Every other year, it seems, the Diamondbacks enter a draft with a new regime in place or a new philosophical leaning atop their amateur scouting department. This is another of those years.
When the draft gets under way on Monday, they won’t have a new scouting director – Deric Ladnier is back for his third year – but they will have a new executive overseeing the process in Assistant General Manager Amiel Sawdaye.
The current iteration represents the sixth philosophical shift on the club’s amateur side in the past 11 years. But both Sawdaye and Ladnier say things have run smoothly so far and they expect it to continue that way through this week’s scouting meetings and into next week, when the Diamondbacks will pick seventh overall.