ACTUALLY Trusting the Process

Written by Sean P | 08 June 2010

Since I had a dinner meeting for most night I ended up missing quite a bit of the draft. I was around early enough to catch the beginning however and had a brief conversation on the phone with my father. I was saber-douching it up about the Cubs pick, about how it’s not a coincidence that poorly run organizations draft poorly, then yammering on about how adhering to the slotting system can really screw up a team’s system etc, etc, you get the picture.

Me: “Like the guy the Cubs just picked. Totally ridiculous. No one has even heard of this guy! I mean, he’s not on anyone’s top 100!” Headshake, chortle, smirk. “You have to take the best available in a position like that. What an awful job by the Cubs! Do you see who is still available? I can’t believe it, Chicago fans must be irate!” Snicker, laugh, sigh. “I’ll tell you one thing though dad, the draft sure is shaping up nice for the Yankees so far. They’ll have a great pool to pick from”

Oops!

When I finally got home and saw the Yankees picked Cito Culver I couldn’t believe Damon Oppenheimer would show me up like that. The balls on that guy. And then I saw what the Rays did. And then I saw what the Red Sox did. I read some of the scouting reports, a few too many of which included the phrase “utility player” and got out the Glenmorangie and endeavored to carry on. I read the reviews from draft experts who expressed real surprise at this pick, even shock, because of the names still available at that point. I read Jim Callis say Cito Culver was their 160^th player on the board. Another Glenmoranige. I read that he has a Maryland commitment and I shuddered remembering how bad the baseball program is at UMD. At this point I was feeling like the father whose daughter brings home the sketchy boy with the loud mouth that’s a little too handsy in front of the family. You want to escort him to the door with the aid of a large firearm.

But then I pumped the breaks and really started to think about it. Doesn’t your daughter/baseball team usually make good choices? Isn’t she prudent about these types of things?

And after going over it some more that’s when I decided to Trust the Process.

“Trust the process” has become a kind of running joke about the inanity and general disastrous decision making of the Royals. Dayton Moore’s request to fans to trust the organization can now be applied to anything:

“BP will do a good job cleaning up all that oil, just trust the process!”

As a Yankee fan though I think many of us do trust the process. And we should. Brian Cashman since taking over has assembled a very smart team around him that has run the organization almost as well as can be expected. From 2006 on, the Yankees have done a good job drafting and developing talent and that’s why you give Cashman’s group, including Damon Oppenheimer, a good amount of rope here. That’s why I’m going to trust the process.

I’m not trying to be a homer and just blindly sign off on everything the Yankees have done. Some people will excuse the Yankees for every mistake, rationalize every questionable decision and explain away every failure. Yes, I would have preferred the Yankees to take someone else. Yes, this pick was reach. Oppenheimer says other teams were on him and that may or may not be true, but talent wise, this was a reach. It’s troubling that more than a few places have his ceiling as a utility player. And it’s troubling that with Ranaudo, Castellanos and Brentz available the Yankees took someone that it’s hard to get excited about.

Here’s why you should have some faith though, and yes, trust the process.

- The draft isn’t over. The Yankees will easily be able to spend money now to sign whoever they wish in later rounds as they’ve done before. Last year they were able to spend a good chunk of change on the likes of Graham Stoneburner, Caleb Cotham, Adam Warren and Bryan Mitchell. Just because they didn’t go all out on the first pick doesn’t mean the remaining 49 picks are meaningless.

- The Yankees tend to go big internationally. With Jesus Montero, Jose Ramirez, Manny Banuelos, former prospect Arodys Vizcaino, Gary Sanchez and Kelvin De Leon you could make a case that much of the upper tier of Yankee prospects are international signees.

- The Yankees KNOW this kid. Like, really, really know him. According to Oppenheimer, all their best scouts have seen him extensively. Culver was on their area code team and the top brass have watched him for a long time. They’ve done all the work you would expect on a first round draft pick- this wasn’t just settling for some slot, local kid- the Yankees got the man they wanted.

- It’s way too early to know how Culver will develop. It’s hard trying to peg any high school kid’s future but the reports that have him as a utility player are certainly worrisome. It’s going to take some time to tell for sure though. Derek Jeter made 77 errors over his first 2 years and had a .614 OPS in 1992, so really it’s hard to know what to expect with some picks (Am I comparing Culver to Jeter? No, not even slightly. Let’s not overreact and be insane please).

- Oppenheimer and Cashman deserve some benefit of the doubt. Like I said, this organization has been really well run over the last few years. You can be skeptical of the pick- I certainly am. But have they done anything to really warrant blatant mistrust? Not even sort of. They get the benefit of the doubt in my book and they should in yours as well.