For almost the first two months of the season, James Cooper may have had one of the more enjoyable jobs in the Yankees’ organization.
And we’re not even talking about managing George Lombard Jr. before he headed off for a bigger challenge.
Until recently, Cooper, the manager of the High-A Hudson Valley Renegades, got to hand the ball every day to an intriguing pitching prospect from his six-man rotation of Carlos Lagrange, Ben Hess, Bryce Cunningham, Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz, Kyle Carr and Josh Grosz. Depending on the publication, that group included two to four of the Yankees’ top 10 prospects and five in most top 30s.
“Any time you have that caliber of players, that level of talent, it’s super-exciting,” director of pitching Sam Briend said in a recent phone interview. “The ceilings are really high. You’ve got a lot you can dream on. You could see any one of those guys being a major rotation piece in New York, and that’s always the dream, having that level of talent you think you can develop into really impacting New York.”
