How The Yankees Landed Aaron Judge In The 2013 Draft

An oral history of a draft pick that has paid off big time:

Tim McIntosh, Yankees area scout (2001-03, ‘10-12): My ex-wife grew up in Linden. Everybody knows everybody. Somebody said, “There’s a big kid playing and you’ve got go look at him.” My cousin coached [Judge] in basketball and said, “He’s kind of passive; he’s soft. He’s the kind of guy that if he knocks you over, he’d let the play go down the court and help the guy up.”
.  .  .
Don Lyle, Indians: My mind was already set that this guy was going to be special, but trying to sell it to the industry was mighty hard. This was before Statcast™, so we weren’t measuring stuff the way we can now. A lot of people were at the Fresno-Reno game to see [Braden] Shipley, but I was there to see Aaron. He hit a ball past third base that was only two feet off the ground, and it didn’t bounce until it was past the bag. I turned to the other scouts and said, “That is the hardest ball I’ve ever seen hit in my life.” I couldn’t put the numbers on it, but if you have never seen a tornado before and you drive through it, the next time you see a tornado, you’ll know what it looks like. That’s how I felt with Aaron. I couldn’t tell you what 119 mph looked like off the bat back then, but I knew it was the hardest ball I’d ever seen hit.
.  .  .
Brad Grant, Indians: Our picks didn’t line up. And the Yankees actually had our [No. 32] pick, which they got [as compensation] for [when we signed] Nick Swisher.

Nick Swisher was a nice player for the Yankees, but the best thing he did for the franchise was to sign with the Indians. Since becoming a starter in 2017, Judge has hit .284/.421/.612, 170 OPS, in 910 PAs. Much more at link.

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Now, Darren is bringing his baseball skills to Cal.

OTP 3 March 2018: Texas Wesleyan baseball coach fired after rejecting Colorado prospect over politics

A college baseball coach in Texas was fired Thursday partly because of an email he sent to a high school prospect in Colorado. Texas Wesleyan University’s coach told the senior that Colorado players have failed drug tests in the past and the university doesn’t take a chance on students from the state.

At a Thursday morning press conference, University President Fred Slabach announced coach Mike Jeffcoat was fired because of the remarks and for violating National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics rules regarding player eligibility. Slabach said the school had been investigating the rule violations for about a week and reported them to the NAIA on Thursday.