New York Yankees' Final Winter-League Stats

The winter leagues are an important and often overlooked part of baseball. The casual fan mostly ignores them, but for the young players it is a chance to experiment or change a part of their game.

This off-season many prominent Yankee prospects took part in the winter leagues with mixed results.

Melky Cabrera’s numbers were somewhat impressive, .312/.393/.409. The positives were that he was walking more and the negatives that he had almost no power.

Robinson Cano hit .267/.333/.413. He had seven walks which isn’t bad for Cano, but ultimately those numbers are too low.

Austin Jackson hit .246/.293/.377. Those numbers are pretty bad, but they are actually from the Arizona Fall League, which I hear is a tougher hitters league. He still is going to need at least one more year in the minors. It will be interesting to see if he starts the season at double-A or triple-A. That could be the difference in whether he starts 2010 in the majors or minors.

The pitchers were a bit more impressive. Jonathan Albaladejo might have been the best in the group. The reliever pitched 19 innings with 16 K’s, 2 BB’s, a 0.68 WHIP and a .164 BAA. His ERA: 0.00.

Ian Kennedy was also impressive, 34.2 innings, 1.56 ERA, 31 K’s, 12 BB’s, 0.89 WHIP and a .164 BAA.

Phil Hughes was decent as well. In 30 innings he had a 3.00 ERA, 38 K’s and 13 BB’s, a 1.13 WHIP and a .198 BAA.

Last year’s supplemental pick Jeremy Bleich pitched 35.2 innings and had a 1.77 ERA with 1.15 WHIP and a .221 BAA. This kid could be the next guy to fly through the system. He has three good pitches, a fastball, changeup and curve and knows how to use them.

Andrew Brackman was rusty in his first real action since getting drafted and signed to a huge contract. In 34 innings he had a 5.56 ERA, 36 K’s, 25 BB’s, a 1.65 WHIP and a .235 BAA. He still has a long way to go since Tommy John surgery.

Speaking of Tommy John, Humberto Sanchez was probably the biggest pitching disappointment this off-season. He pitched 12 innings in the AFL and got rocked. A 12.00 ERA, only 4 K’s with a whopping 11 BB’s, a 2.67 WHIP and a .389 BAA. It is better he shake the rust off now rather than later, but this is not a good sign.

Go here to see how the rest of them did, as I left out a couple interesting lower-level prospects.