2009 Draft: Yankees Second Round Pick
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With their second pick in the 2009 MLB Draft, the Yankees selected C J.R. Murphy out of The Pendleton School in Florida.
Scouting Report: A recent convert, Murphy had been an outfielder (and even played some third base in the past) but was able to make the switch because of his athleticism. He has a good, compact swing and covers a huge chunk of the plate. A line drive hitter, Murphy doesn’t project to hit for anything better than average power, but he has tremendous plate discipline and a discernible eye at the plate, so he should be a well-above average on-base guy. Defensively, Murphy is still learning to catch but is a solid receiver presently. He has a strong arm, but still needs to work on his transfer. Committed to Miami but considered signable, you can read more about Murphy at ESPN (subscription req’d).
Here is Murphy’s MLB Scouting Bureau video.
My Take: I like the pick. A lot of people freaked out and were disappointed because they had never heard of him, but Murphy was a legitimate selection at #76 overall. Keith Law rated him as the 88th best draft prospect while Baseball America had him 95th, and there’s really not much of a difference between the 70th best player and the 100th best player. Murphy’s a premium hitter at a premium position, and is athletic enough that it’s easy to envision him improving on defense. There’s a lot to like here.
Photo Credit: IMG Acadamies
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stock up on high upside catchers, see which one turns out best and sell the rest off for picthing? a la in 3-5 yrs have a teagrden/ramirez/saltalamachia type surplus and dump one for a bucholz type pitcher?
Trade one of them for a 25 year old pitcher who dominates the minors but can’t keep his head on straight in the majors? Prospect for prospect trades don’t happen often for a reason – teams think their prospects are better than the other teams’.
Okay then dump him as a centerpiece for a guy who’s already in the bigs.
Sounds like a more athletic (and also at a much better position) Daniel Murphy of the Mets.
Looks like he has a better swing too.
Maybe he and Daniel can teamup with David Murphy of the Rangers and start up an Irish rock band.
If only they could find a good name…
Daniel, David, and John’s Good Time Rockin Fun Band?
I’m thinking the obvious answer is Murph and the Magictones.
I’d just og with murphtones. and thenget hornswoggle as the mascot/guy who doesnt play an instrumen but wears a suit and just interpretive dances crazy like on stage during shows like the mighty mighty bosstones guy
how the hell is that OG
Drop them a note and see if they kick it around…
uhm, og = typo for go
really?
P.J.Murphy and Salt.Best song,’If wishes were horses,then monkeys would fly.’Great album cover from ’69,70, at Mc Sorleys bar.
Maybe it’s the 16-year-old in me, but Slade Heathcott is a great porn name.
Wrong tab… I am become FAIL, destroyer of worlds.
ietc
That is so funny because someone on Pete Abraham’s blog said the exact same thing.
The MLB draft tracker had him listed as Zachary Heathcott. Maybe Slade is just his porn name.
Watch a lot of porn do you? What the hell does a name picked by his mother have to do with baseball. If that’s all you have to say about a Yankee’s choice (first round) maybe you should try blogging where someone is interested in your drivel. Zachary or Slade still amounts to a guy who was scouted for 2 years and chosen by people who make a living doing that. What’s your profession?
Apparently, Hideki Matsui was very disappointed when he watched the “Slade Heathcott” video lying around in Oppenheimer’s office.
+1
legit lol
I will be disappointed if the Yankees don’t draft some signability guys during rounds 4-10. I’m specifically talking about some pitchers that are still available.
The more I read the more I like, that and inherently trusting the Yanks brain trust, given there were other names on the board that would have been more obvious choices to the avg draft follower means the Yanks really wanted this guy.
Why would you inherently trust this brain trust?? Last years draft should have scared you straight.
Yes, because you can always fairly judge a draft the year after
Ignore him, he’s Sal/Bo/Grant/Lanny.
Some good pitchers on the board. Madison Younginer, Sam Dyson, Brody Colvin. ANyone know where Colton Cain is projected to go?
Alot of people were disappointed Yanks passed on ss David Renfroe, especially since the Red Sox grabbed him in round 3, but you can never have enough high end catchers in your system.
well…technically not true.
i still dont see the rationale behind this move instead of renfroe. i just dont get it.
Maybe they didn’t feel the need to take a SS who is not a SS. At 3B, Renfroe is a good bat, but not a great one.
He sounds a lot like Posada to me…other than being an outfielder vs a 2B…. and appears a bit more athetic.
he doesn’t believe in God?
There’s nothing wrong with a guy that has a chance to be a gap hitter with a high OBP.
BA’s John Manuel just released a First Day Impressions article where he questions the org.’s JR Murphy selection. With Romine, Higashioka, and Weems in the lower minors, and each having received at least $450K apiece, Manuel can’t figure out why would the org would pick yet another catcher.
Honestly. That was my first impression too, but since Murphy also played the OF its a solid pick given the lack of potential impact bats.
Manuel doesn’t like Slade being picked either so it appears that the Yankees first day choices just don’t appeal to Mr. Manuel.
Well, Goldstein liked Slade and his scouting report was good on Murphy. I never saw his opinion of the Yanks taking him though.
Murphy’s a premium hitter at a premium position, and is athletic enough that it’s easy to envision him improving on defense. There’s a lot to like here.
Yesterday morning, the Yankee farm system’s biggest hole was premium hitters at up the middle premium defensive positions.
Then we took Heathcott and Murphy.
(golf clap)
Generally speaking, yes. But one of our biggest organizational strengths, in the minors, are the 300,000 catchers we have. So yeah, we’re short on MI, specifically SS, and we’re short on CF, which makes us weak “up the middle” at premium defensive positions, but the exception is the catching position. And we took a catcher. With the 2nd round pick.
It’s a fair point but I don’t think you can ever have too many players at one position. You can easily trade from a position of strenght if it ever gets to that point. Just a difference of opinion I guess. I’ve seen plenty others agree with you.
agreed. plus who’s to say any of them, let alone more than 1 of them actually harnesses their abilities and turns into a solid ML’er?
Who’s to say this kid is still a catcher?
It may have been think like this:
Hey what’s-your-name, you’re a Yankee now. Go get a haircut and we’ll call your agent.
-I’m so excited to catch for the Yankees, it’s been a lo–
Hey, listen, you’re a left fielder now. Go get that haircut.
i said trim those sideburns mattingly!
There are two truisms that we hear tossed around in Yankeeland around the time of the draft:
(1) Don’t draft for position
(2) Best player available
OK, so we didn’t draft for position. In fact, you can say we did the exact opposite, drafted in a position that we are already knee-deep in. But we didn’t take the best player available, and we didn’t address any deep organizational dearth. And thats why it pisses me off, because it seems like a low-upside, safe pick that you would see the Indians make. We have the money to take risks, and this seems small-ball to me.
But the argument with this pick is if the Yankees pick someone who is considered a signability risk and they don’t sign, then what happens? The pick is wasted and they don’t get a re-do next year on it.
Yeah, I know. It’ll be best to see what happens today, to get some context on the wider strategy.
Agreed, CountryClub. This isn’t the NFL where you draft for position need for a guy who can come in and contribute in a year or two. The “need” in baseball is to stockpile as many high-end guys as you can, regardless of position.
I totally agree. Some people have complained for a couple of years that the Yanks draft too many pitchers when they have too few MLB caliber hitters in the minors. They’ve at least tried to address that and it doesnt appear that they’ve reached on either player.
For anyone concerned that the Yankees drafted Murphy slightly higher than his rankings by Keith Law or Baseball American, keep in mind that there’s really little difference in the rankings at that level, and more importantly, the Yankees have scouted Murphy far more and more in depth than Law or Baseball America since they’re the ones interested in signing him.
I don’t hate this pick but we definitely went a bit cheap on these two picks, I think they were definitely trying to sign decent prospects for slot money and make sure they sign these guys this year and not lose the picks. Heathcott and Murphy will probably sign for slot and it’ll probably be about 2 million total, so we have 5-6 million left to play with and I’m hoping for some big upside guys today.
I think that the reason they went slot is because they have to sign these players or they get nothing. These are comp picks that can’t roll over into next year, so getting guys with good upside here is worth the pick. Picking Renfroe and then not having him sign would be an awful scenario.
Now they can can use that extra money and go after the big-money, high-risk guys now.
Agreed. The Yanks would have been roasted by most fans if they ended up not signing one of these pics. We still dont know the outcome but it appears that they’re both signable. Still, they’re good players. It’s not like they drafted a bullpen arm or something.
Exactly. Weren’t there reports Renfroe was asking for $2.5MM+ to sign? Given the Yankees complete lack of leverage with their first two picks (and the fact that most all of these kids are mere scouting reports to me at this point), I don’t have any complaints. Signability guys to follow …
Picking Renfroe and then not having him sign would be an awful scenario.
And, with Renfroe’s reputed 3M bonus demands, the fact that he’s highly regarded as a pitcher as well as a shortstop, and the fact that Ole Miss would let him play football and baseball, I wouldn’t be shocked in the least if the Sox can’t sign him either.
That may be a factor.
Keep in mind, also, that we’re heavily linked to several of the premier IFA guys coming up in July, like C Gary Sanchez, who could cost 3M or so. Sanchez has been described as equivalent to a first round draft pick.
http://www.theyankeeuniverse.com/?p=4261
(h/t to RAB commenter Steve S.)
It’s interesting that the guys at BA are always talking about how teams shouldn’t draft for need, should take the best player on their boards and are now complaining about the yankees drafting Murphy because they already have Montero, Romine, Higashioka and Weems.
Murphy was most likely the top player left on their board. They took him. End of story.
And some teams have a real accumen for evaluating and drafting a certain position. The yankees, under the current amateur and international scouting regimes, are clearly very good at identifying and evaluating catchers.
This conversation is only going to heat up more if and when they sign Gary Sanchez for $3M+ during international signings. What!!!! Another catcher!!!!
Doesn’t matter – they supposedly love Sanchez’s bat and have him graded as a better player than Sano.
I’ll accept this as a fair summary of what took place yesterday, and await some bigger, higher-upside moves today.
What!!!! Another catcher!!!!
—————————-
Bobby Knight: Stu, you’re my friend, take my advice. You should draft Michael Jordan.
Portland Trailblazers GM Stu Inman: But we need a center.
Bobby Knight: Then draft Jordan and play him at center.
… aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, SCENE!
They could go and take Madison Younginer and Chris Dwyer in their next two picks and suddenly this draft starts to look really good, you just never know.
It also wouldn’t shock me to see them pick an outfielder or shortstop out of thin air. Oppenheimer did say that they were going to surprise a lot of people
Yankees 1st round pick – Mark Teixeira
Yankees 2nd round pick – CC Sabathia
Yankees 3rd round pick – AJ Burnett
I’m fine with the draft so far.
I don’t know if it’s just the high on-base ability, not-anything-special power tool or what, but JR Murphy makes me think of the Cardinals’ top catching prospect, Bryan Anderson.
What do you guys think, fair comparison?
Anderson doesn’t have that kind of discipline.
(stole that from Axisa)
I don’t know if it’s just the high on-base ability, not-anything-special power tool or what, but J.R. Murphy makes me think of the Cardinals’ top catching prospect, Bryan Anderson.
What do you guys think, fair comparison?
Anderson doesn’t have that kind of plate discipline.
KLaw’s 20-80 grades on Murphy:
Hitting: 40, future 55
Power: 40, future 45
Plate Discipline: 40, future 45
Running Speed: 30, future 30
Fielding Range: 40, future 50
Arm Strength: 55, future 55
Feel for Game: 40, future 50
KLaw’s 20-80 grades on Heathcott, FWIW:
Hitting: 35, future 45
Power: 45, future 55
Plate Discipline: 40, future 45
Running Speed: 65, future 65
Fielding Range: 50, future 60
Arm Strength: 60, future 60
Feel for Game: 40, future 45
TSJC:
This is about the rudest thing I’ve ever done on this forum – it not being related to baseball or anything – but you once mentioned legislative staffing. Do you mind my asking which leg. body/committee/individual you worked for?
You can email me at lr_sher5@hotmail.com. I used to do lobbying in California (thank Mo that’s over!)
No prob. Work for a district in the Bronx of the New York State Assembly.
…is there anyway to comp that to somebody i’ve seen play, or is more familiar?
like Johnny Damon: Arm Strength: 7
Jeter: Fielding Range: 7
Cano: Plate Discipline: 7
Pena: Power: 7
Matsui: Running Speed: 7
Ransom: Hitting: 7
Feel for Game: Me: 7
i like that man’s speed and arm….very nice!!!
That .086 IsoD and a BB% of 12 didn’t give you a bit more hope for his future considering he was in his age-21 season at 3A? I know his years prior has been riddle with average-or-better plate discipline, but his 2008 season was quite encouraging.
[Check]
the chances of guys making the majors is so slim. most scouts dont even feel that montero will be a catcher in the majors anyway. that leaves five young catchers for 2 spots on the team (including cervelli) i like the chances of finding posadas replacement.
Some of the few names on KLaw’s ESPN DraftTracker still available:
C Luke Bailey
C Max Stassi
CF Matt denDekker
CF Brian Goodwin
RF/LF Angelo Songco – solid bat, but a TTO guy
SS Deven Marrero – Eric Hosmer’s old teammate, Natinals slugger prospect Chris’s little brother
1B Jeff Malm
RHP Madison Younginer
RHP Brody Colvin
RHP Scott Griggs
RHP Keyvius Sampson
RHP Jason Stoffel
RHP Kendal Volz
LHP Ian Krol
LHP Brooks Raley
LHP Chris Dwyer
I’d say Raley, Younginer, Marrero, and Sampson are the most appealing. Thoughts?
Nevermind, new thread.
I know JR Murphy personally and he is the best thing to ever happen to the yankees. you’ll see!
hyper bowl much?
/Atlas’d
We have catchers in the system.Closers and shortstops is what the Yankees need.
ytour handle completely renders everything you write unreadable for me
Yep, no question, that’s an eye he’s got right there. I can discern that even when he’s not at the plate.
[...] Via KLaw, the Yankees have agreed to terms with second rounder JR Murphy. The terms aren’t yet known, but slot money for his pick (#76 overall) was roughly $478,000. He’ll get more than that, probably seven figures. You can learn all about the high school catcher here. [...]