Yankees Minor League Baseball Blog

Coming in at the number nine spot is starting pitching prospect Christian Garcia.  The Yankees third round pick in 2004, Garcia made his minor league debut that year in Gulf Coast League and tore through hitter after hitter.  He struck out 47 in 38 innings and he gave up only one homerun.  He then jumped to Charleston in 2005 and while he started walking guys (53 in 106 innings), he kept his strikeouts up (103).

In 2006, he repeated at Charleston and had a pretty decent season there until he was shut down because of a strained oblique.  He’s only 21 so it’s not like he’ll have to repeat at a level way below him and he’s supposed to be ready to go in 2007.  Out of all of the prospect lists, Baseball America liked him the best and had him at number six.  He also showed up on John Sickels list at nine.  He should finally get a promotion this year and he should start the season at Tampa.