ABD Academy’s 1B/OF Yelich taken by Marlins despite need for pitching

By Jim Frisaro / MLB.com

06/07/10 9:49 PM ET

ABD Academy's Yelich Drafted In 1st Round

PHILADELPHIA — For years the Marlins have been a predominantly right-handed-hitting club. With the No. 23 pick in the First-Year Player Draft on Monday, they took a step in balancing things out.

Christian Yelich, a left-handed hitting first baseman/outfielder, from Westlake High School, is the latest prep star from California to be taken in the first round.

A 6-foot-4, 185-pounder, Yelich has primarily played first base. The Marlins, though, appear to be looking at him as an outfielder. He throws right-handed, and may project as a left fielder.

Yelich is the third California prep player to be selected in the first round by the Marlins in the last four years. In 2007, Florida picked third baseman Matt Dominguez, and catcher Kyle Skipworth was the choice in 2008.

California has been fertile ground for the Marlins. The organization’s top prospect, outfielder Mike Stanton, was a second round pick in 2007 out of Sherman Oaks, Calif. Stanton will make his big league debut on Tuesday at Philadelphia, breaking into the big leagues at age 20.

After posting 87 wins in 2009, the Marlins found themselves with the 23rd overall pick. It’s the lowest first-round choice the organization has had since picking Taylor Tankersley at No. 27 in 2004.

Being stationed in the bottom half created more uncertainty heading into Monday, as the organization had to wait and see how the round shaped up.

Recently, history has shown some highly productive players have been taken No. 23, including Jacoby Ellsbury, Phil Hughes, Jeff Francoeur and Jason Kendall.

Regardless of their slot, the Marlins hold true to one basic philosophy: take the best available player. Heading into the Draft, Jim Fleming, the club’s vice president of player development and scouting, touched on going with player over need.

That proved true with taking Yelich. The organization has a need for pitching, but it felt the left-handed bat was too good to pass up so high in the Draft.

“We never really look at organizational needs. We look at best player,” Fleming said. “The organizational needs would affect us more when we’re making the final decisions, and you have a couple of guys who are kind of equal.

“Then, you may go with an organizational need. When you line them up, you just go with the best player, and then you look at the other factors — signability, organizational needs and risk. Some guys are high ceiling, high reward, but more risk. Then there are guys with low risk, or how quickly can they get to the big leagues? You look at all those factors.”

By rule, all clubs are faced with an Aug. 16 deadline to sign their picks. Normally, the day is Aug. 15, but that fell on a Sunday. So if the Marlins are unable to sign Yelich, they would receive the No. 23 pick in 2011 as compensation.



Tags: ABD Academy, christian yelich, florida marlins