While last year’s MLB Draft probably brought a bit more talent to the New York Penn League, the short season league is still ripe with top picks, returning guys showing improvement, and players that are emerging into the spotlight. The crop is more interesting this year.

This is a review of the league through twenty games, and there are similarities in overall team performance compared to 2012. One of them is the Hudson Valley Renegades and Tri-City Valley Cats once again fielding some of the most solid talent in the league, talent that’s rising to the challenge.

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New Britain, Connecticut — Rain, humidity, and the Western Division dominated the 2013 Eastern League All Star Game in New Britain, Connecticut.

The game took place at the home of the New Britain Rock Cats on July 10th, and there were a few standouts for Eastern and Western divisions, with the West side taking down the East side (ok, kind of a ridiculous hip-hop reference there)5-0.

Here’s some of the standout moments and talent that graced the field:

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Brooklyn, New York- In his two most recent starts, Giovanny Gallegos pitched like two very different pitchers. In his first year of short-season ball with the Staten Island Yankees, that’s unsurprising. While he got hit hard in his final start of June, it was good to see manager Justin Pope leave him in to work it out through three innings, despite coughing up an early 4-0 lead to the Hudson Valley Renegades.

Gallegos (pronounced Guy-A-Gos) struggled to throw strikes in the early part of his June 27th outing, unable to consistently locate his fastball. His fastball overpowers hitters low in the zone, but on that day, he couldn’t move it around the strike zone effectively.

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Aaron Griffin struck out a season high four batters in his fourth and final outing of June, but that’s just part of what you’re going to get from the Rays RHP prospect.

Griffin was economical and used a mixed bag of tricks to get Brooklyn Cyclones hitters out, going four innings without allowing a run and holding them to just four hits.

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Gavin Cecchini started the 2013 season where he ended it, in the Class-A (short season) New York Penn League, with the Brooklyn Cyclones. But the Penn League was not a proving ground in 2012, as he only played in five games, starting just one, and pinch running in the other four.

The shortstop, 20, has begun the season productive, consistent, and was noticeably bulkier than last year; he approximated he put on about between 10-12 pounds, in a conversation in early June. Regularly hitting second or third in the lineup, he’s had a hit in six of the eight games the Cyclones have played. He put together a five-game hitting streak, collecting three multi-hit games in that stretch.

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Tyler Austin ended 2012 being named the Yankees ‘Minor League Player of the Year’, after level-jumping four times, with a two-game stint for Double-A Trenton. He began this year in Double-A and, while he’s had some difficulties, he’s adjusted well and shown more of what was so impressive in the lower level leagues.

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