RealGM

You all know the deal.

There has been a lot of head scratching over the selection of Culver, but the Yankees claim they confirmed with a number of teams that he would not have been available at their 2nd pick. Even though he may have been an unknown, the Yankees have followed him closely for a couple of years now as he was on the Yankees' area code team last year, so I'm going to assume they know more about him than any other team or anybody else.

The Yanks really seemed to make an effort to get young HS kids (7 of the first 10 picks) who are ridiculous athletes, and are not as raw as most HS athletes usually are. Some of these kids are seriously tremendous athletes, especially Mason Williams.

Also, supposedly Culver and Gumbs were the 2nd and 3rd youngest players in the entire draft (only Bryce Harper being younger).

1. Cito Culver, ss, West Irondiquot HS, Rochester , NY (8/26/92) $954,000
2. Angelo Gumbs, SS-CF, Torrance HS, California (10/13/92)
3. Rob Segedin, 3B, Tulane - DES (11/10/88)
4. Mason Williams, CF, West Orange HS, Florida (8/21/91)
5. Thomas Kahnle, RHP, Lynn University – Jr (8/07/89)
6. Gabe Encinas, RHP, St Paul HS, California (12/21/91)
7. Taylor Anderson, OF, Woodlawn HS, Louisiana (12/03/91)
8. Kyle Roller, 1B, East Carolina , Sr (03/27/88)
9. Taylor Morton, RHP, Bartlett HS, Tennessee (12/18/91)
10. Ben Gamel , OF Bishop Kenny HS, Florida (05/17/92)
11. Zachary Varce, RHP, University of Portland – Jr (12/14/88)
12. Daniel Burawa, RHP, St John’s – Jr (12/30/88)
13. Tyler Austin, OF Heritage HS, Georgia (09/06/91)
14. Travis Dean, RHP, Newton South HS, Massachusetts (05/03/91)
15. Chase Whitley, RHP, Troy University – Jr (06/14/89)
16. Evan Rutckyj, LHP, St Joseph ’s HS, Ontario , Canada (01/31/92)
17. Preston Claiborne, RHP, Tulane University – Sr (01/21/88)
18. Kevin Jacob, RHP, Georgia Tech – Jr (03/26/89)
19. Kevin Jordan, OF, Northside-Columbus HS, Georgia (11/14/91)
20. Mike Ferraro, OF, University of San Diego – Red Shirt Jr (05/31/88)
21. Dustin Hobbs, RHP, Yavapai College (08/18/89)
22. Trevor Johnson, LHP, College of the Desert, California – Fr (07/29/88)
23. Shane Brown, OF, University of Central Florida – Sr (01/11/88)
24. Conor Mullee, RHP, St Peter’s College, NJ, - Sr (02/25/88)
25. Casey Stevenson, 2B, University of California – Irvine – Sr (05/18/88)
26. Richard James Hively, RHP, Santa Ana College – Fr (11/27/88)
27. Martin Viramontes, RHP, Loyola Marymount University – Red Shirt So (07/12/89)
28. Josh Dezse, RHP, Olentangy Liberty HS, Ohio (06/18/92)
29. Stewart Ijames, OF, University of Louisville – Red Shirt So (08/21/88)
30. Zackary Nuding, RHP, Weatherford College , Tx – So (03/29/90)
31. James Gibson, RHP, Florida Atlantic – Jr (09/15/88)
32. Kramer Sneed, LHP, Barton College – Jr (10/07/88)
33. Michael Hachadorian, RHP, San Diego Mesa College – So (05/03/90)
34. William Kish, RHP, Germantown Academy HS, PA (11/29/91)
35. William Oliver, RHP, Palomar College – So (07/04/87)
36. Nick McCoy, C, University of San Diego – Sr (03/02/87)
37. Cameron Hobson, LHP, Dayton – DES (04/10/89)
38. James Ramsey, OF, Brandon HS, Florida (03/02/92)
39. Jaycob Brugman, OF, Desert Vista HS, Arizona (01/18/92)
40. Michael Gerber, OF, Neuqua Valley HS, Illinois (07/08/92)
41. Tymothy Pearson, OF, Columbia Basin CC, Oregon (10/30/90)
42. Michael O’Neill, OF, Olentangy Liberty HS – (06/12/92)
43. Kyle Hunter, LHP, Kansas State - DES (06/18/89)
44. David Middendorf, LHP, Northern Kentucky – Jr ( 01/23/89)
45. Tyler Johnson, OF, Penn State – Jr (05/20/89)
46. Nathan Forer, RHP, Southern Illinois University – Sr (06/06/88)
47. Frederick Lewis, LHP, Tennessee Wesleyan College - Jr (12/16/86)
48. Alex Brown, RHP, Amphitheater HS, Arizona (10/08/91)
49. Will Arthur, OF, Abbotsford Secondary School HS, British Columbia (04/04/92)
50. James Rice, C, Western Kentucky – Jr (05/08/89)

Some articles about some of the high ceiling players and overall philosophy of this draft...

Hard to dislike this draft, the Yanks really stayed away from making safe picks to save money or anything like we've accused them of doing a couple of years ago. The upside in some of these kids is tremendous, a lot of athletic position players and hard throwing pitchers. Now comes the challenge to get them signed.

http://riveraveblues.com/2010/06/2010-d ... gth-29877/

http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2010/06/09/mlb- ... ep-talent/

A number of players have signed already

Culver is expected to sign this week

i hope culver pans out
and isnt cj henry

I hope we sign Mason Williams, and Ben Gamel rather quickly. I also agree with the above comment!!

So are the guys in green the ones that we have signed already?

Yup...if any guys are definitely not going to sign I'll hi-lite them in red

According to Kevin Levine-Flandrup, of Pinstripe Plus, the Yankees have reached an agreement with first-round pick Cito Culver. Levine-Flandrup sites a source he spoke to this morning who says the deal is done pending a physical and Culver’s graduation.

Lconte17 wrote:According to Kevin Levine-Flandrup, of Pinstripe Plus, the Yankees have reached an agreement with first-round pick Cito Culver. Levine-Flandrup sites a source he spoke to this morning who says the deal is done pending a physical and Culver’s graduation.

I was just about to ask about Culver's contract situation. We have added a talented young shortstop in him, and from the list in the original post, Gumbs is another talented guy who can play shortstop. Seeing as Culver is only the second shortstop that we have drafted since Jeter, do you guys think it's fair to say that management are expecting Culver or Gumbs to be Jeter's successor? I don't know a huge amount about baseball or the guys drafted, so can one of you guys tell me a bit about what Culver and Gumbs are like and what sort of potential they have?

My other team, the White Sox, took a pitcher in the first round that seems like he could be good, but I haven't heard much about their other picks, so I'm very interested in who my Yankees have drafted, considering that there seems to be a lot of hype about the potential of a lot of the picks.

The Next Big Thing wrote:

Lconte17 wrote:According to Kevin Levine-Flandrup, of Pinstripe Plus, the Yankees have reached an agreement with first-round pick Cito Culver. Levine-Flandrup sites a source he spoke to this morning who says the deal is done pending a physical and Culver’s graduation.

I was just about to ask about Culver's contract situation. We have added a talented young shortstop in him, and from the list in the original post, Gumbs is another talented guy who can play shortstop. Seeing as Culver is only the second shortstop that we have drafted since Jeter, do you guys think it's fair to say that management are expecting Culver or Gumbs to be Jeter's successor? I don't know a huge amount about baseball or the guys drafted, so can one of you guys tell me a bit about what Culver and Gumbs are like and what sort of potential they have?

My other team, the White Sox, took a pitcher in the first round that seems like he could be good, but I haven't heard much about their other picks, so I'm very interested in who my Yankees have drafted, considering that there seems to be a lot of hype about the potential of a lot of the picks.

cj henry says hi

Uhhh... OK?

Culver deal is worth slot money, about $940K

The Next Big Thing wrote:Uhhh... OK?

and he was a bust

and culver wasnt even in the top 150 prospect list, so some are wondering on that pick in the 1st rd

Who cares about a top 150 list?

The Yankees claimed they called around the league and attempted to see if he would be there for their 2nd pick at #82, and they felt he would not. Oppenheimer even said that AFTER they picked Culver, teams told him that he would've been gone by #82 had they tried to wait.

The Yankees scouted the living crap out of this kid, more than any other team. I'll trust them on this one the way they have drafted the past 5 years or so, rather than some random top 150 list made by someone who probably never saw Culver play but rather asked a scout who saw him play once what their opinion was.

EDIT:
Signing Culver for slot money is huge for two reasons. First of all, Selig won't wait to approve the deal until August he'll be able to start playing immediately in the GCL. Secondly, it leaves some extra cash to hand out to other signability cases that would be huge signings.

Kevin Jordan... son of former MLer Brian Jordan... best prospect the Yankees drafted. Hope we get him. Gumbs is nice but just one Gardner type is enough for the Yanks.

So any movements on the other guys that haven't be marked as signed?

moocow007 wrote:So any movements on the other guys that haven't be marked as signed?

The only new one is 32nd rd pick Kramer Sneed.

To be honest, it doesn't sound like the Yankees plan to sign much more than about 25 of these guys (compared to usually trying to sign about 35). They just don't have the room in the lower levels for fill in guys, the system is seriously becoming crowded with pretty good talent all the way down to the bottom. There is a group of guys currently in the DSL that have insane potential, and they are going to be taking up spots in the GCL next year as well.

Right now, 19 guys have signed. I would expect about 5-8 more to be signed depending on the dollar figures (and depending on how international free agency goes, which so far has been extremely quiet). The rest of the guys the Yanks want to sign are probably going to be held by Selig until the deadline because they are overslot, and some others are draft and follow cases throughout the summer. Hopefully they are able to lock in 8 or more of the guys remaining.

Tommy Kahnle (5th rounder) has supposedly signed and is on his way to SI. Still hoping for something out of the Gumbs/Williams/Encinas/Burawa/Rutckyj/Jordan group.

Gumbs has supposedly had his physical but the dollar amount on his deal is what is holding the deal off from being announced until the deadline in a few weeks. I would love to get Jordan and Encinas, the rest would be icing on the cake. I think we'll get more done than we expect.

nykgeneralmanager wrote:Gumbs has supposedly had his physical but the dollar amount on his deal is what is holding the deal off from being announced until the deadline in a few weeks. I would love to get Jordan and Encinas, the rest would be icing on the cake. I think we'll get more done than we expect.

Good to hear re: Gumbs...great upside and you can't go wrong with a plus-plus name. Out of the rest of the group, Jordan and Williams are the ones I really want, though I think I've read that Williams is making crazy bonus demands ($2 mil?) so he's probably not an option.