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 More Yankees NewsYankees LinksCito Culver, a 17-year-old shortstop, was ranked as the 168th prospect in the draft, leading many to charge the Yankees with taking the Rochester product far too high. Damon Oppenheimer, the Yankees' vice president of amateur scouting, spoke with the beat writers during a brief conference call today to discuss the pick, so I asked him whether he was surprised to hear the criticism that accompanied his first pick. "The main ranking that means something to me is what the ranking of our guys have," Oppenheimer said. "I had basically over 100 years of scouting experience go in to see this kid. When guys like my cross-checkers who have been doing this for a long time, former major-league hitting coaches like Gary Denbo and former scouting directors like Bill Livesey come back with a thumbs up, that means a lot more to me than the public opinion of Baseball America or some of the other publications who just aren?t able to get to these guys and don?t have scouting staffs." Asked whether he thought he might be able to hold off and select Culver with the 82nd pick, Oppenheimer admitted the thought did cross his mind. "I?m glad I didn?t," Oppenheimer said. "After we did pick him, I got a call from one of our good competitors who is very successful who said he wouldn?t have gotten to us at 82." |
