Wednesday, June 10, 2015

My Evolution From a “Win Now” Fan to a “Prospect Humper”


On Monday as we all know Major League Baseball showcased their First Year Players Draft on MLB Network welcoming many new faces to many team’s farm systems. While I was busy compiling scouting reports and reading every mock draft I could find preparing for the draft, because I am a self-professed prospect humper that even came up with the moniker prospect humper (trademark pending), my friend, co-owner of the blog and colleague Bryan Van Dusen was publishing an article on the blog about his transformation from a “win now” guy to a “prospect humper.” Van Dusen had his tale and now I will share mine about when, why and how I came to love the Yankees farm system from top to bottom almost as much as I love the team itself.

Way back in the year 2005 I was searching the web for trade rumors around the July 31st trading deadline since the Yankees were struggling in their division when I stumbled upon a sports forum that will remain nameless. The forum was littered with people searching for the same information and had the same hunger to win that I had. Since moving from New York to Atlanta, Georgia I was starved for Yankees discussions and baseball talk in general and this forum filled that void for me. First I read, then I finally signed up and commented and I was forever hooked. I craved that forum much in the way I do this blog today, if there was 100 posts posted on that day I read 100 posts that day and commented on probably 95 of them, no exaggeration. When I got bored of reading the trade deadline stuff and when the deadline came and passed, and the playoffs came and passed and the World Series came and went I found myself in the grind that is the MLB offseason.

It was that really dead time around late January and early February where all the major free agents are gone and we’re simply counting down the days until the Grapefruit League when I saw that most of the discussion on the forum had shifted to the prospects related sections of the site. Users were compiling top lists of players I had never heard of while others were up in arms about this player potentially being traded or this other player being ready but blocked by so-an-so and my mind spun. I had never paid attention to the Yankees farm system before so I decided I would check it out. I mean I had heard the stories of the likes of Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera coming through the farm system but I was born in November of 1985 so while the Core Four was just beginning to make their names in the Bronx I really had no idea where they came from and frankly didn’t care, we were winning World Series championships and trading any player we had to in order to acquire the flavor of the week and I was happy about it as long as we were winning. Some point in that offseason before the 2006 season winning just wasn’t enough anymore and maybe that was because the team wasn’t doing it as often as they used to or maybe it was because I wanted another Core Four type era that I could truly appreciate.

The first prospect I truly latched onto was Tyler Clippard and that was simply because of his nickname, the Yankee Clippard. I thought it was a simple nickname although creative enough for me to ignore the T-Clip nicknames and such that were thrown around on the forum by people I thought were too lazy to spell out his name completely. Clippard was born the same year I was and at the time, the time before Phil Hughes was really on the scene in the upper levels for the Yankees, and was the Yankees top prospect in what was a very barren and top heavy farm system. The top seemed like a good place to start. I followed Clippard and updated his stats regularly, much like we’re doing weekly check in’s with other top Yankees prospects on the blog each and every day, in my signature for all to see with every one of my 25K or more posts I put on that site from 2005-2009.

I remember fighting tooth and nail to keep Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy in the Bronx when the Minnesota Twins wanted to trade Johan Santana to the team. I remember wanting to shed a tear when Clippard was traded for some guy named Jonathan Albaladejo before excelling with the Washington Nationals in their bullpen. I remember when the draft started being televised on television and I remember when I had dreams of starting my own forum dedicated to the New York Yankees and their prospects. I remember meeting Bryan Van Dusen, Bryan Knepper, Jorge Maestre (whose idea it was to even start this blog before an unnecessary and childish fight on both sides ruined what was a great friendship) and guys like Greg Corcoran who currently writes for Rob Abruzzese’s Bronx Baseball Daily in their prospect department on those forums and I remember when we first started this blog here, The Greedy Pinstripes. I was supposed to be the prospects guy on the site, not the daily writer.


Now I remember tweeting every newly drafted player welcoming them to the Yankees family and asking for an interview for the blog. Now I remember doing daily check in posts with seven or eight of the top Yankees prospects and dedicating that whole month of February, the month where I first found my love for the Yankees farm system, to Prospects Month here on the blog. Now I remember beating the drum at least once a week for Robert Refsnyder to be called up or Jose Pirela to be used more or for Chris Capuano to be off the team entirely to make room back on the roster for Jacob Lindgren and Branden Pinder. Now I remember thinking back at 10 years of prospect humping and wondering how did I ever make it without my love of prospects before? Maybe I’ll find that out in another 10 years. 

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)