SSTN Mailbag: Prospects and Third Base!

I grew up with a saying my Dad has uttered more times than I can count. "Sometimes, you can't win for losing." I'm sure he didn't invent the saying himself, but it's one I certainly attribute to my Dad. I wrote last week about the various maladies that have semi-hilariously struck me over the last month, namely my elbow (an old baseball injury rearing its ugly head) and my foot (dumb luck). Unfortunately, bad luck often comes in threes, and I've spent the last week making sure a very sick member of my immediate family is taken care of properly. Honestly, I haven't really thought much about the elbow or the foot this week, and I haven't had a ton of time to really be around the site either.

With any luck, that will change in the next couple of days and things will get back to normal. Unfortunately, one of the things that took a backseat this week was the SSTN Mailbag. For that reason, it will be a bit shorter than normal, so I apologize for that. In the meantime, I will tell you that watching a Yankee game on the giant TVs that the new Valley Hospital in Paramus, NJ has installed in all patient rooms is pretty incredible. That said, I'm definitely looking forward to watching them on my own TV, hopefully as soon as this weekend. At least the team gave me some decent baseball to watch this week.

As always, thanks for the great questions and keep them coming to SSTNReadermail@gmail.com. In this week's SSTN Mailbag, we'll talk about some recent prospect promotions and demotions and revisit third base! Let's get at it:

Alan B. asks: Andy: With all the prospect movement the other day, does anything stand out to you for good or bad? Me, I'm surprised that Alexander Vargas got sent down to High A instead of replacing Braden Shewmake in SWB, who is hitting .186. For my next move, with Tyler Hardman looking finally fully healthy, I'd move him up to AAA, and have him split 3B with Jesus Rodriguez, spell Rumfield at 1B once or twice a week. Your thoughts?

One major note I have regarding the minor leagues at the moment: AAA is all kinds of funky over the last couple of years, and it isn't nearly as competitive as it used to be due to the contracting of the minor leagues and the number of players each team is allowed on the farm. Also, as MLB tests a variety of rules at AAA, AAA is not as strong a stepping stone to the Majors as it used to be, so many MLB teams are keeping real prospects at AA longer for their development. Keep this in mind when we discuss promotions and demotions.

I'll start with some of the good prospect movement. Cam Schlittler moved up to AAA right on the schedule I thought he would, though given his performance, I think it might have been a couple of weeks on the conservative side. Schlittler is on the precipice of making himself a legitimate MLB option; while Will Warren features better pure stuff, I think Schlittler is more likely to be a consistently good MLB starter. This is a really good thing, given the lack of trade options we'll see at the trade deadline.

I also want to highlight the promotion of Carlos Lagrange, one of the big low minors arms the Yankees have had who is starting to put all of the pieces together. Lagrange throws the easiest velocity in the system, cruising in the high-90s deep into starts with the ability to crank it up into triple digits when he needs it. His secondary stuff, a question when he was younger, is coming along, and for the first time in his professional career, he is throwing strikes with consistency, something that was never going to be a given for the 6'7" starter who is all limbs. In fact, he's cut his walk rate from nearly a walk an inning to just 2 and change per 9 innings and he's throwing strikes on 67% of pitches. As good as the college guys at A+ are, Lagrange might have more potential than all of them. I will be very interested to see how he performs at Somerset.

To be blunt, Alexander Vargas is no longer a prospect, and is organizational fodder to pick up innings where needed in the system. He can't hit in the low minors, so there's no point to moving him up. As for Hardman, given that he's really a 1B only now, I don't think it makes sense to pull at-bats from legitimate prospects (not necessarily high-end prospects, but prospects nonetheless) in Jesus Rodriguez or TJ Rumfield. Hardman has pop, but not much else in his profile and is really a low-probability big leaguer.

Michael G. asks: Why haven't they given escarra a chance at 3b? Or jesus Rodriguez down in AAA? It's time to kick Reyes to the curb.

I very much agree with this take, and I even discussed it on EJ Fagan's Bronx Beat Podcast last week. With Ben Rice on the roster as a catcher-capable piece, using Escarra at 3B occasionally shouldn't be a problem. With more consistent at-bats, I feel really confident that Escarra will hit enough to be valuable, and his defense at 3B should be passable. While not ideal, I think giving Escarra 2-3 starts per week at the hot corner with Jazz splitting the rest might be the Yankees' most effective lineup.

I really like Rodriguez's defense at 3B and he's defensively versatile. I also like Rodriguez's swing, and while he will never produce much power, I think he'll make enough contact to stroke doubles from the right-side and be productive. There's a huge learning curve jumping from AAA to the Majors, particularly right now, but I think it's likely that Rodriguez is a better last man on the bench than Reyes.