite lit it up at any of his stops in the minors, but he hasn’t been bad either. Despite being in the Yankees’ organization for going on five years now, he’s still very young. He has time to become a legit prospect, especially considering the acclaim he came in with.

2. Janson Junk

A 22nd-round pick in 2017, Junk made it to Low-A Charleston last season. After putting up good numbers out of the bullpen in the Gulf Coast League in 2017, he transitioned to a starting role in 2018. He’s not been a dominant strikeout pitcher in the Yankees’ system or in college, but according to scouting reports his stuff can get up into the mid to high 90s. So despite his name, he’s not exactly a junk-baller.

1. Sincere Smith

Smith is still a fairly new prospect, having been selected in the 32nd round of the 2018 draft. He didn’t get off to a great start in the minors, running a .461 OPS in the Gulf Coast League. However, it was just 12 games, and he was younger than the average player in the GCL. He seems to have decent upside and athleticism as he also played football and basketball in high school. Hopefully his career goes well enough to, uh, surpass the other Sincere Smith that comes up in Google searches.

Honorable mentions for this list include Donny Sands, Griffin Garabito, and Trey Amburgey. Let us know any other fun-named Yankee prospect that wasn’t included!