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.
