New York Yankees Minor League Recap: 6/15-6/21

Feb 21, 2015; Tampa, FL, USA; New York Yankees player Austin Romine (55) bats during spring training workouts at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Some of the Yankees new shiny prospects began play this past weekend as Staten Island began their season in the New York Penn League. The Yankees new farm team in Pulaski gets started on Tuesday. Those teams will be featured in the recap next week.

For now let’s take a look at the other levels:

AAA- Scranton

Scranton had a nice 4-2 week as they continue to play well and find themselves atop the International League’s North Division.

Batter of the Week: Austin Romine

Remember him? Romine missed about a week after being hit  in the head by a pitch but came back with an absolute vengeance.  Romine hit a grand slam as a part of a 6 RBI night on Thursday. He also added two more hits the next night and another hit Saturday to give him quite the productive three days.

Runner Up: Gregorio Petit

Petit came off the DL and was sent down to AAA and has done nothing but hit. Petit had three mutli-hit games and has hit in every single game he’s played in since coming off the DL on June 8. He also walked five times and drove in three runs as well.

Pitcher Of The Week: Luis Severino

Severino picked up two wins this week. He pitched 12.2 innings giving up  six hits, two earned runs and striking out 10. He’s now 3-0 since his promotion to AAA Scranton and this was his first start where he didn’t walk a batter.

Runner Up: Nick Rumbelow

Rumbelow certainly earned his promotion and his pitching this week helped. He pitched three innings giving up two runs and striking out six

Welfrin Mateo-Mandatory Credit: dominicansummerleague.com

A- Charleston River Dogs

Charleston wrapped up the first half of the season with a 4-3 week and finished 4.5 out of the division for the first half of the season.  Connor Spencer is their lone All-Star representative.

Hitter Of The Week: Jorge Mateo

Mateo continues to improve as he’s hit .349 over his last 10 games. Mateo had a hit every game this week, including a four hit game and four stolen base game. Mateo now has 50 (!) stolen bases in 62 games.

Runner Up: Chris Breen

Breen makes it on the strength of one game. Breen had a three hit and seven RBI game on Monday night in Charleston’s 15-6 win. He missed almost a month with an injury and is hitting just .225 in his first year of full-season ball, but maybe this will help him turn things around.

Pitcher Of The Week: Matt Wotherspoon

Wotherspoon picked up two wins this week. He was the Yankees’ 34th round pick last year and even pitched for a game in AA. Wotherspoon struggled in his first start this past week, but Charleston put up 15 runs of support to help. His second start against Ashville was much better when he struck out six in six shutout innings and gave up just four hits.

Runner Up: Rony Bautista

The 6’7″ right-hander struck out eight over five innings of one run ball Sunday, but didn’t get the win when the bullpen blew the save. He’s been mainly a bullpen guy this season, but Bautista is someone who can throw multiple innings and has struck out 32 in 27.1 innings this year

Mandatory Credit: MILB.com

A- Tampa

Tampa won three of their four games prior to the All-Star Break. Tampa had eight players represent the Northern Division including Mike Ford and Miguel Andujar who had hits in the game.

Hitter Of The Week: Ericson Leonora

Leonora had three hits and four RBI over the final two games before the All-Star Break. Leonora leads the team in homers (10) and RBI (38).

Runner Up: Mark Payton

Last year’s seventh round pick got promoted to AA for a 10 game stint then was sent back down to Tampa. No matter. Payton came back  and picked up a homer and two RBI.

Pitcher Of The Week: Rookie Davis

Davis rebounded from his worst start in a month scattering 10 hits over six innings and allowing one run in the Yankees win last Tuesday. Davis added in seven strikeouts as well in the effort.

Runner-Up: Giovanny Gallegos

Gallegos pitched 4.1 innings of shut out ball in relief over two games including the 17 inning marathon victory. Gallegos gave up four hits and struck out two. He’s pitched quite well out of the bullpen for Tampa. So far in 10 games he’s got a 1.14 ERA. In 23.2 innings. he’s given up 14 hits and struck out 20.

Mandatory Credit: dsl.com

DSL Yankees

The DSL 1 Yankees have gotten off to a 14-5 start. They went 5-0 this week and didn’t score fewer than eight runs in any game.

Hitter Of The Week- Leobaldo Cabrera had seven hits and drove in six runs this week to help pace the attack. He’s hitting .364 with a .951 OPS in 14 games for the 17 year old outfielder.

Pitcher of The Week:

Jonathan Padilla- Padilla is 3-0 with a 1.64 ERA. He gave up the most runs he has in any start with three runs but got the win, striking out six. So far in 22 innings he has struck out 25

The DSL 2 Yankees are 7-12 and only won once last week.

Hitter Of The Week- SS Yonauris Rodriguez is hitting .333 so far. He missed 10 days but came back this past week and recorded 11 hits in four games.

Pitcher Of The Week- Alexander Rosario rebounded from a rough first outing to pick up his first win this week. Against the Cubs, he went three innings, giving up just one hit, walking two and striking out three.