Yankees: News, Notes, And Highlights From Down On The Farm

The Yankees farm teams are all in action and there some familiar names to catch up, as well as maybe a new name or two. Here’s a quick read on what’s been going on.

The Yankees have recently garnered all the space in Yanks Go Yard, and it’s been well deserved. But every so often, we’ll pause to take a look at how the team’s minor league franchises are doing. Cory Claus already brought YGY readers up to date with an interesting piece on Gleyber Torres, so we’ll skip him in this one. We’ll begin at the top with the Yankees Tripe-A entry.

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders

The Railriders are the defending National Triple-A Champions, but they’ve gotten off to a rough start with a 4-6 record.

Winless on the road (0-3), Luis Cessa and Chad Green have two of the four Railrider wins, but they also have two losses. Still, both have pitched well, and in their 22 innings of work, they have a combined total of 28 strikeouts (Green has 15 of them).

Dietrich Enns, a newer name in the discussion, has made two quality starts with both resulting in no-decisions. In 11 innings, his ERA stands at 1.64.

Tyler Wade, one of the last players the Yankees sent down at the end of Spring Training, is off to a great start hitting .400, but has managed to drive in only one run. At the other end of the spectrum is Dustin Fowler, who has two home runs and a team-leading six runs driven in, but has managed a batting average of only .167.

Videos Courtesy of MILB.com

Clint Frazier has yet to hit a home run and is batting .233 while Ruben Tejada leads the team in walks with seven and has a gaudy .533 on-base percentage.

According to the Railriders website, the YES Network will give New York Yankees fans an unparalleled look at the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, the New York Yankees’ Triple-A team, when the network premieres its new original series, Homegrown: The Path to Pinstripes, on Friday, May 1, at 11 pm ET.

The Railriders travel to Louisville and Indianapolis this week with games scheduled Tuesday thru Sunday.

Trenton Thunder

The Thunder are the Yankees Double-A entry in the Eastern League. Currently, the Thunder are in third place with a 5-4 record.

Miguel Andujar, who was in the running for the job Ronald Torreyes won as the replacement for Didi Gregorius, is off to a torrid start. In only nine games, he’s already driven in 13 runs and has 21 total bases.

More from Yanks Go Yard

Billy McKinney is doing his impersonation of Greg Bird with ten strikeouts in 27 at-bats.

Left fielder Zack Zehner, an 18th round draft pick by the Yankees in 2015, leads the team in hitting with a .400 average.

But the player making the biggest impact is Chance Adams, who in two starts sports a minuscule .079 ERA and 13 punch-outs in eleven innings pitched. He needs to rein in the walk total (6), though, before he earns a promotion.

Dante Bichette Jr, who has been with six teams in the Yankees farm system since 2011, is looking to pick up where he left off last season, telling NJ.com:

"“You kind of know that you are going to run into some hard, far outs at this park,” Bichette Jr. said. “Being a power hitter, it is really easy to sway from your approach. I did that in the first half of the year. I was trying to find something that worked here.“I think I hit nearly .300 on the road, and near .200 at home. But at the end of the year, I decided to keep my approach the same, and it paid off big time.”"

Gleyber Torres Begins His March to Join the 2017 Yankees

The Yankees Gleyber Torres seems to have that “it” factor, that big leaguers look about him; baseball’s equivalent of the 1,000-yard stare.

The Thunder plays every day this week with four games at home versus New Hampshire before traveling to Portland, Maine for a weekend series.

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