It's been entertaining to watch the quantity and quality of talent that's come through PNC Field the past few seasons.

This is a relatively new era for the Yankees. It's shifted from an organization that regularly spent an absurd amount of money to land the best players in the game, seemingly without a care, to one that is stockpiling its farm system and grooming prospects for the Bronx.

Dellin Betances. Luis Severino. Gary Sanchez. Aaron Judge. Jordan Montgomery. They are just a few who wore RailRiders uniforms and now play key roles in pinstripes.

Look at the current and likely future crop of RailRiders who could do the same. Clint Frazier. Dustin Fowler. Tyler Wade. Gleyber Torres. Justus Sheffield. Chance Adams. Blake Rutherford.

Yankees fans understandably are excited for what could come with these kids. But fans also need to keep expectations reasonable.

Mostly every time there's a tweet from myself or a Yankees' beat writer about a prospect's success — especially Frazier or Torres — there's at least one fan who'll ask when that prospect will be called up to the Yankees. They want you to tell them "sooner rather than later."

My response to that is "why?" Why do you hope these young prospects get promoted to New York soon?

Despite a three-game losing streak, the Yankees enter today's doubleheader against Houston with the third-best record in the American League and were just a half- game behind East Division-leading Baltimore when Saturday began.

Bottom line: as much as you might want to replace Jacoby Ellsbury, Aaron Hicks, Chase Headley and even Brett Gardner, the Yankees' plan is working.

If a top position-player prospect gets called up, he's going to play every day. Why would the Yankees reverse course and replace those veterans with unproven players?

Two seasons ago, some people were questioning why the Yankees, who made the playoffs, didn't call up Judge when the rosters expanded in September. The same Aaron Judge, mind you, who wasn't on the 40-man roster, had slightly more than two months of Triple-A experience and struck out 40 times in August.

However, there's no doubt Judge earned his promotion in August when the Yankees went all in on the youth movement. Even though they weren't mathematically eliminated from the postseason until the final week, they weren't a playoff threat.

Judge struck out 42 times in 84 at-bats — literally half the time — for a non-title contending team.

For argument's sake and because he seems to draw the same buzz Judge did when he was in Triple-A, imagine the outcry if the Yankees called up Frazier right now and he posted similar numbers.

Not every prospect is Mike Trout or Bryce Harper.

But guess what? That's OK. It's OK to be patient and let these kids develop. They still have time.

Fans will ask me who I think are the Yankees' most untradeable prospects. On Thursday, one fan adamantly said on Twitter that Torres, Frazier and Rutherford — who are all ranked among Baseball America's Top 37 prospects in the game — cannot be traded.

Well, sure they can.

Just look at what the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians did last year. Both felt they were one piece away from the World Series so they gave up a good portion of their futures to the Yankees to get Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller, respectively.

They met in the World Series and it came down to a Game 7. Those moves paid off.

When he visited PNC Field last season, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said "prospects are all suspects."

One National League scout recently told me the term "prospect" just means you haven't proved anything.

If the Yankees feel they're one piece away from making a World Series run when the trade deadline approaches later this summer, best believe they'll pull the trigger and deal some of these prospects to get that piece.

SHANE HENNIGAN covers the

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders for The Times-Tribune. Contact him at

shennigan@timesshamrock.com and follow him on Twitter @RailRidersTT.