The Tampa Trio in Trenton

Written by Greg Fertel | 14 July 2010

With news of Adam Warren's promotion, the Yankees have now called up three of their opening day starters in Tampa up to Double-A Trenton. Currently, the rotation appears to be Warren, Andrew Brackman, Hector Noesi, DJ Mitchell, and Lance Pendleton.

I'll be focusing on the first three, because they are the best prospects of the bunch, and all have made a significant jump in both value and level this season. The move from A-ball to Double-A is considered a big one for pitchers(bigger than from Double-A to Triple-A).

For many pitchers whose results are better than their stuff, Double-A is where they begin to struggle. Noesi has been considered a guy with no dominant pitches, but good command of all of his average pitches. I'm not sure that is a fair assessment, as he has hit 94 recently and sits in the low 90s with great command.

That's not top-notch velocity, but if he's consistently hitting 92 with pinpoint command, that's one very good pitch. Noesi predictably dominated in Tampa this year, after doing the same in a short stint with the team last season. His promotion to AA Trenton did not slow him down. Noesi's line with the Thunder:

62 IP, 48 H, 12 ER, 5 HR, 11 BB(1 IBB), 55 K, 1.6 BB/9, 8.0 K/9, 5.0 K:BB, 1.74 ERA, 3.15 FIP

His strikeout rate is down a bit from his time in Tampa, but not many pitchers are going to sustain a K/9 rate above 11. Overall, his strikeout rate is only slightly down from his time in A-ball last season(22.8% from 25%). More impressive, though, is his walk rate. At 4.6 percent, it is his highest since 2009, but still is extremely good. I expected AA to be more of a challenge for Noesi, but thus far it just hasn't been.

Look for Noesi to keep this up and possibly get a cameo in Scranton this season. Being on the 40-man could mean he might even get called up in September if the Yanks need an extra arm. Having a guy with Noesi's control in the bullpen couldn't hurt.

The next starter promoted from Tampa to Trenton was the famed Brackman, who many had given up on when he had a poor start to the season and his stuff looked terrible. Even though we're talking about prospects here, and this should be a given, patience is key. Brackman always was a bit of a project that was going to take some time. He went on to pitch great and was promoted to Trenton where he has made four starts.

Things have not been as rosy for Brackman, though. His Trenton line:

20.2 IP, 24 H, 13 ER, 2 HR, 7 BB, 18 K, 3.0 BB/9, 7.8 K/9, 2.57 K:BB, 5.66 ERA, 4.07 FIP

It's a small sample and it takes time to adjust to a new level, so there are some goods and bads in his AA performance so far. His strikeout rate has barely declined, which is good. On the bad side, his walk rate has doubled and his ground ball rate has declined from 58 to 37 percent. He's only made four starts in Trenton so it's unfair to make any judgement yet. I'm optimistic he'll start to pitch better.

The final promotion was to Warren, who has yet to appear in a game for Trenton. In an interview with NoMaas, VP of Baseball Operations Mark Newman said, in regards to a promotion for Warren:

"This is Adam Warren's first full season, so we're not going to go crazy with these guys."

I figured this meant that the Yankees wouldn't promote Warren so soon, but I guess they couldn't justify holding him back when he was performing so well. Making the jump from Staten Island, Warren still hasn't been challenged. His strikeout, walk, and groundball rates all stayed about the same. This resulted in a phenomenal 2.22 ERA and 2.94 FIP.

Warren should be interesting to watch in Trenton; if he continues to pitch this well, he could be on the fast track to a big league job.

These three pitchers are all good prospects who have raised their stock enormously in the first half of the 2010 season. DJ Mitchell has struggled so far, but the four of them make up a talented rotation, one that is likely to graduate a few guys to the big league team in the Bronx at some point.