Two Yankee Prospect Busts From the Last Regime

A few weeks back Ben wrote a guest post on LoHud about Yankee prospects and how Brian Cashman made the right decision on so many of them with when to keep them and when to trade them away. I have always thought this was a combination of dumb luck (how many times did guys almost get traded but by sheer luck didn't) and good internal prospect evaluation. Cashman is hoping to use that combination to make the right decisions with all the young pitchers and catchers the Yankees are trying to develop in their minor league system.

Source: Baseball Almanac

But before Brian Cashman arrived on the scene, the Yankees had a few guys who were flat out busts. There are famous ones like Brien Taylor, but there are a ton of other guys who just never made the cut after the Yankees hype machine touted them as top prospects. Two of those guys made Steven Goldman's Baseball Prospectus post of the worst prospect busts in baseball. Let's take a look at what he had to say about Hensley "Bam-Bam" Meulens and Ruben Rivera:

Hensley Meulens, 3B, Yankees
Free Agent, 1985
Now the Giants hitting coach, “Bam-Bam” was once going to be a star in the Big Apple. the right-handed-hitting third baseman had tremendous power at a very young age, hitting approximately .300/.377/.558 with 28 home runs in the Carolina League at age 20, but he had problems making contact and couldn’t field. Despite these flaws, the Yankees pushed him hard and fast, not really noticing that he didn’t hit or field as they pushed him up the ladder. Finally, after a failed major-league audition in 1989, he got back on the prospect track at Triple-A, hitting .285/.376/.510 with 26 home runs as a 23-year-old while primarily playing left field. This was the first positive thing he had done in some time, and it earned him both a recall (successful) and a full season in the majors in 1991 (not). Back in Columbus in 1992, the now-25-year-old hit .275/.352/.481 with 26 home runs, but also struck out 168 times. The Yankees were largely done with him, and he had just 44 major-league plate appearances remaining. He finished his career at .220/.288/.353 in 182 games. For more, see my profile of Meulens from last fall.

Read more>>

The Yankees Top 10 Prospects of the Last Decade

Baseball America just came out with their top 10 prospects team-by-team from the last decade. It takes a look at where they ranked on Baseball America's yearly list and how they turned out. It also lists the best and worst draft pick by team for the decade. Here's a quick primer and then a screenshot of the BA list:

Baseball America's Top 10 Prospects lists are based on projections of a player's long-term worth after discussions with scouting and player-development personnel. All players who haven't exceeded the major league rookie standards of 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched (without regard to service time) are eligible. Ages are as of April 1, 2009.

A quick observation about the list: the Yankees spent most of the decade developing prospects to trade. Some examples:

• Alfonso Soriano (#1) netted the Yankees Alex Rodriguez
• Jake Westbrook (#4) was part of the deal for David Justice
• Nick Johnson (#3) and Juan Rivera (#5) netted the Yankees Javy Vazquez (the first time)
• Javy Vazquez was then traded with Dioner Navarro (#8) for Randy Johnson
• Marcus Thames (#10) was traded for Ruben Sierra (the second time)
• Melky Cabrera (#9) was traded for Javy Vazquez (the second time)

Trades one and two worked out for the Yankees, trades three and four did not and the fifth on the list had it's good (Sierra's 2003 playoffs) and it's bad (the Yankees continuous search for a guy like Thames). The last trade is still too early to tell. It'll be interesting to see where this high risk, high reward class of prospects that Brian Cashman has drafted in recent years (as well as guys like Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain) end up on this list when it's all said and done. We'll have to check back in another decade to find out.