Minor League Prospect Watch - Alfredo Aceves

Here's a new segment here at Hip 2 Da Game: Minor League Prospect Watch.

As much as I love to cover the more well known parts of sports like the NBA Finals, part of my goal here on the blog is to highlight some areas of sports that don't get as much focus as others across the Internet. I like to put together as much info as I can find and then it's all in one central place for someone looking for info on that topic and they don't have to search all over the Internet to find what they are looking for. I hope you all find it useful.

The first prospect in the Minor League Prospect Watch segment is Trenton Thunder Pitcher Alfredo Aceves, who is a minor league prospect with the Yankees who has impressed in Double-A so far. Aceves is a product of Mexico and the Mexican league and is 25 years old. He is on Brian Cashman's radar and I feel like he could be someone who is a wild card to come up and help the team this season. Aceves height and weight have been reported differently on a few sites but the Trenton Thunder home page lists him at 6'3 & 220 lbs, so he is definitely a big guy as far as pitchers are concerned.

Here is Aceves statline for the season in Double A:

6 Games, 44 IP, 2-2 W-L, 1.64 ERA, 30 Hits, 8 ER, 5 Walks, 33 K, 0.80 WHIP.

As you can see, he has given up less than a hit per inning and has walked only 5 batters in the 44 innings he has pitched so far this season. He does average less than a K per inning so it appears that he is not a big strike out pitcher.

Here is all the information you need to know about Alfred Aceves:

Alfredo Aceves allowed one hit in eight scoreless innings to win for Double-A Trenton on Tuesday. It's understandable that the Yankees don't want to risk throwing Dan McCutchen or Alan Horne into the rotation, but they might be willing to give Aceves a try soon. He's already 25, and he won 11 games in the Mexican League last year. He currently has a 1.88 ERA in 91 innings between Single-A Tampa and Trenton. (RotoWorld)

Alfred Aceves, 26, is a linebacker-sized RH from Mexico. We signed him from God Knows Where last winter. This spring, over 8 games, he absolutely killed the Florda State League. His ERA was 2.11. They brought him up to Trenton. He's absolutely killing the Eastern League. Tonight, he's throwing a 1-hitter through 8 innings. His ERA is 1.64. (John Sterling Blogspot)

Alfred Aceves got the start, and was flat-out dominant. In 8 shutout innings, the Mexican righty gave up just 1 hit and 2 walks, and struck out 4. Brian Cashman has mentioned that he has been very impressed with Aceves’s performance this season, and he could see Scranton soon. His ERA in Trenton is a sparkling 1.64. (Pending Pinstripes)

"Coming out of that league in Mexico, he certainly knows how to pitch," manager Tony Franklin said of Aceves, who was signed by the Yankees as a free agent in January out of the Mexican League by. "He knows how to read the hitters' swing. He has a pretty good fastball. To be a pretty good hitter down there (in the Mexican League), you have to know how to hit a breaking ball. To be a pretty good pitcher, you better know how to throwing a breaking ball. He certainly can." (New Jersey Sports)

You never know what you’ll find in the Mexican League. At the start of this season, our old friend Colter Bean was pitching there. At the end of last season, a right-hander named Alfredo Aceves was finishing his sixth season in the league. He went 11-5, and the Yankees signed him. He has been a revelation in 2008, going 4-1 with a 2.11 earned run average at Class-A Tampa and 1-1 with a 0.78 E.R.A. (18 strikeouts, 1 walk) since his promotion to Class-AA Trenton on May 20. Recently, I asked Trenton catcher P.J. Pilittere what has made Aceves so successful. Here’s what he said:

“He’s got great stuff –- fastball in the low 90s, curveball, a little cutter and a changeup. The thing that makes him unique is he has completely no patterns whatsoever. It can be a 2-0 count, a time when you might think fastball, and it could be a curveball, it might be a changeup or a cutter -– anything, anytime. It really opens up some things.”

Pilittere continued: “It’s really kind of changed my perception of how we can pitch some guys. Sometimes you want to go by the book, but with him, there’s absolutely no book. It gives him a little bit of that unique edge where he’ll get late in games and some guys might have not even seen his fastball yet. It’s been enjoyable for me just to kind of sit back and watch what he’s doing. It gives me kind of a mental day off, because I know he’s got a great idea and I can sit there and say, ‘Hey, do what you want to do, we’re going to go with it.’” At 25, Aceves is one of the older pitchers on the Thunder. But he’s making up for lost time, and he’s putting himself on the Yankees’ radar. (New York Times - Bats Blog)

His start tonight for Trenton against Harrisburg: 8 1 0 0 2 4. 13 groundball outs. His stats for 6 starts at Trenton: 44 innings, 30 hits, 8 earned runs, 5 walks, 33 strikeouts. His stats for 14 starts this season: 91 innings, 62 hits, 19 earned runs, 13 walks, 70 strikeouts. Aceves is 25 and a veteran of the Mexican League. He’s been around a little and all evidence is that he knows what he’s doing. It seems about time to get him to Scranton given his dominance of the Eastern League. Here is all I know about the guy: Brian Cashman and his people can’t stop talking about him. I’d love to find time to go down to Trenton and see him myself but haven’t had the opportunity. It’s not going to be any time soon because they want to see him pitch in Scranton, but Aceves could in the big league rotation after the break. Props to Jorge from Mexico, who started e-mailing me about this guy two months ago. (LoHud Yankees Blog)

Finally here is really short video of Alfredo Aceves throwing in a game for the Trenton Thunder: