Yankees Draft: Drafting Starters

The Yanks have spent a lot of picks on pitching.   We've already spoken about their reliever strategy, but that has not dissuaded them from still trying to get and develop starters from the Draft.   It's just catechismic that the Yanks have not drafted and developed a top three starter since Andy Pettitte, who they got under the old D and F system around 1991.   At the same time, they did draft and develop Sterling Hitchcock and he had some good years.   Eric Milton, not so much.

Between the `90s grouping and the Phil Hughes grouping, there was a little period where Sean Henn, Brandon Clausen, and Alex Gramman gave them some hope - unfortunately none of the 3 top pitching prospects they got for Mike Lowell turned into anything.    During the period and through much of the Rule 4 draft era, the Yankees heavily went after LHP's in acknowledgement of their history and the classic configuration of YS.

From about `96 on they started not only drafting Andy Pettitte, but anyone who reminded them of Andy.   That included the aforementioned Henn and Gramman, as well as Danny Borrell, who was really good until his health just failed him.   Anyway, in 2004 they finally picked a power righty in Phil Hughes.

Hughes went through the Yankee System like a hot knife through butter, injured his landing leg while he was throwing a no-hitter in his second start, and never regained the velo, curveball of K/groundball tendencies he displayed in the minors, and now he's  a Twin.   Hughes probably bears a lot of the burden for what went wrong -- it's his life and his career after all -- but  someone should have stopped him in his tracks as soon as he came back from the leg injuries and kept him out of games till he returned to his old drop and drive ways.   He was arm throwing fly ball machine for most of his Yankee career, and he shouldn't have been.

In 2005 they seemed to start ignoring prep starters and spent early on Lance Pendleton and Allen Horne, bot of whom has great stuff but couldn't stay healthy, or learn to stay out of the big inning.

In 2006, they started to mix it up more.  They took Ian Kennedy and Joba Chamerlain with their first pick and supp pick, then went back to the prep ranks for Zach McAllister in the third.  All three of those guys are pitching in the majors, though 4 pitch Joba seems to be doomed to the bullpen for ridiculous reasons after a ton of abuse from the Yanks.  They also took Kontos and McCutchen both of whom are in the majors, but I believe as relievers.

They also took Betances and a lot of other talent that year.

2007 we've recognized as the fly in the ointment.

In 2008 they had they were ready to spend their first pick on a prep pitcher again and we all know about the Cole fiasco.  What was weird about that was that the Yanks were ready to open the vault for him, and when they found out he wouldn't sign, I'm not sure they were ready to spread the unspent money on a variety of other talent.   Fortunately that draft also produced Dave Phelps and some others who are contributing or on the cusp of doing so.   But you have to wonder who they might have picked had they not been holding so much back for Cole.  

In 2009, they took Brackman, and that was also a fiasco, because they gave him a major league contract, and knew he needed TJ when they took him.  Ponderous.

2010. Now we're getting into the years where it's too soon to tell.   Caleb Cotham has moved up the chain when healthy, and Sean Black may or may not be a late bloomer.  Bryan Mitchell was the kid they loved out of the preps and he's still got top of the rotation stuff, but is off to a tough start in AA, as he's battled injury and shutdown.   He probably needs to get going or he'll be headed for the pen.   The Yanks also bought two late lottery tickets in this one Evan DeLuca and Mariel Checo.  DeLuca was a lefty with velo and a great personality, but he never came close to succeeding.  Checo kept getting hurt.  I don't think either of them are in the system anymore.

The 2011 class is still percolating, and we really started seeing them take prep starters like Jordan Cote,  Dan Camerena, Rookie Davis, Chaz Hebert and Joseph Maher.   Camerena and Davis have been impressive when healthy.  The other three, not yet.  Interestingly, one of the most interesting preps that they signed, Hayden Sharp is already out of baseball.    Matt Tracy was a collegiate pick who has looked really good at times.

It's two soon to tell on these other drafts, especially since Ty Hensley missed last season.   Also, after the 2012 season, hired Gil Patterson to take over their pitching program after the recriminations and massive repudiation that concluded the career of the previous pitching Czar, Nardi Contreras.

Because of that, as well as the short time frame, we have wait and see on these Patterson classes and how they progress as starters.  It is fair to say that the pitching favorable parks and leagues through most of the Yankee chain have perhaps caused us to overrate our pitchers and underrate our hitters some.    But it's still be a long time since Andy, and we're still waiting on that next home grown top of the rotation guy.

It will be interesting to see if they stick to a prep starter/college reliever model when they start picking next week - or if they'll look for more Dave Phelps type college guys.