With their first pick (28th overall) in the 2008 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, the New York Yankees selected 17-year old pitcher Gerrit Cole, a hard-throwing right-hander out of Orange Lutheran High School (CA). Cole went 8-2 with a 0.47 ERA as a senior this year, striking out 121 batters in 75 innings while allowing only five earned runs and eight walks. The Yankees' second pick (44th overall) was left-handed pitcher Jeremy Bleich from Stanford University. The Yanks received the pick as compensation for losing Luis Vizcaino to the Colorado Rockies in free agency. In five games for Stanford in 2008, Bleich was 2-2 with a 1.09 era, while holding opponents to a .189 batting average. He also played with the USA Junior National team in 2005 and earned Cape Cod League All-Star honors while playing for the Wareham Gatemen in 2006. In the second round (75th overall), the Yankees took right-hander Joseph Bittle from the University of Mississippi. Bittle was 7-1 with a 1.78 ERA and eight saves coming out of the bullpen for Ole Miss in 2008.