2012 Yankees Draft Picks

[jacksonianmarch]

1. Ty Hensley- Edmond Santa Fe HS, OK- Tall, thick righty capable of running it up to 96mph. Already has a plus 12-6 hammer with a plus potential changeup. He's coming into the right farm in terms of the development of pitchers and this kid sounds like a Phil Hughes clone coming out of HS. Hopefully the farm can groom him as well as we did Hughes and the big league club doesnt f*** him up as much as we did Hughes. Regardless, I am very happy with this pick

[jacksonianmarch]

2. Austin Aune- Argyle HS, TX- 5 tool HSer who is a two sport player. Played a lot of SS in HS, but the Yankees are taking him as a CFer. Projectable body, potential plus power. Good speed, great arm, should be able to handle the move to CF with ease. He is considered to be raw. Another high upside pick for the Yankees, and will likely be a tough sign

[jacksonianmarch]

2A- Peter O'Brien- Catcher from Miami University- Plus raw power, good arm, improving mechanics. Sounds like an offensive first catcher. Should be a pretty easy sign as he is a senior. Add him to the pile. I like where they are going here. Callis thought he was a early 2nd rounder or a supp pick BA had him at 69. He broke his wrist in April, prior to that, he had 10HRs with an OPS over 1.100 at Miami U. The kid can absolutely rake and is a physical specimen. I am psyched to see what he can do. I love this draft so far

[jacksonianmarch]

3rd rounder- Nathan Mikolas- Bradford HS, WI- Lefty hitting centerfielder with a sub 6.9 second sixty, power to all fields and a good arm. Raw mechanics, from the great white north, but can hit the daylights out of the ball. I have no earthly idea how they are staying under their allotment this yr. This is another high upside kid with power

[jacksonianmarch]

4th Rounder- Corey Black- Faulkner University- NAIA pitcher with great stuff, but played against inferior competition. Can run it up there topping out at 97 with a good curve and change combo. Due to the league and the fact that he hasnt really been challenged, he is a bit of an unknown, but if his stuff can be refined in the pros, he has the stuff to be a top of the rotation pitcher.

[jacksonianmarch]

5th rounder- Rob Refsnyder, Arizona University- He's a college hitter. No defined position, average speed, average arm, solid professional bat with a good approach. Sounds like a potential underslot signee

[jacksonianmarch]

6th rounder- Nick Goody- reliever from LSU, struck out 39 and walked only 3 in his time at LSU. The Yankees drafted him last yr out of JuCo, but he didnt sign. Now, they really want him. Sits low 90s, throws a good slider and a workable change. I am unsure if we are going to try to bring him through as a starter or really see him fly through the system as a reliever. He's a good value pick with some potential impact within the next 2 yrs or so

[jacksonianmarch]

7th rounder- Garrison Taylor- Fresno State- Short stature senior righty. Closer at FSU, have no idea how he throws

[jacksonianmarch]

8th rounder- Taylor Dugas- CFer, U of Alabama- senior sign, all time hits leader at Alabama. Not a lot of projection, should once again be underslot

[jacksonianmarch]

9th rounder- Derek Varnadore- RHP Auburn U. Another senior sign guy. They are gonna go buck wild after the 10th cause all these guys should allow for us to throw some extra money at high schoolers

[jacksonianmarch]

10th Rounder- Matthew Snyder- 1b from Ole Miss- Senior sign, big guy, lots of power, lots of holes in the swing. Big league bloodlines. Probably nothing major and another underslot signee

[jacksonianmarch]

11th rounder- Caleb Frare- LHP- Custer County HS- Montana- Solid framed lefty, SR to follow

[jacksonianmarch]

12th rounder- Christopher Breen- C- Winter Springs HS- FL- Big bodied catcher with power. Two signability guys off the bat in the 11th and 12th rounds

[jacksonianmarch]

13th rounder- James Pazos- LHP U San Diego- Jr draftee, big frame, definite signability case

[jacksonianmarch]

14th rounder- Andrew Benak- SR RHP from Rice University. Not sure why we are still going with easy sign guys

[jacksonianmarch]

15th rounder- Dayton Dawe- RHP- AB Lucas SS Canada- The Yankees have made a habit of going after some Canadian HS pitchers and this yr was no exception. Dawe follows Turley and Rutckyj to the Yankee farm.

[jacksonianmarch]

Introducing the nation's best catcher

Peter O'Brien of Bethune-Cookman looks to lead his team to Omaha

Originally Published: March 4, 2011

 

Peter O'Brien has been earning a lot of recognition so far this season.

 

Welcome to our first semi-weekly college baseball blog of 2011. No, dedicated college football readers, it's not Three

Single: Meet Peter O'Brien

 

While in Daytona for Speedweeks, I stopped by one of my favorite spots in all the land, Jackie Robinson Ballpark. It didn't take long for the home team to figure out why I was there.

 

"You're from ESPN The Magazine?" an equipment manager asked.

 

"Yep."

 

"Then you're looking for Pete. His locker's over here."

 

Such is life these days for the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats. Despite 13 MEAC conference championships and 11 NCAA tournament appearances since 1996, B-CU has never received the kind of national media attention that it has here in the earliest stages of the 2011 season.

 

The reason: Peter O'Brien.

 

The junior catcher was on everyone's preseason All-America team and is widely projected as the top catcher coming out of college this year, if not overall (Blake Swihart, a Texas commit out of Cleveland High School in Rio Rancho, N.M., looks like his toughest competition for top backstop draftee). He hammered his way to a .386-20-151 season in 2010, then backed it up by leading Team USA's silver medal-winning squad this summer with a team-high four homers and .694 slugging percentage.

 

Not bad for a kid that no one wanted coming out of high school.

 

"Yes sir, I kind of flew under the radar," the Miami Gardens native said politely as his team got dressed for a home game with Alabama A&M. His beloved hometown Hurricanes never gave him a look. Neither did Florida International. So when B-CU, a historically black university, came calling, he headed north to Daytona Beach. In the three years since, he has gained 20 pounds, grown three inches and, in his own words, "come a long, long way on and off the field."

 

That development process started his senior year of high school when he made the move from the corners of the infield to behind the plate. It hit another gear under the tutelage of B-CU head coach Mervyl Melendez.

 

"I have never had a kid come in so early, work so hard, and leave so late," said O'Brien's head coach. "I can teach you baseball. But I can't teach you work ethic and desire. He came here with that."

 

"In all of the years I have been doing this I have never yelled at a kid like I have at Pete, especially during his freshman year," said Melendez, in his 12th season at the end of the bench. "But he loved it. And I quickly realized that. I have never had a kid come in so early, work so hard, and leave so late. And if I don't get on him he will come to me and ask me to get on him so that he can improve. I can teach you baseball. But I can't teach you work ethic and desire. He came here with that. Can't teach that."

 

He also came with a sweet, compact swing. The problem was he didn't always know what to do with it, biting on bad pitches early. That problem seemed to solve itself in 2010, when he earned multiple third team and honorable mention All-America honors, the first for a player from a historically black college since Rickie Weeks, a Daytona native, was at Southern University. His plate approach went through even further refinement with Team USA and head coach Davey Johnson.

 

"What you have to like about Petey is that he wears coaches out with questions," Johnson said. "Between innings it's like, poof, he just materializes right beside you on the bench. 'Coach, what did I do wrong during that at-bat?' or 'Coach, why are we starting these batters out by calling so-and-so a pitch?' He's like a sponge. It will be like heaven for him when he gets to the pros with all those instructors that have lifetimes of experience to learn from."

 

Exactly when he will join those pro ranks is still up for debate. There's no doubt he'll be drafted, but speculation on how high or low seems to fluctuate every week. After 10 games the Wildcats are sitting at 5-5 amid whispers that they are struggling under the pressure of preseason expectations. O'Brien started the year with two homers in two games, but was clearly pressing during last Saturday's nationally televised game versus UC-Irvine in the MLB Urban Classic in Los Angeles. He again seemed to be falling prey to the one constant criticism he's heard from pro scouts, swinging too often at bad breaking balls, particularly early in counts. His average had dropped to a dismal .214.

 

But the following day he moved up from fifth in the batting order to third and drove in three runs against Southern. On Wednesday he went 2-for-5 with an RBI as B-CU knocked off 25th-ranked Auburn on the road.

 

There are plenty more big-stage opportunities left this season. This weekend the Wildcats host Boston College, Michigan State and Stetson, which started the season with a sweep of Georgia. This year they also travel to Florida, Oral Roberts and South Florida. And though he refuses to say so, there will no doubt be a tone of "I'll show you guys" during trips to FIU and Miami in April.

 

"Our schedule is not easy," O'Brien told me that day in Daytona. "But I don't want it to be. None of us do. Everyone wants to talk to me about getting to the pros, and that's really flattering. But I'm not there yet. We don't just want to win the MEAC again or just make it to the NCAA regionals again. We want to get to Omaha. If that's not your goal why are you even out here?"

 

"See?" Melendez said when he heard his star player. "Pete's not just in this for Pete. Most any other kid in his position would be. But he's serious about taking this program to the next level before he leaves."

 

Then the coach repeated his earlier observation.

 

"Can't teach that."

 

Double: BBCOR from behind the plate

 

I talked at length with O'Brien about the effect of the new "deader" BBCOR bats. Not so much when he's at the plate, but rather when he's calling a game behind it. "Early on, it's not been too different, but I can already feel that starting to change now that we've gotten more time with them," he said. "We're probably going to get a little more aggressive calling pitches."

 

 

 

Like most college catchers, O'Brien relays pitch calls made from the coaching staff in the dugout. But Melendez admits that he plans to give his All-American more control as the season moves along. In the meantime, they are like every other coach-catcher-pitcher combo in the nation, trying to figure what they can and can't get away with in the BBCOR era.

 

"We're already seeing the inside of the plate open back up," O'Brien said. "Guys that can hit will still hit, even if you sent them up there with a golf club. But if you jam them up or force them into off-the-end-of-the-bat shots, I think they're staying in the infield now."

 

Chats with several coaches and catchers reveal a common theme: everyone is willing to take more chances from the mound as cheap homers and hits decline.

 

Added Melendez: "There are new holes to find in these bats and in people's swings. A guy like Pete has the advantage of finding those things out at the plate and then transferring what he learned to catching, and vice-versa."

 

This was when he was still at Bethune Cookman last yr. He transferred to Miami this past yr and was otherworldly until he fractured his wrist. He's a massive man with humongous now power, but there are questions as to whether he can stick at the position

[jete02fan]

2A- Peter O'Brien- Catcher from Miami University- Plus raw power' date=' good arm, improving mechanics. Sounds like an offensive first catcher. Should be a pretty easy sign as he is a senior. Add him to the pile. I like where they are going here. Callis thought he was a early 2nd rounder or a supp pick BA had him at 69. He broke his wrist in April, prior to that, he had 10HRs with an OPS over 1.100 at Miami U. The kid can absolutely rake and is a physical specimen. I am psyched to see what he can do. I love this draft so far[/quote']the Canes' love those sluggers...

[Station 13]

- The Red Sox are nearing deals with supplemental first round selection Pat Light and second rounder Jamie Callahan, Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe reports (on Twitter).