Bryan Hoch and Brian Cashman spoke recently and the Yankee GM discussed the importance of the draft.
SHAMELESS PLUG TIME
Don’t forget to tune into TYA’s draft coverage by reading up on Sean’s posts about draft targets.
Cashman called the draft “the most important day of the year” and stressed that the “amateur pipeline” is “the foundation of championships.” Obvious Cash is obvious? Whatever, it’s true. Look at the Yankees. The core of their championship teams was made up of players they drafted and/or signed as International Free Agents, and it obviously helped them win. Each successful Yankee team–read: every team since the mid-90′s–has had a great mix of homegrown talent with crucial trades and free agent acquisitions sprinkled in at just the right time and in just the right places.
This year is said to be an incredibly deep draft year and hopefully the Yankees can stock up an already vastly improved farm system with more high end talent this year. Of course, we can’t help but think that Cashman and Damon Oppenheimer are a little peeved about giving up that first round pick to sign eighth inning guy Rafael Soriano.
The MLB Draft is a much different animal than the NBA Draft or the NFL Draft. We crush on players that many of us have never seen play and probably never will say for years. Baseball teams don’t draft out of need–at least, they shouldn’t–but take the best player available who’ll help them later on. There is a distance in the MLB Draft, but I like that. To me, it matches up with the sport. Baseball, as I’ve said many times, baseball is a game of anticipation. It’s as much about what’s going to happen or what could happen as what’s currently happening. That’s the draft in a nutshell: Excitement about what could happen.
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3 Responses to Cash talks amateurs and Matt’s Draft Thoughts
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TIQ IQ
I imagine Cashman et al have moved on from Soriano. It’s not as if the odds of getting a star player are that good even in the late first round.
What is more disheartening – watching a highly touted prospect work his way through the system, dominating at every level, only to sputter out due to injury or the revelation that their AAAA skills don’t pan out in MLB; or seeing your team sign a free agent star who then implodes due to injury or a failure to cut it in the Big Apple?
Unfortunately, we have seen a lot of both, but I prefer the risks associated with solid scouting and drafting, developing and promoting, over shopping and buying. I think Oppenheimer has done a terrific job, it really isn’t his fault that the Yankees have been winners for so long, and been relegated to late round picks every year. And some really good MLB players have been drafted in later rounds or been scooped up as IFA’s.
Soriano hasn’t imploded yet. He could still be a big factor this season. Or next.