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.

Ruben Rivera, OF, Yankees
Free Agent, 1990
As I write these words, Rivera may be gearing up for another season in the Mexican League, where he has been exiled since leaving the White Sox organization, his seventh, back in 2006. Ruben was billed as a five-tool talent, or six-tool if you want to throw in selectivity. Signed out of Panama, he made his stateside debut at 18 and was at Triple-A at 21 after hitting .281/.357/.541 with 33 home runs and 48 steals in 1994 and .284/.390/.553 in 1995. He finished the season at Triple-A Columbus, hitting 15 home runs in 174 at-bats. Supposedly sulking at Triple-A, Rivera was called to a crowded outfield in early 1996 when Tim Raines was hurt. He alternated hot and cold streaks and was sent back down so that Gerald Williams and Ruben Sierra could play left field, one of those wonderful moves that they won’t put on Joe Torre’s Hall of Fame plaque. The following spring, in one of the worst moves in Yankees history, the Yankees sent Rivera, Rafael Medina, and $3 million to the Padres for Homer Bush, a confirmed minor-league outfielder, and the rights to Hideki Irabu. To say that Rivera failed miserably with the Padres would be an understatement; he batted .204/.301/.397 in nearly 400 games. The Reds, Rangers, and Giants gave him major-league tries, as did the Orioles and White Sox, and a return trip to the Yankees ended strangely when he was accused of stealing Derek Jeter’s glove.

The amazing part of the latter prospect profile is what the Yankees made out with from those players acquired. Homer Bush was a part of the trade for Roger Clemens and the Yankees dumped Hideki Irabu on Montreal and got back Jake Westbrook (who turned into David Justice), Ted Lilly, and another failed prospect, Christian Parker. And to be honest, although we remember Irabu as a "Fat Pussy Toad", most of the disappointment in how he turned out is that he never became the "Japanese Roger Clemens" as he was touted when he came to the US.

The hope is that the current regime of Yankees' management has learned from these mistakes of the past and won't let The Killer B's or the catching depth end up on a list like this years from now. Part of the way to do that is patience and the other part is making sure they end up in situations they can succeed. Because as much as the Yankees may want another bat or better back-end starting pitching, patience with their current batch of prospects may be the best route for now.

And now for a video on what "Bam-Bam" would have looked like: