-- I had a little free time today, so I combed the MiLB portal looking at some of the Thunder's numbers this year. One that jumped at me was the 1,042 strikeouts Trenton hitters had accrued this year.

The franchise's all-time worst was 1,047 punchouts, and this year's version is just five away with 21 games left on the slate. I find that pretty darn astounding.

The mark gets even more perplexing when one realizes that the team has spent the last month and change without Cody Johnson and Brad Suttle -- windmills both -- and that Melky Mesa, another prime culprit, had played just 87 games entering Wednesday's action.

-- Another reason the Thunder have struggled down the stretch? Infield defense, or a severe lack thereof. Corban Joseph and Jose Pirela have combined for 51 errors this season at second base and shortstop, respectively.

-- Yesterday, I ran down the list of people I thought might start Friday's homestand-opening game against the Bowie Baysox. I listed Kei Igawa, Cory Arbiso and Jeff Marquez as possibilities, but apparently I didn't count on one of the more obvious choices: Josh Schmidt.

Schmidt, who is, mercifully, on the precipice of minor league free agency, has been sent back to Trenton, according to Donnie Collins of the Scranton Times-Tribune.

As is tradition, Schmidt has bounced between Trenton and Scranton this season, and has put forth a 7-4 record, a 2.20 ERA and a .199 average against. He's allowed just 40 hits in 57.1 innings this year and has fanned 62 against 24 walks.

If he starts on Friday, I wouldn't be surprised to see him stick in the rotation for the rest of the year. He's filling the shoes of Dellin Betances, who will make his first Triple-A start tomorrow, against Durham.

The difference between Schmidt and Betances is not unlike that between Joba Chamberlain and former Yankees reliever Edwar Ramirez.

-- John Brebbia, the Yankees' 30th-round selection in this year's draft, out of Elon, was assigned to Staten Island today.

With trade season upon us, a prospect's omission from a lineup is sure to cause a stir. So when the Thunder's lineup was posted earlier, sans Corban Joseph and Austin Romine, more than a few bells went off in the head of yours truly.

Romine's absence is particularly interesting, considering he also didn't play on Sunday and there'd been no report of any injury. He normally is slotted in as the designated hitter when he gets a day off behind the plate, but he's been totally inactive over the last two evenings.

As for Joseph, he's raised his prospect status quite a bit over the summer, and would be a fine piece to a trade package. He last had a day off on Monday in Erie, so it's not like he's gone a month without a breather.

Both players would fit will in a deal, but then again, this could simply be a case of heightened sensitivity due to the time of year.

TRENTON — Against some of the circuit’s top talent and with a horde of scouts watching and recording his every pitch, Manny Banuelos finally put together a signature moment for the 2011 season.

For the first half of the year, the Thunder starter had put forth results that mostly resided toward the upper end of middling. The stuff’s been there, but the command has not, and that’s what has kept him from achieving the truly elite status.

After Zach Stewart started and Princeton native Erik Arnesen pitched a frame, Banuelos entered the proceedings and blew away the competition in rather impressive and efficient fashion.

He struck out all three men he faced — Bowie’s Xavier Avery, Altoona’s Starling Marte and Akron’s Juan Diaz — on just 13 pitches, all but two of which were strikes. He threw almost exclusively fastballs and topped out at 94 miles per hour, according to one scout’s gun.

“I haven’t felt that way throughout the year. If I’m able to throw like that, good things are going to happen. That’s the way I want to throw. It’s a good thing to take forward,” Banuelos said afterward, with the help of teammate and fellow All-Star Dellin Betances.

“I’m going to try to take this outing into the second half. I feel like the way I commanded out there and the way I felt, it’s something I (would) definitely take in the second half.”

Betances, who has struggled with efficiency problems all year, got into the game in the fifth and quickly put his struggles in the rear-view. He cut through the Western Division in just seven pitches, including a strikeout of Bowie catcher Caleb Joseph.

He also got a popout from Roger Kieschnick and finished a stress-free frame on Avery’s fly ball to the left-field warning track.

“It was a quick outing, seven pitches, I can’t complain,” he said. “Last time I pitched was six days ago, so it’s one of those things. I just had to go after these guys and throw strikes, and I got some good defense.”

On the offensive side, second baseman Corban Joseph was the star, scoring a pair of hard-hit singles, including a screamer through the box against Tigers stud hurler and Futures Game alumnus Jacob Turner.

Joseph has turned his stock around since his Trenton debut, when a barking wrist veiled his true offensive potential. Now, with everything long healed, he’s putting his sweet left-handed stroke to good use, culminating in a fan selection to Wednesday night’s action in the All-Star Game.

“I enjoyed it,” Joseph said. “I got lucky and got two hits. I swung through in my first at-bat, and that’s something I’ve never done before. They encourage that here. I thought, what’s a better time to do that than at the All-Star Game?”

Catcher Austin Romine, fresh off a two-hit effort at the Futures Game at Chase Field, rolled a single to right field in his first trip, putting a cap on a very fruitful effort for Trenton’s quartet of All-Stars.

MANNY BANUELOS

MONKEYS ON DOGS HERDING GOATS

DELLIN BETANCES

CORBAN JOSEPH

AUSTIN ROMINE

Mike Ashmore and I conducted this interview with Yankees player development guru Mark Newman on Tuesday. His questions indicated with "MA," whereas mine are indicated with "JN." Mark's answers are indicated with a simple "A" for answer. Enjoy.

JN: Where is Adams in terms of coming back to this team?

A: Adams is farther way. Adams will not come directly here anyway. He’ll probably go play in the Florida State League before he comes here.

JN: Will that be a rehab, or will that be officially on Tampa’s roster?

A: They don’t do minor league rehabs there, so he has to go on their roster.

JN: Has the fact that he’s taken so long to come back been frustrating for you?

A: It’s been frustrating for him. I empathize with him. One, he is a very good player and prospect. Two, he works beyond diligently at his craft defensively and offensively, and throughout this process at the rehab work that he faces. So he’s frustrated, but when you get down to it, what good does that do you?

What he needs to do, and what he does do, is work at it every day. Humanness dictates that there’s some frustration, but he’s a smart enough guy to know that if you spend too much time on those feelings and emotions, it’s going to make your task even more difficult.

JN: As for Stoneburner?

A: Stoneburner’s pitching in games on a rehab assignment in the GCL. He’s got some more hoops to jump through. He had two innings in his last start.

MA: And Bleich?

A: Bleich is a long way away. He’s not imminent. There’s no reason to worry about him.

JN: I assume you were made aware of Slade Heathcott’s incident this year in Charleston. Was there any talk of possible internal discipline for his actions?

A: There wasn’t any internal discipline.

JN: When you see a kid who has Heathcott’s background, and this happens, does it worry you a little?

A: He’s doing well at what he’s doing. I was no more worried about him than I would have been anyone else. He’s been great. We’ve had zero problems with him.

MA: Betances and Banuelos are obviously the talk of the organization. How would you compare those two in terms of where they’re at right now?

A: Very close. They’re both pitching well here. They could both pitch better here. They could both improve the control and command of their fastball, so they’re very close in my mind.

MA: Is one ahead of the other?

A: I don’t really think so. If there were, I wouldn’t say.

JN: That third B, Brackman, are his issues mostly between the ears?

A: He’s not doing well. He’s scuffling. I think it’s a confidence thing. More than anything else, it’s that.

JN: What do you do to treat something like that?

A: He’s working at it, and he’s got to work through the problems. When athletes struggle, the good ones, what they do is call on past successes and they run that video through their brain. Brack’s got to do that sort of thing.

He’s got to remember how good a pitcher he is. At the end of the year last year, he was a good as anyone here. In the playoffs, a lot of our guys said he was our best pitcher in the playoffs.

He can do that again. It’s been a tough year for him, but he’s certainly good enough and he’s certainly working at it.

JN: Do you have a sports psychologist on staff to deal with such problems if need be?

A: We’ve got a department of four people that deal with those issues specifically, but all of our coaches do too. It’s an ongoing conversation. What can we do to help our players max out their performance potential? Coaches and sports performance experts – I mean, coaches are performance experts – our coaches understand these things, our sports performance department understands these things. We try to educate players about how to think and feel during competition, during preparation for competition. It’s constant.

We gameplan for three aspects with our athletes:

∙ Fundamental – how you catch, throw and hit

∙ Physical – How you get stronger, faster, quicker, bigger

∙ Mental emotionally – How you think and how you feel

All those things are intertwined. They don’t exist independently of each other. We understand that we need a program in those three areas for all of our players.

Depending on the individual and depending on where you are in this guy’s career, one of those things may be predominant. Brack right now is working on confidence. It’s what he’s got to do. It’s taken a couple of hits, his confidence has, but this is a game for tough people.

When I say tough people, it’s not just run over catchers, or break up double plays or run into walls to catch fly balls. A lot of the toughness required in this business is mental. It’s the ability to fight through junk. That’s where he’s at. He’s in a tough spot, we’ve got other players who have been in tough spots too.

MA: Wanted to ask you about the hitting coach situation. Ever since Matos left, I guess things have been in flux a little bit. When the situation happened, what was your reaction?

A: My initial reaction was just to find out went on. After that, you gather facts and you make judgments. As a result of that, we decided that it wasn’t going to work to have him here for the remainder of the season. We’re lucky we’ve got James Rowson, who’s going to spend a ton of his time here. James is an excellent hitting coach, and Pat Roessler’s our farm director. He’s a former major league hitting coach and hitting coordinator, and he’s exceptional too. So these guys will be in good hands.

MA: What is Matos’ status in the organization right now?

A: He’s still a member of the organization, he’s just not here right now.

JN: What was behind the decision to keep Cito Culver at Staten Island this year rather than move him to Charleston with Gary Sanchez?

A: Different player, different needs. Sanchez was probably the premier performer in the Gulf Coast League a year ago. Cito did a solid job. That’s all it is.

MA: Is there anybody here knocking on the door of Scranton?

A: Not right at the moment. Everybody expects Manny and Dellin to go, and they’ll go when they’re consistent, when they put together the kinds of performances we’re looking for. That doesn’t necessarily mean shutouts. It means when they continue to execute.

Austin Romine could play at any Triple-A field in the country and be at home, but that’s just a matter of he and Montero need to catch.

JN: With Montero, the word complacency has been thrown around. Is that something you’ve seen?

A: No. I see him work every day. I see his defense improve. I think his defense has improved significantly over a year ago, and I think he continues to take steps in the right direction. He’s not putting up the offensive numbers he did last year, but last year his offense came in the last two months, two and a half months, and that’s where we are now.

JN: Are you surprised it took him that long to turn it on in Triple-A last year?

A: He’s 21 years old. He’d be a college senior. I’m surprised he’s in Triple-A, and that he’s working on his second year in Triple-A.

MA: People talk a lot about the Hughes Rules, the Joba Rules, all that kind of stuff. When you see some of your younger guys break down a little bit like they have, not that I’m at all suggesting anything wrong is going on, do you second guess the way you’re progressing these guys along in terms of pitch counts, innings, stuff like that?

A: Second guess how? Should have pitched them more, should have pitched them less?

MA: In any sort of sense.

A: No. I’ve done this too long and seen too many injuries. When we go through last year and have basically no injuries, and I tell our young guys -- they think, for a fleeting moment characterized by a lack of humility, that we’ve figured out how to keep pitchers healthy – you’re always going to deal with pitchers injuries.

There are three things that you can control: Mechanics, conditioning and workload. You cannot control DNA, and you cannot control the fact that the human body is not designed to do this. So, our pitching coaches try to help guys develop deliveries that are going to help them sustain. Our strength and conditioning coaches get involved in arm exercise, cardio, core, flexibility exercises designed to help these guys sustain.

The programs are designed in conjunction with the best doctors and physical therapists in the country, the Andrewses and the extraordinary orthopedic surgeons who do so many of these things. That’s a lot of information, and no one’s got answers.

Every once in a while, some club will start talking about this or that program they have – tread lightly. As soon as you think you’ve got the answer – as they say in golf, as soon as you think you’ve got the key they change the lock. I’ve done this long enough – as a lot of us have here – to have a healthy amount of humility about how hard this stuff is.

We monitor pitches, innings, increases, workloads, times a year, long-throwing programs, core exercises, when they do their arm exercises, how many times during the week, how many reps … no detail is beyond our concern. Having said that, we don’t control the whole environment.

JN: You mentioned DNA. While you obviously can’t look at DNA itself, can you go back and look at a guy’s family history to see if there’s anything there?

A: If they had a mother and a father who were pitchers that pitched 300 innings a year for 20 years like Nolan Ryan, you’d probably say: Well, there’s a shot. Beyond that, you look for bigger and stronger, but jeez, who’s bigger and stronger than Grant Duff? Tim Norton, who’s bigger and stronger than him?

They work very hard. Stuff happens. If we used them four days in a row, if the starter went 160 (pitches) because we were trying to win a playoff game, then we should be rightly scrutinized. Our primary objective is to produce and get these guys ready to play, and sometimes they get hurt. This year, we’ve had more than our share, as has our big league staff.

JN: Staying on medical for a little bit, Alan Horne had platelet-rich plasma therapy. Was he the first in the organization to have that procedure done?

A: No. We’ve used it for knees, hamstrings … it’s kind of en vogue now. We’ll know in a couple of years how good it is.

JN: Which gets to the point of the question: What is the organization’s approach to newer medical procedures?

A: Our doctors are doing it. I’m not doing it. Casey Stengel once said about a player “his limits are limitless.” My limits in the medical field are limitless. I don’t know, but our Dr. Ahmad, in New York, (and others like him), they have the current research. We defer.

JN: Corban Joseph has really done well this year. What are your guys in the organization saying about the returns on him this season?

A: Well. We love his bat. He works very hard at defense. He had a really great double play turn the other day in New Britain. First and third, one out – it was a heck of a play. He’s done well.

JN: Same kind of question with Jose Pirela. First two months were bad, but now he’s turned it on. What do you think caused that turnaround?

A: Look at his month to months last year – same thing. He told me it was weather. First two months, he’s never played in cold weather, he’s from Venezuela. I said, well what happened the first two months of last year, in Tampa? It was the same thing.

Not sure he could play in the league? I don’t know. That’s rank amateur psychology. He hit a long home run to left-center in New Britain, I mean it was a bomb.

TRENTON – Dellin Betances was excellent once again, and the Thunder put together an equally impressive offensive show in a 7-1 win over the Portland Sea Dogs on a chilly night at Waterfront Park.

Betances rode a mid-90s fastball, a hammer curve and an impressive change-up to five solid innings in his best outing of 2011. He fanned five and walked none in throwing 73 pitches, 49 of which found the strike zone.

As the season gets longer, so, too, should the pitch count for Betances. For now, though, the Yankees believe 75 is a good stopping point. And although he has no problem working on such a short leash, Betances knows there’s more in the tank than what he’s using every fifth day.

“I definitely feel like I could go longer,” he said yesterday. “I mean, that’s just something they have me do all the time. I’m definitely not gassed. I feel like I could keep going. Whatever I’ve got next time, I’ll just try to make the best out of it as well.”

The lone damage off of Thunder’s starter came in the fifth, when Mitch Dening caught up with a Betances offering and punched it over the wall in right-center field.

And while excellence is expected from Betances, the same hasn’t been the case for Trenton’s offense, which has scuffled mightily for most of the season.

Cody Johnson and Corban Joseph homered in the second and fourth innings, respectively, before the bats really got cooking in the fifth inning.

After Johnson’s infield single plated one run, Jose Pirela shot a hanging breaking pitch from Tommy Hottovy into the left-center field gap for a bases-clearing three-run double. Addison Maruszak’s single through the middle shortly thereafter scored Pirela and capped a five-run frame.

The five scores in an inning marked a new high for the Thunder, and the five hits matched their output in the second inning of the first half of their doubleheader with Harrisburg on April 17.

Joseph, who also had a triple to go with his longball, knows the offense has been inconsistent to this point, but also believes it has the tools to make last night’s outburst the rule instead of the exception.

“We’re all helping other out. It’s a team-based deal. One person can’t win the whole game,” he said, before providing an interesting tidbit about a lineup goes about helping itself out of a collective slump.

“People with similar stances, similar approaches as you, a similar style of play, you’ll see a lot of connections with those guys, trying to figure out how they pitched the guy before you,” he continued. “We’ll take bits and pieces of really what everyone has seen in the at-bat and just kind of gather it and make a plan and try and produce with that.”

Josh Schmidt, the newest member of Trenton’s bullpen, took the ball from Betances in the sixth and does what he does best: get outs.

The 28-year-old, sent down from Scranton to take Brian Anderson’s spot in the bullpen, spun three one-hit innings before giving way to closer Fernando Hernandez in the ninth.

TAMPA, Fla. – With spring training all but over, the minor league rosters have been all but finalized. The Trentonian this morning was able to get its hands on a copy of something a source confirmed was “pretty much” what the team would look like come Opening Day.





Among the roster’s highlights will be Steve Garrison, the Trenton native and Hun School alumnus. Per pitching coach Tommy Phelps, Garrison is slated to be the team’s fifth starter, following Manny Banuelos, Dellin Betances, Graham Stoneburner and Shaeffer Hall.

Acquired from the Padres toward the conclusion of last season, Garrison just missed making the big club as a left-handed arm out of the bullpen. Luis Ayala eventually won the job, but Garrison stayed in the mix until the very end.

The rest of the roster shakes down like this: Austin Romine will be the starting catcher for the second straight season, and Myron Leslie, a former Oakland farmhand, will back him up.

On the infield, you can expect to see Brad Suttle, Corban Joseph, Jose Pirela and Addison Maruszak from first to third. Yadil Mujica, a Cuban defector who recently signed on with the Yankees, might also see time at third.

Jack Rye, an outfielder with Tampa and who has spent time this spring breaking in a first baseman’s mitt, will fit in as a utility player.

The outfield will have former first-rounder Cody Johnson, whom the Braves let go this offseason, along with Melky Mesa and Damon Sublett. Austin Krum and Ray Kruml, speedy outfielders both, will also be in the mix.

The bullpen should have distinct flavors of both left-handedness and internationality, with Japanese southpaws Kei Igawa and Noaya Okamoto both fitting into relief roles. Wilkins Arias, a stalwart on previous Thunder squads, also returns to Waterfront Park.

Igawa is in the final season of a five-year, $20 million contract that, for the Yankees, has been a total disaster. For the Thunder, however, putting a guy who has been near-dominant at Triple-A might be an absolute coup.

He’s never pitched at Double-A, instead going straight from Tampa to Scranton back in 2007, his inaugural season with the Yankees.

Other arms in the bullpen are Cory Arbiso and Craig Heyer – long relievers and spot starters both – as well as Tim Norton, Fernando Hernandez and Pat Venditte, the switch-pitcher.

…

Manny Banuelos started for the Tampa work group today, putting him on track for Opening Day on Thursday in New Hampshire. Because Kevin Millwood was getting his work in with the Triple-A work group, David Phelps got the start with the Thunder. He’ll more than likely start Opening Day with Scranton. Brett Marshall took the ball for the Charleston group, meaning he’ll probably be on the mound when the Tampa Yankees open their Florida State League title defense on Thursday.

Romine and Suttle each homered in the Thunder’s win over the Jays’ Double-A squad.

TAMPA, Fla. – Even before he was promoted to Trenton last July, there were a lot of things we already knew about Corban Joseph.

We knew he came from a baseball family, with his brother Caleb working his way through the Baltimore system. We knew Baseball America had ranked his defense at second base the best in the Florida State League. And we knew that his smooth swing from the right side ranked as one of the system’s purest.

So when he struggled mightily over his season-ending two-month stint with the Thunder, we were left to wonder – was there something we didn’t know?

As it turned out, there was.

From the first day he arrived with the Thunder, Joseph was damaged goods. He’d hurt his right wrist on checked swing while still with Tampa, and had decided play through the pain rather than telling anybody.

“I heard a click (in the wrist). It was really bothering me, but I just played through it,” he explained after a simulated game on Tuesday at the Yankees’ minor league complex. “By the time I got Trenton, it was on and off. It would get better and then it would get worse.”

He collected a double and a triple in his first Double-A game – the opener of a doubleheader against Reading -- but things quickly went south, and he became more of a liability in the lineup than the much-needed offensive boost the team had expected.

He finished the season with a .216/.305/.647 line, with six doubles, no home runs and just 13 RBIs. Then, just before the postseason began, Joseph finally gave in to the pain he had felt for more than three months.

When the rehab work he did in Trenton wasn’t producing results, Joseph and the team decided it was time for an MRI. The test found that he had torn triangular fibrocartilage complex (TFC), and that he needed surgery to fully heal.

“Right at one certain point in my swing I’d get this annoying feeling in my wrist,” he explained. “It just got to the point where I couldn’t play anymore with it.”

After the team’s last game of the regular season, Joseph had the surgery then went home to Tennessee to begin his offseason rehab. He missed the Thunder’s playoff run, and his scheduled trip to the Arizona Fall League was scrapped.

Now, with his wrist taped for added compression, Joseph’s swing looks better and the ball is jumping off his bat in spring contests. With a clean slate, he’s ready to prove that all the hype from scouts and experts has been warranted.

Although he received a ring for his role in High-A Tampa’s FSL crown, Joseph is ready for his second shot at playoff baseball, something he sorely missed last season.

“I just want to get a ring – another ring,” he said. “I won one last year with Tampa, and I want to do the same (with Trenton.)”

…

Because of extremely heavy rain, not to mention tornadoes, in and around the Tampa area, yesterday’s minor league exhibition games were cancelled. The Double-A work group was scheduled to play the Pirates’ squad at home.

If the fields are playable tomorrow, the team is scheduled to square off with Toronto’s minor leaguers in Tampa.

With Donnie Collins peering into Scranton's future over at his blog, I figured I'd do the same over here. We'll start today with the infield, which, because a bit of a logjam of up-the-middle talent, has the potential to feature a prospect of some degree at every position.

First base - Brad Suttle: After missing all of 2009 with an injury, Suttle really broke out this season at High-A Tampa, hitting .272/.340/.411 with 10 home runs and 80 RBIs. Problem is, at 25 years old, and with scouts' reviews not terribly pleasing, Suttle's stock is falling.

Second base - Corban Joseph: The wispy middle infielder faltered after making his way to Trenton toward the end of the 2010. He hit just .216/.305/.342 with in 31 games with the Thunder, including just five hits in 42 at-bats against left-handers. Still, the swing is pure, and he'll get another crack at Double-A in 2011.

Shortstop - Jose Pirela: He hit just .252 with Tampa last season, but impressed Yankees brass enough to earn a spot in the Arizona Fall League when Joseph's late-season wrist injury forced him to shut it down for the year. He didn't hit terribly well in the AFL, but produced a .333/.387/.858 line with Zulia of the Venezuelan Winter League. He also stole 30 bases in 37 tries with Tampa.

Third base - David Adams: I think Adams and Joseph will split time at third and second, but Adams should see the majority of the time at the hot corner. He played 14 games there in 2009 with Charleston, and could move over there this season to get everyday time with Joseph and Pirela in the same locker room. I wouldn't be shocked to see him spend time at designated hitter, either.

Utility - Myron Leslie: This is exactly the kind of player Tony Franklin covets. He plays multiple positions, and will do anything asked of his skipper. In 2010 with Tampa, Leslie played catcher, first base, second base and even pitched a game. He could fill a very similar, Justin Snyder-esque role with the Thunder in 2011.

Toward the beginning of the offseason, I spoke to a couple of scouts about some of the Yankees prospects at Scranton, Trenton and Tampa. I'm no talent evaluator, so I like to talk with scouts as often as possible to get a more professional opinion about what I'm seeing. Here are what a couple of them had to say about some of the hitters in the system:

MELKY MESA

He's got a lot of tools. He's a very good athlete with a lot of holes in his swing. The percentage of him making the big leagues is slim, but if he does, it will be as a starter. He's not going to be a fourth or fifth outfielder.

He's got the rare combination of power and speed. He swings and misses a lot and needs to cut down on his swing. He's susceptible to the breaking ball and gets himself out. If he can get pitchers to get him out, he has a chance to be good.

BRAD SUTTLE

He's a polished player, but not that good of an athlete. He's a slow-twitch muscle guy who knows how to play. His range is below average. He's not a Suttle guy.

CORBAN JOSEPH

He's going to hit. He makes good contact, and is going to play in the big leagues. Adequate defender. Just like Utley, his ticket to the MLB is going to be his bat. This is not to say he's as good a hitter as Utley.

AUSTIN ROMINE

He has real defensive abilities. He has the chance to be a plus defensive catcher in the MLB. Compared to Brad Ausmus who can hit.

Another scout said: Defensively, he still has to improve. When he saw him (late season), he looked worn out. Did a good job with higher velocity kids. Got a good report from the Arizona Fall League.

JESUS MONTERO

He's a gifted hitter, but is going to need to find a different position. Offense is so far ahead of the bat. If he were to be in the big leagues this year, he could survive, but you wouldn't see the real potential until the second year.

BRANDON LAIRD

Questionable defense. He'll make the big leagues, but he won't be anything special. He hits bad pitching, good pitching can get him.

A different scout said: Bat is ahead of his defense, where he seems to be limited to the corners. Not much in the run game. The bat is real. Threw out a Jeff Conine comp. His swing has strength and leverage. He takes good at-bats and is aggressive.

Every Monday, Minor Matters will run down the top 10 games of the Thunder's 2010 season. In a year that saw eight of Baseball America's 16 pitchers (excluding Mike Dunn and Arodys Vizcaino, who were out of the organization) in their top 30, not to mention Austin Romine and Brandon Laird, there are plenty of good choices to go around.

No. 7 - The Joseph Brothers Reunion














RECAP: Once David Adams went down with an ankle/foot injury in May, it was only a matter of time before Corban Joseph, another hot Yankees second base prospect, was called to Double-A. When it happened in early August, it put a reunion with older brother Caleb, an Orioles catching prospect, on the horizon.

Bowie came to Waterfront Park on Aug. 17, and so did the entire Joseph family. His father wore a Yankees windbreaker with an Orioles cap, and his sister wore a white T-Shirt decorated with both brothers' names, as well as logos from the Yankees and Orioles.

When Corban took his first at-bat, he tapped his brother on the shinguard and gave him a few words before going about his business.

Other Yankees prospects have siblings hanging around the minor leagues: Austin Romine's brother Andrew is in the Angels' system, and Graham Stoneburner's brother Davis is a Rangers prospect. Former Thunder infielder Matt Cusick's brother Jeff was a Phillies draftee.

Now that Cusick is gone, however, none have the potential to play against their brother in the Eastern League like Caleb and Corban did for those three summer nights.

Link to Original Story

REACTION: “I think it’s a big deal. I really think it’s a big deal. You never expect it to happen a lot, but you think about it a lot when you’re a youngster. … Fortunately sometimes it does happen, and it’s happening now.” -- Tony Franklin

“It was an exciting moment. It was the first time ever. I was more focused on what the pitcher was trying to do, but (Caleb) was joking with me, so that kind of helped me relax a little bit.” -- Corban Joseph

AFTERWARD: Caleb won the battle that night, posting three singles and two runs scored against Corban's lone knock. Eventually, though, Corban won the war. Bowie flamed out in its attempt to make the Eastern League West playoffs, while the Thunder took their season to the ELCS, where they lost to the Altoona Curve. Unfortunately, Corban injured his wrist during the season's final series and couldn't take part in the playoffs or the Arizona Fall League, where he was slated to head after the season.

In an email this morning, Yankees senior vice president of baseball operations confirmed that Thunder second baseman Corban Joseph would miss the Arizona Fall League because of surgery he had on his right wrist toward the end of the regular season.

Joseph, promoted to Trenton on Aug. 3, missed the entirety of the Eastern League playoffs with the injury. Before shutting it down, the 21-year-old was hitting .216/.305/.647 in 31 Double-A games.

Replacing him on the Phoenix Desert Dogs roster is Jose Pirela, a middle infielder who spent the season with High-A Tampa.

Pirela, a 20-year-old out of Venezuela whom the Yankees signed in 2006 for $300,000, really put it together in the second half after starting off very slowly in the Florida State League.

His post-All-Star break batting average was a whopping 56 points better than what he posted over the first couple of months. He also nearly tripled his walk total (15 in the first half, 42 in the second). He also swiped 22 of his 30 bases during the second half.

When the Yankees signed him, they were interested in his bat and his ability to burn up the basepaths. While his offensive numbers won’t blow anyone away, he has delivered on his promise of speed.

In four seasons, he’s succeeded on 58 of his 80 attempts, good for an outstanding 72 percent clip.

Pirela joins pitchers George Kontos, Manny Banuelos and Craig Heyer, outfielder Brandon Laird and catcher Austin Romine on the Desert Dogs roster.

•••

Speaking of second basemen, David Adams, who got just 159 at-bats before a broken foot ended his season, has begun functional drills, Newman said.

Adams’ injury, initially diagnosed as a high ankle sprain, was downgraded around the time he was to be shipped to Seattle in the deal that would have made Cliff Lee a Yankee.

Seattle’s doctors didn’t like what they saw, however, and put the kibosh on the deal.

•••

The Yankees instructional league rosters were released last week, and there are more than a few interesting names on the list.

The team’s first three draft choices, Cito Culver, Angelo Gumbs and postseason Thunder bench player Rob Segedin, all will get a little more work before their offseasons begin.

Joining them will be Thunder pitchers Dellin Betances and Manny Banuelos, as well as Eastern League MVP Brandon Laird, who will continue his transition to the outfield.

Dominican Summer League standouts Yeicok Calderon, Jorge Alcantara, Daniel Lopez, and Rafael Polo will also get some work.

Perhaps the strangest part of that roster, however, is Addison Maruszak being listed as a catcher. He’s played many positions during his brief career, but has never been a backstop.

•••

According to the same email from Newman, catcher Jesus Montero has not decided whether he will play in the Venezuelan Winter League, but he is leaning toward doing so.

•••

Betances, Montero and Andrew Brackman each joined the Yankees last week, but only Brackman, by virtue of his spot on the 40-man roster, was active.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi and general manager Brian Cashman have each hinted that Brackman, in what has been a tremendous bounce-back year, will get some work down the stretch.

Montero and Betances are there strictly to observe and get a taste of life in the big leagues during a playoff race.

As an aside, Cashman referred to Betances in the most recent issue of Baseball America, saying he “might be our best pitching prospect ever.”

Considering the state of the system, that’s very high praise.

TRENTON -- Corban Joseph is a little banged up, and will miss the division series . Because of that, Rob Segedin, a third-round pick from this year’s draft, has been activated and will assume a role on the bench.

Most likely, Matt Cusick and Justin Snyder will man second and third in starting roles.

Segedin played 22 games this season between the Gulf Coast League and the Staten Island Yankees.

He hit .244 with two home runs and 10 RBIs.

Joseph, who was promoted in August, had scuffled a bit during his time in Trenton, hitting just .216 in 31 games.

He missed the two of the last three games with trouble in his wrist, and visited the doctor yesterday. The word wasn’t what the Yankees wanted to hear, so Segedin has been promoted.

TRENTON — On a night when they had Lance Berkman in the lineup, another player with major league experience gave the Thunder a huge win.

Rene Rivera’s single through the middle in the tenth inning gave Trenton a 4-3 win and cut its magic number to clinch the Eastern League East to six games with seven left to play. With New Hampshire’s win, the Thunder’s lead in the division remains at a game and a half.

Rivera, a former Mariners catcher who also homered, used a little bit of the wit he’s accrued from being behind the plate so many years to get into the pitcher’s head in a key situation.

“Bases loaded, no outs, I know he’s going to try to get me to roll over something,” Rivera explained. “He’s going to throw nothing inside, he’s going to stay away. He threw a first-pitch slider, and the second pitch I swung.”

Closer Ryan Pope coughed up the lead in the ninth – his third blown save in 19 chances – but, with a little help from second baseman Corban Joseph, pitched out of trouble in the top of the tenth.

With the go-ahead run at third and infield playing in, Lonnie Chisenhall hit a soft line drive up the middle that seemed destined for center field. Joseph raced to right and snared the ball with a full-extension dive, saving the game for the moment.

“It was just enough up the middle that I guess I was the only one who had a really good shot at it,” Joseph said. “I saw Nunez take the route that, if I missed it, he was right there to get it.”

The Thunder’s rally in the bottom half was set up by Dan Brewer leadoff single, followed by a pair of fortuitous sacrifice bunts from Justin Snyder and Joseph that weren’t fielded cleanly. Both men reached, and the stage was set for Rivera.

Early in the game, it was once again time for Adam Warren to shine.

As he did in his last start, Warren let up a run in the first before settling done in a major way over the remainder, a strong effort in the Thunder’s only win over the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.

From there, Warren went to work. Over the next 4 2/3 innings, the right-hander blanked the Aeros on five hits and fanned a half dozen.

Combined with his previous two outings, Warren has lasted 18 2/3 frames, allowed two earned runs on 12 hits and two walks, and has fanned an astonishing 27 hitters.

If everybody is kept on regular rest, newcomer Dellin Betances would be the man to start Game 1 against the Fisher Cats on Sept. 8. Were the playoff rotation set solely on merit, however, Warren would almost certainly be the one getting the ball.

“I would think that he’s a pretty good candidate to start (Game 1),” manager Tony Franklin said. “I’d feel very comfortable with him.”

NOTES: After missing the last two games in Harrisburg, Dan Brewer was back in the lineup last night. … Former Thunder manager and current Mariners scout Billy Masse was in the stands. … Berkman was 2-for-5 with two singles but struck out to send the game to extra innings. … Justin Christian led off the game with a home run, his second in as many nights.

In the second game of the Thunder's series with Binghamton, Mets top prospect Jenrry Mejia got the call. He began the season in the big league bullpen, but was recently shipped back to begin re-developing as a starter. He then got hurt, and had to work his way back up the ranks. Here are some videos from that game, including warm-up work in the bullpen and at-bats against the Thunder's top four hitters. Enjoy.


Warmup



Krum



Christian



Joseph



Romine

READING, Pa. — There were a couple of additions before yesterday’s doubleheader with the Reading Phillies, one old face and one new face.

Corban Joseph, a second baseman who was hitting .302 with High-A Tampa before his promotion yesterday, came up to replace Brandon Laird. The Thunder’s cleanup man was bumped to Triple-A after tearing up the Eastern League for the better part of four months.

Joseph, whose brother, Caleb, is a catcher with the Bowie Baysox, will primarily hit third with the Thunder. And while he won’t provide the same power production as Laird did, he’s certainly no slouch with the bat.

David Adams, the Thunder’s original starting second baseman, has been on the shelf since May 20 with a sprained ankle and broken foot, so it came as a bit of surprise that Joseph wasn’t given the call a little sooner.

“Considering my age and where I was at in the organization, I wish I would have gotten called up sooner,“ Joseph, the organization’s No. 13 prospect, as ranked by Baseball America, said. “You can’t really control a lot of stuff (like that). I tried to come out every day and play to the best of my ability.“

Also back yesterday was outfielder Damon Sublett, who has been on the disabled list since April 27 with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right thumb. To make room on the roster, Edwar Gonzalez was placed on the 7-day disabled list.

While the diagnosis appeared grim at first, he always thought he would be back this season.

“I didn’t think I was done for the year,“ Sublett said. “I didn’t know when I was going to be back, but I definitely didn’t think I was done.”

He finished up his stint in the Gulf Coast League on Saturday, and was scheduled to make his return with the Thunder in the second game yesterday. Still, with Austin Krum, Justin Christian and Dan Brewer all firmly entrenched in the lineup, finding at-bats for Sublett could prove troublesome.

“The only thing we can do is get him in there the best we can,“ manager Tony Franklin said. “We’ll do the best we can.“

NOTES: Franklin was suspended for two games for repeatedly bumping umpire Jon Byrne on Sunday. He served both as a part of the doubleheader.

Here it is, video of Corban Joseph, the newest Thunder member, driving home yesterday's first two runs on a triple to right field.

Here's Corban Joseph, a second baseman and the newest Thunder player, taking batting practice before yesterday's doubleheader with the Reading Phillies. Enjoy.

Well, it finally happened. Brandon Laird, the Thunder's dynamic third baseman and the prime piston that kept the team's engine driving over the season's first two months, earned his call-up to Triple-A during yesterday's game with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.

Laird finished his work with the Thunder sporting a .291/.355/.878 average with 22 doubles, 23 home runs and 90 RBIs. He struck out 84 times and drew 38 walks. He played a solid if not spectacular third base -- although he showed off a top-grade arm on more than one occasion.

He slumped a bit in June and early July, but rebounded big-time over the last two weeks. Since the All-Star break, Laird is hitting .369/.453/1.069 with four doubles, four longballs and nine RBIs.

Tomorrow, even though he's with Triple-A, Laird will get his first taste of major league pitching. Opposing Scranton, with the Syracuse Chiefs, will be Jason Marquis, who won 15 games last season with the Cubs and who sports a 94-86 record in The Show.

So, who'll be replacing Laird, you ask? That would be Corban Joseph, yet another in the Yankees' vast oasis of middle infield prospects. A Franklin, Tenn., native, he's the brother of Caleb Joseph, a catcher for the Bowie Baysox, also in the Eastern League.

For those interested in such things (read: nerds like me), the Baysox come calling on August 17-19, giving fans a view of both Joseph brothers on the same field. That's right, get excited.

Now to my favorite part, the numbers. With Tampa, Joseph was at .302/.378/.814 with 27 doubles, six HRs and 52 RBIs. He stole five bases -- in 13 attempts. He should probably stop running sometime soon.

The next question, of course, is how Tony Franklin, will shuffle the deck come Tuesday at Reading, where yours truly will be in attendance. If I were in his shoes (they would be too big), this is how I would fill out the lineup card:

LF - Christian
CF - Krum
2B - Joseph
C - Romine
RF - Brewer
1B - Vechionacci
DH - Gonzalez
SS - Nunez
3B - Snyder

Both Justin Snyder and Matt Cusick have spent time at third base this season, albeit a small sample size in each case, but, as their manager says, they're baseball players, and baseball players aren't limited to certain roles. I expect to see both of them spend time at the hot corner for the remainder of the season.