With the announcement that the Baltimore Orioles signed
former Texas Rangers ace Yovani Gallardo to a three year deal the New York
Yankees became almost essentially locked into the #18 pick in the first round
of the MLB First Year Players Draft. This got me thinking, what have the
Yankees done in their storied history with the 18th pick overall in
the MLB Draft so I got to researching and found that he team has only had the
#18 pick in the first round once in the franchise’s history. In 1978 the New
York Yankees selected a shortstop out of Bullard High School in Fresno,
California with the 18th pick overall and his name was Rex Hudler.
Hudler went on to have a pretty decent MLB career posting
.261/.296/.422 triple slash with 56 home runs in his 13 season career. Hudler was never the All Star or the guy to lead the team offensively but he still managed to produce a solid 6.5 career WAR with a career .972 fielding percentage.
The Yankees have come close to taking a player 18th
overall in years past, the organization took Bill Burdach 19th
overall in the original MLB Draft in 1965 out of Wahlert High School. The team
also took Terry Whitfield 19th overall out of Palo Verde High School
in 1971 before picking 19th overall again in 1975 when they took Jim
McDonald out of High School as well.
In 2005 the Yankees climbed one spot higher to the #17
position where they took shortstop C.J. Henry with their first pick. You may
remember Henry being used as the center piece of the cash dump that was the
Bobby Abreu trade with the Philadelphia Phillies and you may also remember that
shortly after the trade the Yankees got Henry back after not hacking it in
Philadelphia. Total win for Brian Cashman.
I find it amazing that the Yankees have drafted first
overall, twice taking Ron Bloomberg and Brien Taylor, more times than they have
at the #18 slot. Unless something goes down between now and then the 2016 MLB
Draft will mark just the second time the Yankees take someone with the #18 slot
and if he turns out to be half as solid as Rex Hudler was I think New York is
in pretty good shape going forward.
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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)