Monday, July 20, 2015

Most Popular Article of the Week: Post Draft Top 10 Prospects List


The deadline to sign draft picks from the 2015 Major League Baseball First Year Players Draft will come and go today at 5:00 pm ET and the Yankees are not expected to sign another player before then. The team signed the vast majority of their draft picks this season including every player from the first ten rounds of the draft. Yesterday afternoon the Yankees signed their top pick, James Kaprielian, to a slightly above slot deal worth $2.65 million to begin his professional career with New York but where does the former UCLA product rank as far as the top Yankees prospects go? Will Kyle Holder, the Yankees other first round pick and college shortstop, crack the Top 10 as well? Sounds like the perfect time for a post-draft Top 10 Yankees prospects list.

  1. Luis Severino 
  2. Aaron Judge 
  3. Jorge Mateo 
  4. Robert Refsnyder 
  5. Greg Bird 
  6. Gary Sanchez 
  7. Jacob Lindgren
  8. Luis Torrens 
  9. James Kaprielian 
  10. Kyle Holder

Severino and Judge are more 1A and 1B at this point but I feel like Severino is closer to major league ready and more likely to contribute sooner than Judge giving him the edge for me. If anyone has Judge first and Severino second I wouldn’t put up a fight, it’s a good problem to have and it’s that close to judge (no pun intended). Mateo has had a great season, as we see weekly with our weekly posts, and moved up to the Yankees third best prospect for me while Refsnyder jumps from the 5th position he held before the 2015 season to the 2014 season. Bird has earned a promotion to Triple-A but has seen an injury presumably steal some of his power and hitting for average this season while Sanchez, Lindgren and Torrens fall into line on the list.


I couldn’t think of anyone I wanted to place here in front of Kaprielian. He’s not an ace, he’s probably more of a #3 starter ceiling wise, but he should be a fast mover and could reach the majors as soon as September, 2016 and that means something to me. Also with John Ryan Murphy and Bryant Mitchell nearing innings limits that would make them ineligible for these lists I went ahead and went with Holder at the #10 spot. I like Holder a lot more than others do because of his bat and his projected “elite” defense. I truly think his bat will come around and continue to grow, he hasn’t been playing full-time baseball during his college career and is still somewhat raw in the offensive department. Even so, and granted in a very hitting friendly league, he put up monster numbers before being drafted and I just get excited thinking what he could do with professional instructors, hitting coaches and a focus on baseball 100% of the time. Holder excites me and while he may not excite others that’s what makes these lists so subjective, fun to read and fun to do.


What’s yours? Leave it below down in the comments section.

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