Original Draft Series: #6 – New York Yankees

For those that missed the guidelines I am using for this series of posts, you can find them here.

Team #6: New York Yankees

General Managers(since 1998)

Gene Michael (1994-1995): 149-108
Bob Watson (1996-1997): 188-136
Brian Cashman (1998-Current): 1177-763

Team Performance

Playoffs			Division Finish
WC	League	Playoff App	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Last
5	7	15	12	3	1	0	0

All information is drawn from Baseball Reference.

Position	Name	Acquired	Years with Org.	Stats with Organization	Left?
C	Jorge Posada	1990 – 24th Rd	20	5 All Star Appearances, 5 Silver Sluggers 1693 gm, .277/.378/.481, 260 HR, 1015 RBI	Currently with Org.
1B	Nick Johnson	1996 – 3rd Rd	7+1	272 gm, .249/.378/.414, 33 HR, 121 RBI	Currently with Org.
2B	Robinson Cano	Int’l FA – 2001	9	2 All Star Appearances, 1 Silver Slugger, 869 gm, .308/.346/.490, 113 HR, 487 RBI, 19 SB	Currently with Org.
3B	Mike Lowell	1995 – 20th Rd	3	8 gm, .267/.267/.267	Traded to FLA – 2/1/99
SS	Derek Jeter	1992 -1st Rd (6)	18	1996 AL Rookie of the Year, 11 All Star Appearances, 3 Silver Sluggers, 3 Gold Gloves 2271 gm, .314/.385/.454, 234 HR, 1128 RBI, 320 SB	Currently with Org.
LF	Alfonso Soriano	Purchased from Japan – 1998	5	2 All Star Appearances, 1 Silver Slugger 501 gm, .284/.322/.502, 98 HR, 270 RBI, 121 SB	Traded to TEX – 2/16/04
CF	Austin Jackson	2005 – 8th Rd	4	No Major League Appearances with Org.	Traded to DET – 12/8/09
RF	Brett Gardner	2005 – 3rd Rd	5	278 gm, .271/.361/.368, 8 HR, 82 RBI, 79 SB	Currently with Org.
DH	Hideki Matsui	Int’l FA – 2002	7	2 All Star Appearances 916 gm, .292/.370/.482, 140 HR, 597 RBI	Left via Free Agency – 11/9/09
SP	Andy Pettitte	1990 – 22nd Rd	17	3 All Star Appearances 203-111, 3.97 ERA, 2522.1 IP, 1812 K, 817 BB	Currently with Org.
SP	Phil Hughes	2004 – 1st Rd (23)	6	1 All Star Appearance 29-16, 4.16 ERA, 342 IP, 300 K, 120 BB	Currently with Org.
SP	Ian Kennedy	2006 – 1st Rd (21)	3	1-4, 6.03 ERA, 59.2 IP, 43 K, 37 BB	Traded to ARI – 12/8/09
SP	Daniel McCutchen	2006 – 13th Rd	2	No Major League Appearances with Org.	Traded to PIT – 7/26/08
SP	Chien-Ming Wang	Int’l FA – 2000	9	55-26, 4.16 ERA, 670.2 IP, 310 K, 197 BB	Non-Tendered 12/12/09
RP	Phil Coke	2002 – 26th Rd	7	5-3, 3.74 ERA, 131 IP, 110 K, 43 BB	Traded to DET – 12/8/09
RP	Tyler Clippard	2003 – 9th Rd	4	3-1, 6.33 ERA, 27 IP, 18 K, 17 BB	Traded to WAS – 12/4/07
RP	David Robertson	2006 – 17th Rd	4	8-5, 4.07 ERA, 121.2 IP, 157 K, 65 BB	Currently with Org.
RP	Joba Chamberlain	2006 – 1st Rd (41)	4	17-13, 3.80 ERA, 3 SV, 340.2 IP, 345 K, 141 BB	Currently with Org.
RP	Jose Contreras	Int’l FA – 2003	2	15-7, 4.64 ERA, 166.2 IP, 154 K, 72 BB	Traded to CHW – 7/31/04
CL	Mariano Rivera	Int’l FA – 1990	20	11 All Star Appearances 74-54, 2.20 ERA, 555 SV, 1140.2 IP, 1047 K, 265 BB	Currently with Org.
BN	Francisco Cervelli	Int’l FA – 2003	7	125 gm, .263/.318/.331, HR, 43 RBI	Currently with Org.
BN	Ramiro Pena	Int’l FA – 2005	5	144 gm., .256/.288/.312, HR, 28 RBI, 10 SB	Currently with Org.
BN	Melky Cabrera	Int’l FA – 2001	8	569 gm, .269/.331/.385, 36 HR, 228 RBI, 44 SB	Traded to ATL – 12/22/09
BN	Shelley Duncan	2001 – 2nd Rd	8	68 gm, .219/.290/.411, 8 HR, 24 RBI	Left via Free Agency – 11/25/09
BN	Marcus Thames	1996 – 30th Rd	6+1	71 gm, .298/.369/.539, 12 HR, 32 RBI	Currently with Org.

June Amateur Draft

The Yankees have really not done very much in the draft, and there’s probably two main reasons for that: 1) They generally have picks later in the round due to all this winning, and 2) They’ve had a tendency to sign Type-A free agents and lose their draft picks as compensation. That said, they still have found some very good players through the draft. Clearly the best one has to be Derek Jeter, who will end up in the Hall of Fame one day. Of late, they’ve gotten solid performance or value out of recent 1st rounders Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, and Ian Kennedy. Jorge Posada was someone who I thought was an international free agent, but was actually drafted and has clearly been elite at times as well.

International Free Agency

The Yankees have done their best work in the international free agent market, with so many players found out of the Dominican Republic and of course Japan as well. So many of them have either turned into excellent players themselves (Rivera, Matsui, Cano), or have been turned into key players at the time (Contreras, Soriano, Cabrera). Clearly, not all of their work in this market has been amazing (See Igawa, Kei), but with the amount that they spend on payroll they clearly have the ability to absorb any issues.

Overall Grade

A. The Yankees receive my first grade of A, mostly because the team has managed to find homegrown players for nearly every position and part of the rotation. That said,  I think they are behind the rest of the teams left because they simply have the ability to absorb such large contracts and can literally outbid other teams if they want a player bad enough. I do think it has been interesting to watch over the past few seasons as the team has really made a concerted effort to not just trade away all their prospects for veterans.