The Staten Island Yankees have a rich tradition of playing winning baseball on Bay St. Richmond County Ball Park has been home to a number of different major leaguers and league championships. As the hot stove heats up in the big leagues, players on the SI Yankees could be the next stars rumored in the latest trades and free agent signings. thiswayonbay.com will be choosing a couple of promising Yankees per week to help the fans be more acclimated with some potential All-Stars.
Ronny Bautista
Ronny Bautista just sits them down. The 23 year old out of the Dominican Republic sent 58 batters back to the bench in 35 2/3 innings. Striking out guys at that high a rate not only makes a reliever valuable to start an inning but even more so to enter mid inning. Relievers don’t get enough credit for working out of the previous pitcher’s jams but Bautista looks to be the number one guy to try game in and game out. Couple that with is 1.23 WHIP and only two home runs allowed and the Yankees have themselves a promising young pitcher. What’s curious though is that last season on the Yankees Bautista was much better against lefties than righties despite being a lefty. The small sample size means we need to see if that holds up before making a judgment. He only throws 90-92 mph but it’s not all in the speed. Tricking hitters and putting it somewhere they’re not looking can be more important to success.
Isaias Tejada
Isaias Tejada is in the minors what is rarely seen in the majors, a good hitting catcher. Tejada had a triple slash of .276/.343/.483. Production like that from the backstop is very hard to come by and if Tejada can keep this up on Bay St and beyond he may become a very valuable piece for the Yankees. His platoon numbers show a significant dip when facing righties, since he is a righty but that is partly because against lefties last year he looked like Miguel Cabrera as he torched lefties for a .385/.478/.846 line against them. For both Bautista and Tejada things need to be kept in perspective when projecting their careers but their stats so far sure are promising.
