Prospect Profile No. 16: Dellin Betances, RHP

Written by Greg Fertel | 10 January 2010

Year	Age	Lev	ERA	GS	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	WHIP	HR/9	BB/9	SO/9	SO/BB
2006	18	Rook	1.16	7	23.1	14	3	1	7	27	0.900	0.4	2.7	10.4	3.86
2007	19	A_ss	3.60	6	25.0	24	10	0	17	29	1.640	0.0	6.1	10.4	1.71
2008	20	A-Rook	3.92	24	121.2	100	53	9	62	141	1.332	0.7	4.6	10.4	2.27
2008	20	Rook	8.53	2	6.1	13	6	0	3	6	2.526	0.0	4.3	8.5	2.00
2008	20	A	3.67	22	115.1	87	47	9	59	135	1.266	0.7	4.6	10.5	2.29
2009	21	A_adv	5.48	11	44.1	48	27	2	27	44	1.692	0.4	5.5	8.9	1.63
4 Seasons			3.91	48	214.1	186	93	12	113	241	1.395	0.5	4.7	10.1	2.13

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 1/10/2010.

The Yankees drafted Dellin Betances in the eighth round of the 2006 draft and signed him to an eighth round record one million dollar contract. Betances hails from Brooklyn, and knew he wanted to play for the Yankees.

Basically, he told other teams he wouldn't sign with them, which allowed the Yankees to swoop in and take a top talent in the eighth round. The Yankees had an extraordinary draft in 2006. They balanced the draft with high-upside pitchers and guys who had high probability.

The results of the 2006 draft have gone better than anyone could have imagined. The Yankees first pick, Ian Kennedy, looks like a good bet to be a decent major league starter and was dealt in the deal for Curtis Granderson. Joba Chamberlain slipped to the supplemental round due to injury concerns, and he has already provided a ton of value to the Yankees.

Then there are Mark Melancon and David Robertson, two relievers who should contribute for years to come. Still, that's not all. George Kontos is recovering from Tommy John, but has had Triple-A Success and Zach McAllister will start the season in Scranton, waiting for an opening.

Before even discussing Betances, the Yankees 2006 draft looks like it will go down as a great one. Betances is the type of wild card that could change it to historic. Thus far, his career has been full of ups and downs.

Betances got off to a great start in the GCL in 2006; Baseball America even included him in their top 100 prospects, despite being so raw. Yes, they only ranked him 100th, but that was still high praise considering where Betances was in his development.

2007 wasn't kind to Betances. He missed a majority of the season with arm injuries and only got to throw 25 innings where he walked 17 batters. This would not be the last of Dellin's control problems.

In 2008, Betances finally got to throw a lot, finishing the year with 121.2 innings for Single-A Charleston. His walks remained a problem. Here are his walks per nine innings, by month, with strikeouts per nine in parentheses.

April: 5.97(11.65)

May: 7.13(8.63)

June: 4.26(8.53)

July: 3.41(9.66)

August: 2.20(11.62)

Betances seemed to really get his control together towards the end of the season. Since he coupled that with more strikeouts, his 28 inning August was very impressive and was something to build on for the 2009 season.

This gave me, and others, very high hopes for Betances as he started the year with the Tampa Yankees. It just wasn't to be. After pitching 44.1 unimpressive innings, Betances went down with another arm injury.

It was reported that Betances underwent Tommy John surgery, but it turned out that he had a slightly less serious surgery, similar to the one Mariano Rivera went through early in his career.

Scouting Report

Dellin Betances's height has been one of his strong points since he was drafted. He is 6'8", which means a lot of things for pitchers. They have a better angle toward the plate, and can get more sink and movement on their pitches, but also it means they have larger moving parts and their mechanics can get out of whack more frequently.

Betances has been known to dial his fastball up to 98, but he more typically sits in the 92-94 range. His fastball is his best pitch, and when he commands it, it's a definite plus pitch. This gives him top-starter upside.

Betances's secondary pitches have flashes of brilliance too. He throws a curveball with 12-to-6 movement that generates a ton of swings and misses. He doesn't tend to throw it much, but his changeup is effective when he does use it.

The missing link for Betances right now is command. When he was at his best in August of 2008, he was locating his dominant stuff and the results spoke for themselves. Betances should be back early in the 2010 season pitching for Tampa.

He remains a huge lottery card, but the upside is still there. Patience is key with Betances, because he will need a lot of time to put it all together. If he does, though, Betances can become a very dominant pitcher.

Picture from Sports Illustrated