Yankees Draft Review, Pt. 1
First, picking 16th may be high for the Yankees, but it was not high for the draft. They still had to watch player after player go off the board before they got a chance to make their first pick. People who were dreaming on those big high school bats, didn't get a chance to sleep.
Second, around the Yankee-centric parts of the web, the draft excitement really seems to be down this year. Usually, by now there are "signing/not signing" threads all over the place. But I can't find any. And I think night one sucked a lot of the excitement out of the proceedings. There were basically two camps: one dreaming on the bats, and the other dreaming on the injured pitchers. Neither was satisified. I also think picking a guy who the media saw as glove only with the pick the Yanks got for Robertson upset people. If he can't hit, that will haunt them.
Third, I think we viewed last year as a low pool, expedient draft that saw us, but for one pick, eschew picking preps in favor of a college heavy draft. This year, the media reported that the Yanks were all over the preps, but when it came time to pick, they weren't. They took two in the first 10 rounds this year as opposed to just one last year. Two years, ago when they had a similar draft budget to this year, they picked three preps in the top 10 and signed 7 all together. I'm pretty sure they only drafted 7 this year. Not too long ago it was 50/50. Now part of that is the rule change, but I think part of that also takes us back to late 2013 when Hal gave the scouts new orders.
Fourth, it looks like JuCo's are the new preps. Back in the Draft and Follow days, the Yanks liked taking JuCo's like Andy Pettitte and Sean Henn. Then, during the bonus war period that brought on the pool rules, the Yanks would usually end up spending their discretionary signing dough on preps rather than JuCo's. This year they took some really intriguing JuCo's and my guess is that that is where the extra pool money will go.
Fifth, and finally, I think this will end up being a draft that pays for itself a few times over. To be honest, Dellin Betances from the 2006 draft is still paying for Yankee drafts, but I thin we will get some Major Leaguers out of this one, even if there were no apparent coups.
I'll start breaking it down more later or tomorrow, but get excited, our IFA suspension starts Monday!
posted by Kalel9 @ 8:26 PM
9 Comments:
Good analysis.
Speaking only for myself, my interest in the draft, and in the farm system, will continue to wane until developing talented kids takes precedence over hording the Roberts/Drew/Young/Capuano types.
And that doesn't even include prospect blocking by Beltran, and next year, by Headley.
We really need to find out why Lindgren has lost velo.
I can tell you why and you've seen it before with call ups. He's squeezing the ball.
LINJ, this is a Twitter convo I followed and was a part of that I think might shed some light on the issues with Girardi. It refers to Pirela being sent down. Jed Weisberger covers Yankee minor leaguers and has some FO contacts.
David Bruder @DBYankees1 7h7 hours ago
@jedleyq Cashman's decision. Pretty silly no?
Jed Weisberger @jedleyq 7h7 hours ago
@DBYankees1 Not his. It's who his manager wants. Seriously.
@mkerekes714 7h7 hours ago
@jedleyq Unless there's a front office dynamic I'm not aware of, does this not ultimately fall on Cashman for going along with it?
Jed Weisberger @jedleyq 7h7 hours ago
@mkerekes714 Not way it works. Go routinely with who the manager wants.
Michael Drew Kerekes @mkerekes714 7h7 hours ago
@jedleyq Then Cash needs to have a come to Jesus meeting with Joe. I get Refs' D isn't ready but Pirela should be playing daily.
Jed Weisberger @jedleyq 7h7 hours ago
@mkerekes714 Manager gets to play and carry who he wants. If things go south, then GM steps in. Way it works.
Very thoughtful observations, Phil. I suspect some of the cause for the lack of "draft excitement" may derive from choosing draftees with less sizzle, the fizzles that some of the draftees we had highest hopes for (Hughes & Joba leading the list), and the comparative sizzle of the 2013 draft and last year's IFA pool. Post-draft excitement may go up, however, if Karpeilian signs quickly and gets off to a fast start.
To play "follow the money" for a moment, I wouldn't be surprised if the Yanks had deals in place to save substantial bucks from Holder, DeGano, and probably Hendrix. Those are the people they can go to and say "if we draft you in this early round we'll pay you significantly more than you're likely to get if you go after round 10, but you have to agree right now to give us a serious discount off slot." There's a big difference between 1.9M, 1,1M, and even 456Kon the one hand and 100K on the other. That scenario would jibe with their having agreements in place with Finley and Sands. If I were Kaprielian (or advising him) I'd grab slot ($2.5M) and run down to Charleston, Tampa, or wherever, as fast as I could. So that leaves the Yanks with some decent bucks (maybe 500K to $1M) plus whatever they can squeeze out of rounds 5-10 to go after a few people they really want in the higher rounds.
Phil, I hope you'll include which of the higher round picks you'd like to see signed, assuming the Yankees do end up with a surplus out of rounds 1-10?
Thanks Mike.
As I said, Cashman set limits with Torre. If he isn't with Girardi, then it's reasonable to think he agrees with him most of the time.
Oh, and they acquired another 2B for Carpenter. That's not on Joey G.
New topics.
I'm late here, but Phil - good review. Just like the other one.
Again, I hope the plan is to save some $$$ from the pool and grab some HS kids. There are some interesting names out there. That 2N drafted #38 is one. Gilliam is another.
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