Yankees Draft Review Pt. 1 Some Overall Impressions

My overall impression was that it was weird, and unlike the last several drafts.   First, of their 39 picks, 24 were pitchers and just 15 were bats.  Second, of their 39 picks, 33 were college or JuCo picks and only 6 were preps.  In previous drafts, both ratios were closer.  In the just a few years ago, the Yanks were taking more preps.  

So was this a change in approach or just a change in results?  Probably a bit of both.  They've decided that their college prospects are making it to the bigs faster (which they're supposed to do) so they really seemed to have a bias toward college picks this year, but you can only pick the guys who are there when you pick.   So I think they not only had a bias - specious though it may be - they also had a default setting that found them picking collegians when "all things were equal."

You have to wonder how much this had to do with the Yanks abysmally low pool money.   College players are cheaper than preps, and during this brutal era of draft rules, teams were loading up on college seniors in the top ten picks, so they could transfer their savings to preps and other kids with leverage in rounds 11-40.  

The Yanks took 1 prep with a healthy slot value, with their second pick, then scattered three more across day three, before taking 2 more with this last two picks.   I think they have to sign DeCarr, but after that I think there will only be 1 or maybe 2 signed.

If it's true that preps who are draftable have more potential than draftable collegians, the Yanks punted on a lot of potential over the past three days.

Perhaps they have decided that floor is more important than ceiling.   That's both defensible and depressing.  That attitude basically says, that we will use this draft to get make it players,  but we will continue to use free agency both domestically and internationally to try to get our stars.

The reason it's defensible is that the players that make it save them millions on free agents.  And if one of these floor players is a little more than that, he can save them millions of dollars each year, for the first 6 years he's on the 25.

Here's an ironic aside; though they are paying lip service  to the concept that college players can get to the bigs faster, they're blocked anyway.

They could have called up Roller already, and Pirela (who's an IFA who's been in the system forever) and maybe even Refsnyder.   Heck, they could have called up Burawa and Montgomery instead of going with undertakers like Daley and what's left of Thornton,   Burawa and Monty are both college picks who are ready, but are blocked.

So, in a sense it would have made sense for the Yanks to keeps drafting and signing preps, they would have at least taken some time to get to the bigs and in ideal world, bought time for the Yanks to retire some of their many pernicious contracts.

So, are the Yanks just sick of kids?   This could be somewhat true, given the flops and failures of some of their big dollar preps.  Look at what's become of Mason Williams, for example.   You don't get his upside with a college pick, but you also don't get guys who keep getting benched for hustle and whose bats go on long vacations.  So maybe there's some prep weariness.

But I think they may be thinking more holistically about what we might call the ecology of the organization.

It's pretty well known that the Yanks think the world of this year's IFA class and will be breaking rules and taking names.   Literally.   And those kids will be even younger than preps.

Plus, they know that they took steps to block a lot of their kids when they signed McAnn, Beltran, Ellsbury and even Kelly.  Hell, even Daley.

So, perhaps they are looking at their current college players as bridges and bandaids to get them to the bigger talent they're waiting on like Bird and Cave, and all the IFA guys.

That wouldn't be a bad strategy for a multi-tiered rebuild, but they really haven't shown willingness to rebuild.  Instead, they get nervous every winter and  go crazy in free agency.

I think it all came down to the pool money, and what they felt was the best way to offset the risk.   So they went college heavy.

Had Hal and Cash hired just one free agent, it would have been a different draft, because the money would have been bigger. Likewise, if they'd just signed two or none, it would have been different.  But they signed three, so it was really different.  And this is what they did.

Meanwhile, I don't think the draft was anywhere near as deep as people thought, and I believe this mostly because teams started making their "tribute" picks a little earlier than they do most years