Although I haven’t read the Q&A or the comments as thoroughly as I plan to in a little bit, just a few things off the top of my head from my skimming: first how can anyone say he deserves blame for drafting CJ Henry? Look at what he turned CJ Henry into in July 2006, and now CJ is back with the Yanks anyway on the 1 in 100 chance that he’ll pan out. Every GM picks guys that end up being disappointments but the good GM’s trade those guys before anyone outside the org. realizes how truly worthless they are. That’s what Cash did with Henry and, to a lesser degree, Clippard (even though I love T-Clip, he wasn’t really able to help the team much.)

Also, my apologies if this has already been discussed but anyone have a guess as to the identity of the unnamed lefty Cash was talking about? I’ll take Damaso Marte for $1000, Alex. I’ve been clamoring as loudly as anyone to add him to the pen but it comforts me to know that Cash did explore that and decided he had a cheaper, more youth-friendly solution. I trust that his solution will work.

Lastly, not to keep bringing up CJ Henry, but that same year (2005), the Yankees drafted Action Jackson in what, the 8th round? I recently was reading a photo essay (on ESPN or SI, can’t remember) about the best players in the stacked 2005 draft. Jackson was 20 out of 20 - but the other 19 players were all picked in the top 100 overall. Jackson was selected 259th. So yeah, Cashman drafted the bust CJ Henry that year - but he also got the equivalent of a 1st-rounder in the 8th round. So somehow, that they took Henry in the first is not really gonna keep me up at night.

Cash Rules Everything Around Me! Thanks for the great interview, Pete. And I nominate Moose for the next Q&A. Would love to hear from Andy too, but especially Moose - he’s got such a great sense of humor and discusses baseball so intelligently and eloquently. Shelley, Damon or Joba would also be great.

Thanks for your work on this. And thanks, too, to Brian Cashman, for taking the interview quite seriously and giving thoughtful answers to the questions.

Also, thanks to all of you who did ask some really good questions. I knew you guys wouldn’t disappoint!

It was very interesting reading and it’s been very interesting reading the comments that follow. Like Gayle, I was super-impressed with the fact that he keeps tabs on the truthfulness (integrity) of the agents he has to deal with. And I especially liked his answer to those wanting to pursue a career like his. It was not boilerplate - it was very informative and encouraging.

Can’t wait for your next interview, Pete.

Prior to 2004 the Yankees approach to the draft was completely different. The draft was exclusively run from the Tampa faction of the management team. They had complete operational control.

Cashman had no input or say in the draft.

And before the 2004 the yankees were considered to be amongst the 2-3 worst drafting teams in all of baseball during the decade prior.

From 1993 - 2004 the yankee’s draft was worthless - were they trying to do this intentionally? That’s just a senseless point. Of course not. Were they completely incompetent? Absolutely. The guys running the draft for the yankees out of Tampa were horrendous and that’s what put the team in the whole it was in at the start of this decade.

To say the execution became better is a completely empty statement. It’s just silly. After 10 years of being amongst the worst in an industry at something you don’t just magically start executing better. The yankees had been executing terribly for 10 years - that just doesn’t change for no reason.

And the main reason why that changed was of Cashman. He’s the one who put the organizational changes in place that enabled the tremendous execution that took place later.

Cashman had no input into the draft during that time. None. So it makes no sense to blame him for the drafts at that time.

It was Cashman who convinced Steinbrenner to focus on the draft and dedicate resources to it. That was his idea and he had to fight the Tampa faction to get input into talent acquisition.

That only started happening in 2004. And Cashman only got full control in 2005. That’s not very long ago.

Cashman then put Damon Oppenheimer in charge of the draft, revamped all of their amateur scouting and got the organization to invest resources into the draft.

And just as important Cashman expanded their international scouting. That’s what got them Cano and Wang.

Every year since cashman got involved with the draft they yankees have gotten multiple strong prospects out of the draft. In baseball that’s what you hope for. There are 40 rounds in the draft. So obviously the vast, vast majority of those players drafted are going to fail - that’s true of all teams.

What you hope to do each year is to add productive talent.

That’s what they’ve done.

To criticize picks like CJ Henry, etc. is to completely miss the entire nature of the baseball draft. The same year they took CJ Henry in the first round they drafted Austin Jackson, Alan Horne, Brett Gardner, JB Cox, Eric Wordkemper and Zach Kroenke. Any year you can add 6 players like that out of the 40 rounds of the draft you’ve had an enormously successful draft. Enormously successful.

Compare that to what they were doing before cashman got there - they had 10 years of drafts where year after year they would not select even one decent prospect.

Over the past 3 years the yankees have drafted Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy. Those are the three of the four best pitching prospects this organization has had over the past 30 years.

Think about that - 3 of the 4 best pitching prospects they’v had over the past three decades came in the 3 years since Cashman took control of the draft from the Tampa faction that was ruining this team.

What Cashman has done in 3 short years in nothing short of remarkable.

It could be a subtle deflection that he used. The numbers Santana was putting up in the second half of the season last year could very well have been what quashed that from ever happening. Perceptions about Santana could very well be different than what the stats and reality show.

I think A-Rod might do it, i mean i don’t think he’d do a very in-depth interview with a TV show or magazine or anything but if he respects and cares about the fans as much as he claims to then i think he’d be open to doing a fan q&a like this.