Sweeny Says: Preaching Patience

New York, NY (WFAN)  -- If Brian Cashman’s vision is seen through to fruition, then patience is an idea you might have to get used to.

Cashman is committed to rebuilding the farm system and making the Yankees into perennial World Series contenders again. They’ve been that in name only the last few years. That big lineup has overshadowed other problems over the course of the season and when October rolled around, the Yankees just weren’t the best team on the field. This year, it was even worse and the Yankees didn’t make the playoffs.

But let’s read again what Brian Cashman had to say last week when he vowed to make liars out of all who say he’s the wrong man for the job.

“This franchise had been operating on veteran acquisitions for quite a long time at the expense of the farm system. And there comes with that a market correction. As you see it took Tampa Bay, what 11 years to get to the position they’re in right now because they’ve been rebuilding their farm system? But that’s been no secret to the people in the industry watching them grow and get their high end picks and make the good picks that they’ve made and develop their talent…and it took us a long time to get to the point where we developed some of the players we had that we were able to rely on and retain for a great period of time. But there’s a process it takes to get there.

“I do think that sometimes you become of a victim of your success of “Well how can you not make the playoffs?” and “Boy you must be stupid!” and all those different things. You know, scouting is difficult. It’s not an exact science. I came from the horse business. I grew up on a horse farm in Kentucky, a long way away. And for every successful horse there’s a ton of failures along the way. But if you love it and you’re passionate about it you keep running those horses until you find the right ones and you get back in the game again. But it takes time to cultivate and grow and put something together. The days in our industry have changed where you can wave the magic wand and do a couple different things, and boom—instant championship caliber club. No! It takes a lot more time than that.”

Now, based on the reluctance to make the Santana deal last year, I think the Yankees were prepared not to make the playoffs this year. They had a plan that included growth and development and they knew winning 95 or so games would be difficult under those circumstances. They built a team in 2008 to try and out-slug their opponents. Somewhere along the line, they forgot how to drive in runs when it counted and that’s why they are sitting home right now. Granted, the Hughes and Kennedy part of this plan failed miserably this year. But the Yankees weren’t completely unprepared for rough years for the two, even if they were counting on at least ONE win between them.

Here’s the thing with player development. As Cashman said, it takes time. Let’s take a look at the four teams remaining in this year’s playoffs and some of their key players. And pay attention to how long it’s been since these players have been drafted and how long it’s taken for them to not only become major leaguers but also become contributors to championship caliber ballclubs.

Phillies—Jimmy Rollins (Rd 2, 1996); Pat Burrell (Rd 1, 1998); Brett Myers (Rd 1, 1999); Chase Utley (Rd 1, 2000); Ryan Howard (Rd 5, 2001); Cole Hamels (Rd 1, 2002).

Dodgers—James Loney (Rd 1, 2002); Jonathan Broxton (Rd 2, 2002); Russell Martin (Rd 17, 2002); Chad Billingsley (Rd 1, 2003); Matt Kemp (Rd 6, 2003).

Red Sox—Kevin Youkilis (Rd 1, 2001); Jon Lester (Rd 2, 2002); Jonathan Papelbon (Rd 4, 2003); Dustin Pedroia (Rd 2, 2004); Jacoby Ellsbury (Rd 1, 2005).

Rays—Carl Crawford (Rd 2, 1999); James Shields (Rd 16, 2000); BJ Upton (Rd 1, 2002); Evan Longoria (Rd 1, 2006).

Longoria is the most exceptional of this bunch, taking less than two years from being drafted to being an impact, star player. Ellsbury and Pedroia have made pretty fast jumps too. But the others have taken longer. The Dodgers, who are considered to be riding a wave of young talent have still taken 5 to 6 years to watch some of their best talent develop to this point. The Phillies best picks were made from 2000-2002. Of course, college picks accelerate faster than high school picks.

All of these teams have done great work in scouting and development. But they also had their share of down years at the big league level before seeing the fruits of their labor. That the Red Sox have maintained their level of play the last few years is a credit to them. And while the other teams have had money to keep their young stars and add free agents, the Rays are still able to maintain their low payroll. Let’s see how long they can work on that kind of budget.

So, nice work and big kudos to the front office types that have their teams in the LCS. Just remember that this isn’t as easy as it looks. And while the Yankees still have guys like Jeter, A-Rod, Rivera, etc to make them a competitive team every year, the championship level may take a few years to reach. And I think Brian Cashman and the Steinbrenners are prepared for that. Are you?

Now here’s an exercise that’s somewhat fruitless because there are numerous factors involved in the drafting and signing of players, and you could do this with every major league team and find players they missed out on. It just happens. But let’s see how the Yankees could be shaping up today if they had made some better decisions in years past:

1997. The Yanks took: OF Tyrell Godwin (24th overall) and RHP Ryan Bradley (40th overall)
Could have had: LHP Randy Wolf (54th overall) and RHP Aaron Cook (70th overall)

1998. The Yanks took: OF Andy Brown (24th overall)
Could have had: OF Aaron Rowand (35th overall)

1999. The Yanks took: RHP David Walling (27th overall)
Could have had: SS Brian Roberts (50th overall)

2000. The Yanks took: C David Parrish (28th overall)
Could have had: OF Grady Sizemore (75th overall)

2001. The Yanks took: OF John Ford-Griffin (23rd overall) and OF Bronson Sardinha (34th overall)
Could have had: 3B David Wright (38th overall) and RHP Dan Haren (72nd overall)

2002. The Yanks took: RHP Brandon Weeden(71st overall)
Could have had: OF Curtis Granderson (80th overall)

2003. The Yanks took: 3B Eric Duncan (27th overall)
Could have had: Jonathan Papelbon (114th overall)

Ok, so this is pretty pie in the sky. But the Yankees didn’t just miss in these drafts. They whiffed badly. They have started to be more productive lately. Let’s try this again in 6 or 7 years to see where the Yankees stand.

Think it’s destiny for the Yankees to haul in the big fish, CC Sabathia? This is what Brian Cashman said a week ago, and it would appear he was talking about Sabathia:

“There’s no doubt I think that starting pitching is something we have to clearly address…I would not have high expectations on certain guys because, just because you put certain players on the top of your list doesn’t mean you’re going to be on the top of their list.”

Sabathia has been labeled as a West Coast guy, so maybe this should be taken into consideration. However, one team you shouldn’t discount is the Brewers. It has been seen as a foregone conclusion that they don’t have the dollars to re-sign Sabathia, but think about it. The Brewers gave out a barrel full of prospects to get him and they have a core of young players that will keep the Brewers competitive. They just might be able to keep him. A rotation of Sabathia, Gallardo, and Parra is a good start in the NL.

Thanks for reading. Send comments and questions to yankees@wfan.com.

Sweeny