Prospects are odd things; kids who have chosen sports as their career who can then bring even the most stedfast of fans to absolute giddiness with thoughts of their "projectability" (insert your own adjective here - motor/upside/baseball IQ/etc.). With the first 18 rounds of the MLB draft in the books (there are 50 rounds in total though some teams opt not to participate in all 50), I personally think that the Yanks did pretty well for themselves in selecting good value picks in a draft that had a dearth of position players. Of course, we won't know for sure until a couple years down the road but it's nice to know that some of the experts agree with me. Bryan Smith over at The Baseball Analysts did a list of his favorite value picks from each round and the Yanks did pretty well.

In that light, I want to spend today looking at my favorite value pick from each round...We'll start our way at the top, with the familiar Eddie Bane, and end with the Yankees fantastic middle round drafting, led by Damon Oppenheimer.

Round Seven: Jonah Nickerson, rhp, Detroit Tigers
Tim Norton (Yankees pick) was almost the guy here, but I wanted to give the Tigers some love.

Round Eight: Dellin Betances, rhp, New York Yankees
Round Nine: Mark Melancon, rhp, New York Yankees
I passed on Norton as my seventh round choice because I knew the Yankees had nailed the 8th and 9th rounds. Betances has been telling people its Yankees or bust for quite some time, a theory New York plans to test. If Betances doesn't sign right away, he may go to St. Petursburg JC, and could end up a prime draft-and-follow candidate. Melancon would have been a first rounder if not for injury, and while mildly serious, he's too good to last much longer.

Bonham also tipped me off on another awesome ninth round pick, Nate Boman by the Angels. Labrum victim, yes, but Boman was TheMan last year. These are the types of risks teams should be taking in these late rounds.