Budget

That word is something that Yankee fans don’t like. But for the first time in recent memory the big league club is having one. Last year we heard from Damon Oppenheimer that the Yankees had given him a budget for last year’s draft. He did give this interview with Lane Meyer (formerly of Nomaas). I can’t link to the post because Nomaas has taken down the draft portion of their site when Lane left.

I remember reading the word budget and being shocked. Yankees and the word budget you don’t see in the same sentence. I thought it would affect their draft yet it really didn’t. They signed plenty of over slot guys that they liked. 2009 was the first year that there was a budget and I think that going forward that they should have a budget.

Now I say that but I want to let it be known that it should be a soft budget. I believe that going into the draft each year the Yankees should have a draft budget of 8 million. A max budget of 11 million that if a player the talent of Rick Porcello falls to them. This would let the Yankees sign high ceiling HS talent in the later rounds along with draft eligible sophomores.

From what I’ve been able to ask draft guys in chats, this is what most thought the Yankees should do. I also think having a budget might give the teams and league less leverage when it comes to a hard slotting system. As I noted the Yankees haven’t been the biggest spenders in the draft over the years and once all the amounts spent in 2009 I will update that again. By having a budget around what other teams have had they aren’t giving team’s fuel to the fire of a hard slotting system.

Going into this year’s draft I want the Yankees to spend 8 million on the draft but I could see that number going up if they believe a hard slotting system will come in. A hard slotting system would limit the Yankees on spending in the later rounds where they look for elite talent. I do think 2010 and 2011 will be the last two years for sure that there isn’t a hard slotting system. I could see the Yankees try to spend the money to restock the farm system that has gone down slightly because of the trades that were made. I think we won’t know what the Yankees truly will do until the draft comes. It should be a lot of fun thou to speculate on who could fall to them and how much they will be spend.