John Sickels posted a fantastic interview with Yankee Vice President of Baseball Operations Mark Newman today. My favorite part comes right at the beginning:
SICKELS: Most experts see the Yankees farm system as above-average right now, not as robust as Kansas City or Tampa Bay, but in good shape with talent on the way up. You have a lot of strength in pitching and at least a couple of impact bats. What do you see as the strengths of the system. And what are your weaknesses, areas you want to improve?
NEWMAN: Our strength is clearly in upper-level pitching. We have several high-ceiling arms who will be at the Double-A and Triple-A levels this year and will be in the majors within a year or two. We have pitchers who can be high-end rotation members, it is our obvious strength. Our second strength is behind the plate. We like the catching, we have depth there as well as high-ceiling options, great depth at a premium position. I also like our group of center fielders. Slade Heathcott, Mason Williams, and Melky Mesa all have the tools to play center and we think they all have a good chance to hit. Angelo Gums may end up there too. So, I would say pitching, catching, and center field are our strengths.
SICKELS: What about your weaknesses?
NEWMAN: Corner players with power. We have (Brandon) Laird who is a solid prospect, but we are thin for corner bats otherwise in the system. We always try to take the best players available in the draft and on the international market, and doing that can result in positional imbalance. We’re aware of it, but we would rather get as many high-end athletes as we can and worry about the rest of it later. In a perfect world you get both, of course, high-end guys who fill up the slots you need to fill.
I’m glad that Newman acknowledges the team’s difficulty in developing, particularly at the draft, corner players with real power. Jesus Montero is absolutely a power hitter, and Gary Sanchez profiles that way too, but for the most part the Yankees have struggled to find any real power hitters in their system. Kelvin De Leon is probably a bust by this point, but he represented another attempt at a 30+ home run hitter. Its no coincidence that all three are big-money international free agents. The Yankees have mostly stuck with fast, middle of the field types at the draft rather than going for less athletic middle of the order position players. That’s something they need to improve on.
Thinking about it, the Yankees haven’t developed a power prospect at the draft in a very long time. Robinson Cano and Alfonso Soriano were both international free agents. You need to go back to Mike Lowell to find a drafted Yankee hitter with power.
I recommend reading the whole thing. Sickels asks the right questions about the right players, and I’ve always regarded Newman as very frank when he is talking about players in the organization.
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7 Responses to John Sickels Interviews Mark Newman
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Wow! Kelvin de Leon is already a bust? You guys are tough.
I think it is too early for that, but I do believe it is time for him to show at least a modicum of ability to decipher the zone.
“probably” was a big word, but De Leon hasn’t shown a thing outside of batting practice at this point. He’s still 20, but I don’t think there’s reason to consider him all that much of a prospect at this point. If he wasn’t signed for as much as he was, he wouldn’t be on the radar.
Melky Mesa has pretty good power too. But yeah, not from the draft.
Maybe, the “concentrate on up the middle talent” model should be a long term strategy. It seems there will always be a market for this kind of talent. Using free agency + trading of surplus high demand (C,P,CF) should be able to fill the corners.
If you think about it, and cheat a little by swapping Gardner and Granderson, it’s exactly that model today.
Yeah, I don’t disagree with that, and that’s pretty much what Sickels and Newman talked about. Still, I think its pretty important to have the ability to draft and develop sluggers in your toolbox, even if the overall strategy is to go another way.
If Anderson Feliz pans out, maybe in 4 years Cano moves to third, A-Rod becomes the DH, and someone takes over at SS? Whether all of that happens or not, in 4 years the infield will look pretty different. The only likely constant will be Teixera at first.