2017 Draft: Day Three Open Thread

The 2017 amateur draft concludes today with rounds 11-40, which are the rounds where organizational depth is built. The Yankees have found guys like Tyler Austin, Chase Whitley, Rookie Davis, and James Pazos on Day Three in recent years, and they’ve all proven useful in one way or another. Everyone wants stars and impact players. Depth guys are important too.

So far this year the Yankees have gone heavy on arms. We’re talking nine pitchers and one position player in the first ten rounds these last two days. I think that’s a coincidence more than anything. That said, the Yankees may try to balance things out a bit with a few position players here on Day Three. Here is my Day Two recap, here are the Yankees’ picks, and here are some draft links to check out:

• Make sure you check out Brendan Kuty’s chat with Clarke Schmidt, the Yankees’ first round pick. He played coy when asked about signing. His agent trained him well. “We’re still in talks. Still have to sign, deal with all the contracts. That’s the side of the ball I haven’t gotten into yet,” he said.
• Here are Eric Longenhagen’s Day One and Day Two notes. “Arkansas RHP Trevor Stephan (3) will touch 96, sit 92-94, and throw enough strikes to start. His sweeping curveball is average but plays up against righties because of his cross-bodied delivery,” says the write-up.
• If you’re into such things, Craig Mitchell’s KATOH system projects Stephan as the third best college player taken on Day Two. “The right-handed Stephan put up big strikeout numbers in the SEC this year, trailing only Alex Faedo, Alex Lange, and Kyle Wright, all of whom were no-doubt first rounders,” says he write-up.
• Here are the best available players per MLB.com and Baseball America. Most of the highly ranked high school kids are unsignable at this point. Teams will still pick them though, just in case they to change their mind and decide to turn pro.

The draft concludes today with rounds 11-40. Thankfully, the conference call is now rapid fire, one pick after another. That’s the way the entire draft used to be (and always should be!). Anyway, the draft resumes at 12pm ET, and you can tune in on MLB.com. Here is MLB.com’s draft tracker. Chat about all the day’s draft-related stuff here.