Written by Greg Fertel | 29 May 2009

It's been a full week since we've given you any sort of prospect update, so let's take a look at what has happened in the past week, starting with the AAA Scranton-Wilkes Barre team.

• Austin Jackson continued his hot hitting, going 11/25 for the week(.440). He did not walk at all, and struck out seven times in that span. He had two extra base hits, a double and a triple. I enjoyed a twitter exchange between RAB and Beyond the Boxscore's Sky Kalkman about Jackson:

BtB_Sky: Austin Jackson has 0 HRs and .097 ISO for AAA Yankees. ~11% BB-rate and .361 AVG in 179 PAs, though. What's that mean?
RiverAveBlues: It means that power is always the last tool to develop. Same thing it's always meant!
BtB_Sky: I hear you -- 9 HRs last year, though. Love the slight increase in patience from AA to AAA. ETA 2010 starter?
RiverAveBlues: Don't forget also that he's 21 and playing well at AAA.

This dialogue pretty much sums up Jackson's season so far. While the lack of power may be a little bit disconcerting, the fact remains that Jackson is one of the younger players in AAA and he is hitting the ball hard and getting on base. If he continues to hit like this, some power will soon follow as he matures.

• Juan Miranda had a rough week, going 6/27 or .220. Five of those 6 hits were doubles, and he struck out five times while walking three.
• Shelley Duncan had another monster week, going 8/25 for a .320 average while mashing 4 Home runs and a double, walking and striking out 5 times a piece.
• John Rodriguez returned to the lineup after missing a few days and had a good week. He went 7 for 25(.280). He had 3 HRs and four singles while walking 4 times and striking out in 6 at-bats. He has continued to show that he could be a decent bat off the bench.
  
• Todd Linden finally slowed down a bit, with 6 hits in 27 ABs for a .220 average. In this span, he had 1 double, 1 walk, and struck out 7 times. Now onto some pitching performances:
• George Kontos started one game and pitched well, throwing 6 innings of 1 run ball while allowing 6 hits and 2 walks, and striking out 6. His ERA in AAA now stands at 2.25.
• Mark Melancon got into two games this week, pitching 2 innings, striking out 1, and allowing 1 hit.
• David Robertson was called up to the majors after pitching 1 shutout inning this week, where he struck out the side and walked one batter.
• Other than this, the AAA rotation has been made up of some Major League scrubs recently, including Casey Fossum, Kei Igawa, and Josh Towers.

Over to AA Trenton:

• Zach McAllister had another strong start in AA, lowering his ERA to 1.91. He pitched 7 shutout innings allowing 4 hits, 2 walks, while striking out 5. He has done nothing but impress so far in his professional career, and I would not be surprised to see him called up later in the season.
• Ivan Nova had two strong starts, totalling 14.2 innings. He allowed 3 ER on 13 hits and 3 walks. He also struck out 12. His ERA is a respectable 3.26 but his BB:K is still poor due to a few awful starts; it stands at 22:31. One good sign is that his GO/AO is a very strong 2.25.
• Wilkins de la Rosa had a rough start, pitching 4 innings and allowing 6 ER on 8 hits and 3 walks. He only struck out 1 in this outing.
• Kanekoa Texeira made two appearances. He has been logging a lot of innings for Trenton. This week he pitched 5 innings, and gave up 1 run on no hits, 4 walks and 2 Ks. Coming into this season, Texeira had a very strong BB:K, but this year it stands at 15:19.
• Michael Dunn had 1 strong outing, pitching 2 innings and allowing 1 hit and striking out 3.
• Kevin Whelan pitched 4 innings in 2 appearances, allowing 1 run on 3 hits and a walk. He struck out 1. Whelan has done a good job to limit the walks recently, allowing just 7 in his last ten appearances in 17.1 innings.

Single-A Tampa:

• Jesus Montero is an absolute monster. He hit .410 this week, going 11/27 with 2 Homers and 3 Doubles while walking once and striking out just once.
• Austin Romine had a strong week, going 8/25 with 1 homer, and 4 doubles, while stealing 2 bases. His walk rate this season has been nothing short of appalling, though, and it continued this week. He had no walks and struck out 5 times. His BB:K this season is 5:27. He didn't show much discipline last season, but he has showed even less this year.
  
• Jeremy Bleich had 2 starts, one great one and one awful one. In one, he pitched 6 innings and allowed 1 run on 5 hits and a walk, while getting 4 batters out via the K. In the 2nd start, he lasted only 4 innings, didn't walk anyone, but allowed 11 hits and 7 ER. He struck out 3.
• DJ Mitchell pitched well this week in 2 starts. His line: 11 IP, 7 Hits, 3 ER, 5 BB, and 14 Ks

Single-A Charleston:

• Carmen Angelini was demoted to short-season ball on May 19th.
  
• Daniel Brewer: 9 for 29, 3 2B, 1 3B, 0 BB, 8 K, 2 SB
• Brackman had a forgettable start, walking 10 in 3.1 IP, while allowing 1 hit and 3 ER. He struck out 1. Hopefully this isn't the start of a trend, as he only allowed 4 walks in his previous 3 starts combined.
• Brett Marshall: 12.2 IP, 13 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 13 K

Stay tuned, as we'll have a lot of draft content up in between now and draft day

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