Yankees Draft Review, Pt. 2

Alright, finding lefties was a throwback of sorts, but the peculiar picking of preps was unusual.  Last year, the Yanks picked preps in rounds 1, 3, 18, 31, 32, 35, 36, 37, and 39. Now, wait a second. This year might not have been unusual, last year was, this year is the trend! This year, the Yanks took preps in 1,20, 26, 30, 31, 32, 35, 36, 37 and 39.  So, last year they took 9 and this year they took 10.  I guess the difference we felt was, last year they took two on day 2, and this year they took none.  On Day 3 they confused us all by taking Jack Leiter at 20.  Too low to put a slot value under pooled savings, and probably too far out to save up for, and finally too soon to make a polite tribute pick, like they did for those other kid catchers last year and might have done with all the day 3 preps this year.  It was just peculiar and remains so.

Now the big question is where are all the signability kids?  The Yanks will definitely sign their top 10, they always do. The question is rounds 11 through 40. They took the 10 preps as well as some JuCo's and DES guys. I explain this every year: Draft Eligible Sophomores are the same age as college juniors - only they've had one less year of game experience. If they don't make a deal, their option is to be an old junior and then if they don't make a deal they get to be an old senior.  And those guys get 5000 dollar bonuses.

So DES guys are worth less that the typical 21 year old college junior that's probably the most picked brand in the draft each year - because they are the same age but less experienced.  The Preps and the JuCo's are the ones with real leverage, and if they want to turn pro badly enough, they can sometimes be a great deal.

So forgetting about the DES guys, the Yankees only have the  10 preps and 2 JuCo kids who's other option is not to be a college senior or a senior aged junior.  But are they going to sign any of them?  In a way this is reminding me of a few years ago when they backed up the truck for Blake Rutherford then ended up signing their top ten which also featured Solak and Nolan Martinez, but only signing 28 total and not much over slot at all after pick 10.

You just can't get a feel for this one because the signability kids were picked in odd places (round 20!) is there room for another nice contract or two in 11-40 or is whatever money they saved by taking only college guys after Volpe all going to Volpe?

Such an unusual draft by the distribution of signability picks.  We'll see what happens, but Volpe might be our only prep signing.  But Jasson Dominguez is less than a month away, and that's not a long wait, especially with the short seasons starting and the NHL and NBA drafts and UFA seasons starting between now and then.