Q & A With Damon Oppenheimer

Yankee fans were given a chance to chat with Damon Oppenheimer today and the results are posted on the Yankees’ website. The focus of the Q & A session was the 2008 draft and there were some interesting tidbits throughout. Here’s a pretty telling moment about recent draftee, Gerrit Cole.

abc5: Does Gerrit Cole project higher, lower or the same as Phil Hughes when Phil was selected? Which one is more polished at the same stage?

Oppenheimer: Gerrit has a very high ceiling as a Major League starter. I try not to compare other players, but at this stage, his stuff is further ahead than Phil at the same age.

How great is that? That says a lot about Cole’s stuff and hopefully, he and the Yanks will work something out before he heads to UCLA (Hi Gerrit, here’s a bag of money!).