Saturday, November 29, 2008

Building Blocks to the Future

I was thinking about how many former Yankee prospects the Yankees have traded over the years, and was wondering how many of them have made it to the big leagues. I decided to compile a list. This list is not complete, and if you can think of any others feel free to add them in the comments section.

Players of Consequence:

Wily Mo Pena
Ted Lilly
Nick Johnson
Juan Rivera
Dioner Navarro
Ramon Ramirez
Alfonso Soriano

Pena has some raw power, but has never been able to hone it. He now plays for the Nationals. Ted Lilly has had some success with the Cubs, but his time in the American League East was decidedly less succesful. Nick Johnson was a fan favorite, but has been unable to stay healthy, and is in danger of losing his spot at first base with the Nationals. Juan Rivera seemed like he was progressing well with the Angels after he batted .310 with 23 homeruns and 85 RBI in 448 at bats in 2006, but has been unable to stay healthy thereafter. Dioner Navarro was the supposed heir to the throne of Posada until traded to the Diamondbacks in the Randy Johnson deal. He made a name for himself with the Rays this year, but this year was also his first decent season. He went .295 with 7 homeruns and 54 RBI's this season, but before this season he was largely seen as a below average offensive player. Replacing Posada? There is no way. Ramon Ramirez is pretty good. He's the one the Royals just traded to the Red Sox for Coco Crisp. In 3 big league seasons he has a 3.62 ERA, but this stretch included his 2007 campaign where he was injured for the majority of the season and posted an 8.31 ERA. Soriano is Soriano, but he was apart of the A-Rod deal, and A-Rod has won 2 MVP's since coming here. Further more, Soriano has suffered the same post-season lapses as A-Rod, only with much more fan appreciation.

Who? Players we traded that we never knew we had:

David Lee
Scott Wiggins
Jason Arnold
John-Ford Griffin
Brandon Claussen
Charlie Manning
Jason Anderson
Anderson Garcia
Ryan Biconda
Randy Choate
Brad Halsey
Eduardo Sierra
Justin Berg

Will They? Players We Traded in Recent Times:

Jeff Karstens
Ross Ohlendorf
Jose Tabata
Daniel McCutchen
Alberto Gonzalez
Jeff Marquez
Eduardo Nunez
Tyler Clippard
Jeff Kennard

The verdict is still out on these players. Its too early to tell whether they will amount to anything, or be another player on a transaction list that never made it.

I'm sure there's many others we've traded along the way, but these were the ones that I could pick out after a quick look at transactions. Either way its good to know we haven't given up the next Hanley Ramirez or anything.

10 comments:

Fred Trigger said...

Cmon, man. Dont you watch Seinfeld? "you traded away 30HR and 100RBI for Ken Phelps!' Of course he was talking about none other than Jay Buhner. They also traded away Fred Mcgriff and Mike Morgan back in 82.

Off that one list, I only remember Randy Choate. Only reason being, was because when he made his major league debut in relief, in Fenway, he was throwing his warmup pitches to the backstop, and the crowd was getting on him. He settled down after a few wild pitches

Roberto E. Alejandro said...

In fairness, my brother wasn't born in '82.

Anonymous said...

I think the bigger problem is the Yankees seldom get decent prospects. Somehow they love to sign young pitchers who already have or are going to have elbow or shoulder surgery.

Anonymous said...

Shouldn't Carlos Pena be on that list? I think he was ours.

Fernando Alejandro said...

Pena ended up on our Triple A team but he wasn't one of our prospects. He had logged about 5 seasons with 3 different teams by the time we got him. Too bad we didn't hold onto him.

Trig, I was only looking at modern players. Otherwise I would have had to mention the Babe Ruth deal. But you're right, in the 80's the Yankees made a ton of bad deals.

Fernando Alejandro said...

And Raven I agree. Humberto Sanchez was the big prospect we received in the Sheffield deal, and Andrew Brackman was our 1st round pick from a year ago. Both of them had Tommy John shortly after coming to the Yankees. We'll have to see if either of them work out. Even if they do though, I still think Cashman gave way too much for Brackman. For a player that they knew probably needed Tommy John, they not only gave him millions, Boras also had them write in the contract that he would be guaranteed a spot on the roster, which basically means he starts logging big league time sooner, and becomes a free agent sooner. If Brackman doesn't pan out, I will personally slap Cashman.

Anonymous said...

Guys with shoulder surgery should be low risk high reward kinda guys. they need to be gambles. remember chamberlin fell to us in the draft because of injury issues.. Sorry i havent commented. school work is nuts right now

Fred Trigger said...

oh, i wasnt hating on the post. But, when yankee prospects come up, I always remember that seinfeld episode. Then out of curiosity, I went to baseball reference and looked at some of their old transactions and was shocked that they had the crimedog and traded him away.

Fernando Alejandro said...

Quinn! Welcome back!

The issue with the low risk high reward thing, is that its rarely low risk. They gave Brackman a $4.55 million deal, plus a spot on the roster. The man hasn't thrown a single pitch in our minor league system, and yet he's already amassing Major League Service Time.

Trig, I hear you, the Yankees made some awful deals back then, and didn't compete because of it. The 80's Yanks sucked. The only bright spot was Mattingly at his prime.

Fred Trigger said...

those teams were terrible until 1995. I remember living in NY and the yankees pitching staff consisted of Scott Sanderson, a very young (and thin) Bob Wickman, Scott Kamienicki, and Melido Perez. Very dark times for yankees fans, indeed. Their lineup wasnt much better, although, they did have a young bernie williams sitting on the bench.