The Best Of Prospect Times, The Worst Of Prospect Times

(Aaron Judge, certified stud.  Courtesy of MiLB.com)

It's Minor League All-Star Game season, which signifies the start to prospect promotion season.  The Yankees have already moved some guys up and down, but once we get through the midpoint of all the MiL seasons, you'll really start to see things pick up.  With that in mind, here are a few updates on some of the top names in the system and the wide disparity in where their seasons are heading at the midpoint.  All things considered, especially some of the more recent negative news, I think you have to say this has been another disappointing campaign for the Yankee system as a whole.  But check out the major "Bests" and "Worsts" after the jump and judge for yourself.

Yanks Put Only 1 In FanGraph's Top 100 Prospects

Marc Hulet of FanGraphs released his top 10 Yankee prospect list last week.  Yesterday he unveiled his top 100 prospects list for all of MLB and to no one's surprise the Yankees were not well represented, putting only 1 player on that list.  Naturally that player was Gary Sanchez, who came in 44th.  I know I always get real Yankee-centric on these posts, so if you're interested, Hulet's top 3 was Byron Buxton, Xander Bogaerts, and Oscar Taveras.  If you don't know who those guys are, look 'em up.

Rather than focus again on how poorly this reflects on the current state of the Yankee farm system, I'd instead like to touch briefly on what this and the other top 100 rankings say about Sanchez.  Let's be honest, the kid didn't have a "great" year in 2013, yet he still shows up on every top prospect list out there and shows up in the top half on most of those lists.  Everyone recognizes how much talent there is in Sanchez and how much time he still has to develop that talent at such a young age for his level.  If this can be the year that Sanchez starts to put everything together at the plate, he's an easy top 20 prospect next year and a fringe top 10.

P.S.- First of multiple post-Prospect Week plugs, here's the 2013-2014 AB4AR Top 30 again, headlined by Sanchez, in case you were on an extended vacation that week.

Yanks Put 3 In Keith Law's Top 100 Prospects

Continuing his efforts to upstage AB4AR Prospect Week 2014, Keith Law released his list of Top 100 Prospects on ESPN.com yesterday.  As was the case with the organizational rankings, the posts are Insider-only but the important thing for Yankees fans is the inclusion of 3 of their own on the list.  Gary Sanchez came in at 68 (down from 18th last year), Tyler Austin at 85 (down from 52nd), and Mason Williams at 87 (down from 35).

Austin staying on the list was a bit of a surprise.  He's taken a big fall on most other rankings after his down year but Law is still high on his overall hitting makeup.  Law also gave another positive review of Sanchez's defense, and stated that he still believed Sanchez could be an MVP-caliber player if he puts it together at the plate and maximizes his power potential.  For a team that came within 1 spot of being in the bottom third of the overall org ranks, it was nice to see 3 players make this list.

Gary Sanchez Named #3 Catching Prospect By MLB.com

(Courtesy of Matt Burton/MiLB.com)

On Wednesday afternoon, Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com released his "Prospect Watch" top 10 catching prospects rankings.  Top Yankee prospect Gary Sanchez was 3rd in those rankings, behind Travis d'Arnaud of the Mets and Mike Zunino of the Mariners.  Seeing as those 2 guys are easily the 2 best catching prospects in baseball, that's a pretty big accomplishment for the 20-year-old Sanchez.

Mayo's explanation of his putting Sanchez 3rd included high praise for Sanchez's defensive skills, saying he had the potential to be "an exciting two-way player for the Yankees."  This is higher praise than usual for Sanchez's defense, and that's coming from someone who was pretty complimentary of the improvements Sanchez made in last week's AB4AR Top 30.  Sanchez does have the plus arm, but right now doesn't project to be anything better than average at best behind the plate.  Still, with Sanchez's advanced offensive skills and high ceiling, it makes sense that Mayo would rank him 3rd if he believes Sanchez could be that good defensively.

Sanchez is still years away from the show, but his positional rankings project him in a positive light for the future. Last year MLB.com had Sanchez 4th overall, just ahead of Wilin Rosario of Colorado, who posted a .356 wOBA and hit 28 HR in 117 games for the Rockies in 2012.  Rosario also rated as a very poor defensive catcher according to FanGraphs.  Sanchez has a similar offensive makeup to Rosario, and still has time to improve his defensive skills.  If he can be even slightly better than Rosario defensively and improve his pitch recognition and plate discipline skills, Sanchez could be a very valuable Major League catcher.

Gary Sanchez & Mason Williams Get A High-A Education

(Sanchez photo courtesy of Tim Priddy/Four Seam Images, Williams courtesy of Tyrone Walker/The Post and Courier)

No matter what order you'd rank them personally, there's little doubt that Gary Sanchez and Mason Williams are the 2 best Yankee position prospects right now (and yes, the order in which I just mentioned them is how I would rank them).  With the way the top-tier pitching prospects have faltered this season, it's not much of a stretch to say that Sanchez and Williams are the best Yankee organizational prospects period.  When you're blessed with the natural physical gifts and core baseball tools in the way that these guys are, you're going to rise up the prospect board pretty quickly and that's exactly what Sanchez and Williams have done in the early part of their careers.

Their individual successes in 2012 earned them each a promotion to High-A Tampa recently, and last Friday Kiley McDaniel of ESPN posted a scouting assessment of the Tampa Yankees, including a very detailed scouting report on Sanchez and Williams based on what he'd seen since their call-ups.  It's an Insider-only piece, and the details of McDaniel's report paint a very positive picture of where both players are right now in their development.  The report also points out the weaknesses in Williams' and Sanchez's respective games, weaknesses that are starting to be exposed more now that they're facing a better level of competition, and sets the stage for the next step in their prospect evolution and future scouting evaluations as they finally get to a level where natural tools aren't enough to get by.