Yankees Minor League Baseball Blog

Humberto Sanchez had a rough start and he fell to 0-1 in the Tampa Yankees 6-3 loss to Brevard County.  He gave up three runs (two earned) on two hits and a walk with three strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings.

Matthew Cusick went three for four with a double, a triple and two runs.  Kevin Smith also had a nice game and he went two for four with a double and a run.

The Yankees are pretty well represented on Baseball America’s top 100 prospect list.  Of course Phillip Hughes is near the top at number four.  Further down the list is outfield prospect Jose Tabata at 27, Humberto Sanchez landed at number 57, Joba Chamberlain was 75 and just making the cut is Dellin Betances at 100.

That’s a solid crop.  You figure an average team should have about three guys on there and for the Yankees to have three in the top 60 is particularly impressive.

All points indicate to a return to Triple A for minor league pitcher Humberto Sanchez.  That’s not going to stop the pitching prospect from trying to force the team to make room for him with a solid spring.  You can read about Sanchez in a nice player profile by following the link.

Sanchez was the cornerstone of the trade that sent Gary Sheffield to the Tigers.  The one thing that worries me about Sanchez is he really hadn’t shown much until last year.  He had a horrible 2005 and then when he repeated Double A, he tore it up.  He continued to pitch well when he got promoted but he was shutdown with a sore elbow.

Regardless, he appears to have a ton of upside.  He picked up a B+ rating by John Sickels, which is pretty solid but he does say in his book that there are injury and control risks with Sanchez.