Yankees Prospects: Week five minor league review

Weather played havoc with the Northeast baseball schedules over the last week, but that did not stop some of the Yankees’ top prospects from putting together solids outings. With five weeks of play under their belts some of the team’s prospects are starting to gain some helium as scouts get fresh looks at their development and refine their future projections. Let’s take a look at how the teams and prospects in the Yankees system fared over the last week.

Triple-A Scranton-Wilkes Barre RailRiders

Record: 10-19; Ninth place in the International League (East), 7.5 GB

Past Week: 1-5 vs. Rochester Red Wings (Nationals)

Coming Up: Home vs. Syracuse Mets

Once again, despite some strong individual performances the RailRiders struggled to put together complete games. Estevan Florial has put together a strong stretch that resulted in his callup as the 27th man for the Yankees’ doubleheader on Sunday. On the pitching side Hayden Wesneski continues to standout for the team as he turned in two strong starts during the week and has looked impressive so far this season.

Players of Note:

Estevan Florial: 9 G; .400/.526/.500, 3 2B, 5 SB

Hayden Wesneski: 6 G; 2.48 ERA, 29 IP, 19 H, 6 BB, 32 K, .184 BAA

Oswald Peraza: 9 G; .286/.342/.457, HR, 3 2B, 3 SB

J.P. Sears: 3 G; 1.17 ERA, 7.2 IP, 7 H, 0 BB, 9 K

Double-A Somerset Patriots

Record: 17-9; First place in Eastern League (Northeast), 2.5 GA

Past Week: 3-2 vs. New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Blue Jays)

Coming Up: Away vs. Altoona Curve (Pirates)

The story of this team is the pitching staff, which is putting up some of the best numbers of any pitching staff in minor league baseball. They lead the Eastern League with a 2.76 ERA, that also ranks second in MiLB — only three of the 12 teams in the league are within one run of the Patriots ERA. Opponents are hitting just .191 off the Patriots’ pitching staff and they have struck out 291 batters in 228 innings of action. One of the leading arms on the team is Ken Waldichuk, who is carving his way through the Eastern League and could be on the verge of a promotion to Triple-A before the end of the month. He capped the week with five no-hit innings, where he also recorded 12 strikeouts.

Players of Note:

Ken Waldichuk: 5 G; 1.14 ERA, 23.2 IP, 10 H, 9 BB, 40 K, .127 BAA

Kyle Zurak: 7 G; 0.00 ERA, 10.2 IP, 6 H, 4 BB, 16 K

Mickey Gasper: 10 G; .364/.475/.424, 2 2B

Sean Boyle: 2 G; 0.90 ERA, 10 IP, 7 H, 1 BB, 16 K

High-A Hudson Valley Renegades

Record: 14-12; Tied-second place in the South Atlantic League (North), 3.5 GB

Past Week: 2-3 vs. Jersey Shore BlueClaws (Phillies)

Coming Up: Home vs. Aberdeen IronBirds (Orioles)

The Renegades’ reputation for running continues to gain steam. Through 26 games the Renegades have stolen 69 bases, and the team is led by second baseman Cooper Bowman who is 16-for-17 in stolen base attempts. On the pitching side the team is third in the South-Atlantic League with 275 strikeouts in 219 innings. The pitching staff received a boost this week as TJ Sikkema, the 38th overall pick from the 2019 draft, returned to game action by tossing two perfect innings on Sunday. It was his first appearance since he pitched for the Short-Season A Staten Island Yankees shortly after being drafted.

Players of Note:

Austin Wells: 21 G; .307/.411/.533, 4 HR, 5 2B

Cooper Bowman: 22 G; .265/.447/.485, 2 HR, 7 2B, 3B, 16 SB, 1 CS

Edgar Barclay: 7 G; 21 IP, 1.29 ERA, 14 H, 4 BB, 29 K, 0.86 WHIP

Carson Coleman: 7 G; 14.2 IP, 0.00 ERA, 6 H, 8 BB, 18 K

Low-A Tampa Tarpons

Record: 13-13; Fourth place in the Florida State League (East Coast), 2 GB

Past Week: 4-2 vs. Bradenton Marauders (Pirates)

Coming Up: Away vs. Dunedin Blue Jays

Since a very frustrating offensive series in Clearwater in mid-April, the Tampa Tarpons’ offense has shown significant improvement. In the series with Clearwater they scored just six total runs, but they have been averaging over five runs a game in the 11 games since. Jasson Dominguez has started to put together better at-bats over the last two series and has a 144 wRC+ in his last 11 games. Former first round pick Anthony Seigler continues to play well and could be on a path back to High-A Hudson Valley in the near future. As a pitching staff, the Tarpons are holding their opponents to a .213 batting average against, leading the Florida State League.

Players of Note:

Anthony Seigler: 18 G; .273/.437/.527, 3 HR, 5 2B, 16 BB

Jasson Dominguez: 11 G; .273/.360/.477, 2 HR, 3 2B

Jaun Carela: 4 G; 1.96 ERA, 18.1 IP, 10 H, 5 BB, 26 K

Chandler Champlain: 5 G; 2.70 ERA, 20 IP, 17 H, 4 BB, 23 K