Yankees draft Ty Hensley with 30th overall pick

The New York Yankees found themselves in a positive situation during last night’s draft as Ty Hensley, an 18-year-old, 6’4″ 220 right-handed senior from Edmond Santa Fe High School in Oklahoma was available to them after 29 selections in the first round of the 2012 MLB First-Year Draft.

Hensley was projected as the potential 18th pick to the Los Angeles Dodgers by ESPN’s Keith Law, Baseball America’s Jim Callis and MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo. Baseball-Prospectus prospect guru Kevin Goldstein, had Hensley landing up the California coast in San Francisco with the 20th pick. FanSided’s Seedlings to Stars had Hensley heading to the nation’s capital with the Washington Nationals’ first pick (16th overall). Whichever way you look at the projections and the Yankees were happy Hensley was available to them with the 30th overall pick.

Hensley was 10-0 with a 1.52 ERA in 11 games this past season. He struck out a ridiculous 111 batters in 55.1 innings. Hensley won the 2012 Gatorade Oklahoma Baseball Player of the Year Award.

The word on Hensley is he’s got a plus fastball which settles in the 91/92 mph region, but can reach 94. His curveball is of the hard 12-to-6 variety and an above average pitch. The critique of Hensley is his mechanics. All the analysts believe he has plenty of raw material to work with and give him a fairly high ceiling.

The Yankees made Hensley the fifth straight high school player selected with their first pick in the draft. Yankees Vice President of Amateur Scouting, Damon Oppenheimer, had this to say of Hensley.

We’re excited to get a guy with such a high ceiling. He has the ideal body for a high school pitcher, as well as power stuff, and has the ability to be a high-end starter. He’s demonstrated a quality makeup and has shown himself to be a hard worker, which makes him a quality pick for us. (MLB.com)

Hensley tweeted that he couldn’t have asked for a better situation.

The draft continues with the second round today at noon ET. The Yankees have two selections in round two (#89 and #94) and will select a total of eleven players in the first ten rounds, which are subject to the new bonus pool allotment. The Yankees have $4,192,200 in their pool and expect to stay within the threshold as penalties are stiff.

The Yankees will most likely look to continue building pitching and areas up the middle; catcher, middle infield and center field.