RAB’s Ground Rules for the 2010 MLB Draft
By
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, MLB Draft Day. D-Day has historically been one of the busiest and most trafficked days of the year for us at RAB, so we need to take a moment and lay down some ground rules and explain how this thing is going to go down.
First and foremost, please take a second to review our Commenting Guidelines. Even if you’ve been with us since day one, give them another look as a refresher.
Secondly, the draft is three days long this year, and I’ll be liveblogging all three days. The liveblog will mostly be me relaying news, sharing thoughts, taking questions, etc., but the liveblog posts will also serve as a draft open thread. Please keep your draft related comments there. We’ll obviously have plenty of non-draft content on the site as well, so keeping your discussions in the appropriate threads will make everyone’s life easier.
I will also be posting short capsules on select players after the Yanks pick them. I won’t write up a capsule for every player the Yanks pick, just the notable ones. For example, here’s Slade Heathcott’s capsule from last year. Use these posts to discuss that player and that pick only, any other draft talk should go back in the draft open threads. No one likes to repeat themselves in a bunch of different spots, so this is to everyone’s benefit.
It’s unlikely to happen because we’ve since upgraded to a dedicated server, but we have experienced technical difficulties on draft day before, and I suppose there’s still a chance the site may crash at some point. I’m hopeful the liveblog will help alleviate the load on the servers, but who knows. The important thing to know is that if the site does crash, you have to please be patient. Hitting refresh a million times a minute will only make it worse. Wait a minute or two before you try to reload the site. We’re fully aware of it whenever the site goes down, and trust us, we’re doing all we can to get it back up and running.
Finally, the best way to follow along with all of the draft content we’ll have over the next three days (and beyond) is to subscribe to our draft feed. You should also subscribe to our regular RSS feed so you don’t miss anything else. If you’re not familiar with RSS feeds, check this site out. Basically, an RSS reader like Google Reader will bring the information right to you, so you won’t have to check your favorite sites multiple times per day. Once you start using one, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. Other than RSS, you can also follow RAB on Twitter @RiverAveBlues or @RABFeed. We use the former for random thoughts or to discuss stuff things with you guys, while the latter just automatically tweets a link to each new post. You can also follow the three of us individually @mikeaxisa, @bkabak, and @joepawl. And finally, there’s also our Facebook page.
Draft day is without a doubt one of the most exciting days of the year, and we ask that you follow along with our ground rules to make it a more enjoyable experience for everyone. Thanks in advance.
74 Comments»
RAB Info
The Founders
Mike Axisa, Ben Kabak, Joe Pawlikowski
Editor-In-Chief
Mike Axisa Archives | Email
Managing Editors
Ben Kabak Archives | E-mail
Joe Pawlikowski Archives | E-mail
Contributing Editors
Larry Koestler (Archives)
Moshe Mandel (Archives)
Eric Schultz (Archives)
Weekend Writers
Hannah Ehrlich (Archives)
Matthew Warden (Archives)
Special Contributor
J.R. O'Grady (Archives)
Technical Consultant
Jay Gordon
Subscribe to RAB by RSS
Follow @RiverAveBlues
Search RAB
Yankees News from YESNetwork.com
- Kuroda leaves early as Orioles win rubber game
- New York City Football Club names Claudio Reyna Director of Football
- Yankees, Manchester City to own NYC MLS team
- Yankees, Manchester City announce NYC MLS team
- New York Yankees fall to Baltimore Orioles on Nate McLouth's homer in the 10th
- Ex-New York Yankees pitcher Scott Proctor retires
- Ex-Yankees farmhands Gil Velazquez and Cody Johnson find new homes
- New York Yankees top Baltimore Orioles in dramatic fashion at Camden Yards
- Rehabbing Alex Rodriguez partakes in defensive drills, hits in batting cage
- Robinson Cano surprises a young fan at the MLB Fan Cave
Banner Design By
The Tyler Austin Watch
Mike, is there a general feeling or idea of where LeVon Washington may fall to?
Sounds like 2nd-3rd round.
So wat are the players in this draft to keep an eye on, in concern with the Yankees?
It’s up in the air right now. One of the the high school arms – Tyrell Jenkins, Zach Lee, A.J. Cole, Dylan covey – would be ideal.
Do you believe the rumor about targeting high school bats?
Sure, it’s got a 25% chance of being correct
Any News on Austin Wilson??
Not really. Same guy he always was, isn’t any easier to sign.
Looks like the draft starts at 7pm EST. How many rounds are they going to get in today? 2 or 3? The later rounds will start earlier in the day, right?
First round and sandwich round, works out to exactly 50 picks. Starts back up at noon tomorrow, same again on Wednesday.
So will the Yanks be scared off by Christian Yelich’s reported 2 mill demand?
I don’t think so.
Today and July 2nd are some of my favorite days. My favorite day is the day the Yankees win the World Series though, but whatevs.
I always love the Feast of St. Phil – every 5 days. Actually, maybe it should be the Feats of St. Phil.
Agreed on all accounts.
Actually, I think tomorrow is going to rank pretty highly in my review of this year’s favorite days.
2nd day of the draft.
Hughes starts.
Strasburg’s MLB debut.
Stanton’s MLB debut.
Ought to be a great day to be a baseball fan.
Put me in the Yelich/Wilson camp. Would rather see them pick up a couple bats early then chase pitching with signability guys and on the international market.
I’m all for going with tough signs but Stanford commit means it’s really really really unlikely Wilson will sign anywhere.
If the Yankees pick Wilson I’d assume he’s not signing with them.
If Elton John can sing at Rush Limabaugh’s wedding for $1 million, then I would think that most people in this world have a price.
/Bitterrealizationthatmosteveryonehasaprice’d
Sure but that doesn’t mean the Yankees will meet the price or that he’ll even negotiate.
I just want to mention if he was anything other than a Stanford commit I’d feel the Yankees had a fighting chance.
Point awarded to you. I’m shutout again.
Gerritt Cole didn’t. There are always exceptions.
Yankees should draft Chris Culver. I’ve seen the kid play, he’s rediculous. A 5 tool player. They are saying later single digit rounds though, so if he doesn’t get drafter early he’ll play at University of Maryland.
And he’s from my town.
It depends on what town you’re from.
I think he’d sign if his commitment is to Maryland. Maryland’s baseball program is, to put it nicely, average. They haven’t been to the NCAA tournament since 1971 and they haven’t finished over .500 in-conference since 1981. Players who keep their commitments and bypass signing to go to college are one of three types:
1) Need the money
2) Know they need to play in college to get better and maybe make more money later
3) Go to a top program/school (Rice, Texas, Stanford, Miami, UNC are schools it’s tough to buy guys out of)
Now, I don’t know Culver’s background, but I think it might be easier for him to bypass his commitment then what you might have heard.
Whoops…point 1 should be “Don’t need the money”.
Hmm, thanks Rick. I know the UM coach recruited him heavily, but I think I underestimated how easy it would be not to go.
I’m from one town over. The kid seems really excited for the draft. I think he will sign (just a hunch). I’ve spoken to Chris and my little cousin is good friends with him.
He said Joe Girardi has personally called his cell phone. The Yankees have also sent numerous scouts to his games and his upside as a solid bat at SS should intrigue them.
If they’re both on the board Vettelson or Yelich?
I like Vettleson. Gotta corner the market on switch pitchers.
Teh Options!!!11
There should be a rule about people bitching about prospects the major publications haven’t ranked or that they havn’t heard of.
Or the wheel spinning argument of “well you don’t know what the Yankees assess player X at”
If you don’t like a player vs someone else, fine, but please don’t cite “BA didn’t rank him this high” or “Haven’t even heard of him”
Like last year when everyone bitched and moaned about Murphy?
Correct, there were a lot of comments about him.
To be fair, some of the initial complaining (when the name was revealed on draft night) on Murphy was warranted, since the MLB referred to him as John Murphy when every publication had him listed as J.R. Murphy. IIRC, Mike stated at the time of the announcement that he had never heard of him.
Any later complaining though was obviously unwarranted.
Which is particularly funny to keep in mind when we see commenters this year saying things like ‘I hope they make picks like Heathcott and Murphy again,’ which is a sentiment I think I’ve seen a few times recently. The same people were probably complaining about the Murphy pick last year (I assume they were because it seemed like everyone was, he wasn’t a big name in the pre-draft run-up).
The Yankees know much more, about many more players, than we ever will. Let’s not freak out, for good or bad, when they make their picks.
Don’t forget the concern over Heathcott’s family last year.
Yeah, but I don’t think that was too rampant a concern amongst the fans, at least not around here, was it? I know it was discussed but I don’t remember people getting too worked up about it, maybe I’m remembering it wrong.
I’m trying to go back but I’m having trouble finding the discussion threads from last year. It might have just been a couple of people who have come and left the RAB-verse. It might have been surrounding why he missed some time at the end of the season – it was a minor injury but some were a little over the top in their worries that he was following his parents’ path.
Everyone’s a draft expert and a psychologist, this time of year.
There was some issue with being academically ineligible at one point, and there was the rents, it seemingly had the same tone as Harper this year, we need to find something negative on this kid.
Mike, is your entire draft projection of all 50 rounds coming out later this afternoon?
I’m finishing it up now. Added a section for the 25 best undrafted free agents, but it wasn’t enough, so I’m expanding it to 50.
Sweet. I just finished reading last year’s. It was awesome.
I assume you tell us which picks sign and for how much as well.
Yes, but I slacked off and rounded it to the nearest $10,000 this year.
I remember a couple of years ago you had Caset Kelly going to Cleveland the pick before Boston, and then you were one off the rest of the day. Just imagine if you would have had that correct your entire 50 rounds would have been right. Amazing.
Obviously a total guess answer and extremely early, but having qualified this question:
If the Yankees take Jenkins, Lee, Cole, or Yelich, where would that pick rank amongst the top 20 prospects in the system?
Good question. I hope Mike can give an answer.
Lee, Jenkins, and Cole would be in the 3-5 range somewhere, Yelich more like 5-10.
High ceiling pitchers > High ceiling hitter
if castellanos falls to us at 32 because of fear of his price tag dont the yanks have to jump on the talent there?
I’d say yes – if he manages to drop that far, you have to take him and flash the cash. It would almost be like Porcello dropping, but the Yankees actually having a chance to draft him.
Is Castellano’s that highly regarded? Porcello remains the most advanced prep pitcher draftee in recent memory.
If Castellano can stick at 3B … yeah, he’d be Arod’s successor & a great selection.
I went with the Porcello comp in terms of “highly regarded HS player following to the Yanks because of bonus”, not on the top level talent level. And because my brain’s mush today and I can’t recall a better example.
Prediction: ESPN ranks Red Sox among winners of the draft (though likely warranted).
It’s going to be hard to beat Toronto, but you are probably right.
Jed Hoyer isnt making the picks for Theo this year so maybe that club is ripe to misstep.
kaleb cowart is a lock to be gone before we pick, right?
Probably.
Anyone know Brett Carroll?
He’s from my town
Mike, I wanted to say thanks for all the hard work that you, Joe and Ben put in. I’m convinced it is this work and dedication that makes your site the best coverage for the Yankees online.
This.
+1
I doubt they hear it enough.
Agreed, I’ve been reading RAB every day since it was young but only rarely post. You guys do an incredible job day in and day out. Thanks.
This article by Mark ANderson, a minor league analyst has the Yanks taking Lee http://tigers.scout.com/2/975115.html(safe)
Piliere’s just released mock has us taking Vittleson, but mentions Jenkins and Mike Lipka as well
What’s the report on Lipka? Also when does the chat start here?
Check over at BaseballBeginnings
http://baseballbeginnings.com/.....#more-4865
Hey, Mike…saw an earlier post of yours suggesting Jesse Biddle might fall to the Yanks in the 2nd round. Is that really possible?
Can’t help but pull for a local kid.
Sounds like he’s going in the first round now, before the Yanks pick.
KLaw said in his chat that the rumor today is if Lee was offered 6 million to break his commitment to LSU, he would reject it.