2008 Yankees Draft

[jacksonianmarch]

Speaking of the draft, time for a 1 yr recap.

1st round supplemental pick Jeremy Bleich is in HiA, he has started 12 games, throwing 66IP, with an ERA of 3.96 and a WHIP of 1.34. Not great, but certainly holding his own after skipping lowA

3rd round pick David Adams is holding his own in LoA Charleston. He has 21 doubles in 210ABs, but no homers. His BA is .280 and his OBP .370, so he is certainly doing his job at the top of the order. The lack of homers is concerning, though.

4th round pick Corban Joseph was set for short season, but was called up due to an injury to Garrison Lassiter. After starting out hot, he has fallen on hard time with a line of .253/.327/.341.

5th round pick Chris Smith sucked ass last yr in his short time in short season and has been unimpressive thus far in extended ST. He will be in the GCL this yr and will need to improve to reach his initial potential

6th rounder, Brett Marshall, started the yr off terribly in LoA Charleston. But he has righted the ship of late over his last 6 starts...34IP 25H 8ER 15BB 28K for a line of 2.11ERA 1.17WHIP and a 7.4K/9IP. He remains the highest ceiling pitcher in this draft class.

7th rounder Kyle Higashioka will be the starting catcher for Staten Island this yr. They start in a week or so.

8th rounder Daniel Brewer is killing the ball in Charleston and is begging for a promotion. He's hitting .325 with an .876OPS.

9th rounder Mikey O'Brien will be in the rotation for Staten Island

10th rounder DJ Mitchell has been the sleeper of the draft. He started off in LoA Charleston, where he dominated (42K in 37IP, 1.00WHIP, 1.95ERA). He has since moved to Tampa where his peripherals remain awesome (31K in 26.1IP, 1.21WHIP) but his ERA is at 4.78. He was a solid pick to this point

Other guys to follow outside the top 10 picks....

Garrison Lassiter skipped Staten Island to start the yr and went directly to LoA Charleston, where he held his own. He hit .271 with an OBP of .342 before getting injured. He is expected back for the short season teams and should be the starting 3b for Staten Island

Matt Richardson will be in the rotation for Staten Island as well.

Kyle Turley will be in the rotation in Staten Island. O'Brien, Turley and Richardson will make a heck of a top 3 for SI, and all three will be watched closely as they are high end HS prospects. Couple them with Marshall, who made the jump to Charleston, and the HS pitching out of this draft has promise.

And Pat Venditte keeps plugging along. The switch pitcher has served as the closer for LoA Charleston and he has just dominated. 38K in 27IP with only 2ER allowed is impressive. He will likely find it much harder as he moves through the system and faces more advanced hitter who arent shaken by the novelty.

Overall, I think this draft is starting to show that it has a lot of potential. But it is a weaker draft as compared to 2007 and 2006 in terms of true high end talent. If every player reaches their potential, I think only one guy is a potential top of the rotation starter (Marshall) with the rest falling into the #2-#4 slots. And on the offensive side, I think only 2 guys have middle of the order potential in Joseph and Lassiter, while the rest slot into the bottom of the order (Adams and Higashioka) or not into the lineup at all. Here is to hoping tonight and the next few days bring brighter things.