Evil Empire Yankees Blog

It is fun to imagine what would happen if the Yankees traded every player who was originally from another team and stuck only with homegrown talent.  It’s not always a pretty picture, but this year’s list isn’t as disappointing as year’s prior. The criteria for this list are as follows: 1. The player must have spent at least one full season in the Yankees minor leagues 2. The player must currently be in the Yankees system, including both the major and minor leagues. 3. Every player currently on the roster who does not meet the above criteria will be traded or released sometime over the next three seasons in this hypothetical scenario. Let’s dive in. C – Austin Wells – Wells is just beginning his minor league career in 2021, but he has fans within the organization who feel he could already hold his own in the majors. Wells has the bat to carry him all the way to the majors quickly. According to team officials his defense has rapidly improved as well. Expected statistics: ....

 "Don't sleep on his power." This has been the mantra when I speak to scouts about Trevor Hauver since long before the 2021 season started. Here we are five games in and none of them would have predicted the thunderous explosion Hauver has had at the start of his career.  The 2021 draft came and went, and was a relatively quiet year compared to most. With abbreviated seasons and/or cancellations, there was a lot of mystery surrounding the draft and many of the picks. Trevor Hauver was not a mystery, but as a third round pick he wasn't the talk of the town either.  Hauver played outfield in college, mainly because he was buried behind some major talent in the Arizona State infield. To his credit, he took to it nicely and can now play outfield too. The Yankees believe Hauver is best suited at second base, which is why they have him there to start the season. He has a so-so arm so his options are limited to second, left field, or first base. He will likely play all three...

Despite a surging Giancarlo Stanton and recent improvements from Gleyber Torres, DJ Lemahiue, and Clint Frazier, a large portion of the Yankees lineup is still struggling. The back half of the lineup is a collection of below the Mendoza line batting averages with little to no run production. Giancarlo Stanton can't continue to hit a homerun every game forever (or can he?), so it is important that some other people in the lineup start to step it up. Aaron Judge is beginning to slump a bit, and Gio Urshela is hurting, though he will likely avoid a DL stint. Mike Ford has not done a great job filling in at first base. Gary Sanchez has been the 2019-2020 version of himself, and Brett Gardner hasn't been great either. These guys all still have plenty of time to turn their seasons around, but the team could use a boost at this stage of the season. Enter Miguel Andujar and Luke Voit. Miguel Andujar started the season in Triple-A hot, so the Yankees called him up when they learned Ursh...

The Bronx Baseball Daily website was up for renewal, and I decided not to go through with it. I knew I couldn't commit the time to publish content to justify including "daily" in the name of my website. As a result, I am back to my old stomping grounds with the Evil Empire Yankees Blog. There hasn't been much of a reason to publish content for me, as my passion is prospects and the pandemic shut down the minors completely in 2020. I wanted to start off with a bang, and publish my annual top 50 prospects before the season kicks off. I am beyond excited for the season to start after a full year of missing Minor League Baseball. Without further ado, here is my top 50 list. I will be posting the "just missed the list" group soon. Enjoy. 1. Jasson Dominguez – 5-foot-10, 190-pounds, CF, SH, 18-years-old – At this point the anticipation for Dominguez’s debut has reached a fever pitch. He hasn’t registered a minor league at bat yet, but the hype has been crazy. He h...

One of the common sentiments among Yankees fans since the end of the season has been the desire to sign Todd Frazier this offseason to keep him in pinstripes. Believe it or not, the two alternatives of this decision form a complex and difficult conundrum for the Yankees and actually could shape the entire offseason strategy for the front office. Time to elaborate. It starts with simple question. Do we want to bring Todd Frazier back? Or not? The answer actually has far reaching implications. This is possibly the most difficult question to answer of all. There are many pertinent considerations. Frazier is a bit of a hometown hero, dating back to the little league world series in 1998 when he was the star of his team. They won the Little League World Series that year. Fast forward 13 years and Frazier made his professional baseball debut with the Reds. He has had a solid career over seven years. He has hit .245/.321/.459/.779 with 175 homeruns. This past season he hit .213/....

As a relatively young, coordinated, athletic man who played baseball growing up and continues to play softball now, I have never felt unsafe at any baseball game, regardless of the netting. How often, however, do you see people sitting along the first and third baseline that are not lucky enough to feel so safe? It’s all too often. The recent events with the young girl who was hit in the head by a batted ball off the bat of Todd Frazier and was subsequently hospitalized called this to everyone’s attention. I don’t mean to speculate, but as an Emergency Medicine physician, I know that you don’t get hospitalized for over a week for a concussion, regardless of age. Unfortunately, something more happened to this girl, and I just hope and pray that it does not affect her in the long term. That would be a tragedy. Selfishly, putting up nets would do nothing for me personally. In fact, going to games would become slightly less enjoyable from those first and third baseline seats....

Several players in the Yankees' system are no longer eligible for the top 50 prospects list, but are still young enough to deserve mention in the discussion. These are the players who have already played in the major leagues in some capacity. They are still a huge indication of the success and health of the farm system, and here is where we will discuss that. When you combine this list with the top 50 prospects, it is staggering how much talent this farm system has produced. To take it a step further, when you consider some of the guys who are not on this list, but are products of the Yankees' farm system, it's even more staggering. Guys like Greg Bird, Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino, David Robertson, Tommy Kahnle, Austin Romine, Dellin Betances, and Tyler Austin have all made an impact at varying levels to the major league team. Here is a list of the guys who have had limited exposure to the majors still, or were rookies this year. 1. Aaron Judge – RF, 6-foot-7, 282-po...