Draft Day 1 Recap: Yankees Select Jacob Lindgren

(Courtesy of hailstate.com)

It was a long wait for the Yankees to make their first pick in last night's opening night of the 2014 MLB Draft.  Thanks to their offseason FA spending spree, they did not have a selection until the 2nd round, the 55th overall selection to be exact.  The rumors coming into the draft were that the Yankees were targeting a lot of prep catchers, some young HS arms, players with California ties (no surprise there), and most recently Indiana first baseman Sam Travis.  When the time came to make their pick, the Yankees went against all the rumors and selected Jacob Lindgren, left-handed pitcher from Mississippi St.

Keith Law Scouts Low-A Charleston

Keith Law was back on the scouting road earlier this week and once again he got the chance to check out one of the Yankee farm teams in action.  This time it was the Low-A Charleston RiverDogs and Law filed a scouting report post on some of the players he saw for ESPN yesterday.

The stars of the show were 2013 1st rounder Aaron Judge and fast-rising starting pitching prospect Luis Severino.  Severino dominated in this start (5.2 shutout innings, 8 Ks) and Law called his 3-pitch mix "impressive", praising him for his fastball command and late life and his plus changeup.  He was less enthusiastic about Severino's slider and said he has a lot of work to do on his mechanics, noting that Severino needs "some mechanical adjustments to reach his above-average starter ceiling."

Judge also had himself a day in Law's presence, going 2-2 with a triple and 2 walks.  Law liked what he saw in Judge's stance and swing mechanics, saying "for a guy with long arms and a little bit of a bat wrap he's still quite short to the ball, with good hip rotation and loft in his finish for line-drive power."

Law also had some quick takes on Abi Avelino and Gosuke Katoh.  You can check those out in the whole article here (Insider-only).

Keith Law Scouts Double-A Trenton

This is almost a week old and I missed it initially, but Keith Law of ESPN attended the Opening Day game for the Trenton Thunder last week and filed a scouting report on some of the big name prospects playing.   Toronto pitching prospect Aaron Sanchez (not the "Chopped" judge) was the highlight of Law's report, but he also gave his takes on Yankee prospects Bryan Mitchell, Gary Sanchez, and Mason Williams.  The whole article is here and it's an Insider only piece, so here are the highlights for those without Insider access:

- Law isn't a big fan of Mitchell.  He liked his fastball velocity and believes Mitchell's cutter could eventually become his best pitch, but long-term he sees Mitchell as more of a relief prospect based on his lack of fastball movement and curveball command.

- Sanchez looked to be a little too much for Sanchez in 1 AB, but Law thought Sanchez looked pretty good behind the plate considering how often Mitchell was junking curveballs all over the place.

- Williams, despite hitting the ball hard a few times, still isn't showing enough maturity in his approach for Law's liking.  Law described Williams as "too aggressive for his own good" and said this is the year where we need to see some improvement in the finer points of Williams' game to match his tools.

Keith Law Not High On Low-A Charleston Prospects

For a guy whose scouting reports I usually enjoy reading and give some weight to, I was very disappointed in Keith Law's feedback on the Saturday Low-A Charleston game he watched and reported back on, and not just because he didn't have much positive to say about any of the Yankee prospects.

Kiley McDaniel's Yankee Prospect Scouting Reports

Kiley McDaniel has taken his prospect scouting gig from ESPN to FanGraphs, and he's come out firing with a boatload of scouting reports from the instructional leagues on many a Yankee farmhand.  He's been releasing the reports in parts for a little over a week now, and he finally concluded them with Part IV earlier this week.  In case you haven't already, you can check out all four parts of McDaniel's report right here and I strongly suggest that you do.  If you aren't familiar with McDaniel's work, get familiar.  His reports are very detailed and insightful, but presented in a straightforward, easy-to-understand way that leaves you with a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses that McDaniel saw in a player.  Highlights of McDaniel's reports and my personal takes after the jump.

Kiley McDaniel Scouts Ty Hensley

(Courtesy of The AP)

Kiley McDaniel of ESPN is back at it scouting Yankees prospects.  He's already covered the biggest names in the system in the A-ball levels (Sanchez, Williams, Austin, Heathcott); this past week he dropped down a few more levels to the GCL to take a look at 2012 1st-round pick Ty Hensley.  McDaniel brings the first real good scouting report we've seen on Hensley since he finally signed, joined the GCL Yanks, and started pitching.  It's an Insider Only piece, but it gives plenty of reasons to be high on Hensley's potential as a top-tier starter.  The highlights of McDaniel's report and my take after the jump.