Minor League Notes, July 1, 2010

**Braves pitching prospect Arodys Vizcaino has a partial tear in an elbow ligament, but current indications are that he won't need surgery. They expect to rehab the injury and have him back on the mound within six weeks, although frankly if it was up to me, I'd just shut him down the rest of the season and maybe bring him to the Arizona Fall League if things look good...I don't see what a few late August games will prove. In any event, he was pitching well before the injury: 9-3, 2.34 with a 66/9 K/BB in 69 innings for Low-A Rome, followed by an 11/3 K/BB and 4.61 ERA in 14 innings for Myrtle Beach, giving him a combined 77/12 K/BB in 83 innings on the season with a 2.71 ERA. Reports about his stuff were very positive, and until this setback he was definitely living up to the expectations the Braves had when they got him from the Yankees in the Javier Vazquez deal.

**Zach Von Rosenberg Watch:  His third start in the New York-Penn League was no better than his first two: four innings, five hits, five runs, two walks, one strikeout. So far in 12 innings he's given up 18 hits and 12 runs, with just four strikeouts. The only positive is that he's walked just three guys in his three outings. I'm still trying to find out if his velocity is currently weak.

**White Sox prospect Dan Hudson is currently having a strong season in Triple-A: 11-3, 3.57, 102/29 K/BB in 88 innings, 78 hits for Charlotte. The K/IP ratio is a huge positive, and his control has been good, the only negative is a fairly high home run rate with 12 dingers given up. Overall, though, he's having a fine campaign that consolidates the progress he made last year, when he began the season in the Sally League and ended it in the majors. I think he's going to be a better pitcher than some who rank higher on most prospect lists.

**Dellin Betances is back on the mound in the Yankees system and pitching great; 0.39 ERA, 27/3 K/BB in 23 innings for High-A Tampa, with only eight hits allowed so far. The elbow problems that dogged him last year seem a thing of the past, and indeed he's now pitching better than before. It will be interesting to see how quickly the Yankees move him, if they are conservative and leave him at Tampa for awhile, or if they decide to bump him up to Trenton shortly given his domination of the FSL. If it was me, I think I'd leave him at Tampa for another month, then if he's pitching like this on August 1^st, move him up. I didn't have him on my Yankees Top 20 list this year, but he's right back on it now of course, and if he's pitching anything like this at the end of August, he could get into a Top 100 overall list.