Yankees Minor League Baseball Blog

Alright, Kevin Whelan kicks off the Yankees top ten prospect list using the aggregates of the three lists in the left side bar.  Oddly, Whelan only shows up on one list, but he was high enough to pick up enough points to land him just in the top ten.  He doesn’t show up on John Sickels or Baseball America’s top ten but he was sixth on Kevin Goldstein’s list, so here he is.

Whelan was the Tigers fourth round pick in 2005 after the right hander pitched for Texas A&M.  He was actually pretty phenomonal in two stops that finished at Low A and he struck out 41 batters in 24 1/3 innings.  He continued this trend last year when he got promoted to High A and as Lakeland’s closer, he struck out 69 in 54 innings.

Now he’s ours.  He was one of the secondary prospects in the Gary Sheffield trade and in the future closer if he can continue to progress at the higher minor league levels.  Keep an eye on him (here) as he moves up to Double A in 2007.