Thanks for the great post. It helps to remind us that, even if this season doesn’t turn out as we hope, that the immediate future looks very bright.

We seem to have players, while not studs, certainly capable of stepping into aging positions.

Help Wanted (chronological order):

1B (least likely to fill internally)
LF (I’d like to see Gardner here as a stopgap. Jeter won’t be able to get to those popups much longer. lol)
RF (I can actually see Abreu lasting longer in the Bronx than Damon, who’s already been Pipped by Cabrera).
C

The Future’s so bright, Igawa wears shades!
SS

the yankees can still win with all three,but almost everything will have to go right.

i would have traded some of the future for a veteran #3 starter .

-dennis

He’s had a career .386 slugging %age in the minors. In 15 games (he missed 3-4 early on) this year, it’s near .600. Over time everyone reverts to what they are.

We disagree here. Both the yankees and red sox now focus on acquiring high ceiling young players through the draft and the international signings market.

They have very similar philosophies but have different organizational strengths right now.

The fact that BOTH teams passed on Johan Santana tells you how similar their philosophies are.

Part of what you’re not considering is that all organizations have strengths and weakness in terms of development.

The Milwakee Brewers are great at evaluating hitting talent and developing it. Absolutely great at it. That’s their organizational strength.

The Brewers are not good at all at identifying and developing pitching. They just don’t do it well.

The Red Sox are very strong at developing position players. They aren’t nearly as good with young pitching.

That’s part of the reason why they’ve had to look outside of the organization for pitching more than they have for position players.

In recent years they’ve drafted many pitchers but other than Buchholz and masterson those picks haven’t turned out that well. (and now with Hagadon hurt with TJ it looks worse).

The Yankee’s recent organizational strength has been in identifying and developing pitching.

Now it’s still to be determined how the yankees will be in terms of developing position players because from 2004-2006 their emphasis was restocking the pitching because the system was so barren.

But now some of their position player talent is coming up to the higher levels and it looks very promising. Front and center – Austin Jackson.

The 2007 draft was the first one where they focused on restocking the system’s position players.

And so far (espeically in Charleston) it looks like they did very well.

In the next few seasons they are going to produce position players like the red sox have.

Seriously, I was very impressed at how young and capable yesterday’s lineup looked against the Angels, who rallied for the win. But the Baby Sox got to Saunders, the young ace of the Angels. They make good contact and make things happen on both sides of the ball.

However, we all know that pitching is gold. That’s where the Yankees have all the farms beat. By sheer volume, talent, and readiness.

Picking up something from the last thread. Anyone else here really enjoy that 2005 season? With Aaron Small winning his first 10 outings and Chacon and Wang patching the holes? I always smile when I hear or see Small or Chacon mentioned. Good times.