2008 Draftee Info (2) LHP

From NoMaas’ Yankee Draft Blog

Stop your blood-clot crying about LHP

We all know that there is a dearth of LHP in the Yankees system. When Sean Henn is the closest thing that a farm system has to an impact lefty, you’re at a low point. During the draft I received many e-mails and read much commentary critiquing the Yankees for not taking chances at lefties as their picks wore on.

The truth of the matter here is that the Bombers actually did a fantastic job of picking LHP talent in the draft this year, contrary to popular opinion. As I’ve mentioned before, talent level is not distributed linearly in the draft. Kids with top three round talent can be drafted at the very end of the draft, or perhaps not at all.

It also needs to be restated that David Price’s and Clayton Kershaw’s aren’t in abundance. Left-handed pitching talent is few and far between, and very often a LHP taken in the 1st round is only taken there because he’s a lefty. To illustrate this, we can look at the LHPs taken in the first round in recent years who have had a chance to sort themselves out.

2003:
Paul Maholm, John Danks
2004:
Jeremy Sowers, Bill Bray, David Purcey, Scott Elbert, Glen Perkins, Taylor Tankersley, Matt Campbell
2005:
Rickey Romero, Mark Pawelek, Aaron Thompson, Brian Bogusevic
2006:
Andrew Miller, Kershaw, Kasey Kiker

Besides Kershaw, no one there has me salivating. The Yankees have done the right thing in recent years, and that is take the best pitching talent available, regardless of what hand he throws with.

SO we come to the 2008 draft, and Jeremy Bleich is taken with the 44th overall pick in the supplemental round. At first it is met with a bit of consternation, but after hearing multiple opinions on him, and seeing one of his outings, most reasonable people agree that the Yankees did their homework. However, when no additional lefties were taken right after that, the clamoring began.

Well, if you look closely at this draft, you will see that the Yankees took multiple LHP, and some of them have very high ceilings. In the order of their ceilings, here are the lefties taken by the Yankees this year.

1) 36th round pick, Chris Dwyer. If you missed my earlier commentary on him, you can find it by clicking here. This kid has the size, arm, and athleticism to be a big league starter. He’s just going to be very, very expensive. Cross your fingers.

2) Supplemental round pick, Jeremy Bleich. The Stanford lefty looked fairly impressive in his national television appearance last night. John Manuel likens him to a lefty Ian Kennedy in many ways.

3) 50th round pick, Nik Turley. Pay attention to this one, folks. Turley is 6′4″, 210 lb, and currently commited to BYU. In the recruiting process he was also being pursued by UCLA, Pepperdine, and Cal-State Fullerton. He has a lot of projection in him, and is probably a long shot, but the Yankees took the chance. This ain’t no Larry Day.

4) 26th round pick, Blake Monar. The Indiana recruit sits in the mid to upper 80s, but has two plus breaking pitches. Speaking with a source, he expected to go earlier in the draft, and is another signability case at this point.

5, 6) 32nd round pick, Andy Suiter; 42nd round pick, Clint Preisendorfer. Neither would seem to be a signability case, but they both have solid stuff, large frames, and were noted prep recruits before they went to college. These are the solid LHP in the bullpen the Yankees fans have been missing.

So, all in all, they took SIX lefties. Three are legitimate signability cases, two are solid bullpen arms, and one is a legitimate, signable starter. Make sure to check back here often to follow the signability cases, and no more crying about the Yankees not selecting LHPs.