Day One and the first 73 picks of the 2013 draft came and went last night, with the Yankees selecting four total players and three legitimate first round talents. There are still another 38 rounds and roughly 1,150 picks to go however, and thankfully none of them will come with the pomp and circumstance of last night’s MLB Network broadcast. The MLB draft just isn’t a made-for-television event, though I understand the league’s effort to increase popularity and all that. It all boils down to money and marketing, as usual.
Before we get into the nuts and bolts of Day Two, here are some draft-related links to peruse:
- Here are Baseball America’s top remaining players. The top three — Oklahoma HS C Jon Denney, Virginia HS RHP Connor Jones, Tennessee HS RHP Kyle Serrano — are all considered very tough signs. Serrano pretty much confirmed he will go to college on Twitter, and Jones reportedly sent a memo to teams telling them not to draft him recently.
- Meanwhile, Baseball America says the Yankees’ top three selections — Notre Dame 3B Eric Jagielo (#26), Fresno State OF Aaron Judge (#32), and California HS LHP Ian Clarkin (#33) — would all slot into the middle of their top ten prospects list. Of course, their top ten is different than my top ten. They also call Judge “a great get” at his draft slot and note Clarkin “could have gone as high as the 13th pick.”
- The Yankees didn’t make an appearance in Keith Law’s post of the winners and losers from Day One (subs. req’d), though he did give me a “yay” when I asked if he liked the team’s top three selections. Law lists his best available players at the bottom of the post.
- In the pick-by-pick analysis (subs. req’d), Jason Churchill and Christopher Crawford say Jagielo could be “in pinstripes sometime in 2014, early 2015 … The Yankees get some upside [with Clarkin], and with both Jagielo and Judge have had themselves a solid first round.”
- Scouting director Damon Oppenheimer spoke to Buster Olney about the team’s Day One draft on today’s Baseball Tonight podcast. He doesn’t say anything too exciting as you’d imagine, but he does discuss the Jagielo and Judge picks. Oppenheimer’s segment starts are the 16:00 mark.
The draft continues today at 12:30pm ET with rounds three through ten. This will probably be the most boring of the three draft days since the Yankees are likely to go heavy on cheap and draft pool-saving college seniors this afternoon, which is what they did last year. That will allow them to pay over-slot bonuses to early and late-round picks. Unfortunately, college seniors aren’t exactly exciting prospects.
Here are the links for the DraftTracker and MLB.com broadcast. There will be no liveblog today, so instead follow the draft with this open thread.
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