The front office shuffling of the NL West continued today with another pair of moves. The Dodgers will hire Scott Bream away from the Tigers to be their new pro scouting director, tweets Mark Saxon of ESPN Los Angeles. Meanwhile, the Padres announced that they’ve promoted regional supervisor Mark Conner to director of scouting. The 38-year-old Conner joined the Friars in 2010 as an amateur scout and was the scout responsible for signing the highly touted Matt Wisler.
Here’s more from the NL West…
- New Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi declined to give a firm answer when asked by Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times whether or not the team will tender a contract to A.J. Ellis. However, Zaidi offered strong praise for Ellis’ leadership and relationships with the pitching staff. “…it’s clear he’s a big part of this team and a big part of the preparation and comfort level for the pitchers,” Zaidi told Hernandez.
- In a second tweet, Saxon notes that Brandon Morrow is a name to keep an eye on for Dodgers fans. As Saxon points out, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman has had success turning starters with dynamic arms and transitioning them to the bullpen. Of course, it’s not clear if he is open to ’pen work. Morrow indicated late in the season that his preference was to be a starter.
- Rockies GM Jeff Bridich tells Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post that the team “absolutely, 100 percent” needs to upgrade its rotation. Bridich said the club is keeping all avenues open to acquire pitching talent. One possibility that may intrigue Rockies fans is Jeremy Hellickson, whom the Rays are said to be discussing with an NL club. However, Saunders hears from a Major League source that the Rockies aren’t targeting Hellickson at this time, although they have shown past interest.
The Rockies are perpetually looking for pitchers.
I know the stigma attached to Coors but that doesn’t absolve Colorado’s scouting and coaching for such poor player development. If breaking balls won’t break and fly ball pitchers get rocked then maybe they should focus more on cut fastball and high velocity guys (I know it’s easier said then done). They don’t seem interested in signing any arms from the international market either. The Padres don’t have a problem attracting FA arms on short term deals and they still go after lower cost IFA like Kwang Hyun Kim and Despaigne. Ubaldo is the only pitcher they’ve produced who has had elite success and he did that while allowing nearly 4 BB/9 in a Rockies uniform. If they move Tulo it would seem like STL has the young power arms that could produce in Col, the Mets have a lot of young arms who don’t issue walks though I don’t think NY wants to take on Tulo’s salary.
The Rockies have actually done well in the international market. We just haven’t seen the results matriculate up yet. The Big name guys? Sure. THey need to push harder. The issue has become that we haven’t seen who posts what when the big guys are up. But it’s problematic to shell out the $90mill posting fee then the contract on top of that for a Japanese or Korean or even Cuban player who has NEVER pitched at altitude. They just have to develop them. Keep an eye on the lower levels. The DSL for the Rockies is strong and going to get stronger.
Even if LA signs Martin I’d be upset if they didn’t bring back Ellis. His salary really isn’t much in the big scheme. Martin and Ellis would be a great catching tandem and having a back-up on Ellis’ level is pretty rare. Ellis helped Beckett turn it around in ’14, he’s Kershaw’s preferred back stop, and he seems to “get” Greinke who it seems like can be difficult to work with at times. If he only catches all 33 of Kershaw’s starts he’d be making 100 k a start, he only averages 114 games played a year the last 3 years. I think I read somewhere that Zaidi and Oakland placed a high value on good back-ups, hopefully he brings that to LA.
I love ellis, but if this new FO is into paying for the actual value of the players, then I don’t see them giving $4MM plus for a backup Catcher. Hopefully I’m wrong because like I said, I really like him…
Hellickson would get crushed at Coors Field…
He gets crushed already…
Unless Bridich thinks that he is going to find 5 guys that can go 8 innings every time out, he’d better fix the bullpen. 21 years is a pretty big sample size regarding starters, so I am not going to hold my breath that the rotation will be the strength of the Rockies pitching staff. It was the bullpen that was equally or more atrocious than the starters last year.