Yankees winter league stats update

Things have been pretty slow over the past couple of weeks with team executives taking some time off to be with their families during the holidays, and because of that, we haven't had much to talk about here.

This year's Hall of Fame announcement will happen on Wednesday, giving us some actual news to talk about. Mike Mussina and Don Mattingly are trying to get in this year, we have some former Yankees to watch for in that.

Right now, we're still waiting on news about Alex Rodriguez, like we have been all winter. Arbitrator Frederick Horowitz is expected to announce his decision within the next couple of weeks, possibly this Friday at the earliest, and the bidding war for Masahiro Tanaka is expected to pick up this week with his agent coming back from vacation.

Instead of waiting around for any of that to happen, I though we could take some time to look at some of the notable winter league performances from some Yankees minor leaguers this winter.

* Zoilo Almonte: Batting .316 with 4 homeruns, 20 RBIs, .343 on-base percentage and a .797 OPS in 43 games.

Almonte should some promise in his short stint in the Bronx last season before injuring his ankle in late-July. Obviously there isn't any room for him in the Yankees' outfield with six outfielders already on the roster, but with the possibility of the Yanks not having Brett Gardner, Alfonso Soriano, Ichiro Suzuki and Vernon Wells after this, we could see Almonte regularly in 2015.

* Adonis Garcia: He hit .325 with 8 homeruns, 39 RBIs, and a .49 OPS in 53 games this winter.

Again, like Almonte, being an outfielder doesn't help him very much, but with the possible losses in the future, we could see him compete in Spring Training down the road of he is still with the club. Played mostly in Triple-A last season, and will likely do the same thing in 2014.

* Ronnier Mustelier: Hit .276 with 2 homeruns, 27 RBIs, a .392 OBP and .755 OPS in 55 games.

Musty had a great year in 2012, hitting .314, but saw his batting average drop last season. Another outfielder, but isn't on the 40-man roster. Everyone likes watching him play, and I can't wait to see him get into some action during the spring.

* Jose Pirela: hit .332 with 6 homeruns, 44 RBIs, a .415 OBP and a .929 OPS in 63 games this winter.

After tweeting out his stats on Sunday, I had someone ask me if he could compete for the second base job in Spring Training this year. I said no, because he spent just about all of hid season in Double-A Trenton, and will likely be playing in Triple-A Scranton this season. Not this spring, but possibly in 2015 could we see him in big league camp, and couple compete for a starting job in the majors in just a couple years. Still a little ways to go.

Okay, now we can get back to talking about just about nothing. Pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training in 38 days, so was have that to look forward to. If you'd like, you can use the comment section below as an open thread to talk about the minor leaguers above, the upcoming Hall of Fame announce, or how good this past weekend's football games were.

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