Scout wrote:

This year’s draft class, though promising, is a good 4-5 years from providing significant help at the major league level.

Not true. Adam Warren and Caleb Cotham will both be pitching in the majors by early 2011, if not sooner. They’re both polished college pitchers, just like Kennedy and Chamberlain were, which means they’ll rise fast if they’re successful (and I expect Warren to be very successful).

Scout wrote:

And it is something of a sad commentary on the organization that we have to look at the 2009 draftees as the best hope for the future.

Not sure why you feel that way. Draftees Hughes (’04), Chamberlain (’06) and free agent signings Cabrera and Cano played big parts in winning 114 games and the championship this year. The minor leagues are already producing for the Yanks, and will continue to do so.

MJ wrote:

I consider any pitcher that makes it to the big leagues a success, even if that pitcher ends up pitching in relief.

Fair enough, MJ, but we have different standards. I am very impressed with what Robertson did this year, but to my way of looking at it a 7th inning set-up guy is a role player.

This year’s draft class, though promising, is a good 4-5 years from providing significant help at the major league level. And it is something of a sad commentary on the organization that we have to look at the 2009 draftees as the best hope for the future. After all, not one of these guys has yet to play a full minor league season.

To be fair, we don’t yet know what a number of the prospects will deliver, either for the Yankees or via trades. Besides Montero, Romine has the potential to be a capable big league catcher, and Austin Jackson could become Melky/Brett Part Trois or even be a bit better than that.

butchie22 wrote:

I had mentioned in the summer that the kids weren’t the reason they were doing so well, it was because they went out and bought CC,AJ and MT.

Mentioning it doesn’t make it correct. Just as big is Jeter bouncing back and having Posada for an entire season. Also, it helped that Cano and Cabrera didn’t suck as much as they did in ’08.

2008
RS: 4.9
RA: 4.5

2009
RS: 5.6
RA: 4.6

In all the ensuing hoopla regarding the Yankees winning (intimated by the author of this article that they bought one) a 27th World Series , I wondered about Kei Igawa. The Yankees biggest error at the tune of 50 mill doesn’t get a ring,eh? Cash Man’s Folly doesn’t get to share in the spoils of victory , very interesting fact.

And the kids. I had mentioned in the summer that the kids weren’t the reason they were doing so well, it was because they went out and bought CC,AJ and MT. Can you imagine the Yankee season without Teix and CC? I don’t think that they would have won it all without those two. I will give Cash Man some credit in that he’s attempting to build a better farm system WHICH if it was up to Yankee’s Inc (Trost and Levine) they would lose every one of their draft picks to sign free agents!

@ Raf, they already are a dangerous organization because they can outspend anyone on international signings, free agents and anything else they need. and they can cover errors like the supposedly ringless, Kei “Japanese Idle” Igawa.

@ Scout, Good post and I agree with you completely…….Nuff Said!

clintfsu813 wrote:

As such, we don’t yet know what Hughes/Chamberlain (or Kennedy) will become.
Holy Sh-t. Did you just use his last name????

LOL, I’m trying to turn over a new leaf and forgive him.

As such, we don’t yet know what Hughes/Chamberlain (or Kennedy) will become.

Holy Sh-t. Did you just use his last name????

Scout wrote:

I wish I were as convinced as Raf that the Yankees “are slowly but surely getting their act together on the player development side,” but mostly I see fringe and role players (Gardner, Melky, Robertson, Cervelli) rather than stars. I certainly hope we get to see big things from Chamberlain and Hughes, but neither has yet shown he’ll be a top-of-rotation starter as Pettitte was when he was just a bit older than they are now. I do not see any other #1-3 starters on their way up within the organization. And there isn’t a sure-fire everyday player other than Montero, who seems a bat without a real position. I don’t blame Oppenheimer for this, since he doesn’t set the budget and no scouting director can foresee injuries or a first-round draft choice (Cole) deciding to forego millions in favor of college. My point is that it takes a long time to build a productive farm system and the Yankees are only in the early-middle stages of that process.

I agree with parts of your post and other parts I don’t agree with.

You’re spot-on in saying that, thus far, the Yanks have only produced fringe/role players from a positional player perspective. Cervelli projects as a BUC, Gardner/Melky are 4th OF’ers, Pena is a utility guy, etc. You’re also correct in saying that the Yanks are only in the early-middle stages of the minor league overhaul.

I don’t agree, however, that Robertson is a fringe/role player. He’s a bullpen arm, yes, but I consider any pitcher that makes it to the big leagues a success, even if that pitcher ends up pitching in relief. As such, we don’t yet know what Hughes/Chamberlain (or Kennedy) will become. But there’s so much value to be derived from developing useful pitchers that I don’t consider any pitching success story to be qualifiably downgraded as “role” or “fringe.”

As far as the future of the farm, there are definitely things to be excited about beyond Montero. The Yanks have some young pitchers to watch over the next couple of seasons (Caleb Cotham/Adam Warren from this draft class) as well as their first two blue-chip positional draftees in ages (Slade Heathcott/JR Murphy). While it’s too soon to know what they’ll become, the Yanks have definitely laid the groundwork for a strong minor league system. No, it’s not the best-run system in baseball and, no, I don’t completely agree with how they do things down there (the Red Sox farm system operations blows New York’s out of the water). But I like where we’re headed.

The only thing we need to worry about now is that the draft process doesn’t change in the next round of labor negotiations. If the way the draft works is altered significantly, it’ll really hurt the Yanks a lot.

I wish I were as convinced as Raf that the Yankees “are slowly but surely getting their act together on the player development side,” but mostly I see fringe and role players (Gardner, Melky, Robertson, Cervelli) rather than stars. I certainly hope we get to see big things from Chamberlain and Hughes, but neither has yet shown he’ll be a top-of-rotation starter as Pettitte was when he was just a bit older than they are now. I do not see any other #1-3 starters on their way up within the organization. And there isn’t a sure-fire everyday player other than Montero, who seems a bat without a real position. I don’t blame Oppenheimer for this, since he doesn’t set the budget and no scouting director can foresee injuries or a first-round draft choice (Cole) deciding to forego millions in favor of college. My point is that it takes a long time to build a productive farm system and the Yankees are only in the early-middle stages of that process.

Ah, so THAT’s where Cashman was…

Glad to see that the minor league operations are getting their due. For all the talk about the payroll, many don’t realize that the Yanks are slowly but surely getting their act together on the player development side. And once they do, they will truly be a dangerous organization.

I read that the WS shares were going to be record setting around $400K per.