Yankee Player Development
Has the Yankee farm system been as bad as people make it out to be? Before last season people were calling it terrible and that it would not be able to contribute to the ’05 roster and it produced Chien-Ming Wang and Robinson Cano who both had major contributions. People say it’s on the upswing now.
What I’m wondering is was the downswing anything organizational, or was it purely a small stretch of a lot of injuries and bad luck. Every system has it’s ups and downs and some systems rich in prospects and on a supposed up, may not be if the prospects don’t actually pan out.
Instead of looking at organizational fluctuations, one way to see how good an organization is at selecting players, signing them, and developing them, is to put every single player back with the organization they first signed with.
How good would the Yankees roster be if they were not allowed to sign free agents or be allowed to trade for other team’s high-priced talent.
Starters:
C- Jorge Posada
1B- Nick Johnson
2B- Robinson Cano
SS- Derek Jeter
3B- Mike Lowell
LF- Bernie Williams
CF- Hideki Matsui
RF- Alfonso Soriano
DH- Carl Everett
Bench:
C- Brad Ausmus
IN- JT Snow
IN- Christian Guzman
OF- Ricky Ledee
OF- Wily Mo Pena
Rotation:
Andy Pettitte
Jose Contreras
Eric Milton
Orlando Hernandez
Chien-Ming Wang
Bullpen:
Mariano Rivera
Victor Zambrano
Brad Halsey
Tony Armas
Mike DeJean
Russ Springer
Minors:
Dioner Navarro
Andy Phillips
D’Angelo Jimenez
Juan Rivera
Marcus Thames
Zach Day
Chris Spurling
Craig Dingman
Brandon Claussen
They have 32 players currently on ML 25-man rosters, with 2 more on the DL. Each team should average having 26 players (factoring that the Devil Rays and Diamondbacks will not have nearly 25 yet). The Yankees have significantly more.
This is a very solid team. With no free agency or trades, a playoff team. And the Columbus Clippers, with those players to go along with Eric Duncan and Melky Cabrera could put on quite a show in the International League.
The Yankees obviously have a bit of an advantage still with players like Hideki Matsui and Jose Contreras, but so do the Mariners with Ichiro and Johjima, and the Mets don’t with Kaz Matsui. A team still has to pick the correct players.
This 25-man roster has a 2006 payroll of $144.5 million. While it is significantly lower than the Yankees current payroll since they don’t have ARod, Giambi, Randy Johnson, Mike Mussina, Johnny Damon, Carl Pavano, Jaret Wright and more, this is still significantly higher than any other team’s payroll.
While the Yankees farm system may have had a small lull, can take credit for a quality team and expect that the system will go into an upswing again.
I can’t write this without noting the Cubs pitching staff. The Cubs have produced almost no hitters. Ronny Cedeno would be carrying the lineup by himself if all players were sent back. They may not even be able to field a lineup. However, they could throw 2 starting rotations out there (considering the health status of their pitchers they could need to).
They have:
Greg Maddux
Dontrelle Willis
Carlos Zambrano
Mark Prior
Kerry Wood
Jon Garland
Jamie Moyer
Steve Traschel
Kyle Lohse
Sean Marshall
6 comments:
Wouldn't Armas be in the rotation and Milton in the bullpen? Or are you just leaving Milton in the rotation because he's a lefty?
I wouldn't even want to see the Red Sox version of this...
Milton still has a Yankeee logo Tattoo on his back.
I'm working on the rest of baseball. I'm almost done.
The Red Sox don't look too bad compared with some teams that will have incomplete ML rosters.
The Mariners lineup looks pretty good.
Of course, this doesn't tell you much about the state of the Yankee farm system right now - only what it was like in the past. The truth is, the Yankees didn't produce much, if any, major league talent between Soriano and Nick Johnson five years ago and Wang and Cano. For a team that doesn't worry about signing bonuses, that's not very good (not that the Mets and Red Sox have been much better - you've chronicled their pretty awful first round picks recently...)
I think part of the Yankees problem with drafting, is they draft the best athlete. Did work with Drew Henson. Last year's CJ Henry has been a disaster. It's a high risk, high reward philosphy.
It's also why they drafted Derek Jeter.
Jeter was more well-rounded than most of the others, but the Yankees also haven't drafted nearly that high since.
Well, of course! How could I forget the tattoo? That's obviously much more important than his tendency to give up home runs and ability to stay healthy...
The Yankees would have 3 players on the DL. I forgot about Yhency Brazoban.
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