How The Angels Discovered Mike Trout
This article by Chuck Wasserstrom was originally published in 2017. For all the entries in Chuck’s Inside the Draft Room series for MLBTR, click here.
The way things are shaping up, the 2009 Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim draft would have to be considered a good one even if the 25th pick belonged to somebody else. When three starting pitchers (including two southpaws) and a power-hitting position player reach and produce at the major league level, it makes for a nice haul.
The team’s first selection, Randal Grichuk, is now a starting outfielder for the Cardinals – and is coming off a 24-homer season as a 24-year-old.
Supplemental first-rounders Tyler Skaggs and Garrett Richards were members of the Angels’ season-opening starting rotation. Second-round pick Patrick Corbin is the Diamondbacks’ No. 2 starter.
[Editor’s note: More recently, Grichuk was a regular in the Blue Jays’ outfield, Richards is penciled in as a key member of the Padres’ rotation, and Corbin excelled in his first season with the Nationals. Skaggs tragically passed away in July last year.]
But then, of course, there is the matter of the Angels having the 25th pick that year. And you can very easily picture Commissioner Bud Selig walking to the podium and making his announcement: “With the 25th selection in the first round of the 2009 First-Year Player Draft, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim select Michael Trout.”
“I’ve never seen a team walk out of a draft and think they had a bad draft,” said Eddie Bane, the Angels’ scouting director from 2004-2010 and now a special assignment scout for the Boston Red Sox. “Everybody thinks that their draft was the greatest of all-time every year. Sure, we were guilty of the same thing. I don’t know if guilty is the right word; you just love scouting so much that you think the players you picked are just awesome. That’s the way it works. You think you’re going to help stack the organization; that’s the way everybody thinks. But we actually did. It’s kind of a rarity.”
In 2008, the Angels won a major league-best 100 games and went to the postseason for the fifth time in seven years.
Success on the field was mirrored by the Angels’ frequent forays into free agency, which directly impacted the team’s amateur draft capabilities. Over their previous five drafts, the team gave up seven high-round picks as free agent compensation, losing either a first- or second-round pick every year.
The 2009 draft, from that standpoint, was no different; the Angels surrendered their own No. 1 (No. 32 overall) as compensation for the signing of free agent closer Brian Fuentes.
However, the Angels lost several key players to free agency – closer Francisco Rodriguez (to the Mets), first baseman Mark Teixeira (to the Yankees) and starting pitcher Jon Garland (to the Diamondbacks). Lo and behold, the team had a glut of high-round picks – back-to-back at 24-25, followed swiftly by supplemental selections at 40, 42 and 48.
(Have you forgotten how the old Type A/Type B free agent compensation system worked? Take a trip down memory lane.)
“I started with the Angels in 2004, and we had a pick at 12 and got Jered Weaver. But other than that, we never had anything in the first 25 because we were pretty good and we were more in the shopping business,” said Bane – a no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is type whose previous Angels drafts included the selection of future big leaguers Weaver, Nick Adenhart, Mark Trumbo, Peter Bourjos, Hank Conger, Jordan Walden, Tyler Chatwood and Will Smith. “We never thought once about not having a really high pick; that was normal. So we were really excited because we had five picks. We thought that was awesome.”
If you recall, 2009 was the “Year of Strasburg.” The chances of Stephen Strasburg getting past Washington and falling all the way to No. 2 in the draft were largely nonexistent.
“I saw him pitch one time for about 2.0 innings and said, ‘This is a waste of time,’” Bane recalled. “I told the area scout to just make sure he does a good job on Strasburg’s makeup and everything else. You don’t spend a lot of time on Stephen Strasburg when you’re picking 24-25.”
Bane started ruling out others he knew would be gone by the middle of the first round and started focusing on players who he thought could be there for him. One player he was immediately drawn to was a prep outfielder out of Lamar Consolidated High School in Rosenberg, Texas, named Randal Grichuk.
“Jeff Malinoff, one of my national cross-checkers who was as good of a hitting scouting guy as there’s ever been … he loved Randal, as did Kevin Ham, the area scout,” Bane said. “Randal could hit his home runs a long way to right-center and left-center. Obvious power. Good athlete. All that stuff. We thought there would be a chance that he would get there.
“It’s hard to describe to people the excitement you get when you see somebody that not every scout loves, and you see the passion they have for the game, and you file that away. I still remember batting practice; I was there with Jeff, and Randal was hitting rockets out to right-center. With Randal, the body has improved with maturity, but it’s not dramatically different than he was in high school. He was a strong, good athlete that could go get a ball in centerfield. His arm was fine. To me, he looked like a lock first rounder. That’s when you start thinking immediately, ‘Well, he won’t be there when we pick’ – because you think other teams see it exactly the way you do. Fortunately, they don’t.”
And then, of course, there was another prep outfielder that Bane locked in on – this one out of Millville Senior High School in New Jersey. Two MVP seasons and three MVP runner-up campaigns later, it’s still hard to believe that Mike Trout would be available that deep in the draft.
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The Glass Is Always Half-Full: A Conversation With Jayson Stark
There once was a day-and-age when, if your services were no longer needed, you could keep it quiet.
And there once was a day-and-age when, if you were a baseball writer and had a scoop, you would have to do everything you could to keep it under wraps until that revelation appeared in the next day’s newspaper.
In today’s world, though, it’s nearly impossible to keep a secret.
“When I first started, newspapers were king … and we lived in a tomorrow morning world. If you got a story, you had to try to protect it all day and all night,” said Jayson Stark, who has been a fixture on the MLB scene since 1979.
“It’s crazy to think about that, compared to what goes on now – where you hear it and you just tweet it … fire it out there … it’s on your site … you blog it. It’s so amusing to think about the stuff that we had to do to try to guard our stories for hours and hours and hours back in the day.”
In late April, Stark – who was used to breaking baseball news – suddenly was about to become news. The word was going to get out that he was no longer working for ESPN, so he provided his own scoop on Twitter: “For 17 yrs I’ve had a dream job covering baseball for ESPN. Today is my last day. Thanks to all the great people at ESPN, MLB & all of you!”
Stark had joined ESPN as a senior baseball writer in 2000, and his Rumblings and Grumblings column was a must-read. Before his time there, he had worked for The Philadelphia Inquirer since 1979 – first, as a Phillies beat writer and later as a national baseball writer and columnist. He became a household name in the baseball community thanks to his syndicated weekly baseball roundup, where he loved to share the stories behind the stories and the humorous side of the sport.
His mantra: “I have always felt that the challenge is to tell the best stories, get the best information, get the best quotes, and find the best nuggets,” he said.
As a “free agent,” Stark is mulling his next career move. When a decision is made, his 535,000-plus Twitter followers (@jaysonst, for those who don’t) will be among the first to know.
Stark is accustomed to calling around in search of information or guidance. This time, the table was turned; he was the one answering the questions during his first extended interview since his departure from ESPN.
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Chuck Wasserstrom: Thank you for taking the time to talk with MLB Trade Rumors. I’m going to start out by asking … what has this past month been like for you? There had to be that weird sensation where it’s almost like you’re being eulogized and you’re clearly still around. Kind of walk me through these last few weeks.
Jayson Stark: “There was a period where it felt like every five minutes, someone in baseball or the media universe was calling me and telling me the most incredible stuff I’d ever heard about myself. That was just overwhelming. It was amazing. At one point, my wife told me, ‘You should make a list of everybody who has checked in.’ So I did. And in just the first few days there were way over a hundred people just from inside baseball. That didn’t even count all my fellow baseball writers, people in the media, people I just befriended and met along the way who have helped me with all kinds of cool stuff, and readers and viewers and listeners. If I counted all them, it would be in the thousands.
“I don’t know how everybody reacts when that happens to them, but I’m so grateful. I really spent weeks trying to return every message, every phone call, every email, every tweet that I could, every Facebook post, every text. It was incredible and gratifying and it was fuel to keep going.
“The second part I think is … all right, how do you handle an event like this? For me, I’m Mr. Positivity anyway, so I’m just looking for that next cool thing to do. I’m taking my time and trying to find that thing.
“The third part of it is … I’ve been busier than you would think I would be. Part of that is just because I thought it was important to wake up every single day with a purpose. My routine is not that different than it’s always been. Pretty much every day, I watch video of the day before in baseball, and I keep my daily books of stuff that I find cool and fun and strange and interesting. I keep my day-by-day books because I want to stay engaged in a sport that I love.
“ESPN’s been kind enough to let me continue to do all the local radio hits on ESPN affiliates around the country that I was doing every week. So I still do them and that’s been fun. I’ve put a lot of energy into that because I enjoy it. One thing that I think has always been clear is this was a labor of love for me. It was a dream job for me. I wanted to make clear by the way I went about life after ESPN that I still love it and I will continue to love it. Whatever I do next, I’ll love that. That’s been a big part of it.
“Then, of course, the last thing is … people like us – we don’t get to breathe in and breathe out during the baseball season. I really want to make sure that I do that – and spend time with my wife and my family and my friends. There’s going to be some opportunities to do things that I haven’t been able to do in the summer, and I’m going to make sure I do that. I’m going to go to Cooperstown for induction weekend. It’s been hard to do that in recent years because it’s right around the trading deadline.
“To me, this time has been strange, but my glass is always half full – and it’s been half full every day through all of it.”
Inside The Draft Room: The 2002-2003 Dodgers
All Logan White could do was laugh when I shared my story.
The 2008 Cubs – the winningest team in the National League that season at 97-64 – were taking on the 84-78 Dodgers in the Division Series. At the time, I was a member of the Cubs’ Baseball Operations department.
It was expected to be a quick series, and it was – for Los Angeles. Sure, Manny Ramirez had a thing or two to do with the Dodgers’ three-game sweep, but the big blow in Game 1 was a James Loney grand slam. For good measure, Russell Martin also went deep later in the contest. In Game 2, Chad Billingsley stifled Cubs bats, allowing one run in 6.2 innings while fanning seven. In Game 3, Jonathan Broxton had his third scoreless appearance of the NLDS in picking up the save and completing the sweep.
“That was a lot of fun,” said White, who is now in his third year with the Padres after spending 13 years up the coast in Los Angeles. In his first two Dodgers drafts in 2002 and 2003, White’s combined haul included Loney, Martin, Billingsley, Broxton, Matt Kemp and A.J. Ellis, along with nine others who spent time in the Majors. “What wasn’t fun is we could never get to the big dance. And you know how hard that is, obviously. It’s tough to get to the big game, and that was my only regret when I was in L.A. – never getting to the World Series.
“That’s what keeps us going. That’s what we’re trying to do in San Diego now. We’re trying to rebuild the farm and everything. Hopefully, at some point, we’ll have some young players like you saw in those Dodgers days.”
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Going back to the early years of the draft – heck, you can really go back to their Brooklyn days and Branch Rickey – the Dodgers have had a reputation for player development and scouting.
Baseball America still calls the Dodgers’ class of 1968 “the best in draft annals,” as the team selected Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Buckner, Doyle Alexander, Geoff Zahn, Joe Ferguson, Tom Paciorek and Bobby Valentine.
But after years of draft success, Los Angeles then had a dry spell. While the 1993 draft brought a couple solid longtime Dodgers in Darren Dreifort and Paul Lo Duca, there was very little cause to pat themselves on the back from 1994-2001. Granted, there were a few solid hits – Paul Konerko (1994), Ted Lilly (1996) and Shane Victorino (1999) – but those three made their biggest impact with other organizations.
In November 2001, the Dodgers turned to Logan White to return their scouting department to its glory days.
A former relief pitcher in Seattle’s farm system, White began his scouting career in 1988 as an associate scout with the Mariners. He had stints as the West Coast supervisor for San Diego (1993-1995) and Baltimore (1996-2001) en route to Los Angeles.
Upon joining the Dodgers’ organization, White brought with him a very high school-centric draft philosophy.
“I think my approach developed from watching others,” he said. “Having been around Don Welke – who was a mentor of mine and worked for Toronto for a long time, and being around Pat Gillick, and in watching the Atlanta Braves during that period of time … when you look at them, they drafted a lot of high-ceiling players and high school players. What I found out was … if you’re picking in the top 10 of the draft, there’s a lot of good scouts and evaluators out there, so teams generally will take the good college player up there.
“We were picking 19th in 2002 and 24th in 2003. My research showed that you’d better know the high school player there because the quality college players that everyone knows have already been taken. Now, there are exceptions to that rule, of course. Mike Mussina went 20th for the Orioles when I was there (in 1990), that type of thing. But there was some philosophy behind it; I didn’t look at it as analytics at the time, but I did research on it.
“The other thing … there was a dynamic that happened in 2002 and 2003. That was the beginning of the ‘Moneyball’ years where teams – it wasn’t just Oakland – were drafting heavily from college. That was their philosophy and a lot of teams did well at it. So maybe 10 or 15 of them weren’t drafting from the high school pool. It just left a bigger pool of talent for us at the high school level in those years. So it was kind of by design and by circumstance, if that makes sense.
“At the same time, we were just trying to draft the best available player who we thought had the highest ceiling. For example, let’s say there would be a college player we liked. We mixed our high school and college players together on the draft board. The college player would be pushed down a little further. Well, now you take another team and they’re only ranking college players. The college player gets ranked higher on their board. Say there’s a college player we would have liked to take in round three. But shoot, he went in round two or at the end of the first round to one of the teams selecting only from the college pool.
“It left us more high school players. It’s really how the draft fell because we liked a number of college guys. Heck, we liked Nick Swisher, but Swisher went before we picked.”
Swisher, who had attended Ohio State, was taken at No. 16 in the 2002 draft by Oakland.
“That’s kind of how those drafts unfolded,” White said. “But we did focus on the high school player. That was definitely by design.”
The 2002 and 2003 drafts were very different for the Dodgers in terms of volume of picks – in ’02, the team gained two additional selections as compensation for the loss of free agent Chan Ho Park to Texas; in ’03, the club only had one pick in the top 60 – but not in terms of a common theme. In his first year as a scouting director, White didn’t select a four-year college player until his ninth pick. In his second year, his first eight picks – and 13 of his first 15 – were high school players.Read more
Inside The Draft Studio: A Conversation With Mike Trout
The date was June 9, 2009 – the first day of the annual MLB Draft.
As we all know, while the buildup to the baseball draft gets a lot of play, the actual draft itself doesn’t have the same fanfare as its counterparts in football and basketball. So this particular date wouldn’t normally stand out – other than the fact that the draft was being televised live from the MLB Network studios in Secaucus, NJ.
But this didn’t turn out to be an ordinary draft day.
Stephen Strasburg was the surefire No. 1 overall selection; that was pretty much a universal given. What wasn’t a given was what would transpire after Strasburg’s name was called.
With TV eyes on Secaucus, only one draftable player was in attendance for the prime-time event. As has been well documented – heck, there’s even a documentary about it – Millville (NJ) Senior High School centerfielder Mike Trout and his family made the two-plus hour drive north to witness his selection.
Trout had to wait … and wait … and wait … as the draft moved from the Top 10 through the teens and past the early 20s. It wasn’t until pick No. 25 when Commissioner Bud Selig stood at the podium and announced the name Michael Trout.
Two teams had a pair of first-round picks before the Angels were on the clock. The Nationals used their selections on Strasburg and reliever Drew Storen at No. 10. The Diamondbacks picked back-to-back at 16-17; you can click here to read about their ’09 draft.
Trout kept watching other players get drafted before landing on the Los Angeles Angels’ doorstep. You can click here to read then-scouting director Eddie Bane’s account of the Angels’ draft.
So … what was it like to be Mike Trout that evening? Trout, who has homered in eight of his last 14 games, took a few minutes to share his memories of that event with MLBTR. Special thanks to Tim Mead and Eric Kay of the Angels’ communications department for their assistance in coordinating the conversation.
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Chuck Wasserstrom: Hi Mike. Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me for MLB Trade Rumors. You were the only player there the night of the 2009 draft, so I’m looking for your recollections from that evening. What was that night like for you?
Mike Trout: “It was crazy. It was unbelievable. There was a lot of stuff going through my mind. You’re anxious, you’re excited, you’re obviously nervous. You want to get picked. You know … hopefully be selected in the top three rounds. But being picked, well … if you’re up there on the first day, it obviously means something.”
You had a two-hour drive from 45 miles south of Philadelphia to the New York City area. Who was in the car with you?
“My mom and dad, my brother, my sister, my sister’s husband, and my girlfriend – who’s now my fiancée, Jessica.”
With that many people in the car, you probably didn’t have a lot of time just to be deep in your own thoughts, right?
“No, it wasn’t quiet. But it was a special moment for me, obviously, for Jess, and for my family. It was pretty special.”
At the draft itself, I’m envisioning being back on the school yard in elementary school. You know, one kid’s picked and then the next and the next. You probably weren’t used to being the one falling; you were used to being one of the first kids chosen.
“Yeah … it was different. Every pick that went by, you think you’re going to get picked there. Then 24 picks later, your name gets called. So, 25th – it was a little different. It was nerve-racking, but as soon as Angels picked me, it felt a lot better.”
Did your heart leap a little bit when you heard Commissioner Selig announce the Atlanta Braves select Mike – but it was Mike Minor – and the Cincinnati Reds select Mike, and it was Leake?
“Yeah, a lot of Mikes in that draft, so it was pretty nerve-racking. It made your heart drop a little bit and you’re anxious. You know, when the Angels had their selections, it was a little bit better when (the commissioner) said my full name.”
So you found out when the commissioner called your name? You weren’t tipped off at all that the Angels were selecting you?
“No, I didn’t know.”
Your dad played minor league ball with (former Angels scout) Greg Morhardt. I know you and your parents had dinner with (former scouting director) Eddie Bane. So now it’s the Angels’ pick at No. 24 – and the commissioner announces Randal Grichuk. What were you thinking?
“I knew the Angels were high on me, but when they picked Grichuk – an outfielder – everything was going through my head. For me, I didn’t think they were going to pick two outfielders.
“I was definitely relieved when they called my name with the next pick. It’s a feeling you can’t explain. You’re so happy, and you think about all the work you put in to get to that point. As a kid, you want to be a professional baseball player. As soon as you hear your name – obviously, you’ve still got to sign – but instantly you know you have a chance to play professional baseball, and it’s a dream come true.”
Growing up, you were a Phillies fan – and you knew the Phillies didn’t have a first-round pick. You knew that the Mets didn’t have one and that the Yankees had a real late one, so you probably weren’t going to be staying in the region. Were you curious to find out what part of the country you were going to?
“I was just happy I got picked. I didn’t care where I was going. With all the travel ball and travel tournaments I went to across the country, I liked playing everywhere. Obviously, the East Coast would have been cool with family and friends, but I love it on the West Coast – so it’s nice.”
The day of the draft, you were still in high school. What was it like going back to school the next day – now that you were a drafted baseball player?
“It was great. Everybody was coming up and congratulating me. The teachers, the principal, everybody, my friends. It was just a special feeling, you know? All the hard work you put in. Obviously, school came first, but you put a lot of time and effort into becoming a baseball player. Having that opportunity to play professionally, it means a lot to me.”
Last question … I’ve heard all the excuses about why you fell because of New Jersey, and I’m not talking about that; I’m going the other way. How important was it for you to grow up in New Jersey playing seasonal sports all the way through high school?
“I loved playing on the East Coast. When it was football season, I was playing football. Basketball season, I was playing basketball. And obviously baseball season, playing baseball. That’s how I grew up. That’s how I was raised. You know, now that I’m up here playing baseball every day, it’s great, but I wouldn’t trade anything. I had a great childhood playing in Millville and on the East Coast in Jersey. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
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Chuck Wasserstrom spent 25 years in the Chicago Cubs’ front office – 16 in Media Relations and nine in Baseball Operations. Now a freelance writer, his behind-the-scenes stories of his time in a big league front office can be found on www.chuckblogerstrom.com.
Scouting Shohei Otani
The assignment: Write a scouting report on Shohei Otani. Paint a very clear picture of Otani’s pitching repertoire – including pitch grades and major league comparisons. And that’s just on the mound; gather similar information about his hitting (and perhaps even fielding) capabilities.
The reality: I haven’t seen Otani pitch or hit, other than on highlight videos.
The solution: Reach out directly to those who have.
Rumors continue to swirl that the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in the Japanese Pacific League could post Otani – their star 22-year-old two-way player – as soon as this off-season. As MLBTR’s Jeff Todd wrote in early April, “It has long been wondered just when he’ll make it over to the majors, but rule changes have conspired to gum up that possible transition. First came the application of a $20MM cap on posting fees, which reduces the incentive for NPB clubs to make players available before their control rights are set to expire. Then, the latest iteration of the CBA put hard caps on teams’ capacity to spend on international players who are under 25 years of age, thus precluding the possibility of Otani commanding a bonus befitting his ability until the 2019 season.”
What is the right-hander’s arsenal? What kind of power does the left-handed batter possess? Can Otani be a two-way player in the majors?
Over the past month, I spoke with five high-level officials with international scouting-related positions who work for MLB clubs – promising all of them anonymity – to talk about Otani, the 2016 Pacific League MVP. I vowed there would be no tipping off their identities; for example, you will not read a phrase even somewhat specific such as “a scout for an American League club” or “a scout with 15-plus years observing Japanese players.” Another parameter was established: money was not going to be part of our discussion. At the end of the day, those decisions are not made by the scouts; therefore, let’s just stick to a scouting report-related conversation.
In return, I received their thoughts on the player. And the overall consensus: They haven’t seen a guy like Otani in all of their combined years of scouting.
Inside The Draft Room: The 2009 Diamondbacks
When you look back at the 2009 Arizona Diamondbacks draft, there are quite a few storylines that jump off the page at you.
The Diamondbacks had eight selections over an 80-pick span from No. 16 in the first round to No. 95 in the third round – including a pair of first-round selections, a trio of supplemental picks and two second-round choices. Six of those eight – and 12 overall – reached the majors, although the team’s first overall pick peaked at Double-A. And of the 12 with big league time, six are playing significant roles in 2017.
The Diamondbacks had two opportunities to draft high school outfielder Mike Trout – he went to the Angels as part of their draft haul that same year – but opted instead to take a high school third baseman and a college outfielder.
While Trout has turned out to be the best player in that draft class, the second-best player has been Paul Goldschmidt, who the Diamondbacks did pick … in the eighth round … with their 13th pick … and as the draft’s 246th overall selection.
Before there’s any uproar – as in, “How could they have missed on Mike Trout?” – consider that if future success could have been accurately predicted for the New Jersey prep or for Goldschmidt (then a first baseman for the Texas State University Bobcats), then both would have been long gone before the Diamondbacks’ turn to pick. There are no crystal balls with the draft.
Looking Back at the 1992 Expansion Draft (Part 3)
This is the third of a three-part series looking back at the 1992 MLB Expansion Draft, when the Colorado Rockies and then-Florida Marlins mined their competitors’ rosters to launch their respective organizations. Click here to read Part 1; click here to read Part 2.
Two different approaches starting from Day One. Two different philosophies – both in the short-term and the long run.
But the goals were the same: To put a representative team on the field right off the bat, and to win sooner than later.
When they arrived in New York City for the November 1992 expansion draft, Colorado Rockies general manager Bob Gebhard and his Florida Marlins counterpart, Dave Dombrowski, finally were able to start assembling their rosters.
For Gebhard, the mandate was pretty simple; he knew he had a limited budget in constructing the Rockies for their inaugural season. His task was to amass a group that hopefully would have some staying power – along with finding pitchers that could handle the high altitude of Denver.
Meanwhile, Dombrowski was operating with a bigger budget and the lure of having a team in sunny South Florida. The expansion draft created the first batch of players coming his way, but they were by no means the only players he had to work with.
While the Marlins made more deals in New York City – and only had Jeff Conine for any real length of time with them via the expansion draft – the Rockies selected a core group of players that had extended stays in Denver.
“We felt confident in so many of the players that we got,” Gebhard explained. “We wanted to keep them and see how they would fit in on an expansion club. It was all pretty interesting to see how it went.
“Not all of the selections worked out, as you would expect. We were happy with David Nied. He certainly was going to be everything we expected until he hurt his arm. But there were some surprises in there.
“Eric Young turned out to be a heckuva ball player. Vinny Castilla turned out to be an All-Star. So we made some good selections – as did David (Dombrowski). David had a little different agenda because he had more money to spend, and some of his selections we could not have made because of the contract that would have come with the player.
“We drafted some guys that played for us awhile and were with us in ’95 when we went to the playoffs. So it wasn’t just a one-day flash-in-the-plan type of draft. We wanted players that would hopefully be Rockies for a number of years.”
From Dombrowski’s perspective, it was all about building a foundation – whether the players were Marlins for a single day or for an extended period.
“At times, I’ve looked back and commended our scouts for the job that they did,” he said. “The reality is, there were some good players that were taken by the organization that were around for a long time – either with our organization or traded. A guy like Jeff Conine became ‘Mr. Marlin’ and was there for a long time. Frank Wren was the guy who scouted the Kansas City organization and really liked him a great deal.
“Even in the second round, we got guys like Carl Everett – who had a long major league career. The scouts did a great job. I think there were a lot of good selections that were made.”
Looking back, Dombrowski has the dual gratification of knowing his inaugural team was competitive on the field – and the organization was only five years away from a World Series win in part to some trades that were made involving players selected in the expansion draft. The biggest, of course, was sending Trevor Hoffman (No. 8 overall), Jose Martinez (No. 4) and Andres Berumen (No. 45) to San Diego to land Gary Sheffield midway through the 1993 campaign.
“But don’t forget about Cris Carpenter. He was a prime example of the type of guy we were looking for,” Dombrowski said of the setup man, who was selected at No. 37. “Colorado had a better record than us that first year, and a lot was made of it at the time. But we kept saying, ‘That’s not really important.’ Cris Carpenter and Bryan Harvey were probably as good of 8th- and 9th-inning guys as there were in the league for the first half of the year. But Texas was looking for a setup guy, and we ended up trading them Carpenter. Who did we get? We not only acquired Kurt Miller (who pitched in parts of three seasons for the Marlins), but we got Robb Nen in that trade – who was the closer on our world championship club.
“So there were so many moves. The foundation was really there to help us move along for the future.”
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One doesn’t have to look any further than Opening Day 1993 to see the different styles deployed by the Marlins and the Rockies.
Florida’ first-ever Opening Day lineup included:
- Two players selected in the first round of the expansion draft: Bret Barberie and Jeff Conine;
- Junior Felix, who was a third-round selection (No. 59 overall);
- Walt Weiss, who was acquired from Oakland on the day of the expansion draft;
- Scott Pose, who was selected in the December 1992 Rule 5 draft;
- Orestes Destrade, a free agent who had spent the previous four years with the Seibu Lions in Japan;
- and veteran free agents Benito Santiago, Dave Magadan and Charlie Hough – the 45-year-old knuckleballer who was the Marlins’ Opening Day starter.
Colorado’s Opening Day lineup consisted of:
- Andres Galarraga, who was signed as a free agent – and the club’s first player – the day before the expansion draft;
- Dante Bichette, who was acquired from Milwaukee in a draft-day deal;
- six players selected in the first round of the draft (Eric Young, Alex Cole, Jerald Clark, Charlie Hayes, Joe Girardi and David Nied);
- and Freddie Benavides, the club’s first pick in the second round.
Of the Rockies’ 36 expansion draft-day selections, 27 appeared in at least one game for Colorado during the team’s inaugural campaign.
In fact, when the Rockies went to the postseason in 1995 in just their third year of existence, 12 players on the roster were acquired by Gebhard during his draft excursion to New York (Galarraga, Bichette, Young, Girardi, Vinny Castilla, Jayhawk Owens, Darren Holmes, Curtis Leskanic, Lance Painter, Steve Reed, Armando Reynoso and Kevin Ritz). In addition, two members of Colorado’s first amateur draft class in 1992 were on the postseason roster – second-round pick Mark Thompson and seventh-round selection Jason Bates.
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It was mid-February 1993, and the Rockies began reporting to spring training in Tucson, Ariz.
The site was Hi Corbett Field – the same location where, just a few years earlier, the movie Major League was filmed. There was a little bit of irony in having an expansion club in that setting.
The Rockies might not have had Willie Mays Hayes on their roster, but “yeah, it was a lot different than other spring trainings,” said Don Baylor, who was running a big league camp as a manager for the first time. “Now all of a sudden you’re there, and you have these purple tops running everywhere.”
To learn about managing an expansion team, Baylor reached out to Gene Mauch – the Montreal Expos’ first skipper – and leaned on guidance from his own bench coach, former big league manager Don Zimmer, who was an infielder with the first-year New York Mets in 1962.
“Playing at 5,280 altitude, we knew we would have to be in better condition than most people,” Baylor said. “We did a lot of wind sprints and a lot of long-distance running. I knew that they were all in when guys like Bichette and Galarraga were doing it.
“But we also knew we had to lighten it up a little bit. For some guys during that camp, it was life-or-death. ‘If I don’t make this expansion team, I might be through as a player.’ So we lightened it up a little bit so guys could have some fun.”
As Joe Girardi recalled, “We actually put on ‘Hello My Name Is’ tags as we went out for spring training. That camp … it was kind of like being signed and walking into a clubhouse for the first time, because you really didn’t know anybody. You played against them, and I was familiar with some of the faces that were in that draft, but I hadn’t really played with any of these guys.”
According to Eric Young, “What was good about that first camp was that we all knew we had a chance to make it happen for our careers. We just knew we had a chance, and you’ll never know what happens. Put a bunch of castaways together, and maybe they’ll win one day. We were just so hungry. Each guy wanted to go to work with no complaints. Everybody had the attitude that ‘I can play’ and ‘I can play every day’ – which was really good.”
While the Rockies were getting ready in the Valley of the Sun, the Marlins had set up shop for their first Grapefruit League spring in Cocoa, Fla.
Rene Lachemann was in his third tour of duty as a major league manager, having spent three years with the Seattle Mariners (1981-1983) and one with the Milwaukee Brewers (1984). He then was a big league coach for an extended run with postseason teams, coaching in Boston (1985-1986) and Oakland (1987-1992). The Red Sox went to the World Series in 1986; the Athletics went to three straight World Series, winning the title in 1989.
“I was looking forward to this new challenge,” Lachemann said. “I knew it was going to take time. I knew I had to have patience. I knew we were going to take beatings at times.
“I basically used the stuff I learned from being on four World Series teams – knowing what it takes to get to that point. It’s the basic fundamentals of playing the game hard and playing the game right. I remember telling them, ‘I know we are going to be outmanned at certain times, but I could go to a 7-11 store to find guys who play the game hard and run the ball out – but to play the game right is something different. You have to know what to do in certain situations, when to hit cutoff men, how to run bases. Those are things that are part of playing the game right, and that ends up helping you win ball games. You guys have been given a chance to perform at the major league level. The biggest thing is doing those things. You do those things and we won’t have any problems. That’s what I’m looking at.’
“It was a challenge at times and we took our lumps, but they went out and gave a lot of effort.”
Lachemann found a big backer in Jeff Conine, who had spent his professional career in the Kansas City organization before being taken in the expansion draft.
“I love Lach. He was great,” Conine said. “He kept it light, but at the same time, he commanded hard work and performance. I think he was the perfect guy in that situation – with the perfect personality – to get all of us together and create this major league team.
“Spring training overall was a bit bizarre. At first, I really didn’t know anyone from any other teams. When you go to your school team for the first time or when you get to your first minor league team, you don’t know anybody else. It was kind of like that. It just felt different, because this was the big leagues; this was the real deal. And it seemed out of place not to be able to know all your teammates before you go into a major league season.”
A player with previous ties to Lachemann was Walt Weiss, who had come over from Oakland after the expansion draft in a prearranged deal. Weiss had been a member of the Athletics for their back-to-back-to-back World Series appearances and was looking to resurrect his career. The shortstop was one of several veterans the Marlins brought in for their opening campaign.
“Like a lot of teams in that situation, we labeled ourselves the ‘Island of Misfit Toys.’ We were castoffs from all teams,” Weiss said. “That certainly creates a bond, because everyone for the most part is in the same boat. In one way or another, you’ve been cast off from another team, and you’re in this environment where there was a lot of excitement – being the first team in franchise history and the first big league team in Florida. It was an exciting year, but definitely a 180 from what I was used to in Oakland, where we had a very established club and a championship-caliber club every year that I was there. But at the time, I welcomed that.”
Weiss has a unique perspective on the whole expansion process. Not only was he a first-year Marlin in 1993, but he then signed with the Rockies as a free agent for the 1994 campaign.
“In Florida, it seemed like, that first year, there were some established stars on that team,” Weiss said. “Benito Santiago … we traded for Gary Sheffield … Orestes Destrade was a star that came over from Japan … Charlie Hough … Bryan Harvey – he was one of the best closers in the game at that time. So we had some All-Star players.
“In Colorado, it seemed like they built more for the long haul. I don’t know what the philosophies were when they were putting their teams together, but on the surface, that’s what it seemed like to me.
“I got to Colorado their second year, but it was the same type of feel. Guys came from other organizations and you have that immediate bond. They made some nice free agent signings like Larry Walker and Billy Swift. It was a fun team to be a part of … those early years with the Rockies. It was almost like playing on your college team again. We had a tight-knit group, and that team grew close very quickly.
“I signed there for a couple years, and after two years signed for a couple more. I ended up laying down family roots there. All my children were born and raised there, and I’m still there to this day. It was really a life-changing move going to Colorado that second year.”
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On April 5, 1993, it became real for both franchises.
While the Rockies began their first campaign on the road, the Marlins played host to the Los Angeles Dodgers at Joe Robbie Stadium. Sandwiched in the lineup between veterans Santiago and Weiss, Conine went 4-for-4 in the 6-3 victory – including three singles off Orel Hershiser.
“It was surreal. I had never played in front of a crowd that large before,” Conine said. “We had made huge strides as far as getting to know each other in spring training. Now, we were a team. We were feeling good. We get out there on Opening Day, and everyone was talking about Joe Robbie being a converted football stadium – but I thought they did a great job of turning it into a baseball facility. There were 44,000 people in the stands and Charlie Hough was on the mound.
“And then at the end of the game, you look up at the scoreboard and you’re batting 1.000. My parents were there to see it. I don’t think you could have scripted a better Opening Day for a franchise than what we had that day.”
Conine quickly became a fan favorite – and was the only member of the Marlins’ expansion draft class to remain with the team for the 1997 World Series run. He later returned to Florida in 2003 – picking up a second World Series ring. Along the way, he picked up the moniker “Mr. Marlin.”
“At first, I didn’t embrace the nickname. I didn’t understand it … I was just doing my job,” said Conine – who spent eight total seasons as a Marlins player and is now in his ninth year with the club as a special assistant to the president. “As time has worn on, it’s a term of endearment that associates me with this franchise and this city. I definitely embrace it now and appreciate it – and appreciate all the fans that still call me that because of what we did during my time here.”
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The Rockies began their maiden voyage with two games against the Mets at Shea Stadium.
“We happened to face Dwight Gooden and Bret Saberhagen,” Gebhard said, laughing, “so by the time we came home, we were 0-2. We were pretty excited to finally bring the team to Denver.”
In the franchise opener, Colorado managed just four singles in a 3-0 loss. Young, the first batter in Rockies history, immediately got the managerial eye roll from Baylor when he bunted into an out on the season’s fourth pitch.
“I told him, ‘You’re not starting a franchise by bunting for a base hit,’” Baylor said.
“He gave me that look,” Young said. “(Baylor) didn’t know what was going through my head at the time. He didn’t realize that when Dwight Gooden threw that first pitch at 96, I said ‘Oh, man, I’m going to have trouble with this. Let me see if I can just put it down.’ That’s why I bunted. That first pitch of the game got on me so quick, I backed up. All I was thinking was that I couldn’t strike out that first at-bat.
“I made sure I didn’t bunt that first game at home, though.”
Let’s set the scene: Opening Day at Mile High Stadium (April 9) … bottom of the first inning … Young was at the plate facing Montreal’s Kent Bottenfield … all of Denver was watching – or so it seemed – with a major league-record 80,277 in the ballpark … Young worked the count to 3-2, then became a Rockies legend when he went deep … the home run was the first blow in the club’s 11-4 victory.
“All I was thinking the whole at-bat was to get on base and jump-start the offense,” Young said. “We scored only one run in the two-game series in New York, and my job was to get the offense started.
“So when I connected, I said to myself, ‘Oh, man, I think I got under it a little bit.’ It was a high fastball. I didn’t know about the mile high effect and the thin air; I didn’t know about that then. But I’ll tell you what … 80,000 rose to their feet, and it just seemed like they lifted that ball over the fence. It was just magical – just the roar when I connected. And then the roar of it going over … it was unbelievable. I can use all the adjectives, but you can’t even describe ever having a feeling like that. And it won’t ever happen in a major league ballpark, because you’ll never get 80,000 people in one stadium for a baseball game. It was electrifying; the whole stadium was shaking like it was going to come down.”
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After going 67-95 in 1993, the Rockies were only 11 games under .500 when the 1994 season was cut short by a labor dispute. Colorado then went 77-67 in 1995 – going to the postseason as the National League’s Wild Card club.
“We certainly wanted to do better than they did the first year, and I guess we did,” Gebhard said. “We didn’t lose as many games. We were in the playoffs in just our third year, which was unheard of at that point in time. They, in turn, won the World Series in their fifth year.
“But to put that club together … that ranks right up there with winning two World Series in Minnesota. Those three baseball-wise were the three biggest thrills in my life – to be with Minnesota in ’87 and ’91 when we won, and to having the opportunity to put together an expansion club. I’ve always said that every lifetime baseball administrator should have that opportunity once – but only once – because it wears you down.”
The Marlins went 64-98 their first year. After seeing steady increases in their winning percentages – from .443 in 1994 to .469 in 1995 to .494 in 1996 – they went 92-70 in 1997 and shocked the baseball world in winning the World Series.
“We put a representative team on the field that first year,” Dombrowski said. “We didn’t go out there and get shellacked on a regular basis. There were some times in which we played some very competitive baseball.
“Looking back, it was one of the most rewarding and enjoyable experiences I’ve been involved in. The ability to start an organization from Day One, and being in a position where you can put in your own philosophies and bring in your own personnel, and then be in a position where you grow that organization … eventually, we grew the organization and won a world championship together. So to me, it was one of the most rewarding experiences. Probably short of winning a world championship, but the experience of starting an expansion team is one of the most exciting things I’ve ever done.”
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Chuck Wasserstrom spent 25 years in the Chicago Cubs’ front office – 16 in Media Relations and nine in Baseball Operations. Now a freelance writer, his behind-the-scenes stories of his time in a big league front office can be found on www.chuckblogerstrom.com.
Looking Back at the 1992 Expansion Draft (Part 2)
This is the second of a three-part series looking back at the 1992 MLB Expansion Draft. Click here to read Part 1; click here to read Part 3.
It’s one of those sayings managers have when they address their players every spring: “Play for the name on the front of the jersey, not the back. And play for the other organizations out there. You never know who’s going to be watching you.”
While players might hear that speech but not really listen to it, that axiom tangibly meant something 25 seasons ago.
Two organizations – the Colorado Rockies and the Florida Marlins – were out there in force. Their scouts were doing their player evaluations at the major league and minor league levels. They were doing their homework. They were doing their prep work. They were looking for any reason to have interest in a player – or not have interest at all.
This is the 25th anniversary of the one full year that the Rockies and Marlins spent scouting and preparing for the November 17, 1992, Major League Baseball expansion draft – when the two organizations would be selecting players from the existing 26 major league clubs. A total of 72 players would be chosen – since 50 more major league jobs were becoming available for the 1993 season.
Hundreds of players were auditioning for major league jobs. The truth is … most did not realize it. And when their names were called on expansion draft day, they were stunned.
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On paper, the Marlins and the Rockies had just under 14 months to get ready for the expansion draft – from the time their general managers were hired to the day they arrived in New York City for the initial building of their first big league rosters.
“I found the whole process to be exhilarating … that all the work we had accomplished was ready to move forward,” said Dave Dombrowski, the first general manager in Florida Marlins history. “Our goal was … you want to start an expansion team. You want to get players on board. But ultimately, you’re trying to build a world championship. We knew it would be a while down the road.
“But we were now in the position where finally you were going to have a chance to start adding some players – and all that work that had taken place would come to fruition. So I found it a very exciting time.”
While the Marlins went into the expansion draft knowing they had some money to spend, Colorado Rockies general manager Bob Gebhard and his organization were operating under a tight budget.
“We went into New York with our small group of people who we felt were going to help us make the right selections,” Gebhard said. “But the unknowns were who was going to be available – and could we afford them?
“We felt that we were going to draw some people in Denver. But one of the things the owners brought to my attention is they really thought we needed to win some ball games right away. We were competing in a football city, we were the new team in town, and we really needed to be competitive. We certainly didn’t want to lose 100 games that first year. So we were trying to pick carefully so that, No. 1, we had a team that was affordable, and No. 2, that we had a team that could compete in the 1993 season. We were trying to do both. It was difficult knowing that we didn’t have a lot of money to spend.”
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How would the two teams be put together?
The rules were pretty simple – and pretty complex. All players in the 26 existing organizations were eligible to be drafted, except those with no prior major league experience who had less than three years of service if signed at age 19 or older – or less than four years of service if signed at age 18 or younger.
Cutting to the chase, any “under contract” player who had big league service time was in play if he wasn’t protected. From the minor league side, in layman’s terms, it all depended on when you were drafted – but the drafts of 1990, 1991 and 1992 were off limits. If you were a college kid selected in the 1989 draft with no big league time – you were eligible if an organization didn’t protect you. As an example, Trevor Hoffman, Cincinnati’s 11th-round pick that year, was not on the Reds’ protected list – leaving him available to be selected. If you were a high school kid chosen in the 1988 draft without major league experience (for instance, Yankees minor leaguer Carl Everett), or an undrafted young international player signed that year (the Cubs’ Pedro Castellano), you too were eligible if left unprotected.
What constituted a protected player? Major league teams were able to protect 15 players prior to the draft. Players with 10/5 rights (10 years of major league service, the last five with the same team) and players with no-trade clauses in their contracts had to be protected unless they waived those rights.
The procedure for the three-round expansion draft:
- Before the draft, a coin flip determined which team selected first in the first round and second in rounds two and three – or second in the first round and first in rounds two and three. The Rockies won the coin flip and opted to choose first.
- In the first round, the Rockies and the Marlins alternated turns, with each of the existing 26 teams losing one player. In theory, both teams were alternately selecting who they considered to be the 16th-best player on every other team’s roster. At the conclusion of the round, both Colorado and Florida would have selected 13 players each.
- Prior to the second round, the existing National League teams were able to pull back an additional three players, while American League teams were able to protect four more. The second round proceeded in the same manner as the first, with each existing major league organization losing a second player. At this point, both expansion teams would have selected 26 players each.
- Prior to the third round, the N.L. teams once again were able to protect three more players, while the A.L. teams were able to protect four. During the third round, 20 total players were selected – with each N.L. team losing one player and eight A.L. clubs losing a player. At the conclusion of the round, both the Marlins and the Rockies would have made 36 selections.
Not only were the Rockies and Marlins drafting players, they literally were playing a dice game. If you wanted a player from a specific team, and the other expansion club drafted a player from that club, then you likely lost out on an opportunity. You had to roll the dice when making your selections.
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The Rockies’ trip to New York became eventful before the big event.
After his arrival in the Big Apple, Gebhard was able to engineer a franchise-shaking move before the team had any players on its roster.
“Jim Bronner, the agent for Andres Galarraga, called me and said, ‘I’ve got a first baseman for you.’ And he told me it was Andres,” Gebhard said. Galarraga, a veteran of seven seasons in Montreal and one in St. Louis, had an All-Star appearance, one Silver Slugger Award and two Gold Gloves on his resume. “I told him, ‘You know, I have a very limited budget. I’ve been told I have $8 million to spend on a 40-man roster, so I have to be careful who I make commitments to – because this would be a salary hit.’ So we negotiated a contract for $500,000.
“The day before the draft, we signed Andres Galarraga.”
The 32-year-old Galarraga would go on to hit a National League-best .370 in 1993 and become an early builder of the Rockies’ “Blake Street Bombers” identity that Don Baylor wanted to establish. Galarraga spent five years in a Rockies uniform – finishing in the N.L. Top 10 in Most Valuable Player voting four times.
A second aggressive right-handed offensive presence that Gebhard coveted was Dante Bichette – who had fallen out of favor in Milwaukee.
Gebhard also had an affinity for Milwaukee’s Darren Holmes, a right-handed reliever who had experienced some success in 1992 (2.55 ERA and 6 saves in 41 games) – but was not protected by the Brewers.
The question for Gebhard was … could he get both players? The Rockies believed that if they took one, the other would either be protected after the first round – or selected by the Marlins early in the second round.
“We decided we needed pitchers who could pitch in Denver, so we were going to take Darren Holmes early in the draft,” Gebhard said. “But we had also zeroed in on Dante Bichette. It was a little bit of a mystery how we could get him.”
As fate would have it, “the morning of the draft, I went downstairs for coffee and ran into (Milwaukee GM) Sal Bando,” Gebhard said. “We had some discussions, and then I asked him, ‘What are you looking for?’ He said he needed a left-handed DH, and I asked him if he had any interest in (Texas’ Kevin) Reimer. He said, ‘Absolutely.’ So I asked him, ‘What if we draft him, and after the first round, you pull Dante Bichette back so we didn’t lose him to Florida? We can announce the trade after the draft.’ And he said, ‘That’s a deal.’ That’s how we got Dante Bichette.
“All of a sudden we had the big first baseman in Galarraga and now we had Bichette. We had the makings of a middle of the lineup with two power hitters. The rest of it just sort of fell into place.”
Bichette went on to play seven years for the Rockies, going to the All-Star Game four times. Holmes showed he could keep the ball in the park, surrendering only 34 homers in 263 games during his five years in a Colorado uniform.
Looking Back At The 1992 Expansion Draft (Part 1)
This is the first of a three-part series looking back at the 1992 MLB Expansion Draft. Click here to read Part 2; click here to read Part 3.
Times were much different when Dave Dombrowski began his baseball career.
The year was 1978, and Dombrowski – a recent graduate of Western Michigan University – had just started working for the Chicago White Sox as a scouting and player development assistant. He arrived in the majors only one year after the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays joined the American League as baseball’s 25th and 26th teams.
Dombrowski quickly caught the eye of legendary general manager Roland Hemond, who became a mentor to him. After just four years with the White Sox, Dombrowski was promoted to assistant general manager – at the age of 25.
It was the first step in the many staircases Dombrowski wanted to climb in the game.
“I remember at that time in my life, there were certain things that I would have liked to have experienced during my career,” said Dombrowski, who is now the president of baseball operations for the Boston Red Sox. “The thought process for me was … if I ever had the opportunity to be a general manager, it was something I really wanted to do. And of course, I wanted to be on a club that won a world championship and be in a position where you could put together a very successful organization for an extended time.
“But one of the things that was always intriguing to me was to be with an expansion club and to run an expansion club. I thought the opportunity to start a franchise from the very beginning would be one of the most challenging and exciting situations that you could partake in.”
Dombrowski’s baseball career – which has also included serving as the general manager of the Montreal Expos and the GM and president of both the Florida Marlins and Detroit Tigers – would grant him the opportunity to be a part of a championship team and to build an organization from Day One.
Inside The Draft Room: The 2006 Yankees
It’s unrealistic to think that 10-plus years after a draft, a large group of players from one team’s draft class would still be intact and together with their original organization.
Face the reality … it’s rare for a group of pitchers to have sustained health and sustained success, period – let alone with one club.
But in a landscape when fantasy drafts rule the baseball world, it’s OK to dream. So imagine having the following relievers in the same big league bullpen – and don’t worry about their roles; this is only a dream (statistics are for the 2016 season) …
- Mark Melancon, who had 47 saves and a 5.42 strikeout-to-walk ratio as part of an All-Star campaign in 2016.
- David Robertson, who had 37 saves and a 3.47 ERA while fanning nearly 11 batters per nine innings pitched.
- Dellin Betances, with his high-90s fastball and 85 mph curveball, who struck out 126 batters in 73 innings while recording 12 saves and 28 holds.
- Zach McAllister, who had a 3.44 ERA and averaged a strikeout per inning – and pitched in the World Series.
- George Kontos, who had a 2.53 ERA in 57 appearances.
And to think … all were members of the New York Yankees’ draft class of 2006 – AFTER the team had already selected Ian Kennedy and Joba Chamberlain.
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Every scouting director has a different story of how he arrived in a position to run a draft.
But it’s not every day when you can say a scout learned first-hand by following in his mother’s footsteps.
Growing up in San Diego, Damon Oppenheimer was a Padres fan at an early age. He lived a couple miles from San Diego Stadium (later known as Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium); he could actually ride his bicycle there if he wanted to.
Oppenheimer’s affinity for the Padres and the sport grew leaps-and-bounds when his mother, Priscilla, was hired to work as a secretary in the scouting department. Priscilla Oppenheimer went on to a long and distinguished 24-year career with the Padres, rising to director of minor league operations – a position she held at the time of her retirement in 2006.
“When my mom was afforded the opportunity to get that job, it was really nice,” said Damon Oppenheimer, who is now the Yankees’ vice president of domestic amateur scouting – and in his 25th year in that organization. “We were baseball fans, I was into it, and it was neat to be able to talk to her boss. Sandy Johnson was a heck of a scout and a productive scouting director. That was her first boss there, so I learned a lot from just listening to him.”
In what had to be interesting dinner table conversation, the son – an aspiring baseball player – was educated about the inner workings of a baseball front office from his mom.
“I think a lot of the stuff I learned from her was how competitive it was … how many kids there were in a system … how you have to constantly perform while you’re being developed,” he said. “She was always talking about the amount of kids there are – and the amount of kids who didn’t see the window of opportunity closing on them and let it get away. She talked about these talented kids out there who didn’t handle their situations right and didn’t max out their potential.
“On top of the player stuff, she was great at reminding me to make sure you were always good to everybody in the organization. It wasn’t just about the people above you; it was more about the people that were working with you or were working around the game. You know what … that made a big impression on me. I think I’ve probably taken that as a leader and used a lot of her information that she was able to give me. I believe you need to include everybody and make everybody feel like they’re an important part of the process.”
When his playing career ended, Oppenheimer began working as a part-time scout with the Padres while finishing his college degree – and was hired on a full-time basis in 1988. He joined the Yankees as a Midwest cross-checker in 1993 and has been with that organization ever since (except for a nine-month stint in Texas’ scouting department from November 1995-July 1996). In 2005, after stints as the Yankees’ farm director and as the head of pro scouting, Oppenheimer took over the reins of running the team’s amateur draft.
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Every scouting director has a different story of how he arrived in a position to run a draft.
But not every scout cut his teeth at evaluating pitching by squatting behind the plate to catch a Randy Johnson fastball.
Oppenheimer was a two-year letterwinner at USC en route to a brief professional career (he was selected by Milwaukee in the 18th round of the 1985 draft and played in 12 Class-A games before suffering a career-ending injury).
Along with earning honorable mention Pac 10 all-conference honors in 1985, he had the opportunity to catch both Johnson – the future Hall-of-Fame southpaw who was chosen in the second round of that year’s draft by Montreal – and Brad Brink, selected with the seventh overall pick by Philadelphia in the 1986 draft.
Being a catcher helped Oppenheimer in his future roles as a talent evaluator and scouting director.
“Catching is one of the jobs in baseball where, if you don’t really want to be back there, you’re going to fail,” he said. “I really wanted to catch. You had to want to be back there. You had to want to lead. You had to want to think the game through. The ‘thinking it through’ part – planning, how to read advance reports, how to figure out what you’re going to do – that was a big step in my own development as a planner for the scouting department.
“You were always critiquing pitchers as a catcher on how they were doing, where their arm was, what could be fixed, if they have their stuff that day or if they didn’t, and how they competed. I think as a catcher you were able to sit there and incorporate the mental side of a guy’s ability to pitch – along with his tools, his stuff for that day, and then his mechanical portion of pitching. For me at least, it turned me into an evaluator at a young age.”
At the same time, even though he was in uniform, he was able to learn about the way scouts performed their jobs. It put the little voice in his head that scouting might be a direction for him to consider.
“Since my mom was in the game and some of the scouts knew me, they’d seek me out and ask me questions about some of the guys on the team,” Oppenheimer recalled. “It was never about them as people or their personalities; they didn’t cross that line. But they would talk about what I thought of their stuff and what I thought about the way they pitched. So I did think about (scouting) some. To be honest, if you would have told me that Randy Johnson would have been better than Brad Brink, I would have never guessed that. Brad had great stuff, he had a great body, and he threw really good strikes. Randy was still a developing guy; he didn’t throw very many good strikes. In that way, looking at it, I gained some experience in learning more about projecting with Randy vs. Brad – and about how pitchers might develop.
“I’m sure glad it worked out for Randy the way it did. And it was too bad for Brad. The injury thing is such an epidemic in baseball. It’s so hard to figure out who that guy is going to be. Brad had great stuff.”
While Oppenheimer earned his stripes as a catcher in handling Johnson, he had to wait his turn the year before. Although he did see a fair amount of action in 1984 for USC, Oppenheimer often found himself on the bench watching Jack Del Rio work behind the plate – the same Jack Del Rio who is now the head coach of the NFL’s Oakland Raiders.
“It was pretty humbling, because he was quite a bit more athletic – and he was better,” Oppenheimer said. “Jack was really, really gifted. He probably could have been a longtime major league baseball player if that’s the route he wanted to go. But I think he was enamored with football; he liked playing in front of 60,000 to 100,000 people a lot more than he did thinking about playing in front of a couple thousand in minor league baseball to get there.
“From sitting there watching him and being around him – and now being in scouting – if he wanted to be a professional baseball player, he could have been a major league player. He was athletic. He was tough. He could hit. He could throw. He was a decent receiver … I think he’d probably agree with that. He could really run. He was really talented, and he had some kind of ability to compete. He was one of the better athletes that I’ve ever been around.”
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Looking at it in its entirety, the 2006 draft can at best be labeled as average.
There were some big-name talents selected in the upper-half of the first round (Evan Longoria, Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer, Tim Lincecum) and a fair amount of lower-round finds (Doug Fister, Chris Archer, Daniel Murphy, Chris Davis and Jarrod Dyson come to mind), but overall, this wasn’t that strong of a draft class.
The Yankees, though, did really well. Despite not picking until No. 21 and being without a second-round selection (the choice went to Atlanta as compensation for the free agent signing of Kyle Farnsworth). The Yankees, in fact, picked only twice in the top 100, and yet they still selected 10 players that reached the majors – including eight pitchers who have combined to appear in more than 2,400 big league games.
“It wasn’t a direct strategy – ‘We’re just going after pitching’ – but off of the volume of what we saw, we thought it was going to be more of a pitching-heavy draft for us,” Oppenheimer said. “There was a little bit more of that to choose from. It was at a time when the organization really needed pitching, so that made it easier to go in that direction.”
The Yankees – as was often the case – did not have their own first-round pick. That selection (No. 28) went to Boston as compensation for the free-agent signing of Johnny Damon.
However, New York lost free agent reliever Tom Gordon to Philadelphia. As a result, the Yankees received the Phillies’ first-round selection (No. 21) and a supplemental first-round pick (No. 41).
Going into the year, USC starting pitcher Ian Kennedy was highly ranked by publications and highly rated on draft boards. The Yankees liked him quite a bit as a sophomore and watched him extensively when he pitched for Team USA.
“It was one of those things … as the draft gets closer, you start to get a feel of who might get to you, and we thought there was a good chance he would get down to us,” Oppenheimer said. “We did our extra homework on him, and it turned out to be good. If he did get down to us at 21, we were prepared to take him. We had him higher on our board than his actual draft spot.”
In doing his homework on the right-hander, Oppenheimer reached out to some people at his old college campus.
“I was very close with (USC coach) Mike Gillespie, so I was able to get some pretty good information on what kind of person Ian was – and what kind of a competitor he was. That part of it was huge,” said Oppenheimer, who had played for Gillespie’s USC predecessor – the legendary Rod Dedeaux. “Watching what Ian had done for Team USA added to the comfort level of knowing what kind of a pitcher this kid was.
“I kind of had an idea that he was going to get to us. You’re always sweating it out a little bit when other teams are drafting, but with Ian … we just felt it was going to turn out our way.”
Twenty slots later, the Yankees stayed at the major-college level in selecting University of Nebraska right-hander Joba Chamberlain.
“Joba was a guy we had really close to 21,” Oppenheimer said. “A lot of teams had questionable medical on Joba, but our people were satisfied that his medical was fine, that he was going to be able to be durable, and that he’d be solid.
