Fabian, yeah, they pick 30th and then 95. As I posted here a few days ago, the absurdity of the new agreement resulted in 35 compensation picks.

Anyway, Moutakas has potential 80 power. He will be a hard sign as per the reasons I gave. That’s the kind of move this organization needs to do.

Given the way the major league club has underperformed (for which Cash cannot reasonably escape some responsibility), he needs to make a bold move(s) in the draft to divert attention from it (at least temporarily). Consequently, I would expect a dynamic draft strategy that is similar to last year’s, but perhaps with a greater emphasis on position players.

I don’t know if that will help Rich. Most people don’t care about the draft. It’s just a bunch of kids that nobody has heard of. I follow the players after the draft. But I must admit that I don’t have a clue who they are prior to the draft.

I’m looking at the draft order and it seems starnge that The Mutts get the same compensation for Roberto Hernandez that the A’s get for Barry Zito. And how does Boston get two picks for a guy who retired?  Like all things involving tehor that seems dirty and dishonest.  Are Roberto Hernancez, Woody Williams, Frank Catalanotto, Dave Roberts, etc. really worth two draft picks?  Will we be compensated if we don’t pick up Abreu’s option and he walks?  I hope so. 

Also, is it fair to say that while Eric Duncan certainly may be a decent major leaguer one day, he is no longer a star prospect?  They better be aggressive with the foreigners- get some athletes who can both handle the stick and catch the ball and go for teh same kind of player in the draft.  Obviously grab a stud arm if it comes to you.

The draft compensation is based on numbers that I think Elias puts together, and is based on 2 seasons worth of data, and then where a player fits into that.  Sometimes it definitely seems odd where players get ranked.  I’m sure Fabian can explain it better.

I believe if the Yankees don’t pick up the option, and Abreau gets signed before early December (the 7th?), they get picks.  If he is signed after that December date, then the Yankees need to offer him arbitration to get compensation.

I think Duncan is still a prospect, but has gone from being an “A” to maybe a low “B”, or even C+.  I think he’s still young for the league he is in, so that goes in his favor.  And his numbers - though not good for a 1B - aren’t horrible (though his recent slump makes them look horrible).  I agree though that he definitely needs to show something at AAA this year.  Like at least have an 850 OPS by year’s end.

Duncan is like a C- prospect at this point. He’s solid defensively and can draw the occasional walk or hit the occasional homer, but his approach/swing has serious flaws because it results in him not having the luck on balls in play that he should. He pops up A LOT!

As far as draft compensation, it is based on two years worth of data and done by ELIAS and that is why a lot of times you get results that seem weird because as fans when we think of free agents we tend to think of what they did last year or are going to do next year as opposed to what they’ve done the last two years only.

I agree with Dave M about the draft not REALLY being able to do that much for Cashman.

When was the last time that a draftee played for the major league team the same year he was drafted?  When was the last time a draftee made an impact?  Really, I’m just curious.  But it’s probably been quite some time, so I think the best you could expect from a Yankees draft pick this year is to make AA before the year is out, and even THAT is a stretch.

I don’t think anyone here believes the 2007 draft will help the big ball club for a few years, least of all in 2007. But then this is the Yankee minor league blog. So why even bring up helping Cashman or the Yankees this year?

A productive draft may not have a salutary effect with regard to the way Cash is perceived by the media or the fan base, but it may affect the way he is perceived by his bosses.

In the absence of dramatically improved play on the field, or a trade that makes a big splash, it may be the only opportunity he has to demonstrate his competence to them.

I doubt that. Besides, if Tampa still maintains too much control over the draft we will have another bad draft, not another 2006.

Kennedy didn’t disappoint today:
6 2/3 IP, 2 H (0 XBH), 3 BB, 11 K, 0 R

Something odd I noticed: there was a ROE against him, which is already the 11th of the year.  Not sure if it’s just the defense, or if he’s giving up a lot of hard hit groundballs that have found fielders.  I’ve always felt, although have no idea if it’s true, that when flyball pitchers get a groundball, it tends to be harder hit more often than when a groundball pitcher does, and of course vice versa with groundball pitchers and flyballs.

Not sure if that’s happening with Kennedy, but he’s certainly been an extreme flyball pitcher, which is one reason why I’m still not sold on his performance.  He’s given up too many linedrives, too, but has made up for that by getting quite a few popups.

My boy Cervelli also had a big night going 1 for 3 with a SF and a Grand Slam.  Guess I spoke to soon about his XBH not going for HR.

Oppenheimer ran the last draft under Cashman’s supervision. That’s the reason that they drafted so many high ceiling prospects with signability issues.

I see no reasonable basis for thinking that Cashman won’t do that again this year.

Rich, that’s the hope. Maybe Cashman got a quid pro quo from George over the Clemens deal.

This is Fabian writing from the laptop/username of one of my friends from school…my laptop died last night, which means if there is an update today it will most likely be late. More importantly, I was on page 15 of my 20 page paper that is due today, and now I have nothing because I only had it saved to my hard drive. I was also on page 6 of my 9 page paper due Friday and that is gone as well. If someone knows what to do when your computer is telling you that you have a system32 error or something, please post it.

Can you boot in DOS mode?  And/or if you currently have a floppy drive installed, see if you can get a boot-disk created for you.  Not sure of the error itself, but at least if you can get into DOS mode somehow, you should be able to get to your C:\ drive, and copy your files onto a floppy or something.  I’m not sure if you’re CD writer will work if you can’t boot Windows (you could try booting Windows in Safe Mode as well), and to use a USB drive I think you would need to manually mount it (you should be able to Google how to do that).

Other than that if your hard-drive is totally fried or something I would call whoever you use for computer service ASAP, whether it is Dell or someone local.  Somebody should be able to at least get you your files.

Mike K. - for what it’s worth, Andrew Miller was up with Detroit last Sept. after being drafted in June. He did okay, but Leyland claims that he was going to put him on the WS roster if they faced the Mets. I don’t believe that for a second though.

Hall o’ Fame Hansen was up with the Sawx in 2005 right after being drafted, but he wasn’t very productive.

The last guy I can remember than came up and had success right after being drafted was Ryan Wagner, but he didn’t sustain it.

Thanks.  Stuff I didn’t know before, but do now.

Tyler Clippard came out after one inning (24 pitches) today. If he’s not hurt, they probably pulled him so they can have him start against the Mets on Sunday.

I was at the game, he didn’t look injured when he came off the mound.  The first thing that came into my mind was that he was getting called up.

Was kind of frustrating, because the only reason why I went to the game was to see him pitch.

Yeah, he’ll pitch Sunday against the Mets.

For the record, Ryan Zimmerman reached the major leagues in the same year that he was drafted and hit .370 or so over the final month. Brandon Morrow of Seattle and Joe Smith of the Mets are players who have succeeded the year after being drafted.  In any case, a good draft is very unlikely to produce help for the 2007 big league club.  What it can do is restore Cashman’s reputation as a quality talent evaluator, at least in the eyes of hardcore fans and possibly people in the Yankee organization.  The people who boo A-Rod probably don’t know much about the minor leaguer and certainly won’t be placated by a quality draft.