Give me upside or give me death.
This is the draft philosophy that I believe that the Yankees should be using concerning the draft. The Yankees spend the most money on their actual team and you would be shocked if they didn't spend money on their draft.
From 06 through the 08 draft(09 complete draft money spent isn't out yet as far as I can find) the Yankees spent $19.8 million on those 3 drafts. That is $6.6 million per draft which is a lot of money. Yet they aren't the #1 spender on the draft in those 3 years.
The #1 team during that time was the Royals. The first big market team was the Sox at #2. The next big team was the Yankees at #8. So there was 7 teams over the Yankees who spent money on the draft. Now this also takes out the Cole not signing. That probably would have been 3 million roughly which would have put the Yankees up to $22.8 million. Even if we take that into account they are #4.
While the Yankees have spent a lot of money on the draft regardless I do think that they have not gone the extra mile for a few guys. Drew Storen was a drafted guy the Yankees couldn't get the pen to the paper. He went to the Nats at #10. I think that the Yankees should take more chances with signability guys.
This is what the Yankees did in 2006 and they got the best draft class that they have had. Since then the drafts have been hit and miss on prospects. I do think that the drafts after that can increase yet so could the 06 draft. If Dellin B stays healthy and dominates as Greg at pending pinstripes said it would be a historic draft.
This is the type of draft that the Yankees should be doing each year. I think that damon oppenheimer is very good at evaluating talent. I just think that he likes college players and pitchers better then HS. Now later in the draft when you need to fill out minor league teams I think that is fine. I would like them to go after HS talent becuase then the org can mold it instead of a college coach who has no incentive to do what is best for the kid. His job is to win games, period.
I do think the signing of Kevin Towers as a consultant will be used to help the draft process. Towers came up as a scout before being a GM. I think he has an eye for talent. Some out there might say that the Padres farm was terrible. I would argue that the owner has to want a guy farm system and if he is limiting how much he could spend on the draft.
Regardless of if Towers helps out, I want Opp to start to take a few more risks to restock the system. I do think that this year could be a pivital one for the Yankees. Their farm system probably slipped to around 20th out of all MLB teams because of the trades and guys doing nothing but putting up terrible stats. Injuries also hurt the farm this year so I think that the Yankees need to draft aggressively this year to restock the farm.
So in the end I want the Yankees to give me upside or give me death.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Thise draft total numbers are a little deceiving.In 2008 the yanks didnt sign Gerritt Cole or their second round pick Scott Bittle. Cole most likely would have made up to 5 or 6 million dollars and Bittle would have made 500 or 600 grand. If you factor in those signing bonuses they would have been much higher.
ReplyDeleteCole was going to be around 3 million to 4 million with Bittle getting probably 600k or so. Yes they would have been higher but they would have still been under both the Red Sox and Royals for most money spent.
ReplyDeleteAlso compared to how much more money the Yankees spend on payroll to other teams they aren't outspending them on the draft to the same extent.