Considering I run a "minor league blog" here, I am not too good at passing along the Yankees minor league news. Anyway, the Yankees have signed three players to minor league deals over the past few days.

David Winfree, OF: Winfree is a 23-year-old who has spent his entire seven season career with the Twins organization. He has been considered a decent prospect before, but his walk rate really holds him back. He has posted a career OBP of .318, which will do a lot to kill a marginal guy's prospect value.

He tries to make up for the lack of on-base ability with power, but it's not enough. He used to be a third baseman, but struggled there defensively and was moved to the outfield. He has a strong arm and can man right field, but his range is extremely limited.

Just to add on some more negatives, his baserunning isn't too strong either. I guess it can't hurt to have added depth in Triple-A, but if this guy sees the majors with the Yankees —something went horribly wrong.

Reid Gorecki, OF: Unlike Winfree, I see a few things to like in Gorecki. He's a veteran who will be 29 during the 2010 season and made his major league debut with the Cardinals last season. He can play all three outfield positions and can play them quite well.

Since 2007, TotalZone says that Gorecki has been worth 41 runs above average. Because of his defensive skills, CHONE projects him to be above replacement level in 2010. Gorecki doesn't have the raw power that Winfree possesses, but he has an overall better approach at the plate and wouldn't kill a team.

If the Yankees need to call someone up because of an emergency during the season, Gorecki is the perfect player for that role.

Royce Ring, LHP: Ring possesses a familiar name, as he saw some major league action with the Mets a few years back. He's a lefty who has had success against lefty batters throughout the minors, so he is a good guy to have around. He won't blow you away, but he strikes out a few batters and doesn't walk many.

CHONE projects a 3.98 ERA from Ring in 2010, and I'd take that in a heartbeat from a guy picked up on a minor league deal.

These three guys present some extra depth, which can never hurt. I still am bitter that the Yankees didn't add Austin Kearns, when he apparently could have been had on a minor league deal as well as these three.

2-12 record, 106.2 innings pitched, 79 runs allowed, 70 earned runs allowed, 76 walks, 10 hit batsmen, 26 wild pitches, 103 strikeouts, 5.91 ERA, 1.71 WHIP

That is not the type of line you expect from a first round pick who signed a major league contract worth a minimum of $4.55 million. This hasn't been a case of bad luck, either. Andrew Brackman finished the season with a 4.66 FIP and a tRA over 6.00.

While Brackman's overall line looks terrible, this season has been a tale of three different pitchers. In his first nine starts, Brackman actually pitched very well:

9 GS, 50.2 IP, 20 ER, 47 H, 3 HR, 46 K, 18 BB, 3.59 ERA, 3.21 FIP

In his tenth start of the season, on May 26, Brackman walked ten batters while striking out only one in 3.1 innings. Prior to that start, Brackman hadn't issues more than three walks in a game. His final ten starts of the season, including that ten-walk effort, produced the following line:

10 GS, 0-7 record, 35 IP, 42 H, 44 R, 44 ER, 33 K, 46 BB, 11.30 ERA, 7.11 FIP

The difference between those performances is huge, and it's hard to believe that they came from the same pitcher. While you might say that his strikeout rate was still decent, it really isn't as good as it looks.

In his first nine starts, Brackman struck out 21 percent of the batters he faced. In his ten starts after that, he struck out only 17.2 percent. Scouting reports were down on him too. Dave Cameron at FanGraphs reported that Brackman sat 90-92 with his fastball in the first inning, but then was down to 88 in the second inning with a terrible breaking ball.

After ten troublesome starts and around 90 innings pitched, the Yankees moved Brackman to the bullpen. It's important to also note that he threw an additional 14.2 innings in the now-defunct Hawaii Winter Baseball League.

In the bullpen, Brackman turned things around a bit. He still walked over five batters per nine, but struck out over ten in the process. His FIP as a reliever was 2.63 and his stuff was much better than when he was starting.

There's no question that this season was definitely a big hit to Brackman's prospect status, and at age 23, he is very old for A-ball. However, it is still way too early to give up on Brackman. He is just returning from Tommy John Surgery and stayed healthy all season. Maybe he just needed a season to build up arm strength after surgery; we don't know.

As I noted with Dellin Betances, it's tough for such a tall pitcher to get their mechanics down. With guys like Betances and Brackman, patience is very important. People compared Brackman to a right-handed Randy Johnson when he was drafted, and Johnson didn't get his control problems under control until he was 29-years-old.

If Brackman enters next season throwing 96 mph gas like he was throwing in Hawaii, I think it will be a season to look forward to. If not, though, I think people will just be itching to throw that bust tag on Andrew Brackman.

Picture courtesy of MLB.com/Julie Jacobson

Brett Rosin, over at Bringing Heat, brings us his top Yankee prospect list. Jesus Montero, of course, comes in as the top guy, but after that there are some surprises. Kelvin De Leon comes in as the fourth best prospect, and Rosin even chooses to rank DJ Mitchell over Zach McAllister, which is pretty indefensible. Anyway, go check out the list for yourself, it includes a little blurb on each player.

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.

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

Kevin Russo

IF

5'11", 190 LBS

Bats-R, Throws-R

Kevin Russo was drafted by the Yankees in the 20^th round of the 2006 draft from Baylor University. The late round pick was given poor odds to succeed by many scouts and prognosticators but has continually moved up the ladder in an impressive fashion to where he now is a utility option for the 2010 Yankees.

Russo was drafted from Baylor University where he was much the same player he now is today. His final season at Baylor he hit .276/.365/.371 with 2 HRs and 15 SBs. Russo has been able to match his performance at nearly every level he has reached, sporting career minor league line of .297/.357/.399.

The Yankees recognized early that Russo would wind up being a utility type infielder and they started shifting him around the infield to give him multiple positions to play. While 2^nd base is his strongest and most natural position (about 4 runs above average for his career) he’s also played 3^rd base decently and shortstop to some degree. Additionally Russo has spent some time in LF. A hamstring injury which knocked him out for awhile aversely affected his defense in 2009 but Russo is an average defender with a surprisingly strong arm for his size and position. Defensively Russo’s description is a microcosm of his entire scouting report- he’ll never wow you with his performance but he always gets the job done.

Offensively the best part of Russo’s game is his consistency. He has a good eye and strike zone judgment and parlays that with an impressive contact ability to cut down on strike outs. He’s only struck out over 60 times once in his career, his second season in A+ Tampa. He also uses a good bit of speed to help get him on base but in terms of results, is not the best base stealer (13 SBs, 7 CS in 2009). The speed and the contact ability have led to some higher than normal BABIP for Russo but when evaluating his 2009 campaign, his .375 mark is probably a bit inflated (.345 career BABIP). Russo also isn’t a masher. He’s only hit 5 HRs once, which happened in 2009, and has only hit more than 20 doubles two times.

On the whole, Russo is a solid utility player who will most likely serve in some role to help the Yankees in 2010. He’s supposedly a very good bunter and his contact skills make him ideal for hit and run situations. If he can show the Yankees his defensive versatility in spring training, there’s a better than average chance he could make the team out of camp.

As for what we can expect from him, CHONE has some answers. CHONE is a projection system developed by Sean Smith of baseballprojection.com and is an indelible member of the baseball community. CHONE forecasts a 0.6 WAR season for Russo, with a .277/.332/.392 batting line. That would translate to a .320 .wOBA which is below average for the league. They also have Russo pegged for 5 HRs in his 350ish forecasted at bats. I’m not terribly sold on his batting line, but if he does manage to hit in that fashion and can field better than the projected -5 runs below average on defense, Russo has a shot to be a 1 WAR player in 2010.