Rule V Draft: Yankees Select Meyers, Acquire Cabral

In this morning's Rule V draft 18 teams passed up their selection, allowing the Yankees to select Brad Meyers from the Washington Nationals.

JOHN C. WHITEHEAD

As recently as last year John Sickels had Meyers ranked as the Nationals 15th best prospect, ahead of Brad Peacock before that huge breakout, and ranked him as a C+ prospect.

After missing most of 2010 with a foot injury, Meyers, 26, spent the majority of 2011 in Triple-A and posted a combined 9-7 record with a 3.18 ERA over three levels. In his 138.2 innings he walked just 15(!) batters while striking out 116. That is a 1.0 BB/9 and for his career Meyers has walked just 2.1 per nine while striking out 7.5 per nine.

The scouting report on Meyers is pretty much what you would expect from a strike-thrower.  His fastball sits mostly 88-90 MPH, although there have been reports of him being a bit higher at times, and he is able to use his 6'6" frame to generate some sink on the ball.  His next best bitch is a curveball, while also throwing a slider and changeup.  No pitch is really a true "out pitch", but his ability to command all his pitches and throw for strikes makes him very effective.

I for one am a big fan of the Meyers pick.  On any other team I would say Meyers is almost a lock to remain at least as a long man in the bullpen because of his command, but with the Yankees I am not so sure.  He might be given a chance to compete for the 5th starter job, although I wouldn't bank on  it.  If I was the Yankees I would try to work out a deal where they can essentially just buy Meyers from the Nationals and store him in Triple-A in case of injury.

The Yankees then went on to purchase LHP Cesar Cabral from the Kansas City Royals who had drafted him away from the Red Sox.

Here is his scouting report from SoxProspects.com:

Lefty with a solid frame and a smooth delivery. Pitches exclusively from the stretch. Fastball sits between 88-92 mph and tops out at 95 mph. Secondary pitches include an excellent 81-83 mph circle changeup, a mid-70s slurvey curveball, and a sharp 79-82 mph slider. Gets a lot of swings and misses with his changeup, which has nice downward movement. Excellent command and control, attacks hitters. Cabral was selected in the Major League phase of the 2010 Rule 5 Draft by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, but was returned to the Red Sox at the end of spring training.

Cabral posted a 3.52 ERA over 38.1 innings in Double-A last year with a 16:46 BB:K ratio.  Cabral will likely be given a chance to make the bullpen with the Yankees always in the hunt for good lefty relievers.

Posted in: Hot Stove, Rule V Draft