In a move that surprised me a bit, the Yankees added the following players to the 40-man roster today:
Pitchers: Hector Noesi, Ivan Nova, Romulo Sanchez Hitters: Reegie Corona, Eduardo Nunez, Kevin Russo, Austin Jackson.
There is a bit of surprise here. I expected Hector Noesi to be far enough down in the minor leagues to hide on the Triple-A roster this winter. Noesi finished the season by pitching 40 innings in Tampa, his highest level ever. Noesi has been around since 2004, but injuries and a performance-enhancing drug suspension slowed him down. I don’t know much about his stuff, but he’s notable for a mind-blowingly good K/BB ratio (118/15 in 117 innings in 2009, 55/10 in 48 innings in 2008) . However, Noesi is also about to turn 23. I’ll keep anyone with a 0.9 BB/9 any day of the week. 0.9!
I honestly didn’t expect Reegie Corona to survive the Rule V draft, but the Yankees seem to value him as a depth middle infielder. He’s a better hitter than Ramiro Pena, but a much worse fielder. Corona had a pretty good year at Double-A, but had to be sent down after his Triple-A promotion after hitting terribly.
I believe that Romulo Sanchez is very overrated. Brian Bruney may be gone, so they need to meet their quota of big, fat guys with no control.
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Noesi doesn’t surprise me because I figured he would be gone if he wasn’t added to the roster… From reports Noesi relies most on a 89-93 MPH sinking fastball and mixes in a 12-6 or as I have read it described as more of an “11-5 curveball” which from reports grades out as a plus pitch, if that is the case he could be very valuable in Yankee stadium. He has more upside than a guy like Ivan Nova does but is far away from the big league level to be below McAllister on the contribution latter.
Eduardo Nunez and Kevin Russo surprise me, not because I wouldn’t expect someone to take them in the V draft but because I just don’t see much of a spot for either on the tea for the future. Maybe they plan on trading Russo in a deal at some point and want to protect his value to the club in that aspect or maybe they feel like having a right handed singles hitter who can play in the middle of the infield and comes off the bench valuable.
Romulo Sanchez seems a lot like a guy who won’t be much in a ML bullpen and by that I mean I don’t see him as anything but a middle reliever but reports are that he was hitting 98 in the Yankees system this year and he was reported to be getting stronger and he has the abiltity to go more than one inning as he proved by taking some shortened starts in Scranton this year. I will give anyone who can throw gas a chance and if we do lose Bruney at some point if Sanchez has better control he could be useful.
Nova and Jackson fall into the “expected” category…
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The other Chris H Reply:
November 20th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
Here are some interesting progression stats on Noesi.
In 2009- 7.9 K/BB, 1.2 BB/9, 9.1 K/9
In 2008- 5.5 K/BB, 1.8 BB/9, 10.2 K/9
In 2007- 1.4 K/BB, 3.6 BB/9, 5.0 K/9
In 2009 Hector Noesi lead all of the Yankees farm system in WHIP at 0.95 and was 3rd in the system in batting average against with a .220 BAA.
I put Noesi in the Banuelos and Mitchell category as far as top ranking starters in our system. We have no real “ace” coming up through the system but Noesi, Mitchell and Banuelos are the top of what we got when you are talking about young and up and coming starters.
He has progressively gotten better in every category by leaps and bounds per year, now his K/9 went down from 2008-2009 but he is a sinker ball pitcher so as he rises levels you should expect his strikeouts to drop and by the time he reaches the majors he probably will be striking out 3-5 K/9. However the stats that are that every year his strikeout to walk ratio gets better and his walks per 9 innings go down which mean as he rises levels his control is actually getting better and any sinkerball pitcher who can get the ball on the ground and doesn’t walk people has a chance to be successful.
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I almost forgot… EJ, even if Bruney isn’t around next year (He will be though) we would still meet our big fat guy with no control quota… We always have Joba for that!
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Bruney isn’t fat anymore and his control was fine before the elbow injury.Giving him up for nothing this off season would be a grievous error.
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The other Chris H Reply:
November 21st, 2009 at 11:44 pm
They won’t anyway…
The problem with Bruney is that he is never healthy… He has always had talent but they let him go in Arizona because he just couldn’t stay on the field and how many seasons in NY has he been injury free? 0… He has been injured at least once a year every year he’s been here.
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