Guest Post from Alan B.

March 2025

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Last week in the comments, a reader had challenged/questioned me about my comment in which I had focused on the quality of the Yankees' coaching in the minor leagues.  In this article, I will explain my concerns.

Yes, players, stall out or peak at different minor league levels.  Eric Duncan (#1, 2003), flamed out at AAA.  Didi Gregorious finally established himself as a Yankee player, but only after fizzling out as a hot prospect with two other teams (Reds & D’Backs).  The fact that prospects don't succeed doesn't mean much here. That happens across all teams.

So let’s dig in deeper to the coaching and my thinking/reasoning. 

I have watched a lot of NYY affiliate games over the previous 3 seasons, and at times even listening to games in 2021.  I know I’ve made this comment before, but I’m going to state it again, and hopefully do a better job explaining myself. 

In 2023, while watching a Hudson Valley home game, they talked about an interview they had with then pitching coach, Preston Claiborne, who explained why starting pitchers stay in there even when it’s clear they have nothing.  He said if the gameplan is for the guy to throw 90 pitches, he will throw that much, no matter the results.  Now, I watched over the previous week, on back-to back games where Beeter and Warren, in AAA, gave up 10 and 11 ER. I have to ask, how does allowing a kid to take a beating help him?  What does that do for a kid’s confidence?  Anyone else think that Wil Warren having too many back-to-back -to back bad starts, generally due to lack of control last year really did help him?

Then there is the different rules for getting promotions.  Here is an example - Everson Pereira went power bat for power bat (and was better) with Jasson Dominguez in 2021, at both Tampa & Hudson Valley, but while Dominguez was allowed to keep climbing, Pereria got stuck back in Hudson Valley. 

Here is another - after watching both Arias and Lombard in Tampa, what did Lombard do to get the promotion over Arias?  Oh yeah, Lombard was a #1 pick.. Worse, Lombard to me, is not  necessarily a shortstop.

The Yankees also bounce Arias around, mainly between second & short and he never found a proper throwing motion from either spot.  Where is the defensive coach to help him figure it out?

Why have the Tampa teams been so bad the last 3 seasons?  Considering the talent that was on their teams during these times, to me, can you really put it all on the players?  I don’t.

The IFA kids.  Name me another kid not named Jasson Dominguez, who didn’t have to play at least 2 full seasons between the DSL/FCL?  I can’t.  No matter what any positional kid does, or what the need is at Tampa or Hudson Valley come August 1, once the FCL season is over by August 1, those kids are done.  But the draft picks and the UDFAs can play?  Oh, but no drafted pitchers are allowed to pitch at all.  How does that help?  What pro video do they have to use at Instructs that Fall?  Are these moves good coaching?  I don’t think so.  I mean having a draft pick, pitch 4-5 times, 2 innings at a time.  Or why pay Brando Mayea over $4M, to literally slow foot him through, despite there being legitimate chances to see what he could do in Tampa in 2024?

Fringy LH suspect, 2019 draft pick, Edgar Barclay, was moved up from the AA pen to the AA rotation, during the first half of the 2023 season.  He was brutal more times than not. I was shocked to hear on a SWB home broadcast, that they finally decided to try to fix him at the 2024 MiLB break (same time as the MLB ASB).  Over a year later?  Really??????

Going back to the bench point I brought up earlier, if the minors are about development, how is it good for a struggling hitter to not get a week off from starting, but still be on the active roster?  So, it’s OK for a Roderick Arias, J. Serna (since traded), Jones, or Jace Avina - just to name a few guys to go 1-27, with strikeouts or first pitch outs, but they are never sat for a few days?  One day, or a DH day, doesn’t cut it in my book.

Again, look at Spencer Jones’s numbers for both the 2023 and the 2024 seasons.  Virtually unchanged except for going way down in stolen bases and his 35% uptick in his strikeouts.  

Why do starting pitchers who make the Bronx, pitch better in the Bronx than at AAA, under Pitching Czar Sam Briend?  Even look at Gil’s 2021 numbers.  A 3.07 ERA in the Bronx, but an over 5.00 ERA in SWB.

These minor league ‘coaches’, have no idea how to tweak guys hitting stances or deliveries under the current coaching philosophies. Deivi Garcia had a control issue, but they decided to totally redo his delivery, and how did that work out?  Same thing  about the cleanup of Will Warren’s delivery in 2024. Any surprise that Warren is pitching well this Spring with his delivery a little less smooth?  I’m not. Or the reports that they deemed it OK to change Spencer Jones’s hitting setup after Spring Training last year.  Forget the fact that Jones spent 2 weeks that winter working with Richard Schneck (Aaron Judge’s personal HC).  I rarely see pitchers change their rubber setup.  Might it be the easiest fix to move them, instead of adding another pitch? Last year 2 guys got broken wrists via HBP.  Perhaps these guys are too close to the plate and have cement feet?

A reader brought up both Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt.  Schmidt made his MLB debut, during the 2020 COVID season.  So his minor league pitching coaches including Danny Borrell, Jose Rosado, &  Tommy Phelps - all who either left before being pushed out by new Pitching Czar Sam Briend, or were just allowed to leave.  As for Gil, it has been reported he taught himself his 3rd pitch during his TJS rehab.  NOTE: Yankees PC Matt Blake doesn’t catch any flack here at all, since this coaching is what these guys get during their minor league seasons, so anything he did or tried to do during Spring Training is not relevant for this piece.

There were reports at the time of why Roansy Contreras really was included in the Tallion trade.  He pitched real well in Charleston (Low A) for the Yankees in 2019, but when he won some sort of award or recognition, he thanked Danny Borrell, who had left the organization before being pushed out by new Pitching Czar Sam Briend.  I never did understand that one, except for the fact that they wanted to  erase anything good that the old coaches  did.  Great reason to trade a top prospect. Sigh!

Speaking of Contreras, how many prospects after being traded, either skip levels or run through them in their new organizations?   

Next point, too often decisions about guys are made too early, and no matter what these guys do, they are still never really given a chance.  Nor are they traded.

The Yankees have loads of talent in the system.  It may not be as much Tier 1 talent as maybe a Baltimore or Boston have, but Tier 2 or Tier 3, they have lots more.  Now do I agree with some of the prospect rankings? Absolutely not.  Also sharing AA & AAA with both BAL & BOS, really do have me shaking my head on why some of their prospects are so highly rated.

Is anyone really going to argue with the analytical or their sports-lab based coaching methods with me?  Are there drills that are good, sure.  But the YES show, Homegrown, does do more harm than good, and most good drills are based in baseball, like using a pitching machine that helps the catchers to learn how to block balls in the dirt, or the 58 ft off speed pitches.  But where’s the FB command?  Or if a guy has speed, or a LHB, why not teach them how to bunt for a hit?  Since it’s all about what the charts say, if a guy does it well enough, eventually the defensive chart or the pitch usage has to change against that hitter.