Jeff Marquez

Included in the trade that sent Nick Swisher to the Yankees, Marquez spent most of 2008 at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in the rotation, where he struggled to fool opposing hitters and was extremely vulnerable to the long ball (12 allowed in 80.2 innings). Those issues may have been tied heavily to the strained lat that plagued him throughout the year, however. Striking out just 3.68 batters per nine innings simply won't get it done at the major league level, but the 24-year-old gets a more clear path to the big leagues on the south side of Chicago. He'll likely repeat Triple-A to begin 2009, since U.S. Cellular Field is a bad home park for a pitcher that isn't missing enough bats. He's still young enough to be an interesting player to watch provided that he's healthy again.

Marquez spent all of 2007 at Double-A Trenton in the starting rotation, enjoying success, but hitting plenty of bats (166 hits allowed in 155.1 innings) in the process. Given his modest strikeout numbers, he'll need to induce more groundball outs (1.36 G/F) at higher levels if he's going to remain a starter. So long as he's in the Yankees' organization, Marquez will be buried by the more-talented Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and Ian Kennedy trio, while the upside of a move elsewhere would put him on track to be a fourth or fifth starter if he develops a pitch that will consistently keep the ball on the ground and in the park.