I don’t know a thing about Cito Culver right now, other than what Jim Callis just told MLB Network. He was ranked toward the bottom of Callis’s top-200 rankings, and may or may not be a shortstop long term. Callis didn’t seem to want to use the word, but he seemed to characterize Culver as a reach with the 32nd pick.
Here’s a profile on him:
The first thing you would notice about Culver is that his athletic actions jump off the field. Listed at 6-1, 167 he’s got a modest build on which the strength is still filling in. The quickness jumps out, both in his hands and his footwork. It also plays in his running speed and he has a fast first step.
The next tool would be his arm. On the mound, he was 90-91, which really isn’t bad for a guy with that kind of frame. What you didn’t see with Culver was a lot of physical projection for height, which would make his future as a right-handed pitcher pretty nominal. On one play, a kid fouled a pitch back behind the screen. Culver came off the mound, full speed, and caught up to his catcher deep in foul territory. It was a throwaway play to some scouts, but it showed me reflexes, his first step and his acceleration. The guy is an athlete.
There’s a video too.
Mike at RAB shared this link on Culver.
The Yankees announced Culver, who is primarily regarded as a shortstop, as a right handed pitcher. All I know is that he throws in the low 90s. His height has been listed in a bunch of places between 5’11″ and 6’2″. I’m willing to bet he’s closer to 6’2″. He’s said to be crazy athletic, but no one seems to have regarded him as a pitcher before today.
The Yankees have a lot more information on this guy than anyone. He’s local enough for them to get a lot of looks, and they obviously have a plan if they are talking about him as a RHP. But the pick strikes me as a bit weird. The BA rankings seem to suggest that Culver would be available in the 2nd round. But the Yankees have a history (see Heathcott, Hughes) of going after their guy, so they are probably pretty confident in his abilities. The word on this draft is that it was already pretty weak around #32, so there may not have been a lot of killer picks available over Culver.
More thoughts after the rest of the draft tomorrow. I’ll be hiking all day, so I won’t be able to get anything up as it goes on.
Here is Andy Seiler’s take
http://www.mlbbonusbaby.com/2010/6/7/1506424/1-32-new-york-yankees-cito-culver Jake H(Quote)
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So, apparently, the Yankees have picked a career minor leaguer. The thing is, all other teams have most likely done the same. Except the Nationals of course, with Bryce Harper. But guess what: that’s okay! This sport works like this.
This is not the NFL, where teams not only need the draft to build their roster, they count on it almost exclusively, adding one or two hot-shot free agents to fill in the holes where the draft wasn’t able to suply a player.
Lots of people are saying this draft is different. The philosophy of the ballclubs is changing. The fans want to see the draft live on TV and know everything about their teams picks…. The only thing I make of this pick is that I’m getting old, since this dude Culver is exactly 1 year younger than me, and he will be making money to play baseball, which I do only for fun and love for the game….
One year from now we will be discussing the “New Bryce Harper” and “The 2nd coming of The Chosen One – Baseballs LeBron” who will be picked by the Orioles, because they won only 60 games in this 2010 season, and the only kid who will still have his name remembered will be Bryce Harper, who will be catching Stephen Strasburg in every 5th game down there in D.C.
Chris Culver will also be forgotten, and we will only hear from him again around 2015 when he will be hitting leadof and playing CF for Trenton, still a long way from the Yankees (both New York and Scranton) and E.J. profiles him as number 29 in the Yankees top 30 prospects ahead only of Mariano Rivera Jr. 72′Yankees(Quote)
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Looks like a total reach to me.No way is he 6’2 in that video either.I’d bet he’s right around 6′ tops. leftylarry(Quote)
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Nobody here has any idea whether this was a bad pick or a good one. I don’t think Callis or any of those guys do either. Choosing players for the NFL is a lot easier than MLB due to a great many factors, and guys like Callis don’t know much about that. I doubt they know nearly as much about HS baseball players.
This kid may never get to be a regular in the majors, and if he doesn’t he join the majority of late 1st round picks.
Some really good players were drafted pretty late-Piaaza and Mattingly come to mind-and a lot of 1st and 2nd round guys never make it to AAA. oldpep(Quote)
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I have to say I didn’t like the pick. There were some really talented players left on the board, and it seems as though Culver would have been there at 82.
I’m hoping Culver’s bat comes around. He’s got decent size for a short stop, and is reasonably athletic. Should be able to stick there and play the position well. He just doesn’t have the offensive tools you look for in a first round pick.
We’ll see what he does. In a few years, we might be able to better evaluate this pick. Might take longer. I’m hoping the bat comes around and he’s not just a utility player – we already have a few of those guys in the system. Alex(Quote)
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From what I read, mostly on RAB, Culver should be above-average defensive SS, with questionable bat. His bat may be above-average without much power, or may fail to develop.
There were some higher rated players available, but Yankees might have thought that their demands were unreasonable. This draft is not considered very top-heavy or very talented (past 1st pick), and picks 10 – 50, some even say 5 – 50 are much closer than normal. So, someone rated around 150 is more likely to be interchangeable with someone rated 30-50 than usual. Davor(Quote)
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This reporter does not know a thing about cito.Cito throws 94 and has above average hitting skills. obviously not everything he hits goes over the fence but he hits everything hard. I play with this kid and i have never seen him unhappy once. He has a good head on his shoulders and will make it big because since we were 12 he said he wanted 2 play 4 the yankees. here is his chance kyle(Quote)
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Really quick blanket response before I head out the door – the announcement during the draft of Culver a RHP appears to be a mistake. They are now referring to him as a shortstop.
The pick reminds me a bit of the Twins’ 2007 first rounder Ben Revere. Everyone derided the Twins at the time, but he ended up playing pretty well. But in reality, he’s looking like a Brett Gardner type now that he’s entered Double-A. That’s not a bad thing, but it demonstrates what happens when a guy has a fairly low ceiling physically.
Culver appears to have a slightly more expansive toolset than Revere. He’s a legitimate shortstop with all sorts of athleticism. He’s classified as a slap hitter now, but that could just be poor coaching in a poor cold weather baseball development area.
While some would say “reach”, the word I would use to classify the pick is “confident”. The Yankees wanted Culver badly. Cold weather players, like players from overly rural backgrounds, have the potential to be underrated, because scouts both see them less and tend to value them less due to some kind of bias. Maybe if everyone was as close to Rochester as the Yankees, Culver would be rated higher. EJ Fagan(Quote)
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A reach is when you select a player higher than he was projected and he doesn’t have the PHYSICAL attributes to justify the higher pick.
He has average SS speed and average to below SS power.
If this were the NFL draft, you’d say, NEED pick which of course is almost silly in Baseball. Seems to me Yankees sign kids of this talent level from DR and Venezuela all they want.
Hope he’s another Jeter but sounds like a “Need” REACH to me.
Interesting, he’s another Ambidextrous player.Say’s he’s a lefty who throws righty to play SS but shoots a basketball and does everything else lefty.That’s Vendette like strange. leftylarry(Quote)
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some of the comments made about his abilities are really hard to credit. Yankee scouts watched this guy in ‘over 200 ABs” with ‘over 100 years of scouting experience’, and unless Oppenheimer’s a liar he wouldn’t have lasted until their second round pick. But a lot of people who have either seen him on a very limited basis or not at all are saying the Yankees don’t know as much as they do. How many times did Callis see this kid play? 3 games? 5? Any at all? (I’m thinking the latter.) oldpep(Quote)
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