Yankee Draft Stuff

Last June, I wrote expansively about what I believed should be the Yanks prep heavy focus in the draft every year. It's in the 2010 June archive and I haven't changed my opinion one lick since then. Once again this year the Yanks should focus their efforts on signability preps. Those are the most likely valuable players to fall to them at 51, and throughout the draft. They did a really nice job of it last year, but they should they should still be doing better and spending more dough on the draft. Their budget should be about 12M every year for the draft, and it's generally been around 8 or 9 lately.

This year I would expect them to look for more lefty pitchers. They've added some power lefties from the last two drafts like Evan DeLuca and Rutckyj, but so far, neither has tamed his stuff. They both have time, though, and there is a lot of currency in the belief that lefties take longer. So I would expect a few more of those.

I think they will take another signability catcher. They didn't take one last year, because they weren't sure they could find at bats. They can now because everyone has moved up. I also think they are likely to move a catcher at the deadline and I hope it is not Montero, Sanchez or JR Murphy. In any event, they should take a high upside catcher this year and every year, because after superstar prospects and pitching prospects C's are probably most valuable (although the worldwide dearth of shortstops may have them becoming rarer than C's).

On the collegiate side, they should continue doing what they've been doing - finding talented kids whose stock is down over a bad year, and college relievers. The Yanks should never have to go outside of the organization for relievers, and they should be looking for David Robertson types every year, to prevent the kind of nonsense we saw this past offseason. On the college hitter side, they should continue looking for monstrous OBP guys.

If you pay attention to the draft, this year on Monday to Wenesday, you'll see that their really is both solid rhyme and reason along with each pick. The Yanks have great scouts, and keep adding more, and this is their World Series.

Go Yanks!