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New York relied heavily on Triple A team for bullpen help in ’09
Jonathan Albaladejo was one of several pitchers from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s staff that got a call to help out in New York last season.
PETE G. WILCOX/THE TIMES LEADER
Mark Melancon had a 3.86 ERA in 13 games for New York last year and will open this season in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s bullpen
PETE G. WILCOX/THE TIMES LEADER
If a pipeline from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to Yankee Stadium is ever complete, then construction for it really began last season.
That’s when the New York Yankees leaned on their top minor league affiliate for a little relief.
And because an array of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees pitchers provided major assistance to New York’s World Championship season, they may have paved a path that will change the direction of New York’s future.
“We’ve gone through periods where we traded a lot of guys off,” said Mark Newman, the Yankees senior vice president of baseball operations. “But our system has improved.”
Last season showed just how valuable New York’s farm system has become.
Nobody could have suspected how vital Scranton/Wilkes-Barre can be to New York’s success until last season.
Then Phil Hughes, David Robertson and Alfredo Aceves made their pitches for designing an expressway from PNC Field in Moosic straight to New York.
They were mixed in among a slew of player moves between the two clubs in 2010, but those three pitchers turned out to be jewels sparkling in New York’s bullpen.
Hughes, a starter through most of his first five pro seasons who was practically unhittable during Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s Governors’ Cup championship playoff run in 2008, steadied New York’s struggling relief corps when he became the eighth-inning setup man for the parent Yankees in early July.
He finished with an 8-3 record and a career-best 3.03 ERA in New York, after posting a 3-0 record and 1.86 in his three early-season starts while averaging a strikeout per inning with 19 for the SWB Yankees.
Although Hughes struggled in the postseason last year and opens this year as New York’s fifth starter, the Yankees brass viewed his contributions in relief during last year’s regular season as being invaluable.
What Robertson did was simply incredible.
In his major league postseason debut, Robertson worked out of bases-loaded jam to earn his first playoff victory, helping the Yankees win an American League Division Series against Minnesota. Then, despite working on what he called shaky knees, Robertson duplicated the feat to record another victory against the Anaheim Angels in the American League Championship Series.
During New York’s six-game World Series, Robertson worked 2 1/3 scoreless innings against the Philadelphia Phillies. He went 2-1 with a 3.30 ERA over three different stints for New York in the 2009 regular season, which began when he struck out three batters while pitching two scoreless innings in the first-ever game played at the new Yankee Stadium.
But Robertson was hardly new to having success.
He was 4-0 with a save and a 2.06 ERA during Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s Governors’ Cup championship season in 2008, and compiled a miniscule 1.84 ERA with two saves and 25 strikeouts in 14 2/3 innings with the Triple-A Yankees last year.
Aceves matched Robertson’s success, both at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and in New York.
The reliever nicknamed “Ace” didn’t even spend a full month with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, but he went 2-0 with 18 strikeouts in 23 2/3 Triple-A innings before leaving for New York on May 4. After he arrived in the big leagues, Aceves proved to be a vital cog in New York’s bullpen success, going 10-1 in 43 appearances – all but one out of the bullpen.
Pretty soon, New York began calling Scranton/Wilkes-Barre at every bump in the road.
Pitchers Mark Melancon, Jonathan Albaladejo and since-departed Anthony Claggett and Steven Jackson were all zipping from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to parent New York.
Instead of making midseason trades to find help the way they did in the past, the parent Yankees and general manager Brian Cashman discovered an alternate route to the emergency room.
They found immediate assistance on the Triple-A mound at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
“I think a few years ago, it wasn’t like that as much,” said Melancon, who had a 3.86 ERA in 13 games for New York last year and will open this season in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s bullpen – where he’s 5-1 with four Triple-A saves over two seasons.
“Now they’ve relied more on the minor league side,” Melancon contiued. “I definitely take pride in that.
“It’s exciting for us.”
That buzz isn’t limited to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s pitching staff.
Infielders Kevin Russo and Reegie Corona are being groomed at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre as utility players who may be able to help the parent Yankees as early as this season, and top prospect Jesus Montero is being groomed to eventually replace Jorge Posada as New York’s catcher.
All that opportunity adds extra incentive to players in a Yankees farm system once known for developing prospects as trade bait.
“We don’t have to tell our guys anything,” Newman said. “They’re smart. They know what’s going on. When they see David Robertson, Aceves, Phil Hughes, these guys go up and do well, they (current minor leaguers) feel – and rightfully so – ‘I can do this, also.’ ”
That thinking is already spreading around the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre clubhouse like wildfire.
“Being one level below and knowing they (the Yankees) are not afraid to send young guys up there, they (Triple-A players) are going to go all-out down here,” said starting pitcher Zach McAllister, whose expected to be the ace of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s staff this season after being named the Yankees minor league pitcher of the year in 2009. “It’s always good to see and kind of makes it feel worthwhile.
“It’s encouraging.”
Especially since the parent Yankees don’t anticipate much dropoff this season from last year’s ever-changing roster.
“We fully expect that’ll happen again, with injuries, (lack of) performance,” Newman said. “That movement takes place. We try to prepare our guys in Scranton to fill needs when they become available.”
After last year, those guys in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre are lining up now to build a bridge to New York.
“You look at guys like Aceves, Robertson, Hughes, they were big factors (in New York’s success) and they started with us,” said Newman, who credited the organization’s domestic and international scouting for the resurgence of the Yankees farm system. “We don’t succeed without those scouts, and (SWB manager) Dave Miley and his staff.
“Our system has improved,” Newman continued. “We’ve got guys who know, if they do well, they have a chance to help in New York.
“That’s big.”