Welcome to Day 2

Hard to believe there’s still 44 rounds left in the draft, huh? The draft starts back up at noon (I think), and you can follow along all day via MLB’s Draft Tracker. I’m not going to blog all of the Yanks’ picks today, just the signability guys and any other ones I feel like chiming in on. Here’s some quick notes:

• Lane Meyer of NoMaas fame dug up some good info on 6th rounder Brett Marshall. Brett’s father Eddie said it’ll take around $1M to sign his son away from Rice, and to that I say: Fuck the heck dad, pay your own mortgage! Seriously though, the Yanks wouldn’t have taken the kid this high if they didn’t have the intention of signing him.
• I’m a pitching guy for whatever reason, I’ve always tended to gravitate towards the guys on the mound more than the guys in the box, especially high schoolers. That said, there’s some great pitching left available, led by Pepperdine RHP Brett Hunter, prep RHP’s Alex Meyer & Danny Webb, and prep LHP’s Nick Maronde & Brett Mooneyham. All five are signability guys at this point, and I want Maronde more than any of the other three. Taking him right out of the chute in the 7th round would already be a steal.
• The best hitters left on the board are Pepperdine LF/DH Eric Thames, and prep 3B’s Zach Cox and Harold Martinez. Thames missed the end of the season with a quad injury, Cox is a signability guy at this point, and Martinez just had a terrible draft year. Any of the three is a coup regardless of where they are drafted at this point.
• John Manuel and JJ Cooper of Baseball America wrapped up the first and sandwich rounds in a great 15-minute podcast. Manuel raved about the Jeremy Bleich pick, noting that he has first round talent but fell off the radar because of a minor elbow injury.
• KLaw wrapped up the first round best pick/worst pick style.
• Paul DePodesta live blogged each of the Padres’ picks. DePo’s blog has become a must read, make sure you don’t miss it.

Finally, I just wanted to mention that we shattered all sort of records yesteday (and by we, I mean you). Over 25,000 readers checked in, more than double a typical game day. I guess a walk-off win and the draft will do that. Over 720 comments were left on the draft posts alone, and that oblierated the RAB single day record by like, 300 comments. Thanks for making us part of your daily rotation, and if you just found the site yesterday, thanks for sticking around in the future.