Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Olney - Yankees Needed to Keep their Picks

Buster Olney has a piece today on the death of the Yankees. He argues the following if the Yankees go on a spending spree this summer;


"further retard their player development system that was, in the early '90s, the best in the major leagues. A dynasty was born from that, and from that dynasty came the YES Network, support for a new Yankee Stadium -- and an insatiable quest for success that, in the way it was managed, effectively cannibalized the organization. "


At the end of the article he actually lists the picks the Yankees lost and the what the compensation picks netted their former teams. I have excluded the compensation round picks because those are not picks the Yankees would have had if they didn't make the signing;

Johnny Damon - Daniel Bard
Kyle Farnsworth - Robert Fontaine
Carl Pavano-Jacob Marceaux
Jaret Wright-Jeffery Lyman
Paul Quantril- Blake Dewitt
Tom Gordon - Ray Liotte
Jason Giambi- Joe Blanton
Steve Karsay-James Greene
Mike Mussina- Mike Fontenot
David Wells - Darnell McDonald
Mike Stanton - Chris Tynan

So, what did the Yankees really loose out on with these picks? Joe Blanton? It makes for good press to kill the Yankees for spending on free agents but the truth is the Yankees are a lot better off with the FA pickups instead of the picks. Even late first round picks are a crap shoot and a sure thing FA is a much better, and safer investment. However, where the Yankees went wrong was with some of the decisions on who to spend money on not to spend it in the first place.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Is Chris Tynan related to Ronan Tynan? I like Ronan Tyna's rendition of the national anthem. Mostly the beginning.

Anonymous said...

I like your analysis on Olney's reporting. They Yankees likely would have chosen different guys, but you're right that it was mostly the decisions the Yankees made more than anything.

Di0ny said...

Are you fucking kidding right?

Is not Joe Blanton wow, if the Yanks had Damon Oppenheimer working since 1997 instead of stupid Lin Barrett, we wouldn't have to spend so much money on FAs.

FAs are a safer investment... Pavano, Wright, Johnson, Steve Karsay, Farnsworth, Hawkins and a lot others... Yeah right thaat's safe.

Why do you think the Yankees don't had a Catcher to replace Posada last season? because they lost all their draft picks on previous drafts, plus they never took draft seriously. Same goes with giving $275m to A-Rod.

I totally agree with Olney, and everyone does. Except you, retard.

Yardisiak said...

Even with the bad signings you can't argue that the Fa haven't been better then what the draft picks turned out to be.

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