2008 Yankees Draft - Page 4 - Talksox

jacksonianmarch · 08-03-2008, 11:54 PM

Kyle Higashioka, the prep catcher who was commited to Cal has signed with the yankees. Lefty catcher with an advanced power stroke, rumored to have signed for 600-750K

Also signing was the yankees 50th round draft pick Nick Turley. Not your typical 50th round pick. He is a HS lefty who sits 88-91 mph. he was commited to UW and was a big bonus signee.

Of note, the yankees likely will not be signing Blake Monar, the big bonus requesting prep lefty. In his summer league, he is topping out at 84mph.

jacksonianmarch · 08-06-2008, 10:40 PM

http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/news/...=.jsp&c_id=nyy

Brett Marshall, the Texas HSer who fell due to bonus demands has signed with the yankees. He was signed in the 6th round, but he received supplemental pick money (as well as being the highest paid 6th rounder ever). Marshall sits mid 90s as an 18 yr old and already has a plus slider.

jacksonianmarch · 08-08-2008, 05:09 PM

DJ Mitchell, the yankees 10th round pick and another tough sign will be in to take his physical tomorrow and will sign his contract. Bonus speculation is in the neighborhood of 500K, or 2nd round money. He is a tall wiry pitcher out of Clemson who was taken late due to his bonus demands. He doesnt throw overly hard, but he has good location of a solid 4 pitch arsenal and his fastball has natural sink, sitting in the 90-92 range

TheKilo · 08-14-2008, 10:29 PM

Cole opts for college

TheKilo · 08-14-2008, 10:30 PM

NoMaas regarding Cole's signability:

1st round pick, Gerrit Cole (RHP) - Cole is as much of a lock as a Boras client can be. There’s no way he’s not signing.

jacksonianmarch · 08-14-2008, 11:37 PM

Bad, bad news.

jacksonianmarch · 08-14-2008, 11:58 PM

Losing Cole hurts. If this truly isnt a numbers issue then Cole is an idiot. He was looking at a 5-7 mil payday and he would have had a chance to play for the team he grew up loving. That being said, I am pretty upset he isnt signing. Not that we lost Cole, who I would have loved to have. But because of the other guys we could easily have had in that spot. Lobstein, Melville and Hunt would have been easy signs for us in that spot and passing on them for this kid will hurt. That being said, having another pick next yr will ease the pain a bit. But we lose a yr of development AND we lose a guy who was well better than where we selected him. I hope his arm explodes, the fuck.

TheKilo · 08-15-2008, 08:51 AM

Real nice, Jacko. He's a frigging kid for chrissakes.

ORS · 08-15-2008, 09:26 AM

Yeah, really. Nice perspective, doc.

jacksonianmarch · 08-16-2008, 01:00 AM

The sox outspent the yankees by nearly 5X on this draft (10mil to a bit over 2 mil). Someone has to pay for this. If the message to the fans is to rebuld from within, we sure are doing a poor job proving it. Time to fire someone. Damon Oppenheimer, the VP of Yankee scouting might be the place to start.

jacksonianmarch · 08-16-2008, 01:02 AM

and this is an offense that I could conceivably waive my Cashman allegiance for. This is a massive debachle. The 08 draft was a deep draft and we come away counting pennies while our chief rival splurges on top talent.

Gom · 08-16-2008, 05:57 AM

No, no. Cashman is awesome. Rebuilding the team from within. We should keep him because his direction is the right one. He knows what he's doing. Of course, we should blame Oppenheimer. After all, it's the scouting director who signs the players.

Finally, Doc. Nice to see you get your head out of you ass. Only took you almost 12,000 posts.

FIRE CASHMAN.

jacksonianmarch · 08-16-2008, 11:14 AM

Now that the booze is out of my system, I can think like a level headed individual. I just cannot seem to shake the thought of having Shooter Hunt, Tim Melville, Lobstein, or some of the other high end talents at that 1 spot. Regardless, having another first rounder next yr cannot hurt.

I do like the majority of this draft.

Just not signing your 1st and 2nd rounder hurts for this yr. Hopefully we draft right next yr. We'll have a ton of picks.

The supplemental pick, Bleich is a solid lefty starter. Problem is, he may need TJS, hence why he accepted below slot.

The third rounder, Dave Adams is a solid, Pedroia type 2b.

The fourth rounder, Corban Joseph, is killing the ball right now.

The fifth rounder, Chris Smith, has a lot of potential.

The sixth rounder, Brett Marshall, is a first round talent with high upside.

The seventh rounder, Kyle Higashioka, is a solid HS lefty swinging catcher with power

I like our 9th rounder, Mikey Obrien, a power armed HSer capable of sitting mid 90s

I like our 10th rounder, DJ Mitchell, who will run through the system quickly.

I also like some of the later picks in Lassiter and Richardson, both signability HSers.

What I dont like is the fact that we didnt take Cole's money and distribute it to some of our other signability cases. No Suiter, Dwyer, Monar, McMahon, Summers, etc. This is the travesty of the draft. We do have a ton of picks next yr and we should restock appropriately. At least we get the picks for next yr. Regardless, I dont think anyone should be fired. I just hope they know that they are a bit less secure than they had been.

Gom · 08-16-2008, 11:58 AM

You're smarter when you're drunk. Thought you'd finally made it to he land of sanity.

Seriously Jacko, at this point, you're just plain ignorant. Your defense of a GM that espouses trading youth for veterans, when coupled with an inability to sign the very young players he touts, when added to the knowledge of poor talent evaluation, is indefensible.

For some guy who does show a level of intelligence on most baseball matters [I thank you again for the primer on the young players in the system, many of which I'd never even heard of], you do not show the same objectivity towards your own. My rip on Cashman is that he is not that good. His track record is poor, given the advantage he was given and has, he is poor in talent evaluation, he is poor at signing free agent pitchers, and his supposed strength, player development, is now grossly inadequete. I fail to see anything this guy deserves accolades for with the exception of deadline deals.

The sad thing is, put me against this guy in any baseball management setting, and I'll have him for lunch. I'm also not a baseball guy, at least not for a living. I don't have the resources he has, and I out-think him. That's like me diagnosing patients better than you. It's more a knock on you being a shitty doctor than me being some sort of medicinal savant. Samt thing here. [I am not making a correlation at your abilities as a medical professional, I believe you are very good at your job].

There is no reason to retain a guy of this ability.

Let me go on record saying I like what he's trying to do. For both financial gains and long-term goals, building from within is the best way to do things. However, his methods are terrible. What he's saying is like when someone says "I want to work hard at my job to get promoted". Ok..but if you don't do it, you wouldn't get promoted. He talks a good game. In fact, that's about the only thing good about his game. Talking.

I fail to see a reason to support him. He doesn't sign players well. He doesn't trade well if it isn't a salary dump [although he isn't bad either]. He's poor at talent evaluation [we get a player who misses two seasons for Sheffield, we don't trade Kennedy, who at this point is a non-prospect]. He doesn't sign free agent pitchers well. He doesn't sign the players he drafts. What is it exactly you like about him that any intern in baseball can't do? This is New York doc. Doing a poor job shouldn't put you on notice. It should make you look for another job. He makes a million dollars a year, and for what? Fuck, I'll do the job for free and do it better. Sadly, you'd probably do a better job as well. Neither of us are baseball professionals. He needs to be terminated immediately and someone who understands the game needs to be put in charge.

Stick to medicine Doc.

jacksonianmarch · 08-16-2008, 09:13 PM

Well, you need to look at this thing without emotion, unfortunately. Bad things happen when you act impulsively.

We signed 4 HS pitchers. (more than we have in the 2005, 2006, and 2007 drafts combined)
Marshall and OBrien are very similar in that they throw very hard for 18 yr olds.
Richardson is a very solid HSer with a good arsenal and throws low 90s.
Nikolas Turley (our 50th rounder) might be the best of them all when it is all said and done, 6'7" lefty capable of throwing low 90s as an 18 yr old.

We drafted some highly talented high school position players
Corban Joseph is dominating the GCL right now. Chris Smith is a very projectable bat. Garrison Lassiter might end up being the best of them all. Lefty SS with a very advanced bat.

We drafted some college pitchers with lots of polish.
Bleich the best of the bunch, though he may need TJS. Mitchell was a tough sign who should rocket through the system. Phelps is another highly polished college pitcher who should move fast.

We drafted 2 solid college bats in the top 10 with Adams and Brewer. Maruszak and Lyon have hit the crap out of the ball thus far too.

The draft is a solid one. It has a lot of very young talent. I just wish we had the crown jewel, which we dont.