Prep baseball: Yankees reassign locals Murphy, Pope

(photo by Grant Jefferies) The New York Yankees reassigned Bradenton natives J.R. Murphy and Ryan Pope to their minor-league camp last week.
Murphy, a catcher, hit .273 with three RBIs in seven games this spring for the Yankees. An IMG alum drafted by the Yankees in 2009, Murphy made the trip to Bradenton when the Yankees played the Pirates earlier this spring.
This marked Murphy's first big-league camp. He will probably begin the year with Yankees' high Single-A team in Tampa.
Pope, a pitcher, appeared in two games and posted a 6.75 ERA in 2 2/3 innings this spring. He graduated from Bayshore in 2004 and was drafted by the Yankees in third round of '07, making him the first-ever baseball draft pick to come out of the Savannah College of Art and Design.
He pitched a perfect inning last spring against the Pirates at McKechnie Field.