Yanks Post Draft Stuff, Pt. 2

Back in the `20's the Yanks had Ruth, Coombs and Muesel.  In the thirties, while they were re-finding themselves, they Old Babe, Old Earle, and then guys like Ben Chapman.  Chapman was a good young player for them, but he was so obnoxious that they traded him to the Senators in the midst of his Age 27 year.  Anyway, the OF re-stabilized when DiMaggio was purchased, the Henrich was freed by Landis to join the Yanks and Keller came up from the minors.   The DiMaggio, Henrich, Keller OF might have been the greatest in history.  The war disrupted things, and not long after the war, guys like Gene Woodling and Hank Bauer showed up first to abet Joe D, then at the start of the Mickey Mantle era.

Jackie Jensen had come up in `50 and was a future star, but not for the Yanks.  Mickey came up in `51 and the rest was history.  Anyway, Mickey had many guys around him as the Yankee farm system was producing OF's like Chrysler was cars.  At the dawn of the `60s it became Mantle, Maris and usually Hector Lopez.  By the mid-70's it was Bobby Murcer, Roy White, and Elliot Maddox (who was made of baby wipes).  Then they traded Murcer, and I would posit they have dealt with some measure of OF instability most years since - and mostly because they stopped growing their own.

And that brings us to last week's draft.  The Yankees -- for the Yankees -- picked a lot of outfielders.  In fact they picked 10, a full 25% of their total haul.   Let's take a look.

1. Blake Rutherford: This is a must sign guy and a possible star.  I like to try to contextualize these guys in Yanke history, so left handed bat with speed and power, you've Bobby Murcer and Charlie Keller, both of whom but up HoF seasons in their careers, though Bobby's fell prey to the stadium moves and the banishment to the NL.  King Kong Keller played at a Hall of Fame level for his entire career, but it was interrupted by WWII and a back injury.  But those are the great homegrown lefy OF's.

5. Dom Thompson-Williams: This is another left hitter.  He did some time in Juco before joining South Carolina for a year.  This fast twitch athlete who runs a legit 4.4. 40.  The questions with this guy are about his bat consistency, and he'll be the latest challenge for Gary Denbo and his new development team.

14.  Jordan Scott: This one of three mystery men in this draft.  The mystery about this 19 year old is how, after accepting a scholarship with West Virginia as a high schoo senior, did he end up at IMG Academy for a year?  Still don't know, but the kid is really intriguing.  He's a switch-hitter with power and speed.  There's also some confusion over whether he has already signed or not. I have a feeling he's in Tampa and will sign when some other stuff has worked out.  This is a kid who could grow up with Blake and create two thirds of a future OF.

19. Evan Alexander: This is another 19 year old prep and lefty swinging CF.  He's from Hebron HS, and only has a commit to Hill College that needs to be broken.  Probably doable, and I still need to hear more about him,

21. Timothy Robinson: College senior and CF from USC. 6'1" and 225, and said to have power, but I'm not sure the numbers are showing it yet.  We'll probably see it or not at Staten Island.

24: Joe Burton: JuCo and the second mystery man.  Righty swatter. This guy is a runaway train at 6'4 and 240, stole 23 out of 24 bases this year which is startling unless all of the 2B's were just bailing as they saw him coming.  He's played LF before but his fielding there is rumored to be primitive.  He crushes baseballs, though and let's hope he signs.

25: Edel Luaces: The final mystery man.  He went to no school this year, and is 6'5 and 205 and listed as another right handed hitter.  The story's not out on him yet, but it should be a good one.  Here's hoping he's a an athletic freak of some sort.

30: Ben Ruta: This is another speed guy.  Don't know where he'd finish in a race with DTW, but that's his big tool.  He's also a bats right, throws left guy.  That used to be called "cross coordinated" in baseball parlance and was a desirable trait.

33. Bryson Bowman:  This, I think, might be our senior signing ringer.  This cat raked in college power and patience, and I love to see these kind of bats enter the system.  Hopefully, we'll see him slugging for SI in a few weeks.

37: Corey Dempster: The junior CF from USC.  This is yet another speed guy, finally had a break out season as a junior.  He'll probably sign, because he's not going to be a top 5 round pick as a senior so this is probably his last best chance of getting paid.

So that's pretty much what they did, also there's word the Dalton Blaser will play OF rather than 1B as a Yankee, so maybe they spent 11 picks.   In all they got a ton of upside, some now power, and a bunch of speed.   It would be a really, really great thing if Blake isn't the only top Yankee prospect to come out of this cluster.  In the last 25 or so years only Bernie and Gardy have come from the  farm and taken long term jobs in the OF, and that's ridiculous for a team that used to mass produce them.  Let's hope this draft, along with guys like Florial eventually stabilizes the situation and makes the Yanks less market dependant.  Still sick to my stomach over the Beltran and Ellsbury deals