D.O. speaks: The Yankees scouted Garza in 2005, but they passed on him with the 17th pick and grabbed a high school shortstop, C. J. Henry. The Minnesota Twins took Garza eight picks later, and now he is 11-8 for the Rays.
Oppenheimer recognizes that [there are no bats close to the majors], but he said it was hard to draft for specific needs.
“You start trying to keyhole things, and what happens is guys start moving up your board that probably shouldn’t be that high,” he said. “You start emphasizing to your scouts that you’re looking for a shortstop, and then every shortstop they see, they’re going to put him higher than he should be, just because he’s a shortstop."
It's easy to get frustrated waiting for prospects to develop. But we have to remember that more bust than make it. The key is to deploy your resources well. For the last several years, Oppenheimer has drafted pitchers early, mixing some lower ceiling solid bets like IPK with some gambles like Joba. The Yanks have taken chances on several high risk, high reward bats because those were the best guys left on the board. For the bats, it hasn't worked out. But you only have to strike gold like that once in a while for it to dramatically strengthen the farm (and, eventually, the team).
For a while, the Yanks have followed a pattern of drafting pitchers while buying foreign bats. It seems to be as good a plan as any I've seen.
If Giambi, Abreu, and Pudge all sign with new teams the Yanks should have a bunch of high draft picks, although they'll give one up on Sabathia. Watch this next draft class closely.