The Killer B's

It’s March 1^st and Spring Training is in full effect.  Yankees have already played three games and another game is being played today.  The most fascinating thing about spring training is the opportunities the young players have to debut themselves to the major league players, scouts and their teammates.

This year, the Yankees have three young pitchers who are receiving major hype.  For the past year or so they have been referred to as “The Killer B’s”.  Most Yankee fans have at least heard of Andrew Brackman already since he has pitched at the major league level in a few spots for the yanks, but not everyone has heard of Manny Banuelos and Dellin Betances.  These three young pitchers make up “The Killer B’s”.  All three received very high praise coming into spring training.  The Killer B’s seem to have the same hype that Joba, Hughes and Kennedy had when they were trying to make their Yankees debut.  Hopefully the Yankees will have the same result…. minus Joba’s obvious weight and drinking issues.

Unfortunately for Brackman he injured himself during the first week of spring training.  The Yankees shut him down and hopefully he will begin pitching again this week.  I believe Brackman will make a good addition to the starting rotation at some point.  He is nearly 7 feet tall, so it makes it difficult for opposing batters to see where the ball is coming from since the ball leaves his hand much farther away from him than other pitchers.  Even if the batters eventually catch up to his mechanics, he has some great stuff so he should be able to compete at the major league level.

Banuelos and Betances have both pitched an inning in back to back games.  Both have done exceptionally well.  Each had a 1-2-3 inning and both had two strikeouts in the process!  These are the guys we need to keep an eye on throughout spring training and the start of the season.  Girardi and Cashman have already said neither of these two guys would make the team, and both would start out in Double-A, but there is no reason to think they will stay there if they continue pitching like this. 

My prediction for all three is Brackman may be called up during the early part of the Yankees season, since they don’t really have a #4 or #5 starter.  He may not be used every fifth day but he will be used to fill the void when an injury arises.  Banuelos and Betances on the other hand will not be called up until mid season so long as their Double-A numbers and presumably Triple-A numbers are consistent.  Even if my predictions are not correct, these are the guys to keep an eye on over the next few years as we could likely see them in the Yankees rotation.  We could possibly be looking at the new rotation of the Yankees with these three.