Use this as your open thread to talk about all things draft. We’ll have regular Yankees-related content sprinkled throughout the day for you. Please follow our ground rules and keep your conversations in the appropriate places. Thanks in advance.

Here’s the link to Draft Tracker.

Welcome to the first ever Day Three of the MLB Draft. Hard to believe that after two days and nearly 11 hours of drafting, there’s still 40% of this thing left to go. Here’s some links before the show gets on the road …

• Baseball America rounds up the best players still left on the board. Eight players from their top 200 draft prospects list are still available (seven high schoolers, one JuCo kid), the best being Jacksonville HS catcher Austin Maddox (#81). At this point, all of these guys are going to end up in school because no one will pay them the kind of money they want this late.
• Tenth overall pick Drew Storen became the first first rounder to officially sign this year, getting a $1.6M bonus from the Nats. Slot money for that pick was approximately $1.86M. Gotta save up that cash for Strasburg.
• The Indians are going to develop Alex White, the 15th overall pick, as a reliever. Epic front office fail.
• Keith Law gives his take on five teams’ drafts so far. He doesn’t mention the Yanks, but did have an interesting bit on the Pirates draft strategy; allow me to quote: “Their philosophy is that high school arms are so volatile that paying premium prices in the first round is a poor strategy, and that the value of that first pick (when you might get a premium bat or college arm) is too high to surrender, so try to stockpile young arms in later rounds.” It makes sense for a team like Pittsburgh to do this because they need all the talent they can get, but at some point you have to take a shot on guys with star potential early.
• Make sure you also check out yesterday’s KLawChat. More draft knowledge than you know what to do with.
• WIBW.com notes that Yanks’ 25th rounder Shaeffer Hall threw a no-hitter against Army earlier this year. The Black Knights weren’t a total pushover this year, finishing at 36-21, so that’s quite the accomplishment. Hall led the Big 12 Conference with a 0.97 BB/9 this season.
• The Daily Commercial has a bit on 15th rounder Shane Greene, who caught the Yanks’ eye during a workout after coming back from Tommy John surgery throwing harder than before.
• Great quote from New Mexico State catcher Jeff Farnham, the Yanks 27th round pick: “I know (the bonus) isn’t going to be much, maybe a couple of a grand and an airplane ticket to Florida. But I would play for free. I just want a fair chance.”

You can see all of the Yanks’ picks here. You can follow along the final twenty rounds with Draft Tracker when the draft resumes at 11:30. Liveblog will be along shortly.

From the looks of it, the Yankees went into Day Two of the 2009 Draft with the very clear intention of adding power to the system. Power, regardless if it was at the plate or on the mound, it didn’t matter. Sixth rounder Rob Lyerly’s (3B, UNC-Charlotte) .725 slugging percentage led the Atlantic 10 Conference by nearly 50 points, and over the last two years he’s racked up a .333 IsoP with more extra base hits (73) than strikeouts (68). Outfielder and 11th round pick Neil Medchill has put up a .281 IsoP in two seasons with Oklahoma State, while 13th rounder DeAngelo Mack brings a .249 IsoP from South Carolina’s outfield. All three players project to hit for average or better pop with wood bats, and it’s no accident all three players do their work from the left side of the plate (coughNewYankeeStadiumcough).

While the three power bats are a nice addition to a system devoid of any thump outside of top prospect Jesus Montero, the Yankees also added several big arms to their cache of pitching. Their 7th, 8th, and 9th round picks were all spent on guys who have shown the ability to dial up to the mid-90’s in the past. Righty Sean Black (7th round, Seton Hall) and southpaw Gavin Brooks (9th round, UCLA) were both top prospects out of high school in the 2006 Draft who ended up in college, while righties Caleb Cotham (4th round, Vanderbilt) and Graham Stoneburner (14th round, Clemson) were draft eligible sophomores likely to go in the early rounds next year.

In addition to the power arms and power bats, Damon Oppenheimer & Co. added plenty of depth to the organization. Fourth rounder Adam Warren is a grizzled ACC and College World Series veteran that pounds the zone and should have no trouble carving up hitters in the low minors. He could develop in a high leverage groundball reliever down the road. Nineteenth rounder Luke Murton (Matt’s younger brother) hit behind Matt Wieters and spent four years anchoring the Georgia Tech lineup. Southpaw and 10th round pick Tyler Lyons has been a Friday night starter in the Big 12 for the past two years with Oklahoma State and should climb the ladder quickly.

But that’s not all. The Yanks also took some high upside high school players who fell for various reasons. Righty Brett Gerritse (12th round)  brings three quality offers to the table, while fellow righthander Chad Thompson (17th round) has a big projectable frame and a low-90’s fastball but is out after having Tommy John surgery. Local kid and shortstop Stephen Bruno (26th round) doesn’t bring flashy tools to the table, but he’s a top notch makeup guy with the grinder game people seem to love. Kyle McKenzie (30th round) is a small righty with good stuff and strong command. There’s no guarantee the Yanks will sign any of these four, but if they do they’ll receive tremendous value from a low draft selection.

Today’s conclusion of the draft won’t be very exciting. Mostly players to fill out low level rosters and maybe one or two fliers on guys who have fallen for whatever reason. The more important thing to watch for is how many of these players the Yankees end up actually signing, because selecting guys is only half the battle.

Photo Credit: Nati Harnik, AP

Use this as your open thread to talk about all things draft. We’ll have regular Yankees-related content sprinkled throughout the day for you. Please follow our ground rules and keep your conversations in the appropriate places. Thanks in advance.

Here’s the link to Draft Tracker.

Obviously, it’s very premature to say anything of substance, but I thought the Yanks did a fine job with their first two picks. They landed two premium up-the-middle athletes that can already hit and defend — always a highly coveted demographic. It’s the first time the Yanks have taken a position player with their first pick since they took CJ Henry in 2005, and the first time they used their first two picks on position players since Eric Duncan and Estee Harris in 2003. That’s also the last time they took high schoolers with their first two selections, the last time they kicked their draft off with three straight position players (Tim Battle was third), and the last time they went with three straight high schoolers at the outset.

The hype machine has managed to grab a hold of Slade Heathcott; I’ve seen people compare him to Josh Hamilton and Grady Sizemore already. Just … stop. He’s not those guys, not even close. If the Yankees are lucky, he’s Nate McLouth or Andre Ethier. If they’re lucky. I understand it’s human nature to get excited about things like this, and I’ve certainly been guilty of it in the past. But there’s no need to throw comps around like that. Especially since you’ll look back in two years and blast people like me for overhyping these guys. [/rant]

Here’s a roundup of this morning’s links:

• Baseball America posted a list of the best players still available going into Day Two. South Carolina prep RHP Madison Younginer would be a tremendous pick for the Yanks at #135; he’s 93-97 with a hammer breaking ball and an uber-projectable 6′-3″, 175 lb frame. I’m also a fan of Nevada HS 1B Jeff Malm, who can flat out rake. He’s stuck at first, but the hit tool is special. I’m sure plenty of teams were calling around last night to work out deals so they could grab some of these guys with their upcoming picks.
• Keith Law posted his best and worst picks from Day One. The Yanks don’t make an appearance in either, but holy schnikees did the Rockies have a tremendous haul. Tyler Matzek plus Rex Brothers plus Tim Wheeler? That’s as good as it gets right there.
• John Manuel at BA has his three winners and losers, and says the Yanks have some explainin’ to do about the JR Murphy pick since they already have a glut of catchers in the system. I don’t understand why everyone is up in arms about this, having a lot of quality catchers is a good thing. It’s not like they’re going to take playing time from each other.
• Lane Meyer ran down the players with questionable signability that are still on the board.
• Anthony DiComo previewed Day Two for the Bombers.
• Best quote from Day One comes courtesy of Carlos Beltran, who’s nephew Reymond Fuentes was selected 28th overall by the Red Sox: “I’m so happy for him. They’re poor people. He’s going to put his family in a better position.” Beltran in the fifth year of a seven year contract that will pay him $119M.

The draft resumes at noon with Round Four today. The Yanks’ next pick is #135, and then every 30 picks thereafter. It’s the 24th pick of each round. There’s no broadcast today, just Draft Tracker. Hopefully last night’s technical issues are a thing of the past. The liveblog will be up shortly.