Hal Calls Farm Braintrust to Tampa

According to the News and the Post, Hal Steinbrenner called the leaders of the Yankee farm system to Tampa today for a long meeting.   Madden and King were among the respective reporters, so we'll be lucky if they got the names right.  Anyway, they surmised that Cashman, Newman, Oppenheimer and maybe Donny Rowland, the somewhat legendary Yankee scout who's been overseeing IFA scouting for the past few years.  Don't know if Pat Roessler was there or if Madden or King has even heard of him.

The upshot of the articles was that Hal either wanted to see who'd be ready next year, or complain about why no one will be ready next year.    Well, there are a few places to look, starting with the mirror.   Hal did not choose to spend money in the drafts or IFA back when there were no limits one what could be spent.   Thus they passed on high upside preps and juniors with big signing demands in the draft, and passed on guys like Sano and others in IFA.   Under Hal, the Yanks have also resisted the urge to go after big ticket Cuban players.

What Hal has authorized has been an expansion of the scouting department, thus the Yanks have been able to hire and bring back some of the better scouts in the business.    As I've written before, I don't think the problem has been the scouts.  It might have been what they've been allowed to spend, but I think they are finding talent.

The big problem has been player development throughout the system.   While Mark Newman is titularly associated with that, and the buck should stop there, a lot of his job is handling logistics up and down the line, as well as sifting through reports and making recommendations.  In other words, he's not a teacher.

I think where the Yanks are hurting is in the teaching department.  Gil Patterson hasn't had enough time to show whether or not he's part of the solution yet, but the rest of the long term coaches up and down the system need to be closely looked at and in many cases replaced.   These coaches have the most contact with the players day in and day out, and we're just not seeing enough progress to justify the status quo.

But who knows what solutions Hal and the braintrust will come up with.  Its unlikely that they will try throwing MONEY at the problem.  That wasn't always the answer under George, but it's never been the answer under Hal.