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2015 Staten Island Yankees Media Day Recap

By Ricky Keeler

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Tonight, the Staten Island Yankees will begin the 2015 New York-Penn League season against the Brooklyn Cyclones (New York Mets). The Staten Island Yankees are the short-season single-A affiliate of the New York Yankees. Last season, the Baby Bombers went 37-38 and fell just short of making the playoffs.

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This season, there is a new manager at the helm. Patrick Osborn takes over for Mario Garza as the manager of the Baby Bombers. Osborn, who was a second round draft pick of the Cleveland Indians in 2002, was the manager of the Gulf Coast Yankees in 2014. Yesterday, at Media Day, I asked Osborn about what kind of style he has a manager:

"“I let the kids play. In no way, shape, or form would I ever try to handcuff these kids and make them do something for my ego,” said Osborn. “When you do that, they learn to trust you and you get the best out of them”"

One of the other new faces joining the Staten Island coaching staff as the hitting coach this season is Eric Duncan. Duncan, who was the Yankees’ first round pick in the 2003 MLB Draft, played 14 games with Staten Island during the ’03 season. Having the experience of playing in the Penn-League, Duncan shared with me the first piece of advice he gave to some of these players who were drafted a couple of weeks ago?

"“You’re going to fail. It’s a matter of how you handle it. You keep working hard and you keep plugging thru”, replied Duncan."

When you look at this new collection of players, one of the things that stands out about this year’s team is the amount of high draft picks that are with Staten Island. One of those players is first round pick, shortstop Kyle Holder. Holder was taken with the 30th pick out of San Diego. Last season, Holder hit .348 with the Toreros, but the main strength of his game is his defense. He told me about some of the adjustments he made to his offensive game this past season:

“Just trying to stay more consistent at the plate,” said Holder. “I know I’m a defensive player obviously and the offensive side has always been something that hasn’t been the best. Just trying to work with the hitting coach and people like that to help me stay consistent at the plate.”

Another top Yankee position player that’s with Staten Island is former Oregon State center fielder Jeff Hendrix, who was taken in the fourth round. Hendrix, who has heard the comparisons to another former Beaver who is on the Yankees, Jacoby Ellsbury, said that he is a player who “likes to run down balls in the outfield and just find ways to get on-base when I get to the plate.” Hendrix was second in the Pac-12 this past season in on-base percentage (.446).

While there are some new faces, the Baby Bombers have some old faces back with the team. One of those guys is second baseman Ty McFarland. McFarland was a New-York Penn League All-Star last season. He hit .278 with five home runs and 40 RBI’s in 62 games. He has spent some time in Charleston and Tampa this year

This season, McFarland feels the responsibility of being one of the veterans on the squad. He told me that he is “looking forward to using what he learned in Charleston and Tampa and working on that this summer.”

There are a few pitchers returning to the team this season in Ethan Carnes, Matt Borens, and Sean Carley. What is unique about Carnes is that he is going to be a starter in the Staten Island rotation after being a reliever last season. In 19 appearances last year, he was 3-0 with a 1.95 ERA and had 35 strikeouts to just nine walks.

"“I am looking to develop my changeup a little more and keep throwing strikes,” replied Carnes. He also said the toughest adjustment for him to go from reliever to starter is to go from 1-2 innings to 5-6 innings this season."

When you talk to some of these prospects, some of them grew up being Yankees fans or rooting for certain Yankee players. James Reeves, a lefty pitcher out of the Citadel who was taken in the 10th round of this year’s draft, told me that his favorite pitcher to watch was Andy Pettiite because of his pickoff move.

The Opening Day starter tonight will be 22-year-old left-hander Derek Callahan. Last season, in the Gulf Coast League, Callahan went 1-0 with a 2.87 ERA in 11 games (eight starts). I asked Callahan, who was the 16th round pick in last year’s draft out of Gonzaga, what it meant to him to be named the Opening Day starter against one of Staten Island’s biggest rivals:

"“It’s a great honor. There’s plenty of guys in here that deserve that honor too. I’m just going to treat it like another game,” replied Callahan. He told me that he goes off his fastball and changeup and tries to get his pitches down in the zone and get ground balls."

If you are not at Richmond County Bank Ballpark, you can catch all of the home games on MILB.TV. Tonight’s game against Brooklyn begins at 7:05 PM ET.

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