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Baby Bomber Recap 8/17/15: Hoy Jun Park and Carlos Vidal lead another Pulaski beatdown

Recapping the Yankees' minor league affiliates' results from August 17th.

By Andrew Mearns

Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders: Off-day

For those curious about who might be fresh with the Yankees' bullpen completely wiped out on Monday night due to Bryan Mitchell's injury, Nick Rumbelow and Nick Goody combined for 3 2/3 innings on Sunday, so my guess is that they will be passed over in favor of Branden Pinder. He hasn't pitched since a 1 2/3 innings outing on Saturday, so he will likely be fresh when the Yankees inevitably swap out Caleb Cotham for a fresh arm. If the Yankees feel that the rehabbing Andrew Bailey is ready, they could promote him as well since he last pitched on Friday, though they would have to make a 40-man roster move to add him (same goes for lefty James Pazos, who also hasn't pitched in a few days). Chances are they will be making another 40-man move anyway, possibly re-adding the well-rested Chris Capuano to the bullpen to give them a long reliever. The only Scranton starter they might have taken was Joel De La Cruz, but Capuano would almost certainly get the nod.

So my guess is that Mitchell is sent to the DL, Cotham is optioned, Capuano is signed and placed back on the 40-man roster, and Pinder returns to the majors as well.

Double-A Trenton Thunder: Off-day

High-A Tampa Yankees: W 6-2 & W 4-0 vs. Lakeland Flying Tigers

Tasked with a road doubleheader yesterday, the T-Yanks rose to the occasion and swept both games, winning each by a four-run margin with particularly strong pitching in the second. Vicente Campos started the opener and was not particularly sharp, enduring a lengthy two-run second inning in which the Flying Tigers put four straight baserunners on tied it up at 2-2 after Campos was given a 2-0 lead on Kyle Higashioka's two-run bomb. They rebounded with an inning seemingly created entirely by speedy Jorge Mateo's presence on the basepaths after a walk: a wild pitch, a sacrifice bunt, and a sacrifice fly by Dustin Fowler to score Mateo, making it 3-2. Miguel Andujar then showed off the highlight of his skillset with a solo shot to left field, his sixth homer of the season. (It was not a great day on the mound for David Price trade acquisition Jairo Labourt.) Tampa tacked two more runs on to run the score to 6-2, and Campos settled down to finish with five innings of six-hit, two-run ball, striking out four batters while walking two. Giovanny Gallegos threw two perfect frames to secure the win.

The second game was all about T-Yanks starter Chaz Hebert. He pitched all seven innings for a two-hit shutout, fanning nine Flying Tigers without walking a single batter, lowering his Florida State League ERA to 3.04 in 20 games. A walk and four straight singles put Tampa's first two runs on the board in the second, and they added two more in the fourth on Fowler's two-run double. That was all Hebert needed to blank the Flying Tigers, 4-0. The stars of the doubleheader were Fowler, Andujar, and Michael O'Neill, all of whom registered three hits apiece with Andujar chipping in a walk on top of his homer and two singles. Abiatal Avelino also had two hits and Mateo reached twice on a single and a walk, but the recently-crowned FSL Player of the Week did strike out three times and commit an error in the field. Such are the ups and downs of baseball, after all.

Low-A Charleston RiverDogs: W 3-0 vs. Rome Braves

Taking a page from the T-Yanks' second game performance, the RiverDogs notched a two-hit shutout victory of their own, with the star of the show being unheralded 2011 38th round pick Joey Maher. The 23-year-old righty squared off with the Braves' highly touted prospect Touki Toussaint and emerged victorious with seven brilliant innings of one-hit ball. Maher took a no-hitter into the sixth, walked just two batters, and struck out seven Braves.

Charleston gave him the necessary offense in the fifth on a couple singles and sacrifices that gave them their only run against Toussaint in six innings, then pouncing on shaky relievers with an RBI single by second baseman Billy Fleming in the seventh and a bases-loaded walk by Devyn Bolasky in the eighth. Left fielder Griff Gordon was a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate out of the nine-hole, and each of Fleming, Austin Aune, and Radley Haddad registered multi-hit games of their own. The Yankees' 17th round pick this year, reliever Brody Koerner, registered his second save in as many games for the RiverDogs since his promotion from Pulaski. In 15 games and 21 innings between the two clubs, he has a 0.86 ERA, 19 strikeouts, and just six walks while going a perfect 7-for-7 in save opportunities. Not bad!

Very important minor league baseball GIF (and inspirational video)

Charleston weird

Short Season-A Staten Island Yankees: Off-day

Rookie Advanced Pulaski Yankees: W 14-4 vs. Burlington Royals

After pounding the Royals for 15 runs and 21 hits on Sunday, the Pulaski Yanks eased up on Monday night. This time, they only scored 14 runs on 17 hits. How courteous! It was another huge day for the offense, as everyone in the lineup except Frank Frias registered at least one hit. Carlos Vidal and Allen Valerio led the way with three hits apiece, and Valerio had the decisive three-run homer in Pulaski's monster eight-run fourth. Despite the 17 hits, only five went for extra bases--Pulaski simply used 12 singles and four walks to wear down Burlington pitching.

Hoy Jun Park, Matthew Duran (Duran), Kendall Coleman, and Jose Javier all contributed multi-hit games, with Park and Javier each swiping a bag as well. Even with errors from Park and Valerio as well as a caught stealing by Vidal, pretty much everyone had a good day on Pulaski. The pitching was quietly solid too, with Nestor Cortes allowing only two earned runs in five innings, David Sosebee throwing three scoreless in relief, and Andrew Schwaab finishing up with a perfect ninth.

Baseball America's Josh Norris was at the past couple games in Pulaski, and he captured some video of Park and Vidal taking batting practice, which is shared below. Both 19-year-olds are among the team's young and exciting players who could have a bright future in the system. The South Korean shortstop Park is batting .257/.362/.408 in 45 games and he was recently added to MLB.com's Top 30 Yankees Prospects at #19, a pretty remarkable feat considering the fact that he was only signed during the Yankees' big international spending period last summer. The center fielder Vidal, who was signed during the previous period in May 2014, has been Pulaski's top performer, hitting .319/.403/.500 with 22 extra base hits and 16 steals in 50 games while also notching a big 144 wRC+ entering Monday's action. Right now, Norris says that Vidal reminds him of a younger Ramon Flores. They're both somewhat short, left-handed outfielders without "one wow tool," though there is obviously plenty of time for Vidal to develop.

Notable GCL Yankees

GCL Yanks 1 (2-4 L & 1-5 L vs. GCL Braves)

SS Wilkerman Garcia 3-7, double, BB, RBI, K - 17-year-old hitting .323/.424/.396
CF Terrance Robertson 1-6, BB, K - .362 OPS in 28 games... could be better
RF Leonardo Molina 1-6, double
LF Cesar DIaz 1-1, 2 BB, 4 SB (!) - 26 steals in 35 games
LF Jordan Barnes 3-3, RBI, SB

RP Icezack Flemming 2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K - 9.3 K/9 in 11 game for ICEZACK

GCL Yanks 2 (7-1 W vs. GCL Pirates)

LF Isiah Gilliam 3-4, RBI, K - hitting .283/.349/.370 in 30 games
1B Renzo Martini 2-4, two-run homer, K
SS Yancarlos Baez 0-1, 3 BB
3B Dermis Garcia 1-3, BB

SP Christian Morris 4 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K - still a shaky 5.09 ERA

James Kaprielian?

For some reason, this isn't showing up in any of the GCL's minor league box scores, but the Yankees' top 2015 draft pick supposedly pitched yesterday, his second pro appearance. It seems like these numbers are reflected on Kaprielian's MiLB.com page, too, but the game log isn't showing it. Weird.

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