Yankees minor league rosters set

UPDATE: 9:46PM: Chad Jennings of the Times Tribune and AAA beat writer and has his own blog is reporting that Brett Tomko will be the closer at AAA and Austin Jackson will be hitting sixth to start the season. I have been waiting for this to be official for about a week, the Yankees announced their rosters for Scranton-AAA, Trenton-AA and Tampa-High Class A, Charleston-Low Class A. I am not going to list the whole rosters here but you can find it on http://yankees.com/ under minor league affiliates or on http://milb.com/ which is the minor league site. I am going to list some of the top players though first with Scranton: Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy, Mark Melancon, Austin Jackson. The Catchers down here are Kevin Cash PJ Pilittere and Chris Stewart. PJ was in Trenton for a couple of years and is known as a good game caller. The other names most of you are aware of, I am looking for Austin Jackson to have a big year and maybe be up in the big leagues in September. I also look for Mark Melancon to be on the big club at some point this year. AA Trenton-Kyle Anson and Francisco Cervelli are here as the catchers both pretty good prospects although Cervelli is thought of as the most advanced catching prospect the Yankees have and could be up in AAA at some point this year, he of course had a lost year least year when he broke his wrist in spring training. They have some interesting pitchers here such as Zach McAllister, Mike Dunn, Wilken Arias, George Kontos and Ryan Pope. Zach McAllister is one of the top young prospects that the Yankees think very highly of. The position players Eduardo Nunez impressed a lot of people in spring training and suprisingly Justin Snyder is at this level, Snyder was in his first year last year. A Tampa- The pitchers here are led by supplemental 1st round pick Jeremy Bleich who could move quickly and Dellin Betances who is just a stud and many have labeled the Baby Unit. They also have the 2 big catchers in Jesus Montero who reminds me a lot of Mike Piazza although he seems to be improving a lot behind the plate and may actually stay as a catcher and also Austin Romine who is a good catcher with a good bat. It will be interesting to see if either moves up and they break these two up for the first time in their young careers. I wouldn't really get too worked up over any of the other prospects but I will be watching the minor league teams all year also and update you on what is going on and if anyone else emerges. A-Charleston- The pitchers here are led by Andrew Brackman they also have Manuel Banuelos, Brett Marshall and the ambidextrous reliever Pat Venditte. The infield has Carmen Angelini who is a well though of ss and also Garrison Lassiter who they drafted last year, these guys are very young and a ways off. I have been to both Scranton and Trenton and love going to both places, its a lot of fun and you get to see some prospects and possibly future Yankees. If you have a chance to go, check it out, neither is too far away and pretty easy to get too. I will be in Scranton for an outing July 5th and plan on having a good post about it afterwards. I don't know if I will get to Trenton this year but that is where I have met Melky Cabrera, Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy, Shelly Duncan, Jeff Karstens and more.

Minor league games and notes

The Scranton Yankees played to a 6-6 tie today. I am going to start with some notes courtesy of Chad Jennings the beat writer for the Scranton Yankees, you can check out his blog at http://community.thetimes-tribune.com/blogs/yankees. Jorge Posada threw out a guy trying to run on him. Wang gave up 2 homeruns but the wind was terrible and on a normal day would of been fly outs. Chieng-Ming Wang pitched 5 innings giving up 9 hits, 4 runs, 1 walk and 3 strikeouts. He didn't have his best game but that is ok, the wind was bad and it was a minor league game where the focus isn't always the same. Zach Kroenke pitched 2 innings giving up 3 hits, 2 runs with 3 strikeouts. Jose Valdez pitched 2 innings giving up 1 hit, 0 runs, 1 walk and 5 strikeouts. The offense Eric Duncan going 2-3 with a homerun, triple and 4 rbi's. Edwar Gonzalez was 3-4 with a homerun, rbi and stolen base. Austin Jackson was 1-3 with a triple, Jorge Posada had a double in 4 plate appearances. Nick Swisher had a solo homerun. The Yankees traded Jason Jones to Minnesota for minor league reliever Charles Nolte. Jones was a rule 5 pick for Minnesota and when they decided to not put him on the team this year they made this trade. The guy they got in the trade is a 23 year old righty who was a 24th round pick in 2007. He had a 2.05 era in Low A ball last year. He has struck out 97 batters in 94.2 innings with 46 walks and holding opponents to a 230 batting average. He has a huge groundball tendency. Brian Bruney pitched in AA going 2 perfect innings wiht 4 strikeouts so he now has had solid back to back outings. Hideki Matsui was 2-3 with a double, hr and walk in the AA game.

Yankees Recap and Notes

The New York Yankees won their 9th straight game by a score of 4-3 over the Detroit Tigers. It is too bad this doesn't count but once again they had a strong day pitching which im sure will be much of the same during the regular season and should lead to many wins. I wouldn't be suprised to see the Yankees run off streaks in the regular season like they have in spring training. Joba Chamberlain got the start today and went 3 1/3 innings giving up 1 run, 4 hits and 5 strikeouts. He threw 61 pitches, he said after the game that he needs to stop nibbling although he feels great and is coming along. His biggest problem is he throws too many pitches but as he gets more and more experience that will come. He is the 5th starter so if he gives them 5-6 innings a game they will take it. Mo made another appearance and needed 12 pitches to get 4 outs but he did give up a hit today. Jon Albaladejo continued his strong work throwing 1 2/3 scoreless innings giving up 3 hits with 1k. Edwar Ramirez gave up 2 hits a walk and a run in his one inning with 1k. It was his worst outing but he has looked good since coming back from his shoulder issue. Jose Veras pitched an inning giving up a hit and a run with a strikeout. Offense: Melky Cabrera had a good day going 2-3. Brett Gardner was 1-1 coming in later in the game, Johnny Damon was 1-3 with a rbi double. Mark Teixera was 1-2 with a rbi double and a walk. Juan Miranda hit a 2 run hr, Hideki Matsui was 0-2 but had a walk, Cody Ransom and Angel Berroa were both 1-3. The Yankees will travel to Port Charlotte tomorrow to take on the Tampa Bay Rays, CC Sabathia will stay behind and pitch in a minor league game while Alfredo Aceves will get the start. MO will take two days off, he said he feels great and only needs 5 or 6 more 1 inning appearances before the season starts. He said everytime out he feels stronger. Joe Girardi praised Phil Hughes saying he had a great spring, he was attacking the strike zone, they just ran out of innings for him in big leauge camp because he needs to pitch deeper into games, this isn't the last you will see of him this year you watch. I think he will have a bigger impact on the team then people think. I can see him going to AAA dominating and something happening whether its an injury or Joba struggling and he will be up with the team again. After the game the Yankees optioned Francisco Cervelli down to AA Trenton.