Baseball America’s Top 10 Yankee Prospects

Written by Sean P. | 16 December 2009

Baseball America today released their much coveted top 10 Yankee prospect list today- New York Yankees Top 10 Prospects

You should follow the link to read the full article and see for yourselves but their top 10 list is as follows-

1. Jesus Montero-C

2. Austin Romine-C

3. Arodys Vizcaino- RHP

4. Slade Heathcott-OF

5. Zach McAllister-RHP

6. Manny Banuelos-LHP

7. Gary Sanchez-C

8. JR Murphy-C

9. Jeremey Bleich-LHP

10. Andrew Brackman-RHP

This is the first post-Austin Jackson list I have seen and it contains a lot of surprising info which I'll touch on here.

- Gary Sanchez at 7 is probably the biggest eye catcher on the list. Many people who have seen him have compared him to Jesus Montero (hard not too given the background) and they've come away saying he's solid defensively and has a really good bat, but not close to Montero's level. We all knew the Yankees were rich with catching depth, but 4 out of the top 10 prospects is really an indication of how deep they are at the position.

- The emergence of Vizcaino and Banuelos confirm what many had surmised, that their impressive seasons were going to resonate nation wide with scouts. Andrew Brackman and Dellin Betances dropping should be a surprise to no one, however BA still says Brackman has the best fastball in the Yankee system.

-For all you guys out there hanging onto the notion that Nunez is something special, a small caveat is BA rating Nunez as having the best infield arm.....very exciting!

-Melky Mesa as the best athlete, best outfield arm and fastest base runner is also not very surprising. Hoffmann holds the "best defensive outfielder" title but Mesa is a wizard in the field as well. I would guess that if Mesa moves up and continues to flash the glove then he'll soon take over that spot.Now if only Mesa could hit....

- Francisco Cervelli and Ramiro Pena were ranked best defensive catcher and infielder respectively. Again, not very surprising here.

-Best strike zone discipline was a bit of a surprise for me- Reegie Corona. Looking at his numbers I guess they define that as low K% as well as high BB%. So I guess Corona is a pretty solid choice after all- woops.

-Again, I'm really looking forward to seeing what JR Murphy and Gary Sanchez will do with full seasons in 2010 (ditto Slade Heathcott, obviously). The future looks good for Yankee catchers.