The Pinstriped Baseball Lane

This year has been an awkward year, but one thing has not changed and that is the passion of the Yankee youths. As everyone is cautiously reporting to Yankee Stadium for Spring Training 2.0, the hype to see the prospects is very high. With that being said, I want to talk about a prospect that I believe could be a perfect fit for the Yankees’ major league rotation. Whether he plays a role in the starting rotation or pitches out of the bullpen, I believe Clarke Schmidt can play a key role in helping the Yankees succeed this season.

On July 6th, he was drawing a lot of attention to himself with his demeanor on the mound. As far as I am concerned, the righty is most likely primed and ready to be in the majors. He attended Yankees Stadium as a New York Yankees’ non-roster invitee to take part in an intra-squad game.

According to Brendan Kuty of NJ Advance Media, “Clarke Schmidt has pitched exactly as many games in the majors as you. Yet, the Yankees’ top pitching prospect said he believes he’s capable of pitching in the majors right now….” Kuty made it clear that he doesn’t doubt Schmidt’s belief and I don’t either.

Hey, if you are good at your craft and you know you are good, then why not be confident in your ability?

“I think that I can produce at this level. I think that I can get outs at this level,” Schmidt told reporters after squaring off against J.A. Happ in the intrasquad game in an empty Yankee Stadium on Monday. Honestly, I can’t argue with the guy because he was pretty amazing against Happ. My opinion is no understatement because he had to perform against some big names in the Yankees’ major league lineup.

It is no easy feat to pitch against guys like Stanton, Judge, Torres and others. I tip my Yankee cap to him because he stood his ground as a non-roster invitee. It is also impressive that he did it on the major league stage of Yankee Stadium’s mound.

I don’t know about you, but the highlight of Schmidt’s outing has to be when he squared off against Aaron Judge. It was pretty impressive that the righty forced the right-handed slugger to ground out to third.

Schmidt emphasis that he is ready to be in the majors by saying, “I think I’m a Major League Baseball player and I can show these guys that I can be good at this level, day in and day out”. It was pretty cool to watch him on the mound against some aggressive Yankee bats.

I am just a fan, but I am not the only one with high hopes for Schmidt. Manager Aaron Boone had some good things to say about the young righty. “It’s kind of what I expected…”, Boone said. “…First off, that’s the scouting report and the makeup reports that I heard about him going into spring training, and then he showed that to us while we were down there. He’s continued to show it here….” The Yankee manager also made it a point to say that, “….I can’t really say I was that surprised. He’s a confident kid that, when he goes out on the mound, he expects to be good.”

To me those are some encouraging words said by the pinstriped manager. You know, I can’t say that I disagree with Boone’s take. Since we got Cole in the minors and finally inked him to a $324 million contract, I been keeping an eye on the unique growth of the Deivi Garcias and the Clarke Schmidts of the Yankees’ farm system. At this point, Cole is seen as the best pitcher on the planet and he passed through the Yankees’ system, so then I have to wonder what is in store for the Clarke Schmidts of the Yankee world.

As far as teammates’ reaction to Schmidt’s non-roster invitee spring debut, Happ gave his take on the prospect’s performance. Considering that Happ took on Schmidt in intrasquad play, his take is very important. Happ said, “In spring training, he seemed like a nice kid, very confident…” Happ continued by saying, “…I think that shows on the mound. He’s got that confidence, a bit of that swagger. You see his stuff, how it plays…”

When all is said and done, veteran J.A Happ said that he believe Schmidt has a bright future and I believe the same thing as well. I hope to see him soon on the major league roster because all Yankee fans know that pitching is a huge component to the Yankee blueprint.