Tuesday, August 18, 2009
MLB.com: Yankees sign first two Draft picks
OAKLAND—The Yankees have added their top two choices from this year’s First-Year Player Draft, agreeing to terms on Monday with outfielder Slade Heathcott and catcher J.R. Murphy.
Heathcott received a $2.2 million signing bonus from New York after being taken with the 29th overall selection in June from Texas High School in Texarkana, Tex. He was the first position player taken in the first round by the Yankees since 2005.
“We’re looking at a high-end athlete with really good tools,” Yankees director of amateur scouting Damon Oppenheimer said recently. “He’s a guy that’s really intense about the way he plays the game.
“He’s an old-school guy in terms of the way he plays; he plays hard and gets after it. You’re talking about someone that has a chance to be really pretty good.”
Murphy, a power-hitting and strong-armed catcher from the Pendleton School in Bradenton, Fla., received $1.25 million. The Yankees also signed Vanderbilt right-hander Caleb Cotham, their fifth-round selection, to a $675,000 bonus.
I thought the Yankees were required to take RHP with every first round pick? Good news anyway.
Comments
I am so sick of catching prospects.
Tigers just picked up Aubrey Huff for nothing. He’s having a crap year but he’s a good fit there.
Mercifully I missed last night’s game. When do the Yankees play games in 2:15?? In the post game I kept hearing how they hit so many line drives. Was that true or a PR myth? For a team that scores a lot of runs we sure are feast or famine. Friday’s game we score two of the chintziest runs and Saturday’s game we benifitted from a missed fly ball. Sunday we scored three. Beckett, Lester and even Buccholz totally shut us down while we scored double digits against Smoltz and in Thursday’s game. You just can’t figure baseball.
You just can’t figure baseball.
Don’t even try, Susyn. Anybody who thinks they can predict baseball ought to have his head examined, if you’ll pardon the expression. How do ya like that!
Baseball America is showing the Yanks signed 27 players, including 10 or 11 out of the first 12 picks. Seems like the 2009 is a great shot in the arm, talent-wise, for the Yanks farm.
[1] But besides pitching prospects, aren’t catching prospects the most valuable? Makes sense to stockpile the farm with valuable trade assets, considering the Yankees don’t usually give more than one positional player per season a chance to break into the starting line-up.
[3] The Yankees were quite unlucky last night. Take the 8th inning for example - Jeter lead off with a single, Damon misses a double down the RF line by less than a foot then rips a line drive right at Ellis, Teix flies out to deep deep CF, ARod walks after just missing a XBH down the RF line by inches, and Posada gets called out on strikes. They really could have scored 3 runs that inning.
That’s before mentioning the inning that they had the bases loaded with one out and ARod grounded into the 1-2-3 DP. It was 0-0 at that point and that completely changed the game.
[4] +1000000!
[6] Re-tune that irony meter.
I wish the Yankees had managed to sign 17th rounder Chad Thompson, and I would have liked to see them mix in a few more big upside guys than they did, but it wasn’t a bad draft. Neil Medchill is off to a good start. I’m not crazy about Heathcott as a first rounder, but at least he has the upside to make me feel like a moron for writing that on a public internet board.
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