Cole, DeVall, & Odorizzi

I noticed that the Yankees 2008 first round pick Gerrit Cole made the “Second Team” for Baseball America’s 2008 High School All-American Teams.

It’s funny - with all you hear about Cole - that he couldn’t crack the “First Team.”

I also noticed that two high school pitchers who were drafted after the Yankees selected Cole made the first team: Brett DeVall (who was drafted by the Braves) and Jake Odorizzi (who was drafted by the Brewers).

Brett DeVall caught my eye here - because I thought, going into the 2008 draft, that if the Yankees went for a high school pitcher with their first pick, they would have grabbed DeVall.

It will be interesting to track the careers of Cole, DeVall, and Odorizzi - to see which of the these three high school arms turns out to be the better big league pitcher. The Yankees think it’s going to be Cole - because they had a chance to take DeVall or Odorizzi and passed on them to take him.

July 14, 2008 | Filed Under Trap Door Items

Comments

9 Responses to “Cole, DeVall, & Odorizzi”

MJ on July 14th, 2008 1:46 pm

My understanding is that this list doesn’t really matter. The purpose of the High School All-American list is to reward the best HS players, not to project which will become the best major leaguer. As a result, the Yanks picked Cole because they think he’ll be the best major leaguer of the group.
Steve Lombardi on July 14th, 2008 2:28 pm

Fair point. But, would not the HS’er with the best talent have the best season too?
Nick-YF on July 14th, 2008 2:30 pm

Look at Hanley Ramirez’s numbers in the minors. He wasn’t making any all-star teams, but he had tons more talent and projectability than most.
Don on July 14th, 2008 3:01 pm

Let us see if Cole gets signed. With Bora$$ as his agent, and already talking about Cole going to college, things are likely to get sticky. Remember that the Yankees gave Brackman a ML contract last year, and Boras has asked for ML contracts(and gotten some)for HS players.

August 15 is the last day to sign.
MJ on July 14th, 2008 3:44 pm

Fair point. But, would not the HS’er with the best talent have the best season too?
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Yes, but again you’re missing the issue of projectability. The Yanks don’t care if someone else was a better HS pitcher than Cole. They picked Cole because he may project to be a better big league pitcher than those other names.

I’m not saying DeVall and Odorizzi aren’t good — heck, they were picked within 20 picks of Cole so they’re obviously talented — I’m simply saying that making a determination that the Yanks may have missed something because of some All-American list isn’t a very good way to scout a draft.
DJ21996 on July 14th, 2008 4:33 pm

There is allowed to be more than 1 great H/S talent.

Cole has #1 talent, as do others in the draft. The goal now is to make sure that our guy reaches his potential.
Tresh Fan on July 15th, 2008 3:18 am

I’ve always been a bit apprehensive about any HS pitcher the Yankees spend their 1st draft pick on. I’d actually like to see a listing of all such picks the Yankees have made (starting with the immortal Bill Burbach in 1965) to see how they’ve panned out. Even better, I’d like to see lists of ALL HS pitcher 1st round draft picks and of those that went on to have a positive impact for the team that originally drafted them. I’m guessing the success rate is quite abyssmal.
gphunt on July 16th, 2008 7:17 am

Funny, Cole was top ten talent from what every team had him rated. His contract demands are what made him drop to where he was drafted.
Cole To College Instead Of Yanks? : WasWatching.com on August 14th, 2008 11:19 pm

[...] for the record, I would have picked Conor Gillaspie, Shooter Hunt or maybe Brett DeVall instead of Gerrit [...]