Yankee Draft, Rapidly Approaching

The MLB Draft starts Monday 6/3 and runs through 6/5. The Yanks are picking 30th in the first round this year, because they won 100 games last year. Get used to that.  Now, unusually, and almost exotically for us, the Yanks added an extra "competitive balance" pick when they traded Sonny Gray to the Reds. The pick is #38,. So the Yanks not only get an extra player, they get the extra slot value of 38 added to their bonus pool. We'll see if they decide to use the pool to top load, or if they go underslot and look to spend more on Day 3. The path probably depends on the players available.

In general, this draft class seems to be bat heavy, That's unusual, and if true, the hope here would be that the Yanks draft to the draft's strength, because at 30 they're not going to have a chance to get the kind of pitchers they prefer in round one. And I'm sort of hoping the Yanks go bat/bat at 30 and 38, because, the emerging idea this week is that prep arms are a secondary srength of this draft. That's an idea that I do not trust at all.  To me, that means there's a dearth of college arms, and preps are being elevated to fill the vacuum.  This also gives me more faith in the bats supposition going in.  I don't want the Yanks reaching all over for arms if it's a bad class.

Now, unlike the other three drafts, I don't do as much pre-draft research on the propects, the 40 rounds create huuuuuuge classes, and I'd rather see who they pick then figure out who they are, then set my hopes on anyone,  That said, if it's a bats draft, let's take bats.  And let's get over the idea that eventually having a 20-something regular DH is somehow - what - unseemly?  Seems like something that would fit Clint Frazier, and a reason to develope some bat first and only guys who could be needed at some point.

Per prep pitchers: when I started the blog, the Yanks system wasn't the prioritty it has become,  At that point, I supported the idea of taking prep pitchers and bats, over everything because age gave them more upside than older college players.  Makes sense. Right?  But what's happening now is the Yanks are signing high upside international pitchers who are 16 and up and , en masse, they are far ahead of the Yankees prep pitching picks. I don't know why this is so, and believe it has something to do with how the respective baseball cultures develop kid pitchers.  Or that the Yankee's best pitching scouts or pitching scouting system is in the DR.  In either case, I don't think the Yanks should be spending big dough on prep pitchers, they get hurt (though all young or youngish pitchers seem to get hurt with the Yanks) or they become secondary pieces in big trades.

I prefer the Yankee draft practice of targetting a position - like they did with catchers last year - and working it throughout the 40 rounds. For pitching I like college arms, like Frank German was last year, and JuCo  or smaller school arms like Tanner Myatt.  And or hitters, I still favor patience and pop, but the Yanks have really started to look for speed in a lot of picks. To wit, they drafted Lockridge, Pasteur and Alex Junior last year, then used Sonny Gray to get Shed Long (an pick 38) then immediately flipped Long for Josh Stowers - another speedster from last year's draft.  And, by the way, Stowers is crushing it.  So they do value speed.

Another great thing that happens in June is that the Yankee's short season teams start playing.  And it's very possible tha the Yanks will have more high end talent below Charleston than they do above it.  Should be a fun summer.