 2018 was a bit of a tough year for Albert of Ray, but the 23-year-old pitcher remains a prized youngster. MLB.com has him ranked as the number three prospect in the Yankees organization behind Esteban Florial and Jonathan Loisiga. A ray was thrown off in February when he needed an emergency appendectomy. That set back his work in spring training and caused him to start this season on the disabled list with high a Tampa. Then he missed the month during the summer with the sore elbow. The right hander was able to recover though and after finishing the season by reaching the double A level he made up for lost time by pitching in the Dominican winter league. Scouts continue to love the big arm Debreu who has hit triple digits on the radar gun and in mid November Yankees pitching coordinator Danny Peral said a ray was back to his old self. It's great news for a prospect who has been one to watch ever since the Yankees acquired him from Houston two years ago and that trend will continue in 2019. And that is Christian with a player profile of Albert Debreu. Chris, we thank you for that. Can you have an impact on the big league club in 2019? Perhaps this gentleman can shed some light on that. Kevin Reese joins us the Yankees senior director of player development. What kind of a power arm is he and what do you like about him? He's the kind of power arm we like. The guys that can touch upwards of 100 miles per hour with two plus secondary pitches. If he puts it all together he's a guy that can be top of the rotation type stuff and you know if the major league team needs him a little sooner he's a guy that can impact you really well in the bullpen. Kevin I wanted to ask you about a pitcher who we actually had on our hot stove show last week Michael King. Last year he makes the leap from single a all the way to triple a incredible movement on his pitches especially his two seamer. What's your scouting report on him and what kind of expectations from him in 2019? Well it's interesting you gotta ask about the scouting report because this is a guy who does all of his own work. He's a really smart kid and he just he's a sponge trying to learn from everybody and kind of following the footsteps of some of the great pitchers we've had in the past. The two seamer is the first thing that jumps out at you. Towards the end of the year in triple a he started to develop a little bit of a cutter to have like that little you know cross cut action and and this guy's continuing to develop at a rapid pace and I think this guy's a winner with him. You know one of the players that we hear about all the time is Esteban Florial and a big time prospect for you. I know he didn't have a great Arizona fall league but the one comp that I hear all the time is a guy that you and I played with Bernie Williams. I mean that is a huge compliment for a young player. What do you think about his development. You know Flo's got tools off the chart and him along with Clint Frazier and a brave kind of had some injuries that there was almost a lost season in some ways and he just needs to put it together get some consistent at bats and he's got that kind of the long limbs long arms long and I think that's what makes everybody say Bernie but the sky's the limit with him. We hear about a bro. We hear about Florial. Is there anybody down there that you think could make an impact and really kind of light things up here in the 2019 season that's made some progress. I think where we're in a good spot is that we have a lot of different depth pieces that that might make an impact. You know Tyler Wade had a tough time starting off the season in the big leagues last year but he's still there. Tyro Estrada another guy that missed most of the year. He's has a chance to make an impact on the roster. So there's a number of guys that and you never know when a guy like Michael King will kind of shoot through the system. So I don't want to put it all on one person but there's a lot of guys that can make an impact. You mentioned Tyler Wade. Why do you think he struggled so much in the big leagues and why do you guys still believe in him. New York's a tough place to play. I mean he won that job. He had a great spring training. He was ready to do things and turn heads and I think he maybe tried to do a little bit too much too fast. He's got all the ability in the world to be an impact player in the major leagues and I think he just needs to kind of step take a step back and let the game come to him. Hey Kevin analytics. It become very big obviously over the years. How do they factor in what you do in the minor leagues. I mean it factors in everything that we do in the whole organization. You know it's just a lot of information that comes in and allows us to make better predictions of who's going to perform and allows me in a player development side to find bits and pieces of information that can help me build a plan for these players to kind of take the right steps in the right direction. Did you have one final one final one. We know what you did the minor league level. We know how much you work to get to the major league level. How often when you're dealing with players do you mention some of your own struggles because you know what it's like to struggle at the minor league level. You know how tough it is to get to that major league level. Does that ever come into conversations when you're dealing with players. Probably more than I should. You know I mean I think it's easy to look at this roster right now and make some similarities to when I was playing when we had Bernie and chef and Johnny Damon and Jeter and John Flaher. I mean we had we had stars you know that we're trying to play behind and these guys right now are looking up and seeing Gene Carlos Stanton and seeing Aaron Judge and it's tough you know when you're in double A and triple A and trying to make an impact there. So I can you know say hey man I can relate you know keep doing what you're doing the best thing you can do is is keep your head up and have a good attitude and perform and you'll find a way. I just want to double check. Did you just call the flash a star. They said my favorite guest. My favorite guest on the show. Yeah. All right Kevin always always appreciate the time. Thanks.