2011 Draft: Day Two LiveBlog
By
Now we’re talking. Day one of the draft is all about bells and whistles, MLB’s attempt to increase the popularity of the draft by broadcasting it and what not. That’s fine and I completely understand why they’re doing it, but unfortunately baseball’s draft just isn’t a made-for-TV event. Five minutes between picks is about four and a half too long, and frankly I don’t think any of us wants to hear the MLB Network announcers declare every pick great (in one way or another).
With that behind us, we’re back to the roots of the draft. All the picks from here on out will be made via conference call, which you can listen too via MLB.com’s Draft Tracker. The picks will come rapid fire, one after another, which is the way it should be. Last year’s day two liveblog lasted almost eight hours, so I hope your schedule is empty today. Here is the draft order, the liveblog is after the jump and begins promptly at noon ET…
52 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)
Stephen Rhoads (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 and Twitter
Follow @RiverAveBlues Search RAB
Banner Design By
The Mason Williams Watch
So will today be a better day or did yesterday’s pick set us back 5 yrs
They’ll compensate with the international market.
Isn’t there talk of having an international draft? Obviously that won’t affect us this yr but going forward it could.
No, it set up back 10 years: Dante Bichette is playing pro ball again.
WOW! Pirated grab Josh bell with first pick of Day 2. I’d be shocked if he signs with them though
Very similar to what they did last season with Stetson Allie.
i know the draft is important, but it is as boring as watching grass grow…at least the NBA and NFL draft results in players that will be on the field contributing in the next season. We will not see these players for 3-4 years and most will end up selling financial prodcuts and useless insurance anyway.
Yea that’s one reason why the baseball draft doesn’t get as much coverage as the draft in other sports. Most ppl don’t even know a majority of the kids in the draft unless they are clear cut number 1 players like Harper and Strasburg.
and there are 700 rounds, which doesn’t help.
i’m listening to the RAB Pod cast right now…i find it amazing that a kid like Bichette can’t play defense. what the hell are these leagues teaching these kids? and for christ sake, his dad played in a league with no DH.
Maybe he can improve his defense as time goes on. His coaches probably fell in love with the bat and didn’t feel the need to stress defense. I’m not stating that as fact but it could be a reason. Like in college basketball Jimmer Fredette is a big time scorer because the team needed him to score.
that’s probably the case…i’ve read numerous accounts where college basketball coaches hate the AAU program because none of the kids can play fundamental offense or defense. Instead, the entire focus is on indididual offense – which is flashy scoring. the rest can be added later, i guess.
Yea that’s the case in many situations because the athlete they acquire excels at something at such a good/great rate they might as well get the most out of it.
you’d still think that the kid would pick up some skills along the way. But i have kids in youth sports and the kids that play at a higher level get passes…its someone elses problem.
its someone elses problem.
—————————-
yep kids that are the best of the best always get away with not being fundamentally sound. Coaches are more concerned with winning games than actually teaching kids how to improve as all around players. Look at Tebow who played in college for what 4-5 yrs and never took a snap under center. WTF
“i find it amazing that a kid like Bichette can’t play defense”
I don’t think it’s so much that he “can’t” play defense as it is that he lacks the natural athletic tools necessary to be projected as a good defensive player relative to the very best players in the world. I mean Derek Jeter can’t play defense either, but that’s not stopping him from being the Yankees’ SS. Posada’s inability to play defense didn’t stop him from catching the past few years. Cano, by the way, didn’t get much interest as an IFA because scouts didn’t think he was fast enough to play 2B… that’s worked out ok.
but all of those players have gotten worse with age, which is expected.
anyone should be able to play a corner OF position or 1B with some level of decency.
Jeter’s the only one that applies to. Posada got a lot better early in his career. When he came up the consensus was basically that he was an awful C who shouldn’t stick there. He improved. Then he got worse. Missed my point on Cano, I see. As an amateur in the Domincan Republic, before ever signing with the Yankees, scouts did not think he’d play 2B because he was too slow.
A. I don’t think anyone has said Bichette has no shot to play in the field. He doesn’t project to be a good defender. That’s all people are saying. Not that he has to start his career at DH or will cost his team hundreds of runs a game compared to other options. Montero doesn’t project as a good defender at any position and at this point neither does Gary Sanchez… these guys are still the Yankees 2 best position prospects according to many sources. Cano likewise did not project as a good defender when signed. Neither did Posada when drafted. If Bichette can hit they’ll find a place for him, whether in the field or DH.
B. Some guys do not have the physical tools to be good defenders. If you are 6-7 330 lbs you might be able to rip the ball 10,000 feet, but you’re really unlikely to be a very good defender at the MLB level at any position. Same is true for less extreme examples.
i hear that and agree to some extent…but I still find it amazing that these guys can’t play some defense.
Josh Hamilton is a pretty big dude and he plays pretty well in center….moves very well out there.
granted some guys are better athletes, but i’m sure some of this stuff is engrained at younger ages – to my point above where a kid’s shortcoming can get overlooked if the offense is there.
You don’t have to be a jackrabbit to be able to properly judge and catch flyballs..case and point, Jacoby Ellsbury is fast as hell, but he’s considered a substandard outfielder because he takes bad routes and gets late jumps.
Galoots like Adam Dunn who are fat and overweight tend to get thrown to 1B at an early age and they stay put there….its always the fat kid that gets put there.
I just find it pathetic when I hear statements that a player can’t help much on the defensive side of the ball.
Every person of the same size doesn’t have the same athletic ability. Athletic ability varies widely from one individual to another. I’m a comparable size to Brett Gardner, for example, (got a couple inches on him, but he’s the only Yankees comparable… Granderson is only listed at 185 but I’m not buying that) but that doesn’t mean I would be one of the fastest guys in MLB or one of the better defensive OFers in the league.
Josh Hamilton has played more LF than CF since 2009.
“You don’t have to be a jackrabbit to be able to properly judge and catch flyballs..case and point, Jacoby Ellsbury”
Ellsbury is a MLB CF… He put up a FLD of 21 in 2008. He’s might not be Willie Mays, but the guy is not at all comparable to Adam Dunn. I’m not sure how you can’t see that. You really think Adam Dunn isn’t an MLB CF the caliber of Jacoby Ellsbury not because of his size and athletic ability but because he’s lazy?
“Galoots like Adam Dunn who are fat and overweight tend to get thrown to 1B at an early age and they stay put there….its always the fat kid that gets put there.”
Adam Dunn isn’t just “the fat kid.” If you had played little league or HS ball with him… I’m sure he would be THE KID. The best player you had ever seen by a long shot.
All 1B are not the same anyway.
“I just find it pathetic when I hear statements that a player can’t help much on the defensive side of the ball.”
That’s because you don’t seem to understand what they’re saying. They are not necessarily saying that these guys are lazy and not fundamentally sound on defense… they are saying that they do not have the physical ability to be plus defenders. That no matter how hard they work, they may never have the arm strength and/or range to play certain positions. How you don’t see that is really beyond me.
i’m not asking for plus defense…just avg to slightly above avg…you are a professional athlete – and there are 8 defensive positions. You ought to abe able to play one of them respectibly. Don’t have to be a top d player, but play the other side of the ball and add more value to your team.
Defensve can be improved greatly with practice and hard work, no matter the athletic ability of the player. Some of these guys are lazy. Hell, hitting a baseball is a lot harder than defense and they seem to do ok with that. It requires superior hand eye coordination, lightening quick reactions and strenght….and baserunning requires footwork…all of traits are necessary for defense so they are there.
I give up. I think you are seriously undervaluing how difficult it is to be a good defender at the MLB level. The bad defenders at the MLB level are largely still very, very good defensive palyers. They are not bad, just relatively bad.
By definition, not everyone can be average or slightly above average. Doesn’t matter how hard you work.
Boom. LHP Sam Stafford
Apparently he was aggressively pursued by the Sox when he was drafted in 2008 but declined. I guess it’s good.
Pay back for Daniel Bard?
*shrugs shoulders*
Daniel Bard can suck it!
and Cole
I finally figured it out…daniel Bard looks like that lead character from Napolean Dynamite.
With the laser rocket arm of his uncle.
state championship…oh, that’s a great scene!
“He’s a big kid with huge hands. He has an A-plus fastball for this level. He’s been clocked as high as 94 (mph). [Professional] scouts have told me they project him at 235 [pounds] and throwing 97.
“We still had scouts showing up at our game Saturday, two days before the draft. The Yankees are very, very high on him, as are the Pirates and the Phillies. We just have to see what happens.”
http://espn.go.com/blog/boston.....ordan-cote
First pick I like. Can’t beleive no one mentioned him as a Yankee target after this article when any imformation about their plans are rare.
[Professional] scouts have told me they project him at 235 [pounds] and throwing 97.
Joba #2?
The dude is 6’6” Joba is 6’2”
This is Cote btw.
i didn’t see the height…just saw the 235 lbs and the 97 MPH heater! of course, joba is about 265 now.
Bichette
Stafford
Cote
Pop and Pitching so far..
Anybody know anything about this Matthew Duran kid?
http://www.maxpreps.com/athlet.....-duran.htm
New Rochelle HS in the house!!!!
I am a NRHS alum so allow me this moment.
Jeez are people really calling for Opp to be fired and calling this draft horrid lets just fire all the scouts.
Just wait until the “Hank & Hal are going cheap so they can buy themselves a new boat!” comments
Yeah all the Yankees draft problems would be solved if they just fired Oppenheimer and all the scouts and bought subscriptions to ESPN Insider and to Baseball America instead.
/sarcasm’ed
Safe to say there shouldn’t be one seven figure signee in the bunch. It’s official to me: the yanks have punted the entire draft. Why? Who knows…but the steinbrenners look to be joining the slot adherents committee. The farm did not get better today.
There were some rumors that teams advocating hard slotting would not pay over slot in this draft… I have no idea, but it would be pretty odd if the Yankees were advocating hard slotting.
Probably more likely they just went with the best picks on their board. They might have taken a Bell, Howard, or Norris were they to have fallen to them in the 2nd, but we’ll never know.
They might actually be being the opposite of cheap… instead of signing a bunch of guys they don’t think will sign, they might intend on signing a whole lot of these guys. Since it’s a deep draft maybe they want to spread their odds.
“The farm did not get better today.”
That seems silly to me. The farm is not just about producing stars. We’d all like to have studs drafted, but the chances are just stacked astronomically against you finding studs outside the top 50.
They might have found an unheralded guy like Brett Gardner who becomes a good starter. They might find a Robertson (17th round) AND a Melancon (9th round), like they did in 2006.They might find a Warren (3rd) AND a Stoneburner (14th) AND a Bryan Mitchell (16th) like they did in 2009. All those moves improved the farm and I doubt you or I would have been particularly excited about them at the time.
well said, people don’t realize its not becoming a star, as the only thing that helps our team… Just being good enough to make it as a call up and help alittle or like u said become a brett gardner or david robertson helps, or even doing well enough to become solid trade bait, ala Melancon…. I Looked up some of our picks, and we got 2(that i know of) Gatorade players of the state, in Bird and Cote, for there states of COL and NH, and Stafford is good! I don’t know if its just boring, like a david phelps or whatever to some people, but hes solid! I actually really like the Stafford selection, and then u got cave, Davis, Duran as other guys who are good looking players.. Duran struck out 1 freaking time on the season! Wow! Mike Axisa kept talking about his power, but the kid can flat out hit!
Damn Soriano signing. No money left for the draft.
Perhaps they plan a big splash with IFA’s.
Like I said before the Yankees never draft anyone great even if they had the first and second pick(even though this was the one year where it would have mattered)
The Yankees need to hit the international players hard this year.
There sure are a lot of people around here who know a lot about how some HS players are going to turn out in a few years.
Can we give the doom-saying a rest?
A few like Reggie C, JobaWockeeZ, and EndlessmikeJr are idiots. Ignore them. They have no freaking clue about the MLB draft. Only what Baseball America and Law feed them. At least with the NBA and NFL draft we see the players. But who the hell knows anything about any of these players?
Getting worked up over the MLB draft is a pointless waste of time. The Yankees might have drafted 5 allstars today. Or future McDonald’s workers. Don’t listen to anyone that claims so and so was a good or bad pick. They are talking out of their arse. No one knows. These are 17-20 year old kids.
The yankees were able to get jordan cote people because he doesn’t get his leg up in his mechanics which is going to lead to back problems and arm problems if he can’t get it up and who knows what else.Thats the reason why they were able to draft him! We should have taken clayton holmes or adam conley withe first pick. I haven’t seen the video on
clay holmes though but i read the scouting report on him from the auburn coach which was good. Adam conley i’ ve mentioned before , i think will be a starter and can be dominant. Dissappointed damon didn’t draft him with first pick.
A. The info on Cote is literally in his scouting report… that’s not some great insight. HS players are generally drafted with mechanical flaws that need to be fixed. Cote is just especially raw, which might be why the Yankees were able to get him. i.e. if he weren’t so raw he might have been drafted a lot earlier. The draft is all about arbitrage opportunities–as is personnel management in general in pro sports.
B. You haven’t seen the guy play, but you know the Yankees should have drafted him?