Minor League Monday 8/25/08

I didn't have time to put together awards this week, but there are a few stories from the farm that I wanted to share.

• The Yankees' highest and third-highest paid draft picks had auspicious debuts in the Gulf Coast league. Brett Marshall, the sixth round pick who signed for $850,000, pitched three dominant innings in relief, allowing only one hit and one walk while striking out four batters. Even better, though, was 27th round pick Garrison Lassiter, who began his professional career with two multi-hit games and went 5 for 11 on the week with a stolen base to boot.
• I may not have any performance awards this week, but I can give Alfredo Aceves a nod for the best quote of the week. In Scranton last night, Aceves faced a Buffalo Bisons lineup which included three rehabbing major leaguers in Victor Martinez, Travis Hafner and Josh Barfield, two of whom have among the best hitters in the American League over the past few seasons. Aceves acquitted himself well, though, striking out Martinez twice and Hafner once as he pitched six scoreless innings for the win. How did he avoid any anxieties over facing experienced major leaguers? Apparently through ignorance. Aceves, who spent the last six years in Mexico, didn't even recognize any of the players, saying about Hafner "I've seen him before but I don't know where." You can check out the full story over at Chad Jennings' blog.
• In less amusing news, Austin Jackson, who is arguably the Yankees' top prospect, left Friday night's game in Trenton with back stiffness and has been placed on the DL. The move, however, is said to be purely precautionary and Jackson should be back in plenty of time for the first game of the Eastern League playoffs next week.
• On the subject of playoffs, congratulations are in order for the Trenton Thunder and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, who both clinched playoff berths last week. Additionally, Trenton clinched it's third straight divisional title. Considering the amount of shuffling the Yankees have had to do to their minor league rosters, the success of these teams is truly an impressive achievement for the coaches and staff.
• Finally, on last congratulation for pitcher Phil Coke, who was named to the 2008 Eastern League All-Star team. The 25 year-old lefty went 9-4 for the Thunder with a 2.51 ERA and 115 strikeouts in 118.1 innings before being called up to Triple-A earlier this month.
  

Minor League Monday: The 2008 Draft Haul

With the signing deadline now passed, we can close the book on the 2008 draft. At the end of this post, I've put together a complete list of the Yankees' picks along with whether or not they signed and, where possible, the size of their bonus. For those of you who don't want to go through the entire list, here are the highlights:

• As expected, the Yankees weren't able to sign first round pick Gerrit Cole. This is obviously a big disappointment, since Cole has a truly special arm, but it's hard to blame the Yankees for it. Prior to the draft, all indications were that the only obstacle to signing Cole was his high bonus demand, something the Yankees were more than prepared to deal with. However, after he was picked, it appears that Cole and his family had a change of heart, refusing to even meet with the Yankees, and deciding to go to UCLA. On the bright side, the team will now get an extra pick in the first round of next year's draft as compensation.
  
• The Yankees also didn't sign their second round pick, Scott Bittle. This, however, was the team's choice. Apparently team physicians voiced concerns after an examination of Bittle's shoulder, and the team felt that they were better off taking a compensation pick in next year's second round.
• The Yankees did sign supplemental first round pick Jeremy Bleich for $700,000. That's well under the $800,000 slot recommendation made by Major League Baseball, something you don't see the Yankees do very often.
  
• Much more typical for the Yankees was the signing of 27th round pick Garriton Lassiter. A player with top five round talent, Lassiter fell in the draft due to a strong commitment to the University of North Carolina. As they did with sixth and seventh round picks Brett Marshall and Kyle Higashioka, the Yankees were able to lure Lassiter away from college with a big signing bonus. It's a tactic the Yankees have used to great effect before with players like Austin Jackson and Dellin Betances.

Anyway, as promised, here's the full list of draftees:

Round	Overall	Player	Position	School	Status
1	28	Gerrit Cole	RHP	Orange Lutheran HS, CA	Did not sign
1s	44	Jeremy Bleich	LHP	Stanford	$700,000
2	75	Scott Bittle	RHP	Mississippi	Did not sign
3	106	David Adams	2B	Virginia	$333,000
4	140	Corban Joseph	SS	Franklin HS, TN	$207,000
5	170	Chris Smith	OF	Centennial HS, CA	$158,000
6	200	Brett Marshall	RHP	Sterling HS, TX	$850,000
7	230	Kyle Higashioka	C	Edison HS, CA	$500,000
8	260	Dan Brewer	OF	Bradley	$125,000
9	290	Mikey O'Brien	RHP	Hidden Valley HS, VA	$200,000
10	320	D.J. Mitchell	RHP	Clemson	$400,000
11	350	Ray Kruml	OF	South Alabama	Signed
12	380	Luke Greinke	RHP	Auburn	Signed
13	410	Jack Rye	OF	Florida State	Signed
14	440	David Phelps	RHP	Notre Dame	Signed
15	470	Matt Richardson	RHP	Lake Mary HS, FL	Signed
16	500	Luke Anders	1B	Texas A&M	Did not sign
17	530	Addison Maruszak	SS	South Florida	Signed
18	560	Brandon Braboy	RHP	Indianapolis	Signed
19	590	Mitch Abeita	C	Nebraska	Signed
20	620	Pat Venditte	RHP/LHP	Creighton	Signed
21	650	Mitch Delaney	1B	Western Texas JC	Signed
22	680	Cory Arbiso	RHP	Cal State Fullerton	Signed
23	710	Ryan Wilkes	SS	Kentucky	Signed
24	740	Mike Lyon	3B	Northeastern	Signed
25	770	Jeff Nutt	C	Arkansas	Signed
26	800	Blake Monar	LHP	South Spencer HS, IN	Did not sign
27	830	Garrison Lassiter	SS	West Forsyth HS, NC	$675,000
28	860	Chad Gross	OF	Cuesta JC	Signed
29	890	Mike Jones	OF	Arizona State	Signed
30	920	Ben McMahan	C	Bishop Moore HS, FL	Did not sign
31	950	Spencer Lucian	2B	Princeton	Signed
32	980	Andy Suiter	LHP	UC Davis	Did not sign
33	1010	Tommy Baldridge	OF	Coastal Carolina	Signed
34	1040	Brad Rulon	RHP	Georgia Tech	Signed
35	1070	Andrew Shive	RHP	Azusa Pacific, CA	Signed
36	1100	Chris Dwyer	LHP	Salisbury School, CT	Did not sign
37	1130	Justin Harper	RHP	Yavapai JC	Did not sign
38	1160	Clay Caulfield	RHP	College of Charleston	Did not sign
39	1190	Erik Lovett	1B	Mount Olive, NC	Signed
40	1220	Sam Mende	SS	Clearwater Central Catholic HS, FL	Did not sign
41	1250	Mykal Stokes	OF	Tustin HS, CA	Did not sign
42	1280	Clint Preisendorfer	LHP	San Diego Christian	Signed
43	1310	Matt Summers	RHP	Chaparral HS, AZ	Did not sign
44	1339	Evan Ocheltree	OF	Wake Forest	Did not sign
45	1367	Creede Simpson	SS	Auburn HS, AL	Did not sign
46	1394	Matt Veltmann	RHP	San Diego CC	Did not sign
47	1421	Ryan Flannery	RHP	Fairleigh Dickinson, NJ	Signed
48	1448	Rob Scahill	RHP	Bradley	Did not sign
49	1475	John Folino	RHP	Connecticut	Did not sign
50	1502	Nik Turley	LHP	Harvard-Westlake School, CA	Signed