Yankee Draft Stuff

Monday marks the beginning of yet another MLB Rule 4 draft. The Yanks are picking 30th and have an extra second rounder, but then no more extra picks through the 50 rounds. Sorry if we've been a little less system oriented around here since the Montero trade. Hopefully, the draft will jumpstart our interest, as Damon Oppenheimer and the scouts have been doing better and better each year.

As I outlined in January, the new rules probably won't effect the Yankee strategy, except that they might opt to pick their highest bonus kid in the first round, rather than later as they did with Williams and Bird in the last two drafts.

The Yanks seem to be re-committed to taking prep bats and it's really paying off in Charleston this year. So I expect to see more of that. Hopefully, they'll be able to find some lefty power, but as long as the kids have a reasonable shot at developing a Yankee Bat, handedness shouldn't figure into it too much.

Same goes for the pitching side, where I think they will once again try to find lefty arms they like but may keep missing most of their favorites as they have in the last two drafts - which isn't to say they haven't gotten some value there with Tracy and Camarena. etc. They have, but it wouldn't surprise me to see them take close to ten if the windows are right.

Beyond that, I expect them to grab more prep starters and college power/K relievers. They've found excellent value doing that over the past few drafts.

It will be interesting to see if they are willing to blow next year's one by going over budget on a kid this year.

The signing date this year will be July 13, so we won't have to wait out a long D and F/overslot period. Should be fun. Go Yanks!