2024 Yankees Prospects: Week 23 minor league review

Psych! I said last week was the final version of the weekly roundup.

I didnt lie, but I was a tad confused with scheduling: my bad! But whos complaining about another WEEKLY ROUNDUP, BABY! This piece is loaded with content, as weve got playoff and playoff-adjacent baseball to dissect.

The next week of Baby Bomber baseball will be fascinating to watch unfold.

Lets dig in! Record : 41-28 (2nd half), tied with the Worcester Red Sox in the International League East after going 5-2 against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs ( Phillies ) Run differential : +78 Coming up: Away for six games against the Buffalo Bisons (Blue Jays) starting Tuesday, September 17th Despite an impressive showing all season long - including last week against a sub-par IronPigs squad - the RailRiders are set to be the team most undone by the minor leagues unique playoff structure.

Though Scranton has the second-best record in the International League on the season (84-59), they failed to have the best record in either the first or second halves of the season.

In other words, they will miss the playoffs despite trailing the best overall record in the league by just two games.

In the minor leagues, the league winners of the first and second halves play in the playoffs.

In Triple-A, its taken a step further, as the winner of the International Leagues playoff series will play in a Triple-A championship matinee against the winner of the Pacific Coast League - the other Triple-A league.

A visit to the playoffs looks highly improbable, as they trail Columbus (Cleveland) by 4.5 games with just six games remaining.

Thats not to say this season has been a failure for the RailRiders, as their record suggests theyve been quite competitive in the league.

Their offense has done most of the heavy lifting this year, with 813 runs scored placing them second in the league.

It was the pitching staffs sub-3.00 ERA, however, that led to a series win in their home finale versus Lehigh Valley.

Josh Maciejewski drew two starting assignments for the RailRiders, delivering nine innings of one-run ball alongside 12 punchouts.

Maciejewski has seen major league action at points this season and has performed reasonably well when called upon, delivering a 2.57 ERA in seven innings across four outings.

Hes a funky lefty with an abnormal repertoire thats headlined by a plus changeup.

His cambio is only 5 MPH slower than his sinker which sits 92-94, but it has similar movement where it dives with arm side run.

Hes been DFAd this season, but he has the makings of a useful if not dominant southpaw in a big-league bullpen.

Heres a video from July when he got game action against the Red Sox: Josh Maciejewski now in the game, Enmanuel Valdez down on strikes #RedSox 4 #Yankees 14 8th pic.twitter.com/hV3T0tjZ6u Yoendrys Gomez had one of his best outings of the season last week, delivering four scoreless frames while surrendering just one hit, two walks, and punching out seven.

He used to have louder stuff in the lower minors, but a litany of arm and shoulder injuries turned his mid-90s fastball into a lower-mid-90s offering with middling characteristics.

His secondaries were always well-developed as a younger prospect, but they havent turned into wipeout offerings as some - including me - had hoped.

Anyways, hes projecting like a multi-inning, low-leverage reliever in the big leagues.

Yoendrys Gomez was dominant today and has seen an uptick in velocity over his last 8 outings He's sitting 93-94 MPH, posting a 3.09 ERA over that stretch with a 30% K% and 4.4% BB%.

: @swbrailriders pic.twitter.com/39OaB0nSE7 The offense was lighter than normal last week, but thats to be expected when you lose one of the top prospects in baseball to promotion.

Ben Rice and Caleb Durbin led the way for Scrantons offense last week, with both delivering OPS north of .830.

Rice has been superb since returning to Triple-A, and I still believe the 60 OFP grade I gave him in July remains intact.

On the merits of talent, Rice should undoubtedly be starting over Anthony Rizzo.

Make that DOUBLE Rice.

It's a two-homer game for Ben Rice! 406 ft.

| 106.5 mph pic.twitter.com/hHHHIcktRo Meanwhile, Durbins path isnt as clear as Rices to consistent big-league playing time, but his versatility makes him viable at plenty of positions.

I think theres an everyday, regular outcome for Durbin if he can remain healthy, as he continues to exhibit splendid swing decisions with acceptable contact on pitches in the zone.

Caleb Durbin blasts the first pitch for his 10th HR! #RepBx #Yankees pic.twitter.com/RqfF5ztYiQ Record : 43-25 (second half), 1.5 games up in the Eastern League Northeast after going 5-1 against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Blue Jays) Run differential : +86 Coming up: Home for the first game, then away for the remainder of a best-of-three playoff series against the Hartford Yard Goats (Rockies) starting Tuesday, September 17th Somersets dominant week against a porous New Hampshire team catapulted them into the Eastern League playoffs yet again, with both the hitting and pitching looking as strong as at any point during the season.

Thats welcomed news for the Patriots, who start a best-of-three Eastern League playoff semifinal series against the Yard Goats on Tuesday evening.

Somersets 30 runs last week - which was third in the EL - wouldve likely been enough for the series win, but the pitching staff was even better: their unreal 1.67 staff ERA was the second-best in the league.

Elijah Dunham was the star of stars last week, as the outfield product from Indiana ripped four dingers and drove in 10 en route to a massive .389/.450/1.056 slash line.

Dunham was previously a prospect of note as recent as early 2023, but he was exposed in Triple-A last year and was sent back down to Double-A, where hes been respectable albeit not dominant for the entire season.

Dunham previously created intrigue after posting interesting batted ball and whiff rate data, and we saw that combination of good exit velocity and solid plate coverage at its best last week.

Hes off the radar for now, but he could be a Jake Cave clone in the making.

THAT ELIJAH DUNHAM IS SO HOT RIGHT NOW! Dunham cranks his 15th homer of the season and his fourth homer this WEEK, now with 10 RBIs in five games! pic.twitter.com/lMtEeYjuoc Continuing his trend of alternating hot-and-cold weeks, Spencer Jones hit .333/.417/.619 with one double, triple, and homer apiece.

Perhaps more notably, the towering lefty struck out just three times in six contests.

Ill chalk this up to New Hampshires pitching staff being one of the worst Ive ever seen at the Double-A level - thats not an exaggeration - but lets see if this carries into the playoffs.

Leadoff homer for Spencer Jones! The @Yankees ' No.

2 prospect crushes his career-best 17th homer of the season for the Double-A @SOMPatriots .

pic.twitter.com/Sn8cSHJA4r On the pitching front, Trystan Vrieling continued building a case for his terrible June/July being the anomaly and not the norm.

Over two starts, the right-hander from Gonzaga shoved over 11.2 innings, allowing just two earned runs on seven hits and three walks.

He also struck out 10.

Like Ive said in recent editions of this weekly series, Vrielings stuff has ticked back up since he went through a seeming dead-arm phase halfway through the year.

Thats unsurprising when you consider that his workload went from nonexistent last year to almost 150 this go-around.

The fastball is back to topping out in the mid-90s and his secondaries have more bite, so hes tracking like a top-15 prospect in the organization yet again.

Woo! Ben Shields, meanwhile, was unstoppable last week in his 4.2 innings, punching out 10 versus just one free pass and three hits.

He is easily the best UDFA the Yankees have unearthed in a while.

We havent even mentioned Zach Messinger and his six scoreless, or Cam Schlittler and the nine Ks he had in five innings.

So yeah, the starting rotation was cooking last week.

Some of that is the helplessness of the Fisher Cats lineup, but this might be the best pitching staff in Double-A.

While the offense has the big name (Spencer Jones), the pitching staff will be the X factor in determining how far the Patriots go in the playoffs.

Record : 40-26 (second half), 3.5 games up in the South Atlantic League League North.

Currently down 1-0 in the SAL championship round against the Bowling Green Hot Rods (Rays) after defeating the Greensboro Grasshoppers (Pirates) in the semi-finals.

Run differential : +66 Coming up: Home for the second & third (if necessary) games of the SAL championship round against the Bowling Green Hot Rods.

The next game is Tuesday, September 17th.

The Renegades had a busy week.

winning a best-of-three South Atlantic League semifinal series against Greensboro and prepping for a best-of-three championship matinee with Bowling Green.

While the Renegades are currently down 1-0 in that series, it now moves to Hudson Valley for the final two games, where the Renegades enjoy one of the bigger home-field advantages in the league.

Hudson Valley won the first game of the semifinal series 6-0 on the heels of an excellent outing from Trent Sellers.

The other standout UDFA aside from Ben Shields, Sellers struck out nine batters and allowed just one hit against a fantastic Grasshoppers offense that scored almost 40 more runs than any other team in the regular season.

The Renegades bats were quiet until the sixth inning when they got a run on the board via a fielders choice hit by George Lombard Jr.

Dylan Jasso, who has been heating up of late, hit a three-run shot the next inning to seal the win for HV.

The Renegades only scored one run in game two, getting stymied by a piggyback of Grasshoppers arms.

Brian Hendry got the nod in that start and can be best categorized as effectively wild.

His stuff is good; like good -good, but he hasnt shown the command that made me so enamored earlier in the season.

Kyle Carr got the nod for game three and didnt disappoint, as the lefty tossed 4.1 scoreless innings while striking out five.

The ever-consistent Mason Vinyard came in afterward and struck out three in 1.2 innings, and the remainder of the Renegades shutdown bullpen kept Greensboro off the board from thereon.

Josh Moylan and Roc Riggio got the offense rolling in game three with RBI singles in the third and fifth innings, respectively, while Jackson Castillo launched a two-run homer in the ninth to seal the series dub.

Roc Riggio led off game one of the championship series against Bowling Green with a solo shot to get things going, but Hudson Valley didnt accrue a single hit the rest of the way.

Their four other baserunners came via free passes, though they didnt do much with those opportunities.

Bowling Green was the best team in the league all season long, and they should be considered the favorites to finish the job in the next couple of days.

Thats not to say Hudson Valley is helpless against the Hot Rods: Id place the chances of the Renegades sweeping the final two games around 20%.

Regardless, this has been a fabulous season for Hudson Valley, who cranked out wins despite significant roster turnover - particularly on the pitching front.

Season over.

Check out my final remarks on the Tampa Tarpons from last week .

Season over.

Check out my final remarks on the FCL Yanks from last month .

Season over.

Check out my final remarks on the DSL Yanks from last month .

Dunhams huge week was one of the most impressive individual weekly performances of the entire minor league season.

He was a personal cheeseball of mine in the 2022-23 offseason, and there still might be a big league future on the horizon for the lefty.

Perhaps it will come with another organization via the Rule 5 Draft or minor league free agency, but Dunhams glimpses of brilliance should afford him a big league opportunity at some point..

This article has been shared from the original article on pinstripealley, here is the link to the original article.