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Yankees stick to draft plan, continue to strengthen already deep system

By Chris Carelli |
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The New York Yankees have gone to great lengths over the last several seasons to strengthen their farm system and emphasize the importance of growing talent in the minor leagues through the amateur draft and international signings. While fans of the other 29 MLB teams view the Yankees as a cash cow, anyone who truly examines the club can see that the Yankees are in the midst of balancing young talent with pricey superstars.

The Yankees amateur scouting department led by Damon Oppenheimer and overseen by general manager Brian Cashman, began the 2012 MLB First-Year Player Draft with two goals in mind. First, solidify the system with powerful upside arms and continue to build up the middle (C, 2B/SS and CF). Next, the Yankees set out to select players who may be closer to MLB-ready by gathering college-level talent. They succeeded in both respects.

Before the draft began Cashman noted that while the Yankees would typically shoot for the “best available player”, there was a caveat to that phrase, used by many around baseball, which was the player had to have the ability to survive the Bronx pressure cooker. The Yankees besides evaluating talent on the field put plenty of effort on determining the mindset of the players they rank highest on their draft boards.

With their first round pick, 30th overall, the Yankees went with high school right-hander Ty Hensley. Hensley entered the draft ranked by some evaluators in the mid-20’s or low 30’s among all draft prospects, though many of those same pundits had Hensley going as low as 18th in the draft. Hensley touts a low 90’s fastball which peaks around 94-mph. He is a confident young man as witnessed in his conference call after being selected. Here is Hensley, taken from the transcript provided by the LoHud Yankees Blog:

I think my number one strength is definitely my aptitude. I’m able to make adjustments on the fly and to learn from pitch to pitch and not let it carry over. I need to work on refining my command, my mechanics, which will come with time and repetition. That’s what I need to work on. I feel confident in all my pitches.

Remember folks, this is an 18-year-old, not a seasoned veteran. His comment displays a person who understands his potential but also realizes the work involved in getting there. He seems to fit the mold the Yankees desire. Here is Oppenheimer on 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)

Oppenheimer mentions two necessary components of the Yankees focus, ‘power stuff’ and ‘quality makeup’. The makeup of a player is very hard to address at this age. A person’s attitude has more or less formed by 18-years-old, so measuring this is important to the Yankees. Mechanics, of which Hensley points to as an improvement area, and which many analysts tend to agree, are something that can be honed as he works his way through the system. It takes a grounded person to demonstrate and exude confidence while knowing he has room to improve.

Speaking of the system, the Yankees have a couple highly touted catchers in Austin Romine (currently on the minor league DL with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre) and Gary Sanchez who was just named to the Class A South Atlantic League All-Star Team at the age of 19, who exemplify the Yankees depth behind the plate. Romine is ranked #7 among all Yankees prospects by MLB.com. Sanchez is ranked #3, both among Yankees prospects, as well as all catching prospects by MLB.com. Furthermore, Sanchez lands at #47 overall. This did not stop the Yankees from grabbing more backstops. (continued next page)

With their third pick (94th overall) the Yankees began their trend of drafting college-level players going with University of Miami senior catcher Peter O’Brien. O’Brien is 6’4″, 225 pounds with power and agility behind the plate. The Yankees have not outwardly made their intentions known with this pick, but it does provide them with even more depth at the catcher position. The Yankees added two more catchers, Christopher Breen in the 12th round and Dalton Smith in the 36th round. This give the Yankees the ability to use one of their current minor league catchers, though not necessarily Romine or Sanchez, in a trade for whatever they deem necessary as the July 31st trading deadline approaches.

The Yankees stayed up the middle with seven more of their picks (making it ten in total or just over 24% of their selections). Beginning with second round pick, Austin Aune (89th overall), who will be converting to center field after playing predominately at shortstop during his high school career, the Yankees fulfilled their plan to go with middle of the field players. They grabbed second baseman Rob Refsnyder (5th round), center fielder Taylor Dugas (8th round) and shortstop Michael Reynolds (20th round) among them. Reynolds was the first of three shortstops selected who are college-level players.

There were a total of 27 total collegiate players drafted by the Yankees against 14 high school athletes, or just about two-thirds of all their picks. The reasoning for this could simply be the desire to provide some balance to the system where most of the heavy talent resides in the lower levels of the system, especially in Single-A ball, aside from starting pitchers Dellin Betances and Manny Banuelos who are in Triple-A.

The addition of college players, while not a foolproof plan, could give the Yankees some quick movers in the system, which will either pan out for their own use or as an asset down the road. To that point, Oppenheimer mentioned in a conference call (transcript courtesy of the LoHud Yankees Blog here), that each player was selected with the feeling that they’d help the organization directly on the field or as a commodity.

We think it’s a good haul. We think we have a good group of guys. … I think it was a diverse group and a group that’s got talent. It should give us some guys who are going to impact the Yankees, whether it’s in New York or who are going to give us some depth in the organization.

There is no denying that the Yankees have the ability to utilize their wealth when they need to, or want to, but with the Steinbrenner family expressing a full commitment to lowering payroll to $189 million by 2014, the draft process has become an integral aspect of their plans. Finding and grooming young talent which is ripe with upside as with many of the high school athletes selected, as well as determining which college players can be successful and move up the ladder quickly, is essential to the overall plan for the Yankees.

Building a system that was once fully depleted has become the cornerstone of an effort to give rise to home grown players who can wear the New York Yankees pinstripes or for use as a tool to lure talent away from teams who have failed to keep pace with their own minor league systems.

The Yankees have a plan and it doesn’t involve outspending their opponents or unloading all their minor league talent at once. Instead it rests with development at each level of the system and patience with player’s growth. This mindset provides the ability to use their minor league players to fill in gaps in New York or package them for players elsewhere. A minor league system that was once barren is beginning to overflow with talent.

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