Do you know the last time the Yankees won the World Series without a substantial contribution from a left-handed starter? Nineteen forty seven. Nineteen hundred forty seven. More than sixty years ago. The Yanks won the 12th World Championship in franchise history that year; that’s how long ago it was. Is that unbelievable, or what?

The greatest Yankee teams fall right in line with its long tradition of great left-handed starting pitchers: Lefty Gomez. Whitey Ford. Ron Guidry. Andy Pettitte. Heck, even guys like Fritz Peterson, David Wells, Dave Righetti, Al Downing and Ed Lopat have their place in Yankee lore. For all the great catchers and center fielders who have marched through the Bronx over the years, the backbone of the franchise has been its left-handed pitching.

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It’s getting to be that time of year again, the time when we can start looking at some prospects for June’s first-year player draft. It’s obvious now that the Yanks’ draft strategy in the early rounds is to take whatever top talent has fallen because of signability/injury concerns/etc., so I’ve decided to kick off this year’s draft coverage by looking at the best players available, since there’s always a chance they could fall.

The draft order is basically set (there are only five free agents left unsigned that will bring back compensation), and the Rays have earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first team in the history of man to have back-to-back first overall picks. It’s almost unfair considering how ridiculously stacked their farm system is, but what can you do. The remainder of the top 5 picks belong to the usual suspects – the Pirates, Royals, Orioles and Giants.

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Well, maybe just a bit. But that didn’t stop RAB fave Keith Law from posting his Top 60 Prospects for next year’s draft. I plan on getting into some draft stuff in a few weeks, but this’ll wet your tongue.

As a reminder, the Yanks have the 28th pick in the draft, and could still pick up an additional 7 picks if Pettitte, The Viz, Mo and A-Rod sign elsewhere. And yes, I think A-Rod will sign elsewhere. Don’t buy into Boras’ bullshit.