Draft Thoughts
Well the Yankees did what I asked and selected two hitters with their first two picks. The first, Slade Heathcott, has been described as a "boom or bust" pick by Baseball America. The second, J.R. Murphy, is an interesting pick because he is a catcher and that is the one position the Yankees have a lot of depth in.
Heathcott is described as a "five-tool" player who has had some tough off the field issues with some family members behaving badly. He grew up a Red Sox fan, which is interesting because he hails from Texarkana, Texas- a little bit outside of New England. (Great town Texarkana, great song too.) He plans to attend LSU if he doesn't sign with the Yankees. Some scouts project him as a reach for the first round, which means to me the Yankees probably have a deal with him to sign already.
The Murphy pick makes little sense until you hear that he is a likely candidate to get moved from catcher to third or the corner. He is said to have a very good bat which would be a nice addition to the system.
I will recap more of the draft when it finishes, but the Day 2 reports I am reading is that the Yankees are taking guy who may be hard to sign. That translates into English as-"they are taking guys who will cost a lot of money to sign"- exactly the approach they should be taking.
More after the game.
