Mike TroutNo. 25, 2009
David PriceNo. 1, 2007
Justin VerlanderNo. 2, 2004
Buster PoseyNo. 5, 2008
Joe MauerNo. 1, 2001
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A friend asked me a simple question recently: “Why don’t the Yankees have any star young players like Mike Trout and Bryce Harper?”
And while there are no one-size-fits-all answers, I did reply, “would it be OK with you if the Yankees lost 95 games?”
Because the easiest way to obtain a young star is to do so high in the draft. But tomorrow — for the 20th straight year — the Yankees will not have a pick in the top half of the first round of the MLB draft. In fact, in the past two decades the highest the Yankees have picked is 17th. Usually, it is in the 20s, sometimes in the 30s and in two extreme cases not until the 51st and 71st selections (with that 71st pick they took current Browns quarterback Brandon Weeden in 2002 as the next-to-last pick of a second round that included Joey Votto, Jon Lester, Brian McCann and Jonathan Broxton).
This is what happens when you win 90-plus games consistently and sign free agents that cost draft-pick compensation. The last time the Yankees had a top-10 pick was 1992 and they took a fella named Jeter with the sixth selection. The following year they picked 13th, took Matt Drews (whom they later turned into Cecil Fielder during the 1996 title season) and finished above .500 for the first of what is now 20 straight seasons (which is draft death).
This is not to exonerate some pretty shabby drafting by the organization over the past 20 years, but merely to explain how difficult it is to find true difference makers without high picks. Yes, you will hear plenty about the 10th-round guy who made it big. But the reality is that is the outlier.
Consider this: Of the 74 players at last year’s All-Star Game, 57 were drafted and 31 of those (54.4 percent) went in the first round — and 22 were not available when it was the Yankees turn to pick.
Think Justin Verlander, David Price, Ryan Braun, Joe Mauer, Andrew McCutchen, Matt Cain, etc. Five drafted players won major awards last year (AL MVP Miguel Cabrera was signed as an amateur our of Venezuela) and all five were taken before the Yankees ever picked: Cy Young winners David Price and R.A. Dickey (yep, he was the 18th pick in the 1996 draft when he still had a legit fastball), NL MVP Buster Posey and both Rookies of the Year, Bryce Harper and Mike Trout.
Trout actually was the second-ranked player on the Yankees’ board in June 2009 behind only Stephen Strasburg, but the Angels took him 25th overall with a compensation pick for losing Mark Teixeira to the Yankees as a free agent.
The Yankees get to players such as Teixeira, CC Sabathia and Nick Swisher through free agency or trades because they were not available to them on draft day.
“It is my job to make sure we never pick that high,” general manager Brian Cashman said. “But if you don’t pick in the top 10, yes, you will have a much tougher time finding top talent.”
Again, this is not to alibi for the Yankees. They have not done well in the first round aside from Eric Milton (1996, 20th pick), Phil Hughes (2004, 23rd pick), and Ian Kennedy and Joba Chamberlain (the 21st and 41st picks in 2006). In their worst miss, with that 17th pick in 2005, the Yankees took C.J. Henry, and behind them — before the first round was done — the Red Sox snagged Jacoby Ellsbury, Clay Buchholz and Jed Lowrie.
In perhaps the most delicious what-if, the Yankees had three first-round picks in 2001, two of them before the Mets selected 38th. The Yankees took John-Ford Griffin 23rd and Bronson Sardinha 34th, and the Mets took David Wright 38th.
The Yankees again have three first-round picks this year — two supplemental selections for losing free agents Swisher and Rafael Soriano. But, again, those come at Nos. 26, 32 and 33.
“It means we will have a chance to get a quality player or players,” Cashman said.
History says the Yankees might even have difficulty finding just someone of quality.
Limited threats for NL Cy
It Is quite possible Clayton Kershaw is just going to win another NL Cy Young award, considering he is a pitching genius at the peak of his skills.
For now, though, it appears as if Matt Harvey, Arizona’s Patrick Corbin and St. Louis’ Shelby Miller are going to at least push Kershaw to be great if the lefty is to win the award for the second time in three years (he finished second last season to R.A. Dickey).
Well, Miller is a rookie, and Harvey and Corbin were rookies last year. Thus, I wondered if their bids for the Cy could be derailed by innings caps because Corbin has never previously thrown more than 186 1/3 innings in a pro season, Harvey 169 1/3 and Miller 149 1/3 .
Mets manager Terry Collins said there is no set limit on Harvey, but the organization has talked about not letting him stray beyond 210 innings, which would be about a 40-inning jump and a total that would probably not much hinder his Cy try.
Arizona GM Kevin Towers said of restricting Corbin, “We have not set an inning cap. We are old school here in Arizona. The more innings, the better!”
Cardinals GM John Mozeliak said, “Clearly we are going to do what is best for the player and his future. With regard to set innings or pitch count restrictions, we publicly do not discuss those for the main reason things change.”