Expanded Draft Reactions

I’ll be back to chime in if the Yankees do anything interesting in the late Day 3 rounds. For now, I’d like to say a few things.

I still don’t really know what to make of the Cito Culver pick. The Yankees are definitely betting that their judgment on the kid is better than everyone else’s. That’s not necessarily a knock on the Yankees – its definitely a confident move on their part – but it makes the pick less safe. Culver isn’t heading to the best baseball program in the world at the University of Maryland, so he shouldn’t be a tough sign. Considering that this was a fairly weak draft, the Yankees may have elected to go for the cheaper player and put their money into later round signability or IFAs.

The Yankees drafted a really interesting mix of players yesterday. They added a ton of college relief pitchers, or college pitchers with a certain future in the bullpen, and a lot of athletic high school talent. In the middle-upper rounds, they took college corner infielder sluggers Robert Segedin and Kyle Roller. Segedin is by far the better player, but Roller had a pretty impressive college career in the same solid conference.

The focus on relief pitching is strange, if not a bit bewildering. The Yankees have been very successful at raising experienced big program college starting pitchers, but increasingly are finding that there is little room in the organization for them. The Pirates love the Yankees for it, but the team isn’t getting a whole lot out of developing pitchers good enough for the AL Central but not good enough for the AL East. They may not have that same problem with college relief pitchers. At least that’s how I read this draft.

The toolsy high school players, on the other hand, is refreshing. I love DeAngelo Mack, Colin Curtis and all the other low ceiling college hitters that the Yankees have brought in recently, but besides Kevin Russo and Brett Gardner, they don’t have a whole lot to show for a lot of drafted hitters. The high school picks are riskier, but there’s a great chance of developing a real pro in the group. They have also proven, with Austin Jackson, Austin Romine, Jesus Montero, and others, to be good at teaching raw young hitters to play good baseball.

As always, I will reserve from grading the draft until the August signing deadline. As we saw with the Cole pick in 2008, a good looking draft can be look disastrous when players start to slip through your fingers. We’ll also see if the Yankees draft budget has been further slashed from past years.

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