SB Nation - Humberto Sanchez

All Assumptions-Are-Dangerous Minor League Free Agent Team

Jeff — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:07:19 -0000

Dave at Fangraphs passed along a link to this year's crop of minor league free agents. A popular thing to do with this information is pick out a handful of guys that would make interesting and potentially worthwhile pick-ups. This is not that. This is a full team made up of guys who, years ago, were supposed to go on to do some big big things, only to end up on the fall 2009 list of mlFA's. Consider this just another reminder that you should never ever ever take a prospect's future for granted.*

C: JR House
1B: Ryan Shealy
2B: Josh Barfield
SS: Antonio Perez
3B: Dallas McPherson
LF: Wes Bankston
CF: Joe Borchard
RF: John-Ford Griffin
DH: Josh Phelps

BENCH-C: JD Closser (does Ben Davis still count?)
BENCH-INF: Eric Duncan
BENCH-OF: Dave Krynzel
BENCH-UTIL: Donnie Murphy

SP: Jerome Williams
SP: Greg Miller
SP: Kenny Baugh
SP: Humberto Sanchez
SP: Bobby Brownlie

RP: Jose Capellan
RP: Wes Littleton
RP: Casey Fossum
RP: John Van Benschoten
RP: Chad Orvella
RP: Clint Everts
RP: Andrew Brown

If there were a 26th spot, I'd give it to Dee Brown, but it would just be so damn easy to include him that I had to find an alternative. Also among the free agents are formerly established Major Leaguers like Chris Capuano and Chad Cordero, along with the astonishingly driven Jolbert Cabrera. Jolbert just wants to win. Come on, Yankees. Take the plunge. Win one for Jolbert.

If there were a 27th spot, I'd give it to Mark McGonigle, because, really? McGonigle?

* never take any player's future for granted

Arizona to the Big Apple

jscape2000 — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 12:29:59 -0000

Last season the Yankees sent Juan Miranda, Austin Jackson, Kevin Whelan, Phil Hughes and Humberto Sanchez to the Arizona Fall League.

This year they'll be sending Ian Kennedy, Austin Romine, Brandon Laird and Colin Curtis to the Surprise Rafters, with 3 spots TBA (possibly Zack Kroenke and Mike Dunn).

We all remember IPK's appearance on the scene in 2007, when he was a lights out September call-up. The market corrected itself, and he got trashed in 2008. He had a few good outings (I still believe he can be a reliable big league starter), but too many clunkers- he didn't make the 4th inning in 5 of his ten starts. He was back in Scranton by June. He got called up again when Joba got hurt, got one start, got slapped around by the Angels and got sent back down.

He's missed most of this season with an aneurysm under the arm, similar to David Cone's surgery in '96. Because of that, he's pitched only 4 games for Scranton- which is a shame because he looked ready to be brilliant, going 22.2 innings allowing 18 hits and 7BB against 25 Ks.

Austin Romine is the catching prospect so often lost in the shadow of Jesus Montero. He's a 2007 2nd-round pick out of high school, and he has refused to move slowly as he refines his craft. He spent all of 2009 with high A Tampa, going .272/.319/.429, a step back from his stats in Charleston. Still, he's only 20 years old (21 in November). He started the season ranked the Yanks' 4th best prospect, and BA's choice for catcher in 3 seasons. He could get a boost of confidence from the hitter-friendly AFL.

Brandon Laird is another 2007 draftee, going in the 27th round. Like Romine, he spent the season at high A, going .270/.330/.421 in 122 games. He mainly played third this season with Brad Suttle on the DL. He's been electric since the All-Star break (.294/.373/.520) and it's worth seeing if he can ride this hot streak up to Trenton next season.

24-year old Colin Curtis is just about at the end of his prospect status, and he's reached the point in his minor league career when he has to be added to the 40-man or be eligible for the Rule 5 draft. He plays all 3 outfield spots, and has always had a little power and a little speed, but he only hit .252/.321/.369 this season at AA and AAA. Sending him to the AFL will help the Yanks decide where he fits in their plans- if the Yanks opt not to resign Matsui, Damon, Hairston Jr. and Nady, Curtis will be either the 4th outfielder or the injury reserve.

Morning Prowl: D-Train's Night, Thames's Recovery, Zumaya's Pitch F/X, and Maggs's Concerns

Ian Casselberry — Thu, 07 May 2009 14:30:11 -0000

Armando Galarraga will maintain his turn in the starting rotation, despite last night's rainout, and he'll pitch tonight. The White Sox will do the same with Mark Buehrle. Zach Miner loses out, as the Tigers will skip his turn on Friday.

Dontrelle Willis pitched 7.2 innings last night for Triple-A Toledo, holding Pawtucket to two runs and five hits, with four strikeouts and four walks. The D-Train threw 118 pitches, 74 of them for strikes. Kurt wonders if he's ready to return to the Tigers.

Though we already knew that Marcus Thames was likely to be out longer than 15 days, he was eligible to be activated on Monday. However, with him just beginning to swing a short bat under water, it doesn't look like he's returning very soon.

At Baseball Prospectus, Ben Lindbergh looks at Joel Zumaya with Pitch F/X to determine if his various injuries have affected his velocity and tendencies since 2006. Should he be throwing his change-up more often? And would adjusting his mechanics help his walk totals?

Blake notes that pitch counts haven't been a problem for Rick Porcello five starts into his major league career.

A year after Miguel Cabrera and Carlos Guillen switched corners on the Tigers' infield, Lynn Henning looks at the results of those changes, and further moves that have been made since then.

Old English D noticed a key sentence from Jim Leyland regarding Magglio Ordonez and his batting slump. I'm wondering if Leyland should've even said that much, though I realize he's sticking up for his player.

Those hoping for a Humberto Sanchez return to the Tigers organization might be disappointed to learn he's re-signed with the Yankees. He agreed to a minor league deal and has been assigned to Double-A Trenton.

Also at BP, Jay Jaffe has some final winning percentage estimates, based on each team's performance to this point. Tigers fans might be happy with this prediction.

Cutting Bases: A.J. Burnett, Erik Bedard, and Ben Sheets

R.J. Anderson — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 11:00:08 -0000

I'll try this out for now, basically Cutting Bases is going to be a look around the majors at news, injuries, and rumors and what they mean. Think more general coverage and less hard-hitting coverage for these sorts of posts.

Blue Jays

A.J. Burnett might not be leaving Toronto after all. It seems as if the Jays will considering sweetening his deal in order to keep the underrated hurler. Burnett ranks 16th in starter tRA and has a 3.56 FIP which coincidentally is the lowest of his career since 2005. Despite having similar strikeout and walk rates Burnett has decreased his homeruns allowed total while breaking the 200 innings mark for only the third time in his career. Certainly you can argue that J.P. Ricciardi made a mistake when he signed Burnett to a 5 years 55 million dollar mega-deal prior to 2006 but Burnett has been above average each of the seasons above the border, even if they haven't been quite as good as his Florida Marlins days.

Starter Shaun Marcum received bad news following an MRI on Thursday and it appears Marcum is heading for Tommy John Surgery, bringing his 2008 and most of his 2009 seasons to an end. Marcum rated as the 47th most valuable starter in the league based on tRA (think: Matt Garza and Matt Cain levels) just behind teammate Dustin McGowan. While Marcum's injury is unfortunate to the Jays you have to feel like A.J. Burnett and his agent are doing back flips right now.

Mets

Journeyman Al Reyes was released on Thursday. Reyes was acquired by the Mets following his release by the Tampa Bay Rays in August. The 38 year old did not impress in a short stint at Binghamton despite not allowing a run. It is possible that Reyes will find himself in a spring invitee list, but for now you have to wonder if we've seen the last of good ol' Al.

Yankees

Former top Detroit Tigers prospect Humberto Sanchez made his major league debut on Thursday. If you recall Sanchez was acquired when the Yankees dealt Gary Sheffield to the Tigers. Sanchez has always thrown hard despite injuries and last night against the Chicago White Sox Sanchez sat just shy of 93 while topping out a tick over 94. Of his 11 pitches thrown seven were fastballs as he struck out one and recorded a ton of zeroes in his inning of duty.

Brewers

Speaking of A.J. Burnett and his impending free agency, I had a post idea that was waiting to be written. Essentially who was the safer risk for teams: Burnett or Ben Sheets? Well, Sheets derailed that when he revealed he's been pitching through pain. The 9th ranked starter in tRA, it's almost never good when your assistant general manager uses a quote like (paraphrasing): "The good news is that it's not career threatening," to describe your condition, however that is exactly what Gord Ash did. The forearm pain will likely derail Sheets nearly imminent pay day.

Odd timing for this rumor, way of Peter Gammons. There seems to be a possibility the Brewers could trade first baseman Prince Fielder, shortstop J.J. Hardy, and another player to San Francisco for starter Matt Cain. While the Fielder/Cain swap has been floated around before this is the first time Hardy's name has been included. I suppose this is one way the Brewers could replace C.C. Sabathia and keep Sheets while giving prospect Matt Gamel a position

Mariners

Continuing with the injury news, Erik Bedard, the prized off-season acquisition of Bill Bavasi, has a torn labrum in his left (throwing) shoulder and will miss the remainder of 2008 and most (if not all) of 2009. You have to feel for Mariner fans, just two weeks ago there was hope that Felix Hernandez, Bedard, and Brandon Morrow could form a solid 1-2-3 punch in the rather weak American League West, and now reality hits. Bedard speculated the injury occurred on opening day. Sadly it seems Bedard has all ready seen his last action with the Mariners.

As always, thanks to StatCorner for tRA rankingsand other statistics used.