Chuck Wasserstrom | MLB Trade Rumors

How The Angels Discovered Mike Trout

By Chuck Wasserstrom | April 8, 2020 at 10:40pm CDT

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 first time I ever talked to (area scout) Greg Morhardt about him, he told me, ‘I got a guy in Jersey for next year’s draft who’s going to go into the Hall of Fame,’ and I started laughing,” Bane said. “I don’t know how many times I’ve heard that kind of statement from mostly parents. Usually, it’s not from a scout. But that’s what Mo said. I laughed about it, but I made sure to remember the name.”

Morhardt, whose territory included New Jersey, New York, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, was a former minor league first baseman/outfielder. For three years (1984-1986), one of his teammates with Minnesota’s Orlando affiliate in the Double-A Southern League was Jeff Trout – an infielder and future dad of Mike (who was born in 1991).

“Sometimes you have to listen to what people say … all the time, I guess, but then you usually filter it out,” Bane said. “I couldn’t be biased because it was some former player’s kid, and I couldn’t have a bias because the scout knows the guy – and he’s looking at the kid through rose-colored glasses. I had to be aware of that.”

In other words, the relationship between Morhardt and the Trouts could have skewed the scout’s judgement and reports. Bane had to go in with an open mind and witness the same things his area scout was seeing. He did … and then some.

“I go to his high school game with Jeff Malinoff,” he said, “and the kids are working hard and everything, but there’s not a lot of great players on the field. Obviously, you know which one is Mike Trout. They take batting practice, and he was killing balls. They took infield, so you were aware of his instincts out in center.

“The game starts, and this is the part that’s hard for people to believe. He pops up a ball to left-center and runs as hard as he can and ends up at third with a triple because they couldn’t catch it. You mark that down. He had a couple other at-bats, a couple more hits, and then around the fifth inning, I grabbed Malinoff and said, ‘Let’s go.’

“He looked at me like, ‘Oh no. What?’ And I got in the car and told Jeff, ‘If that guy’s there when we’re picking, we’re taking him.’ He said, ‘What went on that I didn’t see?’ And I said, ‘There’s something about this guy.’

“I wanted to learn more about him, so I called up (Morhardt) and told him to set up a dinner with me and the Trout family. He did, and maybe 10-15 days later, we had dinner at some colonial restaurant right outside out of Millville. The dinner was the best dinner impression I ever had as an amateur scout. The mom, Debbie, was incredible. Jeff fooled around with Mike like Mike was nothing special to them. And Mike, you could tell there was a lot of love at that table between those guys; they goofed around on each other and kidded with each other. It was the most impressive thing I saw out of Mike before the draft … the way he interacted with his mother and father.

“When I left the restaurant, I was pumped.”

– – –

Draft day … June 9, 2009.

Heading into the day, it was likely that Grichuk would be there when it was the Angels’ time to pick. But would Trout make it past 23 spots? Only a couple trusted higher-level scouts knew Bane’s pipe-dream scenario of landing both Trout and Grichuk.

“I tried to keep it inward as much as I could; Jeff (Malinoff) and (national cross-checker) Ric (Wilson) knew what I wanted to do,” Bane said. “I was kind of paranoid, and I didn’t want a text message going out to somebody saying ‘Hey, the Angels are looking at two high school outfielders in a row.’ Somebody would know who they were. That’s the paranoid part of having that job.”

Bane didn’t care about taking high school guys back-to-back. There is certainly risk in drafting high school players in the first round, and none of the prep position players taken before Grichuk and Trout that day (No. 3 Donavan Tate, San Diego; No. 16 Bobby Borchering, Arizona; No. 21 Jiovanni Mier, Houston) has seen a day of major league action.

“Now, I’ve read a lot of stuff … people saying, ‘How in the world did they take two high school outfielders in a row?’ That was never the way I looked at it,” Bane said. “I just wanted to take the best guy. You have to be blessed to get them to the big leagues. Forget about whether they’re high school outfielders or college shortstops or whatever else. You’ve got to be really blessed to get them there.”

Bane admits he was sweating it out, saying that “a lot of it played out nicely for us. Guys who liked Mike took other guys.

“I’ve read where we had Trout ranked seventh or 10th on our (preference) list – and that may have been on the board – but like I’ve said about being paranoid, I know where he was on my own personal pref list, and that was second behind Strasburg.

“But the only other team that had him ranked anywhere near that high – at least that I could find out – was the Yankees. Damon Oppenheimer told me after the draft that Mike had come into Yankee Stadium and had maybe the best workout that they’d ever seen. But they were picking after us, and they had no chance.

“I worried about Oakland; (scouting director) Eric Kubota did a great job on him. I worried about the Diamondbacks – because they had two picks (at 16-17).”

But after 23 selections, the two high school outfielders were still available. The Angels were on the clock.

– – –

Ask for an explanation of how Trout could still be available after 23 picks, and what you get sounds like a bunch of excuses:

The weather is too unpredictable, so it’s too hard for scouts to plan trips.
The weather is too cold and wet, so the player’s body of work is limited compared to players in other parts of the country.
Pitchers from the northeast have historically done OK in pro ball, but position players have not.
Due to shorter seasons, some teams don’t scout the area with any regularity.

To a scouting director, those aren’t excuses. They’re realities of the job.

“When you fly up to the northeast in late March or early April, there’s a really good chance that you’ll get snowed out and there’s a really good chance you’re wasting a couple days – whereas you can be in a high school tournament in California and see three games,” Bane said. “If you look at it that way, I can see it.

“But that didn’t come into play for us. You really need to include the entire field and not have an age bias or a regional bias. There had been a kid a few years before that named Billy Rowell, who Baltimore took in the first round, and he kind of washed out. So I think there were several teams that said they wouldn’t go back to the northeast because of that.

“There were teams that didn’t cross-check Mike. The weather … they got rained out this day … they got snowed out that day. Some people don’t understand it, but I understand it. It’s 4 a.m. wakeup calls every day for two months. And unless you really stick your nose to the grind stone, it’s hard to do that every day.”

– – –

While Trout was there for the Angels to select at No. 24, he also was there for them at No. 25. The first name they called was Randal Grichuk. And there’s a backstory.

“You really want to know why he went first? I’ve heard a lot of different stories, but I think I would know,” Bane said. “This is no knock on Randal. We wanted Randal bad.

“Craig Landis – the agent for Mike Trout – called me about a week before the draft and said ‘Mike’s signability has changed.’ And I said, ‘Well, no it hasn’t. I just talked to Jeff (Trout). He’s going to sign for slot.’ I checked with Greg Morhardt after that conversation, too. He said Trout would sign for slot.

“But the rest of the phone conversation with Landis, it was, ‘You need to call Jeff Trout.’ And I said, ‘No I don’t. I know what his signability is.’ He got a little perturbed. He said things had changed. I said, ‘No, I know what they told me. I think these are some of the best people I’ve been around. So if we want to take him, we’re going to take him.’

“I imagine I frustrated Landis a little bit there – and I’m petty. When we knew we were going to get both of them, I thought about the phone call – and we took Randal first.

“(Agents) can always dictate a lot of things, but the one dictate we have on them is that we can draft whoever we want.”

The moral of the story is … know your player, his makeup, his background.

“I knew Mike, and Mike wanted to play baseball and literally prove to everybody that he was the best player in baseball,” continued Bane. “About 10-to-12 days after the draft, Jeff (Trout) either got ahold of me or (Morhardt) and said ‘Will you get this kid out of my house? He’s driving me crazy.’ I reminded him, ‘The number is slot,’ and he said ‘That’s good. Let’s go.’

“The family flew out to Anaheim, and we signed him. He worked out at Angels Stadium, and he was hitting balls that the major league guys weren’t hitting in batting practice. At the time, he was 17. That’s when I knew that maybe we really did get something here.”

– – –

For Bane, his best-laid plans continued to come to life that June afternoon.

As if landing both Grichuk and Trout wasn’t enough, his plans were coming to fruition for the Angels’ supplemental selections at 40 and 42.

“Like I’ve told people – and they have a hard time believing me – we would have been happy getting Garrett Richards with our first pick. We didn’t think he’d be there,” Bane said. “And there’s a story about why we took (Tyler) over Richards, too. It’s kind of unique and really fun – because a lot of things come into play.”

Richards was a college hurler for the University of Oklahoma. Skaggs was a prep left-hander out of Santa Monica (Calif.) High School.

“I never wanted to tell an agent something that wasn’t going to happen,” Bane said. “Garrett Richards’ agent got ahold of me sometime after we had picked Randal and Mike; this had to be somewhere around the 35th pick. He said to me, ‘Are you guys going to take Richards at 40?’ I said, ‘If he’s there, we’re taking him.’

“At 41, the Diamondbacks had a pick. And right after that phone call, we got word that the Diamondbacks were going to take Skaggs at 41. Once we got wind of it, I basically had not told the truth to the agent. So we took Skaggs first and hoped (the Diamondbacks) didn’t take Richards at 41. Then we got both of them.”

As it turns out, Bane’s information was correct. The Diamondbacks were indeed planning on selecting Skaggs; when the left-hander was not available to them, they chose high school shortstop Chris Owings – and Richards became an Angel.

“(West Coast supervisor) Bo Hughes and (area scout) Bobby DeJardin had a lot to do with Tyler Skaggs,” Bane said “When I first went in to see Tyler pitch, I saw a lot of his stuff, but I said, ‘That’s a fourth rounder.’ He was throwing a slow curveball that was just not very good at all.

“But Bo was adamant. So I went back in, and Skaggs threw a tighter breaking ball. I asked, ‘What’s the story?’ Well, he had two breaking balls – and he thought the slow one was really good. We eventually got him to Angels Stadium to work out before the draft, and Mike Butcher – our outstanding big league pitching coach – was there. We’re watching Skaggs throw his bullpen, and we started talking to him. We said, ‘You’ve got two breaking balls, right?’ He said, ‘I’ve got this smaller, slider-type one, but the good one is my really slow curve.’ Butcher and I both said to him, ‘No, it’s not. The slow curve is really good for high school hitters, but it ain’t gonna work against these guys.’

“Skaggs was lights out the next time I saw him. So the chance to get a high school left-hander from Southern California that had that kind of angle, that kind of height, that kind of everything was a no-brainer.

“With Garrett, Arnold Brathwaite – our area scout in Oklahoma – kept coming up with reasons for me not to see Garrett Richards. ‘He’s not going to pitch this weekend … He’s pitching on Wednesday and I know you’re going to be somewhere else.’

“Garrett didn’t pitch on the weekends for Oklahoma; he was their Tuesday or Wednesday pitcher. I think he had a 6.00 ERA at Oklahoma his eligibility year. So I finally went in to see him during the Big 12 Tournament. I went down to the bullpen to watch him warm up, and it was just lights out. But the coaches were saying, ‘You’ve got to do it today. This is your day. Let’s go.’ You don’t see anyone get on a guy in the bullpen; they usually let a guy get prepared on his own in the pen.

“Garrett comes out to pitch, and he was throwing 97 MPH. There were about 30 scouts at the game, and one scout later told me that after two-or-three innings, I got up and said, ‘I don’t know what you guys are doing here. If he’s there, we’re going to take him.’

“I did stuff like that a lot. But I was setting the bait a little bit. This guy, on our grading scale, both of his breaking balls that day were a 70 and his fastball was an 80. He was just blowing away hitters. But he wasn’t doing that the whole year. Look up his numbers; he did not have a very good year, but he had a great day the day I was there.

“Walking away from that, you got a college pitcher that hasn’t had a lot of success, but has tremendous stuff.”

The Angels had a third supplemental pick at No. 48, selecting Eastern Illinois University left-hander Tyler Kehrer. “Wonderful guy. Good worker. But injuries really suck, and that really hurt him,” Bane said. “I thought we had really stole one there.” In selecting Kehrer, Bane missed out on a local kid named Nolan Arenado – who was chosen by Colorado at No. 59.

“Nolan Arenado is the one I kick myself on,” Bane said about the third baseman, who grew up around 20 miles from Anaheim. “They say it was one of the best drafts ever, but it would have been solidified if we had taken Nolan.

“The reason Arenado bothers me is that he was a Southern California kid, and we wanted to dominate Southern California. We felt like we had the opportunity because we had a Wednesday night scout team that Steve Hernandez runs, and it was room service for us. You’d go out there and there would be Mark Trumbo and Tyler Chatwood and Hank Conger. All of those guys played at Angels Stadium every Wednesday night – and you could just pick their brain. All these kind of guys like Arenado would come out and throw an inning, or play four or five innings for us, or take infield. You talk about room service; that was perfect.”

After five picks from 24-48, Bane had a little bit of a breather before the Angels’ next selection – the final pick of the second round (No. 80).

He then had one of those conversations where … you just had to be there.

“I get a break after the first round,” he said, “and I go into the restroom at the Anaheim Marriott. (Area scout) Tom Kotchman was famous for always having my ear on stuff; it really bugged some guys that Kotchman had my ear. But to me, he was Tom Kotchman – he drafts and signs big leaguers – so I’m going to pay attention.

“I’m doing my business at the urinal, and Kotch walks in. He’s at the urinal next to me and he whispers ‘Pat Corbin.’ I said, ‘What?’ And he says, ‘Patrick Corbin, left-handed pitcher.’ I said, ‘Oh yeah, we’ve talked about him. He’s going to be a good pick in a couple rounds. We’ll get him in the fifth round or something.’ And Kotch says, ‘If you don’t get him with our next pick, Atlanta’s taking him.’”

Let it be noted that the Braves did not have a second-round selection; their next pick wasn’t far after the Angels – in the third round at No. 87.

“So I go back into the draft room and quietly grabbed his file,” Bane said. “Before our pick, I gave the name to my assistant, Kathy Mair – who was the best, ever – and she says, ‘The Angels select Patrick Corbin, a left-handed pitcher from Chipola College.’ Some of the guys in the room looked at me like ‘What the hell. Where did that come from?’ Then they realized it was a Kotchman guy, so they quietly got pissed instead of doing it out loud.

“Kotch knew if there was any place that was going to be private, it was in the restroom of the Marriott Suites in Anaheim.”

– – –

On July 8, 2011, only 25 months after being drafted out of high school, Trout made his major league debut. The legend of Mike Trout was about to begin, but Bane was no longer a member of the Angels’ organization; his contract was not renewed after the 2010 season. Such is life in the big leagues.

Grichuk took a slower road to the majors – a fairly normal route for a high school kid, progressing level-by-level. He was traded to St. Louis with outfielder Peter Bourjos for third baseman David Freese and pitcher Fernando Salas in December 2013 – and made his major league debut the following April. Heading into this season, the only first-rounders from that June with more big league homers were Trout and Seattle’s Dustin Ackley – the second overall pick.

Corbin and Skaggs were traded to Arizona as part of a trade deadline deal involving Dan Haren just one year after being drafted (Skaggs was later reacquired by the Angels as part of a three-team deal in December 2013). Both southpaws made their big league debuts in 2012, and Corbin was a National League all-star in 2013.

Richards has had right arm issues the past two years – and is currently on the 60-day disabled list with a biceps strain. Prior to that, he was a combined 28-16 with a 3.18 ERA in 58 starts during the 2014-2015 campaigns.

“You think you really got them. You think you’re really great. Then you start thinking about it,” said Bane, as he reflected about being able to draft the players he was targeting that June. “You say to yourself, ‘What does the industry know about this guy that we don’t know?’ But you have to get past that. You have to trust your own scouts and your own instincts and everything else. And I think we were really good at not following the industry. We paid attention to the industry; we just didn’t follow whatever was conventional.

“We had no idea that all these guys were going to turn out like they did. Obviously, the bell cow was Mike. Getting four ‘plus’ major leaguers and one superstar out of the deal … that’s pretty good.”

– – –

Click here to read other entries in MLBTR’s “Inside the Draft Room” series.

Chuck Wasserstrom spent 25 years in the Chicago Cubs’ front office – 16 in Media Relations and nine in Baseball Operations. His full archive of articles for MLBTR can be found here.

The Glass Is Always Half-Full: A Conversation With Jayson Stark

By Chuck Wasserstrom | June 7, 2017 at 1:56pm CDT

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.

– – –

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.”

I can’t put myself in your shoes, but I thought it was tremendous when Jerry Crasnick posted his Mount Rushmore of writers – and his list consisted of Peter Gammons, Hal McCoy, Ross Newhan and Jayson Stark. When you first saw that, what did that mean to you?

“That was unbelievable. Jerry’s one of my best friends in the business. He’s one of my best friends, period. We’ve worked together. We’ve spent a lot of time together. For him to do that, say that, post that, and then have people respond to it the way they did, I don’t even know how to put stuff like that into words. It just means so much to me … the outpouring that I’ve gotten. It’s from people who I love and respect like Jerry, and then all the people in the business who responded to his post – including Ross and Hal and Peter. All of them saying that I deserve the Spink Award.

“Seriously, I don’t have a big ego. I don’t walk around thinking of myself as some legend. That’s just not who I am, but all of a sudden, when you go through something like this and people feel this need to pour their hearts out and tell me how great I am at my job … these things don’t happen to many people in life. I’m just overwhelmed that this has happened to me in the wake of this experience.”

You mentioned the J.G. Taylor Spink Award. Had you thought about it much before this happened?

“The only reason that I’ve ever thought about it is that people sometimes bring it up to me. My friends in the Philadelphia chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association have told me that they were going to do everything they could to help me win that award. Because of that, I’ve thought about it, but I don’t think it’s the kind of thing you go around giving campaign speeches for. As I said, I’m not all caught up in myself. Whatever nice things people want to say and do for me, I’m incredibly grateful for every one of them. I’ve been to Cooperstown. I’ve been through that gallery many times. I’ve looked at the names of the people who have won the Spink Award. So many of them were friends and heroes and inspirations. I know what that means when people start saying that about you. But I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about whether I belong there. It’s not for me to decide. It’s really cool that all of a sudden, a lot of people think that I do.”

I’d like to talk to you about some of the busiest times of the year. Can you compare and contrast covering the July trade deadline and the three-to-four day period during the Winter Meetings where you’re constantly on the chase?

“The trade deadline is more grueling because it goes on and on and on and on. We now live in a world where you get to April 23rd, and team ‘X’ gets off to a 2-10 start – and people are already starting to talk about who they’re going to trade in July.

“But the Winter Meetings are just three days and nights of no sleep or surely not enough sleep. It’s this incredible group dynamic where the entire national media delegation and all of the sport is centered on the same place where – every year – we break the all-time record for most tweets per second in an area of a hundred square yards. It’s just one crazy event.

“They’re so different. At the Winter Meetings, you see a lot of people and that part of it is really enjoyable. You connect with a lot of people. If a day goes by in the Winter Meetings and I didn’t meet somebody I didn’t know or have a conversation with somebody I never get to talk to, then that was a lost day. There is that aspect to the Winter Meetings which just doesn’t exist in July.

“July is just a giant rumor-chasing Olympiad. I don’t know which gets more out of hand. I’m going to vote for the trading deadline, but in both of them, I feel like more than ever, there is a need to remind yourself every day that your goal is never to tweet something that says ‘Disregard previous tweet.’

“You can get really swept up in the rumor of the day and feel the need to jump in. To me, it’s as important as it ever has been – maybe more – to make sure that you tweet and report and write and say stuff that you know. If you don’t know it, don’t fake it. If you kind of know it, there may be a lot of people in the business these days who think they kind of know something because one person told them something. Depending on what it is, that’s not enough for me.”

In the old days, you needed two sources before you would run with something. I know that’s not the world anymore, so do you find yourself chasing down rumors half the time to see if they have any legs?

“There’s a lot of that that goes on. When you get to that time of year, you hear stuff all day long. For me, depending on what I hear and who I hear it from and what the ramifications of it may be, I might take two days chasing something down that someone else would’ve tweeted immediately. But that’s me … I’d rather be that person. A lot of people in front offices have told me that they appreciate that. There’s value in it still, even if maybe you’re not going to be first by 30 seconds. It’s never been more important than it is now to be right.”

You’re a big relationships guy. Would it be fair to say that’s probably what drives you as much as anything?

“Oh, there’s no doubt about it. I’ve thought for a long time that the most important part of what we do is to build relationships.

“Here’s a trade deadline story for you. I really don’t know what year this was, but I was working from home, working the phones. Now, seven o’clock rolls around and it gets harder to make phone calls because games are starting. I go downstairs and I’m sitting with my daughter watching baseball. Now, it gets to be right around 10; games are starting to end and my cell phone rings. It’s a guy who was a very good source of mine and somebody that I really liked and trusted. He said there was a three-team trade brewing and he didn’t know all the specifics, and he told me what team was in the middle orchestrating it – and why – and that they were calling around trying to find a third team to complete what would’ve been a really big deal. I have this little conversation with him and my daughter’s sitting next to me.

“Now, I hang up with him and she’s looking at me. She says, ‘Dad, why do people tell you stuff?’ I thought this was the greatest question ever asked of a reporter. What I told her was, ‘I’ve spent my career building relationships with people in baseball. When you do that and then you get a call like that, a couple things are going on. It’s not just about the information. It’s his way of saying he trusts me, and he knows that if he tells me this, I’m going to handle it accurately. I’m not going to burn our relationship, and maybe I’m going to unearth some information that’s going to help his team. That part is usually unsaid, but it’s really a reflection of the fact that he trusts me.

“But, it’s also a reflection of the fact that I trust him – and that when he tells me something, we’ve spent enough time talking over the years and building the relationship that we have that I know it’s true. He’s not sending me off on some wild goose chase for his own amusement. It’s not something that he heard 75th-hand that he thought was kind of fun. It’s real. We’ve built that mutual trust, and that’s how this reporting gets done if you build relationships.

“Along those lines, I build relationships with players who I find to be smart and personable and – Chuck, you know there’s one other thing: Funny! I’ve always gravitated to the funniest player in the locker room. Always. I still do that. I get to the postseason, and that team that gets to the World Series … there’s going to be some guy who barely plays – maybe he never plays – and I might quote him every single day because he’s smart and he’s funny and he puts things in perspective. My editors have always laughed at my ability to go pump the Mark DeRosa’s of the world for information. The Giants win the World Series, and Mark DeRosa is not even on the active roster, but he’s still hanging around. He’s still part of the team. He’s still in the clubhouse. So sure, I’ll go talk to him. Why wouldn’t I, right? There’s always guys like that on every team.

“The Royals are in the World Series. Raul Ibanez and Jonny Gomes are in the clubhouse. They’re not even on the roster, but they can talk. They’re smart. They’re hilarious. Why wouldn’t I go talk to them? There’s a lot of ways to tell stories, so why not use the perspective of players like that to help tell those stories? I’ve built a lot of those relationships with players for a long period of time now – and it’s awesome.”

I was going to ask you about some of your favorite people to cover, but you just answered that. Sticking with building relationships, though, you do that with baseball fans, too. That’s got to be a really cool feeling – tweeting out a trivia question and getting thousands of people responding to you.

“It’s amazing, right? I really never set out to become the Alex Trebek of baseball. That just happened by accident.

“Here’s the story of how the Mike & Mike trivia came about. There were certain weeks that there was stuff I wanted to talk about, stuff that I’d written that I wanted to make sure they’d seen. So I’d make sure to send them those ideas or pieces. Well, you probably remember that when I’d write a Rumblings and Grumblings column, I’d always slip a trivia question in there. So one week, I sent them that week’s Rumblings and Grumblings and they saw the trivia question. They said, ‘Hey, this would be fun. Why don’t we try to answer your trivia question?’ They did, and they got it wrong.

“After the show, the producer got on the phone and said, ‘Hey, we have to do this again next week.’ We wound up doing it for 12 years. That’s how the whole Stark trivia thing became a thing. Even though I used to ask trivia questions in columns for years, it just became a thing. Now, even though I’m no longer on Mike & Mike, people are still begging me for trivia. I’ve been throwing trivia questions out there from time to time on Twitter, just because it’s fun and people go crazy over those questions. I even have players tell me they look forward to those questions – like relievers, for example; they take my trivia question, they go out to the bullpen that night and they ask all the other relievers. It really is a way of connecting with people who love baseball as much as I do. That’s my favorite thing about it. That’s one of the best things about social media; it’s just so interactive.

“I have always connected with people who are fans who just love the game, and I’ve developed such amazing friendships and relationships with people like David Vincent, ‘The Sultan of Swat Stats.’ I discovered David because I was interested in home run numbers, and he had every home run ever hit on his computer. I would just pester him with all kinds of questions and I helped to make him famous. He never got one penny for looking up a thousand notes for me, and he loved it. I just met a lot of people like that. There’s a guy named Trent McCotter who keeps track of all kinds of streaks. If there’s a great streak in progress, he’s going to hear from me. There are so many cool people like that out there in the world who love to look up stuff.

“A couple weeks ago, the Orioles and the Tigers played a game where the Orioles blew a six-run lead in regulation. Then they had a three-run lead in extra innings and blew that. And they still won. My poor wife has to listen to me say stuff like, ‘I bet you there’s never been a team in history that won a game like that.’ Obviously, she can’t tell me if that’s true, but the next day, I wake up and I try to figure this out for myself and realize that I can’t. So I threw it out there on social media, and I had four different people write computer programs to look this up – and determine that in the live ball era, no team had ever done that and still won a game. And I just love the fact that we live in a world where there are people out there who don’t get paid to watch baseball or work in baseball, but they love it.

“I’d like to think that there hasn’t been anybody covering baseball in my time who has appreciated those folks as much as me and has given them their 15 seconds of fame. I’ve always used their names in my columns when they look up stuff, thank them for the idea, and make them famous. I am still running into people who say, ‘10 years ago, I sent you a note and you put my name in your column.’ It’s cool. I appreciate how many people love baseball. Why not tap into that energy and have as much fun with it as they’re having? That’s what I do.”

It sounds like that’s one of the things that make you tick, all that interaction.

“It’s great, man. That’s the most fun thing about our job. We wouldn’t have this job if people didn’t care about baseball the way they do. The best part about covering sports, writing about sports, certainly writing about this game is that human beings play these games and human beings watch these games. When you get right down to it, most of these stories are great stories about life. They’re just told through the prism of a sporting event or a career or a season. We should never get tired of telling those stories, and we should never forget that.”

If you could go back in time, who would you have liked to have seen play?

“I’d like to go back and see if Babe Ruth really called that home run. I would like to go back and watch Ted Williams hit on the last day of the 1941 season. I would love to have seen Sandy Koufax pitch in person and see what that was all about. I would love to not just talk to Ted Williams – but have a relationship with Ted Williams where he actually trusted me and I could really tap into that brain of his.

“Maybe my favorite baseball book ever written was Leigh Montville’s Ted Williams biography. I’m just fascinated by that guy. There’s a story in that book – I’ve told it a lot of times; I told it on TV once – about a blind man who had a season ticket to the Red Sox. He loved to go to Fenway Park and hear Ted Williams hit because when he came to bat, there was this little ripple through the crowd. When the ball hit his bat, there was a different sound than all the other balls hitting bats.

“There’s something about people like that that fascinates me. Ted Williams and Babe Ruth were bigger than baseball. There was something going on there that went way beyond the ability to hit a baseball. Babe Ruth was just the biggest character in American life in his time. Ted Williams’ brain had so many things running through it that other people hadn’t thought of, and I would love to have spent a day with that guy just learning all the stuff he knew and what he thinks about.”

Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me for MLB Trade Rumors. It’s the rumors and the trade deadline and the work writers like you do that make this site what it is.

“That’s really true. Actually, I once wrote a piece – I think it was for the World Series program – about the trade deadline and how it had changed over the years. I talked to Tim Dierkes about it, because his tale and the tale of this site, they’re like a movie. It’s just incredible. If you were to talk about how the industry has changed, the MLB Trade Rumors saga and the MLB Trade Rumors effect would almost sum it up.”

– – –

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.

Inside The Draft Room: The 2002-2003 Dodgers

By Chuck Wasserstrom | June 6, 2017 at 10:02am CDT

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.”

– – –

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

2002 … the famous “Moneyball” draft.

While Oakland’s draft was covered in-depth in Michael Lewis’ book, White was in the process of telling a story of his own, focusing on a bunch of high school kids.

“It was my first year, and I went to a college baseball tournament at Minute Maid Park,” White recalled. “While I was in Houston, there was a high school game going on and my area scout, Chris Smith, said, ‘There’s a good matchup. You can see two pitchers and a first baseman named James Loney play.’ I went out to the high school and you had Scott Kazmir and Clint Everts pitch. And they all ended up being first-round picks.”

Loney played for Lawrence E. Elkins High School in the Houston suburb of Missouri City. His high school team was facing Cypress Falls High School, which featured Everts (who was selected fifth overall by the Expos) and Kazmir (selected 15th by the Mets).

“James faced them both that day,” White said, “and he hit a home run to left-center off Everts. And he also pitched that day. James was actually touted as a pitcher. He was supposed to be a high draft pick as a pitcher but he swung the bat extremely well. I talked to Chris Smith about him. I’m like, ‘Man, this guy can really swing the bat. I love his swing.’ And I told him to keep an eye on him. Don’t forget him as a hitter even though he was better known as a left-handed pitcher. As the year went on, he was always in the back of my head. We kept checking on him.

“Gib Bodet, our national cross-checker, later went in to see him. He called me and said, ‘Hey Logan, this Loney kid has a chance to be a Gold Glove defender.’ He loved his defense. So we just kept doing our work. Chris and I remember being at a game later in the year and James wasn’t pitching; he was only hitting, and there were no other scouts there. When James was pitching there’d be 30 scouts or whatever. We knew we were probably one of the few teams on him as a hitter.

“There were players we had high on our board. We loved Zack Greinke. We loved Prince Fielder. Like I mentioned, we loved Swisher. But we knew as the draft was going to unfold, those guys were going to get taken ahead of us.

“The one player we were hoping would get to us was Cole Hamels.”

Hamels, a high school left-hander out of San Diego, had fractured his humerus – the bone between the shoulder and the elbow – after his sophomore season. There were medical concerns about him, so White asked for and obtained clearance from Dr. Frank Jobe and from club ownership.

The hope was that there were enough concerns industry-wide to allow Hamels to drop all the way to Dodgers.

“We were hoping Hamels would get to us at 19, and then we could take James at 31 because we had that sandwich pick. That was our strategy, but of course, the Phillies took Hamels at 17,” White said. “So we went with our next plan, moving James up to 19. And then we took Greg Miller, who was a left-handed pitcher who had really good years before he, unfortunately, got hurt. He could have been as good as any of them at 31.”

In taking Loney with their first pick, the Dodgers took him ahead of Denard Span (No. 20 to Minnesota), Jeremy Guthrie (No. 22 to Cleveland), Joe Blanton (No. 24 to Oakland) and Matt Cain (No. 25 to San Francisco).

“That range actually was pretty good from about 15 to 25,” White said. “I remember being asked by writers on the conference call when we took James, ‘You know, Logan, you took James Loney with your first pick at 19. He’s ranked by Baseball America on their list at like, number 56 as a left-handed pitcher.’ I said, ‘No disrespect to anybody, but I only paid attention to our list.’ I was so naïve my first year, and I didn’t even think much about the question. Fortunately, James has had a good career. I would have loved for him to have hit 30 homers and been an All-Star every year, but I’m still proud of him.”

Miller might have softened the blow of missing out on the opportunity to pick Hamels, had Miller been able to stay healthy. As an 18-year-old in 2003, the graduate of Esperanza High School in Anaheim was on the fast track, combining to go 12-5 with a 2.21 ERA at High-A Vero Beach and Double-A Jacksonville. The following year, he missed the entire campaign with shoulder issues, and was never the same.

“He was throwing 95 with a great breaking ball and he was a 6-foot-6 lefty,” White said. “He certainly had as high of a ceiling as any of them. It’s just a shame he got hurt. His stuff was electric, it really was.”

In the second round, White had a pair of selections, choosing Iowa City High School right-hander Zach Hammes at No. 51 and Jonathan Broxton, a right-hander out of Burke County High School in Waynesboro, Ga., at No. 60.

One of those two worked out, as Broxton has pitched in nearly 700 major league games. Hammes pitched until 2013, but only saw brief Triple-A action.

Still, White kicks himself, as Jon Lester wasn’t selected by Boston until No. 57, and Brian McCann wasn’t picked by Atlanta until No. 64.

“If I was so smart … McCann, I should’ve taken him right there,” White said. “Obviously, we took Hammes. He was a tall projection pitcher out of Iowa. Our scouts liked him and we thought we were going to get a good one there, but we just didn’t.

“I will tell you with Lester … I learned a lesson. I saw Lester match up against Adam Loewen [who went fourth overall to the Orioles] in the fall of their senior years, and it was a great matchup. Lester threw outstanding. Well, then I went and saw Lester in the spring and his fastball was down. He was 87-89 and did not have the same stuff he showed in the fall. I learned my lesson — I should have gone with what I first saw and with my instincts, and instead, I didn’t do that. I obviously regret missing a big player, a big pitcher, right there.

“Lester and McCann … those bother me because we certainly liked both of those players – but obviously, we didn’t like them as well as the teams that got them.”

Broxton, who is now in his 13th big league season, has appeared in more games than any other pitcher selected in the ’02 draft. Before departing the Dodgers as a free agent after the 2011 season, he went to two All-Star games and made 13 playoff appearances.

“Lon Joyce, our area scout in Georgia, did a really good job on him,” White said. “Broxton was a big, thick guy throwing 90-93. Good slider, good breaking ball and just had a really good delivery for a big guy. And he was athletic. I remember him having to cover first and make a play and he moved well for his size. I just loved the arm and everything.

“Right before the draft there was a Georgia All-Star game, and Lon called me and said, ‘Hey, Logan, I’m at this game and Broxton is throwing 95-96.’ And back then, 95-96 was probably like 97-98 nowadays because the guns were not as sophisticated. But that definitely helped that he saw him right before the draft. We loved the delivery and loved his size. It fit everything we were looking for in him.”

White hit on several other players who had some decent big-league time – fourth-rounder Delwyn Young out of Santa Barbara (Calif.) City College, 11th-rounder James McDonald out of Polytechnic High School in Long Beach, Calif., and 15th-rounder Eric Stults out of Bethel College in Mishawaka, Ind.

But the player who would go on to have the biggest impact – Russell Martin – was a second baseman selected in the 17th round out of Chipola College in Marianna, Fla.

“When I went to L.A., I did have a philosophy of, ‘We’re going to look for guys that we can convert to catch,’ because I’ve always felt catching is hard to find,” White said. “It all goes back to being an area scout in Arizona. I remember going in to watch Arizona Western Junior College play.

“They had this shortstop and I liked him. I’m going, ‘Man, this guy can hit a little bit. He can throw, but he’s kind of heavy.’ He was a chunky guy and he didn’t run that well, and he was playing shortstop in junior college. I was a first-year scout, and I started comparing him to the Derek Jeters, the Alex Rodriguezes; I knew this guy couldn’t play short in the big leagues. I didn’t know where he was going to play, but I knew I liked something about him. Well, I didn’t write him up. I didn’t do anything with him. Nobody drafts him.

“Fast forward three or four years later, and I hear this guy’s name again. Somebody signed him after the fact; they worked him out and made him a catcher. And you know who it was? It was Bengie Molina. At the time, I didn’t have the mindset to take a player like that and put him behind the plate. I hadn’t acquired that skill of scouting yet.

“Now, when I get to L.A., I have a little more experience under my belt, and I wanted the scouts to look for guys we could convert to catch. I asked one of my big questions, ‘Is there anybody that’s playing second or short, third, good feet, good hands, we can convert?’ The area scout was Clarence Johns and the East Coast supervisor was John Barr, who’s now with the Giants as their scouting director. They both were at a game and Russ was messing around in the outfield or the bullpen, catching somebody. Just playing, not really in gear or anything. And they said, ‘Hey, you know what? We think this guy would be perfect.’

“So we intentionally drafted him to convert him. The rest is history.”

Martin, a four-time All-Star, is closing in on 1,400 games behind the plate for his big-league career.

“It was by design; we were trying to get guys like that,” White said. “Now we could say we were lucky we got him in the 17th round, of course. But there was a lot of work that had to go into it because I know our catching people had to do a lot of work that helped Russ become the catcher he became.”

– – –

Fast forward 12 months to June of 2003.

Thanks to a 92-70 record during the 2002 campaign, the Dodgers found themselves selecting in the 24th slot of the draft.

Looking back, it wasn’t a great draft. Three of the top six picks didn’t reach the Majors. The projected studs of the class, Delmon Young and Rickie Weeks, didn’t put up the numbers expected of them.

Throughout the spring scouting season, though, White had his eye on Chad Billingsley, a high school right-hander out of Defiance, Ohio.

“Well, that year … it wasn’t like the year before when there were a lot of guys you’d have been happy with it,” White said. “We saw Chad really early. And you know the thing about Chad … he was the ace of the Junior Olympic team. Those are things that were always important to me, kids that have played and had success wherever they’d been.

“Chad had such a good arm and a good delivery. He was throwing 94-95 with a plus breaking ball, plus changeup. He had a feel for pitching. He was a pretty good athlete for a high school kid. And we honestly were on Chad right away from the get-go. I’m trying to remember if we had anybody else that we liked better than Chad. I don’t remember off the top of my head; it was not like the way we hoped Hamels would get to us. Chad was pretty much a guy we were going to take at 24; I penciled him in and he was going to be our guy. I had all our people see him. As a matter of fact, I even had Dave Wallace – at the time he was our roving pitching coordinator – go see him for us because I just knew I liked him so much.

“And I think the thing that helped us, too, was he’s a high school right-handed pitcher. The industry gets a little afraid of high school right-handed pitchers, rightly so. A lot don’t make it.”

Billingsley was the first of eight consecutive high school players White selected in 2003. Of those eight, five reached the majors, including fourth-rounder Xavier Paul out of Slidell, La., seventh-rounder Wesley Wright out of Goshen, Ala., and eighth-rounder Lucas May out of Parkway West High School in Ballwin, Mo.

And then there was the sixth-round pick – outfielder Matt Kemp, better known as a basketball player than for his baseball exploits at Midwest City (Okla.) High School. Kemp was the shooting guard on two state championship teams, where he was teammates with Shelden Williams, the fifth pick in the 2006 NBA draft.

“We loved Matt,” White said. “Matt was getting recruited to play basketball by big schools and didn’t play baseball on the circuit. He wasn’t seen in the summers a lot. Honestly, we were really lucky on Matt in that regard.

“My area scout, Mike Leuzinger, took me to see a pitcher on Matt’s team that got drafted [Brent Weaver, the Brewers’ second-round pick]. Matt’s playing right field, and I asked Mike about him. He said, ‘That’s Matt Kemp. He’s a basketball player.’ And he went 0-for-3.

“A bunch of people were in to see the pitcher. They leave, and then I say, ‘We’re going to stick around for the second game.’ I wanted to see Matt play again. He went 1-for-3, then Mike and I asked the coach if he’d let Matt hit some more. So we went and saw Matt hit at the high school.

“And what’s funny, I told Matt, ‘Now do not tell anybody that I’ve been in here. Don’t tell them you met me. Don’t tell them you’ve seen me. Don’t mention my name to anybody, please.’ This is how literally he took that; he didn’t even tell his Mom or Dad. They always kid me about that, ‘We didn’t even know the Dodgers were on him because he didn’t tell us.’ We knew strategy-wise we needed to try to be smart. Mike did a great job; he told me, ‘Logan, nobody’s going to take him until the eighth, ninth, 10th round. Nobody sees him as that kind of guy.’ We had him on our board in about the third or fourth round.

“We actually had him over Xavier Paul, who we took in the fourth round. Xavier was going to Tulane, but I knew I might be able to sign him if we took him in the fourth. But if I took Matt in the fourth and Xavier in the sixth, I probably would just be able to sign Matt. So that became part of our strategy in how we drafted them. That’s where Mike did a great job. And that’s an important part of scouting – to get a feel for where you have to take a player. It helps you maximize your draft.

“Mike did a good job of knowing we didn’t have to take Matt there, so it allowed us to take Matt in the sixth round. I didn’t want to let him fall too far because it’s dangerous trying that. When you look back you might even say it was stupid to wait that long; somebody could’ve taken him.”

Kemp, a two-time All-Star, two-time Gold Glove Award winner and two-time Silver Slugger, looks like a player with his athletic build. Playing in front of a bunch of scouts because his high school team included a highly rated pitcher, it’s amazing that he fell to the 181st slot.

“I honestly don’t know the reason for that,” White said. “I do think the fact that people thought he would play basketball, and he wasn’t seen a lot, and it’s one of those … I don’t know. I wish I knew the answer to what other teams are thinking.”

Once the draft moved into the late teens, White again landed a catcher who would go on to see significant time in the majors with 18th-rounder A.J. Ellis, a backstop out of Austin Peay University. This time, White was actually looking for someone who had caught before.

While not a star in the same category as Russell Martin, Ellis is now in his 10th big league season and was a member of the Dodgers’ organization from draft day 2003 until an August 2016 trade to Philadelphia.

“If you look at my drafts historically, I’m kind of superstitious,” White said. “I don’t know why I got superstitious about that. I guess because of Martin. But I always try to target a catcher there.

“I have to give credit to Marty Lamb, the area scout. What we were targeting that year … we were honestly trying to get a catcher who was older, who had some leadership qualities, those kind of things – because we did have a young pitching corps that we had drafted in back-to-back years. We had just drafted Broxton and all those guys and then we had Billingsley and those guys. Russ was just learning to catch. So we had a need for a guy that was a little more polished to catch our young guys.

“I had a really good feel for A.J. based on how Marty felt about him, and the way he’s turned out is exactly what Marty described. Great person. Quality leader. Not going to wow you when you first see him. We were fortunate that we got him in the 18th round.”

– – –

During his tenure in Los Angeles, more than 50 of White’s draft selections reached the major leagues. Some turned out to be better than others. (He did pick some guy named Clayton Kershaw, for instance.) Most came from the high school ranks.

His time in L.A. was reminiscent of the Dodger Way of scouting and developing players.

“That 2002 draft, and again in 2003, we felt really good when we left the draft room,” White said. “And sometimes when you feel good leaving the draft room, your instincts are usually right.

“Those two years, what I’m just as proud of – and this may sound stupid, but I’m really proud of it – I think our scouts did great work after the draft as well. There’s actually three players that don’t show up on those lists. We signed a fifth-year senior out of Maryland named Steve Schmoll, who got to the big leagues and contributed.

“After the 2002 draft, Hank Jones, our scout in the Northwest, signed a pitcher out of Portland named Eric Hull who got in a little big league time. And then the next year, we signed a player named Jamie Hoffman – who Jeff Schugel saw in the American Legion Tournament in Minnesota, I want to say. We signed Jamie towards the end of that summer, and he got in some time. We actually ended up with three more big leaguers than what actually showed up in the draft process.

“You try to get as many high-ceiling players as you can that are going to be quality big leaguers, and then you want to have depth. I was proud of the scouts; they kept working through the later rounds. They kept working after the draft. Those guys were out there working their tails off. It was one of our philosophies – to keep pressing before and after the draft and always be out there looking for talent.”

– – –

Inside The Draft Studio: A Conversation With Mike Trout

By Chuck Wasserstrom | May 24, 2017 at 12:26pm CDT

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.

– – –

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.”

– – –

Scouting Shohei Otani

By Chuck Wasserstrom | May 23, 2017 at 1:10pm CDT

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.

First, a reminder that Otani is working his way back onto the field after being sidelined by a muscle strain in his left thigh area – suffering the injury in an April 8 game against the Orix Buffaloes trying to beat out an infield single.

That was his second notable medical malady this year. He did not pitch during the World Baseball Classic due to a right ankle injury suffered during last fall’s Japan Series – which was re-aggravated in November. He did open this season as Nippon Ham’s designated hitter – batting .407 with two homers and five doubles in 32 plate appearances before suffering the thigh injury.

When asked, none of the scouts was the least bit worried about the latest injury. “Everybody gets hurt at some point, so it doesn’t change anything for me,” one scout said.

When he does return to active status, Otani is looking to build upon a stellar young career. In four seasons on the mound for the Fighters, he has gone 39-13 with a 2.49 ERA in 80 games (77 starts). He has thrown 517.2 professional innings, allowing 371 hits, 22 homers and 181 walks while striking out 595 batters. His career WHIP is 1.066, his career strikeout-to-walk ratio is 3.29-to-1, and he has averaged 10.3 strikeouts per 9.0 innings.

In 21 games last season pitching for the Japan League champions, Otani was 10-4 with a 1.86 ERA – and fanned 174 batters in 140.0 innings. He allowed 89 hits and 45 walks, giving him his second consecutive sub-1.00 campaign for walks and hits per 9.0.

The Fighters have been very judicious in the way they’ve handled Otani on the mound. His career high for games started is 24; his career high in innings pitched is 160.2. As a point of comparison, Yu Darvish pitched for Nippon Ham from 2005 (his age-18 season) through 2011 (his age-24 season). In his seven years with the club, Darvish threw 1,268.1 innings – surpassing the 200-innings mark four times.

“I actually see it as the organization viewing him as an asset – and they’ve protected him,” one scout said. “They’ve brought him along the right way, and they haven’t pushed him. They recognize that he’s still young and still growing, and they’ve really taken the time to research how the body grows. Knowing that he’s still growing, they’ve skipped starts when they’ve had to and scaled back when he wasn’t feeling that great. I honestly think that’s a testament to the organization and the kid for knowing his body.”

Said a second scout, “I think it’s awesome. It shows a commitment to him on their part. Look at (Masahiro) Tanaka or Darvish or (Kenta) Maeda; at 20 years old, they were already throwing close to 200 innings. Even at a young age, it was ‘Hey, you’re our ace. Go get them.’ But Nippon Ham has done an excellent job of protecting him. They’ve prolonged his career by not abusing him.”

As for his offense … Otani had 382 plate appearances last season as Nippon Ham’s designated hitter and recorded a triple slash of .322/.416/.588 with 18 doubles, 22 homers and 67 RBI. If there is a red flag in his game, he did show swing-and-miss potential, fanning 98 times.

“If he was a two-way guy in the States, you’d make him a position player first,” one of the scouts said. “John Olerud, Ike Davis, guys like that … if they fail hitting, then we’ll put them on the mound. But he’s been such a special talent from both sides of the ball. Nippon Ham was smart how they did that. They drafted him out of high school and let him do both. It’s almost like they told him, ‘We’ll let you continue to develop so that you can go to the States.’”

In putting together a scouting report, the 20-80 scouting scale was used. A grade of 50 is considered major league average; a grade of 80 is as good as it gets. Some grades – such as fastball velocity or running home-to-first – are based on actual radar gun readings or stopwatches. But specific tools like command, control, movement and athleticism – among others – are subjectively based on what the scout sees now and projects what it can become.

The present/future role grade is akin to the quick-and-dirty on a player. A lot of teams knock off the zero and use a 2-8 scale.

Present/Future Role (as pitcher): 6/7

After talking to the five scouts, the consensus was that Otani is a 6-7 – meaning a present grade of 6 (which translates to a No. 3 starter in the majors today) and a future grade of 7 (which is a No. 1-2 starter). For some scouts, putting a future 8 – a premium No. 1 starter – on a pitcher would take an act of Congress.

“As a scout, you hesitate to put an 8 on a guy even though your conviction may be very high,” one of those canvassed said. That scout has a 6-7 on him as a pitcher. “It wouldn’t be that far-fetched to put an 8 on this guy because it’s easy to dream on him that way. But you know how it is with scouts; we tend to be more conservative and not want to do that. But the ability is there where – if you wanted to put your neck out there – I think it wouldn’t be too much of an argument why you did it.”

Another scout said the only reason he won’t put a future 8 on Otani until after the pitcher has transitioned into pitching here. “There are going to be inherent changes,” he said. “How is he going to adjust to pitching once every five days as opposed to once a week? How is he going to adjust to a different baseball? How is he going to adjust to the travel? There are unknowns that all these guys – (Masahiro) Tanaka, (Yu) Darvish – have to go through and have to prove. But if he adjusts like I think he’s capable of adjusting, he’s an 8.”

Major League Comparisons

Four of the five scouts dropped the name Yu Darvish into the conversation. Two scouts said Justin Verlander. One scout brought up a handful of names, both past and present.

“I compare him to guys like Josh Beckett, Roger Clemens, Nolan Ryan … you know, power pitchers,” he said. “These guys were able to pitch with their fastballs and secondary stuff. If you look at Otani’s stuff and the ability to throw strikes, he’s right up there with the (Dwight) Goodens, the Ryans, the Becketts, the more modern-day (Noah) Syndergaards. The power right-hander. He has an 80 fastball, but he also has plus-plus secondary stuff and the ability to throw a ton of strikes and command the strike zone.”

One of the scouts discussed the Darvish comparison, but with some hesitation – about the Texas Rangers right-hander. “Pitching-wise, it’s hard to compare Otani to anyone because he’s 22 years old,” he said. “There’s nobody at 21 or 22 that has his kind of stuff – and command of the breaking stuff, too. Darvish would be the closest one. Otani’s throwing friggin’ 98-to-100 as a starter.”

One scout kept coming back to Verlander, the six-time All-Star. “Stuff-wise, it’s hard to find teams that have a pitcher with Otani’s kind of stuff,” he said. “He’s like Verlander when he was young. He doesn’t have the same kind of body, but it’s the same kind of stuff. He lights up the radar gun and throws strikes – and the ability to throw wipeout breaking stuff. That’s Verlander when he was young. He slots right into your big league rotation.”

Another scout said he’s been asked before to come up with a comparison pitcher, but can’t. “I don’t think there are guys out there stuff-wise that match up with him, period. Guys that can consistently sit where he sits and flash two 70[-grade] off-speed pitches and a split and a changeup. Just to mess around with you, he’ll drop in a curveball every once in a while that he can throw for a strike. There’s feel, there’s power stuff. You just don’t see that type of ability. There might be guys with better command, but it’s really hard to say that there would be a guy with better stuff and the physicality this guy has to maintain it.”

Fastball: 80

Every scout had Otani’s fastball sitting in the 95-100 MPH range. One scout said his velocity “is the same in the seventh inning as it is in the first. I’ve seen him sit 97-100 for an entire game. He didn’t throw a fastball below 97.”

Another said, “I’ve seen him 95-101, so it’s every bit of an 80 fastball. It’s life over movement, just because of how hard he throws … it’s one of those late life-type fastballs. Plus life to it.”

The key to the fastball, one scout said, was his command of the pitch. “He keeps his pitch count down,” the scout said. “Darvish – I remember seeing him at 120 pitches in the fifth inning because he used to nibble so much. Then he came over here and is aggressive. Otani does a really good job of keeping his pitch count down. Because of that, he doesn’t lose velocity; he maintains it. He’s got leverage to it; he’s got angle. He maintains his fastball velocity and it gets better as the game goes on.”

Split: 70

Across the board, the pitch graded out as a future 65 to 70. The velocities the scouts had ranged from the high-80s to 92-93.

“The split is at least a 70,” one scout said. “It’s pretty nasty. It has really good action, it’s late and it’s a swing-and-miss pitch. It’s definitely an out pitch.”

Said another scout, “It has late dive and moves enough that it misses barrels. And he’s still learning this pitch.”

One scout had only seen a fastball/slider combination – until last year, that is. “The split is the pitch I was probably most surprised about, as I had never seen him throw it before. It definitely looked like a pretty good pitch. He flashed a couple when the bottom dropped out. I saw a couple that had me put a 70 on it.”

Slider: 65

Otani’s slider is seen as a plus pitch. Two scouts have a 70 on the slider; the other three were a little more conservative at 55 or 60. The velocity readings were in the 82-87 MPH range.

One scout raved about the pitch. “The slider is every bit of a 70 when it’s right. It’s hard, it’s got power to it. It’s hard late, power tilt.”

Another preferred the split to the slider, although he called the slider “a plus pitch. It’s probably his third pitch, but it’s not a bad pitch to have as your third pitch. His slider is his best breaking ball; it’s at least a 55, maybe 60 future. I like the pitch, he just doesn’t throw it as much as the other two. I’ve seen him throw a couple of different ones. He throws one that’s more of a cutter, though I don’t think he calls it a cutter. It’s a short, quick pitch. And then he has more of a sweeping-type slider … you can call it a ‘slurve’ at times. I know he’s going to have to use it more when he comes to the States. But the more he uses it, the better it’s going to get. I think it will also be an out pitch.”

Curve: 50

Two of the scouts have barely seen him throw the pitch; the other three have seen it enough to classify it as a 50 or 55.

Said one: “He throws it at 75-80 MPH. He gets pretty bad swings when he gets guys to swing at it. It looks like a traditional curveball, it’s 11-5 … it’s a softer, shorter, down break. When he wants to throw it, there’s more power and life to it … he can really spin it. But when he wants to put guys away, the slider and the split are his pitches.”

Another said, “His curveball is very ordinary right now. I have a 50 on it. It’s a little bit inconsistent and it gets loopy on him. There is room for improvement if he wanted to keep it in his arsenal down the road. But right now, for me, it’s just kind of a ‘show me’ pitch that he throws occasionally.”

Changeup: TBD

There is a little debate amongst the scouts whether Otani has a true changeup in his repertoire. One of the scouts summed it up by saying “I think he relies on a split as his change. I haven’t seen it, but we have had guys that have seen him tinker with a changeup. I’m not sure if that’s something he’s doing now in anticipation of coming to the States or if it’s something he wants to start using more.”

Another said he has no doubt that Otani has the ability to add it to his stable of pitches. “Like Darvish and guys who have come over from Japan, Otani hasn’t really needed to throw a changeup. I think that’s the one pitch when he comes to the States that he’ll start to develop,” he said. “The Japanese can learn almost any pitch. They have a great feel for learning how to throw pitches and make adjustments. Tanaka pitches differently here than he did in Japan. Maeda pitches differently in the big leagues than he did in Japan. A lot of times, what they show you in Japan … they come here and they’re able to refine their stuff. Off the top of my head, I can’t recall more than a few changeups out of Otani. I’m sure he hasn’t had to throw them a lot. I think he’ll be able to learn anything he tries to do.”

– – –

Present/Future Role (as batter): 4/6

A subhead for this section should read: Do scouts for MLB teams think Otani can be a two-way player?

For four out of five scouts, there was some hemming and hawing. They all like him as a batter – especially the left-handed power. They all love him as a pitcher.

The fifth scout, though, is willing to dream.

“I’ve never said this about a player, but I believe he can be a two-way player,” the scout said. “There are good-hitting pitchers like Madison Bumgarner and Greg Maddux, but this guy is a legitimate offensive threat. How you balance his pitching and his hitting … that’s where it really comes down to a general manager and a manager and ownership. How much do you want to risk your ace pitcher running the bases or taking at-bats? But from an evaluation standpoint, this guy … if he was on my team, he’d be the fastest baserunner, he’d have the most raw power. I absolutely feel this guy can hit on a daily basis. Or if you wanted … you can pick-and-choose when you’d DH him or pinch hit him. But absolutely, this guy can be a two-way player. If anyone can do it, he’s the one.”

That scout said Otani’s a 6 as an offensive presence. “He’s going to be an above-average major league hitter with above-average power,” he said.

Another scout was put on the spot. “If your GM looked you in the eye and asked if Otani could be a two-way player, how would you respond?”

“I’d tell him, ‘If you were to go the two-way route, you’d have to be careful how you use him. I think it would be in a platoon role to protect his body and what he can give you on the mound.’ The upside is so important, and so hard to find,” the scout said. “I’d be somewhat hesitant to let him do it, but if you did, you’d have to space him out. You’d have to do more research about how a body breaks down after playing a position and pitching. When to rest him – and when not to – because those are two different ways a body works. He might be more susceptible to injury if you’re playing him every day like that – so I’d be hesitant to do it. But at the same time, if there’s anybody who can do it, it’s this guy.”

That scout said if Otani wasn’t a pitcher, he’d have a future role 6 on him as a position player.

“He has an idea at the plate; he knows what he’s looking for,” the scout said. “He handles off-speed very well for his age. He shows power from center to pull side, but very easily should have power to all fields as he learns a little more. I’m not really worried about him as a baserunner, but he has shown that he can be instinctive on the base paths. Overall, he has a chance to be an above-average corner outfielder if he were going to play it every day, but should settle in nicely as an average rightfielder with plus-plus power.”

Major League Comparisons

One scout said, “When I first saw him as a high school player, I saw him playing right field – and he reminded me of Paul O’Neill. At the time, I thought he would develop into a position player; the tools were there. But he’s become an even better pitcher than I thought. If he was a guy in the States and he was signed out of high school, I think he would have become a hitter first. His upside as a position player was pretty darn high.”

A second scout said Otani could be “Curtis Granderson-ish in his prime. Bunch of home runs, lower batting average if he doesn’t play every day, pretty good OBP, lots of walks, lots of strikeouts.”

Another scout, after summing up Otani’s offensive abilities, finished his thought by saying he couldn’t come up with a player comparison. “Good question – and I haven’t thought of one for him. To be honest, I haven’t really thought of it because I don’t think it’s going to matter.”

Hitting: 45

There was agreement across the board that Otani’s future grade as a hitter was in the 45-to-50 range.

“I think if he plays every day in the big leagues and he gets his at bats, he’d hit .260 to .275 with 20-to-25 homers,” said one scout.

Another scout echoed that assessment. “He’s probably 45ish. I think he would hit in the .260s with 25-plus home runs,” he said.

Power: 70

On the power scale, 20-homer potential is considered above average – a 55 grade – and 25 homers is a 60.

Considering that Otani had 22 homers in only 382 plate appearances last season, it’s easy to see why the scouts all have higher grades in this category.

Four of the scouts categorized him as having 70 power. A fifth even said he’s put a future 80 on that tool. “At the plate, he has an approach geared for power. Best case scenario, the hit tool will be average, but when he does connect, it’s pretty special power.”

Running Speed: 60

Otani has been timed at 4.1 from home plate to first base; for a left-handed hitter, that’s 60 running speed.

“I’m trying to think of a 60 runner, left-handed power bat like that,” one scout said. “It’s a tough comparison for me. I can’t come up with a hitter off the top of my head.”

“He’ll show you above-average running times down the line,” said a second scout. “I got Otani just under 4.1 down the line on a ground ball to shortstop. So he can run, and he has very good awareness and a very high baseball IQ.”

Fielding: N/A

The consensus is … the point is moot. None of the scouts envision him seeing enough outfield action to merit a grade.

That said, several of the scouts have seen him play right field. Said one, “He did show good enough instincts and read off the bat to be at least average or above. His routes and reads were solid, and he’ll catch what he gets to. Obviously, he has plenty of arm strength to make all the difficult throws in the corner. But because he hasn’t played out there in a while, it’s hard to stick your nuts out too far and say that he has a chance to be a plus outfielder.”

– – –

Makeup: 60

“Makeup-wise,” one scout said, “everything checks out. The kid is a great teammate; he’s got a good personality. He’s been wanting to come to the States since he was in high school, so this is something that he’s wanted for a long time. I don’t think there’s any hesitation on his part about coming over. There are no glaring red flares as far as makeup or ability or his desire to come over here and be a high-caliber pitcher or player. Every box checks out with this guy.”

Said another scout, “From everything I’ve heard, this guy’s makeup is tremendous. He’s a hard worker. He’s loyal. I watched him pitch last year … he pitched 8.0 innings, and he pitched great. The next day, he was the first one out for early hitting. He’s a good person with great makeup.”

Five scouts – and five quotes …

From Scout A … “I know he’s listed at 215 pounds, but he’s every bit of 6-4, 225-230 pounds from what I saw of him in the spring. This spring training was probably the first time you looked at his body and thought, ‘Holy s**t, this guy’s becoming a man.’ He’s putting on some muscle, and it was imposing when you see this guy in a uniform. You’re still looking at a frame that needs to be filled out. You’re now looking at a man’s body.”

From Scout B: “He’s the best player in the world that’s not in the big leagues, hands down. There’s nobody that’s close to him.”

From Scout C: “He’s a freak of nature. His running ability, his raw power, his arm. He has everything. This guy … it’s unbelievable what he can do and what he’s capable of doing. For me, he’s a once-in-a-lifetime type player.”

From Scout D: “He’s a special talent. It would be interesting under the old rules to see if he was posted straight up … if all 30 teams would be putting in a bid on him. It would be off-the-charts what he would sign for. It would be record-breaking. He’s that kind of a talent.”

From Scout E: “It’s kind of unchartered waters for all of us. As a club here in the States, you’re wondering, can he do both? Does a team value the bat as much as the arm? I think most teams value the arm and what he can give you on the mound, because what comes out is premium stuff. It’s four pitches of premium stuff with strikes and pretty good command. This is a kid that has continued to get better every year on the mound – and the arrow continues to point north. The command has gotten a little better every year. The strikeouts have gone in the right direction. But at the same time, everything you would want to see as a hitter has gone in the right direction as well. So, in the end, what you’re getting total package-wise is a possible frontline guy that can really give you value on the mound. Who’s to say this guy can’t play a position and pitch?”

– – –

Inside The Draft Room: The 2009 Diamondbacks

By Chuck Wasserstrom | May 17, 2017 at 8:38am CDT

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.

– – –

In 2009, Tom Allison was in his third year as Arizona’s scouting director. His previous drafts were of the “routine” variety, but this one was going to be very different thanks to all of the extra selections.

The Diamondbacks picked up an extra first-round pick and a supplemental pick as compensation for the loss of free agent second baseman Orlando Hudson to the Los Angeles Dodgers. They added a supplemental pick and a second-round selection for the loss of reliever Juan Cruz to Kansas City. They picked up a third supplemental first-rounder as a result of Detroit’s signing of closer Brandon Lyon.

The additional picks didn’t come as an accident; the Diamondbacks’ brain trust began planning for this draft two years earlier.

“It was 2007 when we first started talking about this,” said Allison – who oversaw four drafts for the Diamondbacks and is now in his fifth season as Seattle’s vice president of scouting. The “we” Allison referred to includes general manager Josh Byrnes, pro scouting director Jerry DiPoto, assistant GM Peter Woodfork and player development director A.J. Hinch. “Our ’07 team made the playoffs, but we knew we had some impending free agent decisions to make. Knowing where that roster management of your big league team was going to take you, it was always … hmmm, this could be really interesting in 2009 with some extra picks.

“The dialogue continued through 2008. That’s why we went ahead and brought Adam Dunn in.” The Diamondbacks obtained Dunn in an August 2008 trade with Cincinnati for pitchers Dallas Buck and Micah Owings and outfielder Wilkin Castillo. “This was a timeframe when some of the philosophy was you have these free agents … we were making a playoff push … then hey, we’re probably going to get two more picks for Adam Dunn. Of course, that didn’t happen; we ended up not making him an offer.

“Juan Cruz didn’t end up signing with the Royals until after spring training had started. Now in the scouting world, we were already preparing, so we didn’t know for sure until the first week of March how many additional picks we would have.”

The front office group discussed different alternatives to effectively utilize the club’s scouts – eventually utilizing an “all-hands-on-deck” approach.

“We had a lot of conversations,” Allison said, “and we came up with what some guys called a hybrid plan. The bottom line is … baseball has created a separation of scouts – pro, amateur, international – but what we kept coming back to was let’s just get our best evaluators to the ballpark and let them see those players.”

Three of Arizona’s pro scouts – Joe Bohringer, Tim Schmidt and Mike Piatnik – were added to the amateur scouting team for draft preparation, while Helen Zelman, an MIT-trained statistics analyst, took over the reins as the amateur scouting coordinator.

“What Helen was able to do was show me how we could maximize our looks and be more efficient,” Allison said. “Everybody’s trying to do that, but I will tell you that what she brought to me was a really different way to look at things; it was about how to schedule.

“So much in the scouting world, we can’t help but be very reactive to it. ‘Hey, this guy’s throwing really good. We have to go see him.’ You’re very reactionary as the season progresses. I call it ‘getting on the hamster wheel.’ You can’t stop from doing it. After we knew we had these picks, Jerry, myself, and Helen sat in a room and mapped out all of the weekends of the season. We really took a look at where our follows were and used those dates, knowing when it was going to be a good time to see a lot of players. For instance, this was going to be a big weekend – so we worked backwards from that and filled in the gaps throughout the week with other games. Some of the weekends were high school tournaments as well. It really put the emphasis on the quality and quantity of our looks.”

– – –

Allison’s previous two Diamondbacks drafts were pitching heavy – and included the selections of future big leaguers Jarrod Parker, Josh Collmenter, Tommy Layne and Evan Scribner in 2007 and Daniel Schlereth, Wade Miley, Bryan Shaw and Ryan Cook in 2008.

This time, with all the extra selections, it gave Allison the flexibility to utilize a portfolio manager approach as a drafting philosophy.

“I’ve always looked at being in the scouting director’s position like you’re the stock broker,” he said. “You’re the wealth manager who is going to take and create that portfolio for your organization. To be successful, you have to diversify. You have to be able to take the high risk and then balance it with maybe somewhat of a lower risk. For every extreme that you might take on one pick, then you want to try and follow that up with a little bit more of what you can term as a less risky pick. They’re all risky; I will admit that freely. Sometimes that isn’t high school vs. college, but that might be a less risky demographic compared to a higher risk demographic.

“That was one thing even in ’07 … we took the high school right-hander in Jarrod Parker, and then to follow up, you take a couple of college pitchers after that. Both are risky demographics; however, you’re trying to back it up with one and then the other.

“As we set out for ’09, the famous guys were playing themselves out of our reach; they weren’t going to get to us. Stephen Strasburg, Dustin Ackley, Aaron Crow, Grant Green, Mike Minor … they had a lot of performance history, and those were the ones that really separated themselves.”

Allison then laid out the different scenarios that he was looking at with the 16th and 17th selections.

“We used lanes, so to speak, in setting everything up,” he said. “Here are the lanes of your high school bats that we like … and your high school arms … and your college arms … and then your college bats as well.”

In one lane, using the high-risk/high-reward analogy, the team strongly paid attention to high school bats – with Allison mentioning Bobby Borchering, Mike Trout and Nick Franklin.
The club was looking at “up the middle” players, in Jiovanni Mier, Chris Owings, Billy Hamilton, Slade Heathcott and LeVon Washington.
A slew of high school catchers were strongly considered – including Steven Baron, Tommy Joseph, Wil Myers and Max Stassi – but ultimately weren’t picked because of where those players slotted in relation to the club’s overall draft board.
Pitchers that piqued Allison’s curiosity included Missouri’s Kyle Gibson – who was selected at No. 22 by Minnesota – and several who never got to the Diamondbacks (No. 8 Mike Leake, No. 9 Jacob Turner, No. 15 Alex White).

As the names started coming off the draft board and the time came for Arizona to pick back-to-back at 16-17, the decision was made to take a high-risk high school bat followed by a lower-risk college outfielder. In succession, Allison selected Bobby Borchering, a third baseman out of Bishop Verot High School in Fort Myers, Fla., and Notre Dame centerfielder A.J. Pollock.

“With Bobby, it went back to that summer before with the Junior USA team; we had seen so much of him,” Allison said. “We all really thought that the switch-hitting power, third base, it was like ‘Wow.’ It stood out in so many ways. I think on Bobby Borchering, we had 12 looks by different evaluators. Everybody came back with the same feeling: ‘Man, this guy’s going to really hit. He’s going to hit with power and he’s going to play third base.’

“We take the high school player here at 16. Now, who are we going to back it up with? There were a couple of teams ahead of us that we heard had conversations about Pollock, so we were happy when he was there for us. Pollock was a guy that I will tell you – we had so much history with him. Mike Daughtry, our area scout, knew him inside and out. We knew he could run. We knew he could play centerfield.

“How much power was going to be there? We did have a few questions on that, but we had a pre-draft workout that A.J. came to – and he really showed raw power. He was freer in his approach with a wood bat in his hands. Everybody has always asked me, ‘Did you see the power in there?’ We didn’t until that day, at least in my mind and as an organization, but this guy does have real power. Obviously, the person he is and the tools that he had were going to allow him to be a really impactful top of the order centerfielder.”

Because Borchering never made it to the majors, he’s considered a whiff. But it was not considered a reach by the Diamondbacks to call his name; he was highly thought of.

In his first three full minor league seasons (2010-2012), Borchering hit 63 homers and drove in 252 runs. But it was the swing-and-miss that did him in; over that same three-year span, he fanned 449 times. He did help the Diamondbacks in a way, though, netting the team Chris Johnson in a 2012 July deadline deal with Houston.

“We did our work and we felt real comfortable with this selection,” Allison said. “We knew the player; our area scout, Ray Blanco, and our cross-checker, Greg Lonigro, had a good relationship with him. In our opinion, he was going to be that middle-of-the-order third baseman. It just didn’t work out.”

Pollock was highly thought of, too, and did work out – going to the All-Star Game in 2015 and winning a Gold Glove Award.

But with picks 16 and 17, Allison passed on a very specific centerfielder from Millville Senior High School in New Jersey.

“I’ve very much stayed consistent with what I’ve said about Mike Trout,” he said. “Right off the bat, let me say that our scouts – Shawn Barton and Matt Merullo – loved this guy. (Pro scout) Joe Bohringer was from the same high school. We knew how much this guy’s persona and this guy’s character were just going to be fabulous. I’ve always tipped my hat to Mike individually, too. He was the only player to go to MLB Studios that year. It shows how much this guy loved the game.

“But here was a northern state player who was just a little bit more raw in his overall baseball repetitions. How he held the bat, the pitching that he saw … it was just a little bit further behind some of the other players that had more reps under their belts. The first time I saw Mike, I was completely on board with this guy by far being the best athlete in the draft.

“What always concerned me was just his pure swing. The first time I saw it, I was not as concerned. As a matter of fact, even after that, I touched base with his agents to see where they were. ‘Hey, this guy … he’s as advertised. He wants to go play. He’s not going to go to East Carolina. He wants to be a pro baseball player.’ Just kind of touched base and he was very much alive in our conversations for one of our two picks.”

As has been well documented, Allison returned to the region later in the spring to see Steven Matz (who the Mets selected 72nd overall). Matz’s game was rained out, so Allison got in the car and headed to see Trout play again.

“At that time, it’s a little bit more along in the draft season,” Allison said. “He still wasn’t making the adjustments. I still saw some of the rawness to the bat. I just had a little bit more hesitation of where he fit compared to Borchering and Pollock.

“And then there’s that demographic. He was a right-handed hitting middle of the field player and a high school player. At that time, you were looking around and that demographic wasn’t showing up. (Evan) Longoria, (Ryan) Braun, (Albert) Pujols, (Jose) Bautista … the better right-handed hitters from the States that were in the game all had gone to college. That helped kind of sway me the other way.

“Lessons learned going back on it … We knew the player inside and out. We did know about the athlete. We did know – and I’m from the north and grew up in a very cold state – that it was just the amount of repetitions that he needed to go through. It happened quickly, because that’s what happens to really good athletes, really smart baseball players. And that’s of course what happened with Mike.”

If Borchering made it to the majors and became just an average player, one might just wax over questioning this selection.

“No doubt,” Allison said. “Did we think that Mike was going to be an aircraft carrier? He’s a franchise player. He’s a once-in-a-lifetime guy.

“You look back now and I see him, and I put all those other pieces together. His father had played in pro baseball. He knew what it was going to be about. He had that unmeasurable character and that love of the game. Every time that we would be there to see him, ‘Oh, you guys want to see me hit? … You guys want me to hit ground balls?’ He just loved the game. When you look at it now, put it together with those electric tools that he had … it looks a whole lot easier to say, ‘This plus this was going to equal this.’

“All the credit to Eddie Bane and the Angels staff for pulling the trigger and having more information and the foresight to see what Mike Trout was going to become.”

– – –

After the back-to-back picks, Allison and the Diamondbacks had a few minutes to regroup for their trio of supplemental selections.

One by one, players that were high on their board were being selected. Jiovanni Mier (No. 21, Houston) … Kyle Gibson (No. 22, Minnesota) … Trout (No. 25, Angels) … four middle-of-the-field players in succession at 27-30 (Nick Franklin to Seattle, Reymond Fuentes to Boston, Slade Heathcott to the Yankees, LeVon Washington to Tampa Bay) … one of the top catchers on their board, Steven Baron (No. 33, Seattle).

“When we got towards picks 35 and 41, what we tried to do was kind of map out – ‘OK, what’s the best-case scenario coming out of this?’ This is again when you’re leaning on your people,” Allison said.

“Our area scout in southern California was Jeff Mousser. He had both Matt Davidson and Nolan Arenado in his territory that year. We liked them both; we really thought both of them were going to hit, and we thought both of them could stay at third base. They were great makeup guys. Davidson … when you got to know him, his favorite team was the Diamondbacks. He came to our workouts, as did Arenado. They were both really good players.

“As we were going back and forth, another guy we really liked here was Tyler Skaggs. We talked about Wil Myers. We talked about Chris Owings. Tommy Joseph. Skaggs was the one pitcher we really thought we could get. That was the cluster that we were really into at that point.”

At No. 35, the Diamondbacks chose Davidson – a right-handed hitting third baseman out of Yucaipa (Calif.) High School. Davidson has been a late developer, seeing a lot of action this season at third base, first base and designated hitter for the Chicago White Sox.

“Matt was a very accomplished high school player in the Area Code games. He was in a lot of the showcases, and his right-handed swing and power was something very, very intriguing,” Allison said. “We had a scout, Tim Schmidt, who lived in the area. Between Tim, (Western Regional supervisor) Bobby Minor and Jeff Mousser, we just got to know this guy so well. We really thought he could come on. I still think Matt, given the opportunity – as you’re seeing now – is going to continue to hit and hit with power.”

Allison was asked if he considered selecting Arenado with one of the other supplemental selections.

“That’s a great question, because now you’re thinking … we have these two third basemen. Are we going to take another one? The one thing that I’ve learned over my years is you take the best available player and you will find places for them to play,” he said.

“I learned that from the three third basemen that the Astros had early in their careers. You had Jeff Bagwell, Ken Caminiti and Luis Gonzalez all at third base. I remember hearing Art Howe tell the story, ‘Oh, Caminiti you throw the best. You stay here. Luis, you’re the best athlete and can run around, you go to the outfield. Bagwell, you don’t throw as well. You go over to first.’ So bottom line, (Arenado) was in consideration, but we talked about what other directions we could go. And at 41, that’s where we ended up with Owings.”

At 40, the Angels took a player off of Arizona’s wish list by selecting Skaggs. So the Diamondbacks went with another prep position player – Chris Owings, a 17-year-old shortstop from Gilbert (SC) High School.

“Owings is a fascinating story in so many ways,” Allison said. “He wasn’t as famous industry wide as maybe some of the other shortstops in that draft, but our area scout – George Swain – had known the Owings family and Chris for a long time. I remember the story that spring where we didn’t have an opportunity for our general manager to see him. Josh Byrnes had gone in to see (Vanderbilt pitcher) Mike Minor throw at South Carolina. George – doing what really good area scouts do – said, ‘Hey, I’ll bring (Owings) over and he can at least meet you and talk to you.

“Here’s an area scout that goes above and beyond to make sure that the player he really likes – and we like as an organization – comes over to the ballpark. I remember Josh calling me afterwards going, ‘There’s this beautiful new ballpark here at South Carolina. They’re going to the College World Series all the time. They’re developing really good players. Why is it that this player wants to go out and play pro ball and not be a part of this?’

“Chris in pure Chris Owings fashion answered all the questions the proper way. He told Josh how much he wanted to start his pro career right away. He told him, ‘I’ll be out at the workout. I’m coming and you’ll get a chance to see more of me at that time.’ Chris could really run. He had quickness. We thought he could stay at shortstop, and he had really good power. Chris was a really easy pick.”

Allison then turned his attention to pitching, selecting Boston College left-hander Mike Belfiore – who had a cup of coffee with Baltimore in 2012 – at No. 45 and University of Rhode Island right-hander Eric Smith at No. 60.

“Smith was more of … it’s not always the high school player that’s more risky; this was a lower level D-1 school,” Allison said of the pitcher, who peaked at the Double-A level. “He hadn’t thrown a lot. He was a northern guy. We felt he had some upside. As far as portfolio play, this was probably more of a risk pick for us at that time, but we really felt the upside was certainly worth it.

“There’s always the could’ve, should’ve, would’ve. That’s the beauty of what we do. Sometimes I think about the risk of the high school bat vs. the risk of some of the medical on a college pitcher or a college position player. I think to myself, ‘You’re managing both. Which is riskier?’ I liked the process that we used to get there to implement it. Revisionist history is the easiest part, but when you’re in the middle of it, I knew we were prepared. Our process was in really good shape, and we were balancing it.

“Smith was a risk play. That’s why right behind him, we took Marc Krauss at pick 64. He was a major college proven position player. He played in the Cape. We had plenty of information and history; he hit with power, he could play a position.” Krauss, who attended Ohio University, went on to appear in 146 games for four big league clubs from 2013-2015.

“With Krauss, we balanced the portfolio with a less riskier pick,” Allison continued. “That allowed us to really let our hair down as far as that goes – and the real risk pick was Keon Broxton.” He was drafted at No. 95 out of Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville, Fla.

“He was a tremendous athlete, but there were lots of blanks that had to be filled in,” Allison said of Broxton. “When is this guy going to hit? Does he have the skillset to play in the middle of the field at the highest level? We certainly projected him to get there, but he was a risk pick. But it’s your eighth pick overall. You’re feeling pretty comfortable about it. Kudos to not only Luke Wrenn, who was the area scout, but all of those who have worked with Keon. It has taken him awhile to really settle in and become an everyday player with Milwaukee.”

– – –

Getting to the major leagues is not easy.

When a team loads up on extra high-round picks and has a bunch of selections at the top of the draft, the chances of hitting on some players dramatically increases.

That said, history shows that there is typically a serious drop-off from that point forward. Teams with extra picks usually get a solid percentage of those players to the majors, but have a very low success rate after the top few rounds.

Allison knew that history. He was determined that this wouldn’t be the case.

“We had all of these picks that were in the top 100,” he said, “and we wanted to make our splash there, but it was important for myself and all of our supervisors and leaders in the organization to keep guys that were out in the field motivated – so let’s continue to do some damage. All of the people that I’ve been around in my own scouting career have said, ‘Hey, there are plenty of big leaguers left in this pool of players.’ Let’s make sure we stay focused.”

Their fifth-round pick, first baseman Ryan Wheeler out of Loyola Marymount University, spent parts of three seasons in the majors with Arizona and Colorado. Sixth rounder Bradin Hagens, a right-hander out of Merced (Calif.) College, had some time with Arizona in 2014. And in the seventh round, the club had high hopes about the future of Matt Helm, a third baseman out of nearby Hamilton High School in Chandler, Ariz. (Helm went on to play five seasons in Arizona’s minor league system).

That leads us to the eighth round. At this point in the draft, the Diamondbacks had already made 12 selections – including nine position players. The expectation was that all of them would sign with the club; in fact, Arizona would go on to sign its first 28 picks.

“Now, if you just look at it, we’ve taken Borchering’s bat, Davidson’s bat, Krauss, Ryan Wheeler and Matt Helm,” Allison said, “and you have some of these ‘all bat’ players with ‘Where are they going to play defensively?’ questions.

“As we’re starting to talk and have conversation in the eighth round, Paul Goldschmidt’s name is being bantered. The discussion of many in the room was, ‘Are we willing to go take another bat where we’re not really sure where he’s going to play?’ The Paul Goldschmidt that we now see day-after-day with the Arizona Diamondbacks was somewhat of a different player when he was in college (at Texas State University). The credit for him goes to area scout Trip Couch, who was covering southern Texas at the time and is now coaching at the University of Houston. When I went out the previous fall (of 2008), Trip was very, very adamant that I meet Paul.

“Trip had known him since he was in high school. He knew the character. Bottom line, we went out to lunch with Paul and another player on his team, just so I could get to talk with him. We talked about his playing in the Alaska League and his baseball career and the things he wanted to do. I’ve always said, it really gives you comfort as a scouting director when you’re not only watching the player, but every question that you have in your own mind about that player is answered by your area scout.”

Seeing the player Goldschmidt is now, it’s quite surprising that he lasted until No. 246 in the draft. He had been selected in the draft out of high school (49th round in 2006 by Houston) – and was a prep teammate of Kyle Drabek, who went in the first round of that year’s draft to Philadelphia. In other words, plenty of scouts should have seen him as far back as his high school days. And while Texas State University might not be a baseball hotbed, the school has produced its share of major leaguers – including Scott Linebrink and Marcus Thames.

“Why Paul fell to where he fell … that’s the unscientific nature of what we do, but it was a very comfortable pick for us at that point,” Allison said. “I thought Paul at that time, honestly, was much more power over hit. But after we got him, all of those characteristics that he had shown Trip over the years came out. Once he got into pro baseball, he reshaped his approach, reshaped how he ate, reshaped how he went about his business in physical training, and of course, then jetted himself to what he’s doing now. Those are the great ones.

“At Texas State, the wind always blew out, the ball kind of flew. As scouts, we can make up a lot of reasons why this guy won’t do this and won’t do that – and sometimes we forget to look at what they do well. Statistically, Paul was terrific. Paul was solid at first base. I do know he was not moving around like he does now, but he’s really committed himself to his strength and conditioning program to kind of reshape how his body works. Again, these are more off the line of the scouting world, but the people that touched him in our development system – they just always talked about it. Every time that we challenged him to be a better base runner, he would take it full throttle. Be a better first baseman, be a better leader. Those things were always the makeup and the character of who Paul Goldschmidt was.”

Allison followed up the Goldschmidt selection by using the club’s ninth-round pick on University of Oklahoma right-hander Chase Anderson – who is now in his fourth year as a major league starter (and second with Milwaukee). At the time, he was a “just in case” backup on the Sooners’ staff. Anderson has made more starts in 2017 than he did during his time at Oklahoma.

“Tip of the cap to Steve McAllister, the regional supervisor there, and Jason Karegeannes, the area scout,” Allison said. “Chase wasn’t an easy one to try and put together because he was a guy on the Oklahoma staff that a lot of times was the ‘just in case’ pitcher when Garrett Richards – who was the famous guy on that team – was pitching. You can go back and look at Garrett’s college career. There were some times where it didn’t go real well and now Chase had to pitch. You just kind of had to be there, and this lends itself to having more eyes available, more resources of bodies.”

Pitchers Charles Brewer, a local kid from Scottsdale, Ariz., who attended UCLA, was selected in the 12th round and saw action with the Diamondbacks in 2013. In the 13th round, prep left-hander Patrick Schuster was selected out of J.W. Mitchell High School in New Port Richey, Fla.; he made 11 bullpen appearances for Oakland and Philadelphia last year.

It’s worth noting that a pair of pitchers drafted by the Diamondbacks – 11th-rounder Scottie Allen and 16th-rounder Ryan Robowski – were traded for major league players who played for Arizona in 2011. Allen was dealt to the Yankees for first baseman Juan Miranda, while Robowski and pitcher Kevin Eichhorn went to Detroit for pitcher Armando Galarraga.

It’s also worth noting that the data the Diamondbacks scouting staff accumulated paid off beyond the 2009 draft. As an added bonus to all the extra work Allison and his staff performed, Arizona had strong convictions about several players they coveted on draft day – pitchers Patrick Corbin, Tyler Skaggs and David Holmberg – and traded for the three the following year (Corbin and Skaggs had been selected by the Angels, while Holmberg was picked by the White Sox).

“Obviously, we had so much information about Skaggs, about Corbin, and about Holmberg, that it was very easy. Those were players that we really, really liked that just didn’t add up and line up during the draft. No doubt, that’s really important to connect those dots as well,” Allison said.

With those trades, Arizona’s 2009 draft scoreboard consists of:

12 players who have seen at least one day on a major league roster;
three players who were acquired due to the wealth of knowledge the club obtained about them for the draft;
and three major league players obtained for draft picks who didn’t reach the majors.

Overall, that’s a pretty good haul.

– – –

The game of revisionist history is fun to play for fans, media – and scouting directors, too. Allison is OK talking about the elephant in the room. “Oh, it’s fun to ask. We do it all the time on the scouting trail … ‘What did I miss?’

“My children to this day still ask, ‘Dad, why didn’t we take Trout?’ Obviously, he’s a really, really electric player. Best player in the game. But at that point, you’re only managing the information that you have to make those decisions. At 16 and 17 for the Diamondbacks, we went a different direction.”

Of course, the follow-up question then has to be asked: Does Goldschmidt’s success help balance things out for him? Allison could have selected Trout and didn’t, but he did take Goldschmidt when everybody else had passed him by for almost 250 picks.

“In the overall scheme, you bet it helps,” Allison said. “I think this goes back to the point that big leaguers are everywhere in the draft. There’s one thing the draft has shown us … probably only with Ken Griffey Jr. did we ever as an industry get it right. He was everyone’s No. 1. He was the best player. And he became a Hall of Famer. Other than that, there are so many swings-and-misses in draft history. I say it all the time … it doesn’t matter where you’re selected or how much money you get. The only thing that determines what type of a player you become is you.

“They come from everywhere; don’t forget that. There’s Albert Pujols in the 13th round. There’s Mike Piazza in the 62nd round. We focus our attention so much on the upper part of the draft, and that’s where we spend a lot of the money. Over history, that’s where most of the best players come from, but when you have a staff and you have scouts that are geared towards, ‘Hey, let’s continue to find the best story available in the pool for this pick,’ that’s what really helps drive that – and that’s what Goldschmidt became.

“When you look up and you know that Paul is always in the conversation for the National League MVP … and that he’s a franchise player for the Arizona Diamondbacks … and to watch the Diamondbacks open up this year and Pollock, Owings, and Goldschmidt are hitting first, second, and third, that’s great. Now, would Mike Trout fit in there? Absolutely. You can always have fun with all of those things, but the draft process is one where you have to be collectively attentive to all rounds – because there are big leaguers everywhere.”

– – –

Looking Back at the 1992 Expansion Draft (Part 3)

By Chuck Wasserstrom | May 15, 2017 at 10:00am CDT

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.”

– – –

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.

– – –

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.”

– – –

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.”

– – –

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.”

– – –

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.”

– – –

Looking Back at the 1992 Expansion Draft (Part 2)

By Chuck Wasserstrom | May 12, 2017 at 12:17pm CDT

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.

– – –

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.”

– – –

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.

– – –

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.

– – –

It was the afternoon of November 17, and the baseball industry had flocked to the New York Marriott Marquis – with all the lights shining from nearby Times Square – for the expansion draft.

The draft was televised by ESPN and took nearly seven hours to complete – as the teams were given four and a half minutes to make each selection. There was a 30-minute break between rounds.

“It was an unbelievable experience,” said Gary Hughes, Florida’s first scouting director. “Anybody who was anybody – from the media to the front office – was there. We flew up for it in (owner) Wayne Huizenga’s plane. The next morning, we were out of there. We had an early morning wakeup, which I don’t think was a wakeup; I don’t think we went to bed. It was wonderful; some of our guys and some of their guys together.”

The draft-day experience was “overwhelming” in the words of Hughes’ Colorado counterpart, Pat Daugherty. “No. 1, I’d never been to New York City,” said Daugherty. “Just the whole preparation of getting all of our stuff moved there. Seeing the draft room – how everything was set up. Getting to spend some time with Don Baylor, who was just hired as manager. It was very, very exciting.”

The game plans had seemingly been set. The Rockies were looking to acquire as much pitching as possible and were going to take a long look at the players they selected. The Marlins were open to drafting players to flip to other organizations.

“Leading up to the start of the draft, there were a lot of phone calls back-and-forth with general managers who wanted to make trades or make suggestions about who we should draft. Lots of phone calls,” Gebhard said. “And as David and I both talked about later, clubs that couldn’t make trades for certain players wanted to use us as a middle man to try to help them get the players they wanted. David did a little more of that than I did. It was an interesting time trying to piece it all together.

“Having been a pitcher myself and a pitching coach, I certainly knew how hard it was going to be to pitch in Denver – a mile above sea level. So we really tried to focus on drafting as many pitchers as we could – with the hopes that we’d get 11 or 12 out of that group.”

Dombrowski said that by the time the Marlins’ contingent landed in New York, most of their work was basically done.

“We had run some mock expansion drafts, where you could take a player … then withdraw and protect three or four more players,” he said. “We were in a situation where we knew we had to get the best available prospects, but we also had to get some big league players.”

As for how the trade aspect would work, “You couldn’t technically talk to somebody about names that were available on the list of another club,” Dombrowski said. “While we couldn’t mention a player’s name, it would be easy for somebody to say, for example, ‘If a left-handed pitcher from this organization was available, would you have interest in that guy?’ So it was easy to put that type of information out there. And teams would approach us … ‘Hey, we have a need for this. Is anybody on the list somebody we would have interest in?’”

– – –

With the two teams situated in their respective draft rooms at the Marriott Marquis, the first pieces of the puzzle for both organizations were about to be obtained.

Dombrowski remembers sitting in the Marlins’ war room with their draft boards – hidden from the outside world. “We had somebody on stage working directly with the commissioner’s office; we would let that person know who our next choice was. He would tell the commissioner’s office, and they would announce the selection.”

And the person notifying the commissioner’s office was Jim Hendry — the future Cubs general manager and former Creighton University baseball coach.

“I remember Hendry being down on the floor and bringing the names up to (N.L. president) Bill White,” Hughes said. “We were off in a different room, and Hendry was getting all the TV time. (Marlins scout) Orrin Freeman was kidding, but he said that all the people back in Omaha had to be thinking that Hendry was making all the choices himself.”

Having won the coin flip, Colorado went first, selecting David Nied from the Atlanta Braves. Nied had gone 3-0 as a September call-up, but the right-hander was tough for the Braves to protect; he was behind Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and Steve Avery on the team’s starting pitcher depth chart. Atlanta also had Pete Smith and Kent Mercker in the wings – and was just weeks away from adding Greg Maddux to its pitching arsenal.

“I’ll tell you, the other clubs did a great job in protecting their pitching staffs for the expansion draft, and we were fortunate enough to get David Nied as our No. 1 draft,” Gebhard said. “David (Dombrowski) told me later on that if we hadn’t taken him with our first pick, he would have.”

Nied, who threw the first pitch in Rockies history on Opening Day 1993, was sabotaged by injuries. He was limited to 16 starts in ’93, going 5-9 with a 5.17 ERA – while missing half the season with elbow inflammation. The following year, he was 9-7 with a 4.80 ERA in 22 starts during the strike-shortened campaign. He then missed the first three months of the 1995 season with a strained right elbow. Nied threw just 9 2/3 more big league innings – and was out of the game for good by the end of 1996.

“We thought we had one in David Nied,” said Baylor, the first manager in Rockies history. “I had gone on what Bob Gebhard had talked about pitching. We needed to find pitching. In Denver, the ball carries like crazy. I didn’t care if you grew the grass up to the grandstand; you needed to find pitchers who could keep the ball in the park.”

The Marlins – with their first-ever selection – then drafted outfielder Nigel Wilson from the Toronto Blue Jays. Wilson, a 23-year-old left-handed batter, was left unprotected by a Blue Jays club that won the 1992 World Series.

Coming off a strong Double-A campaign in which he batted .274 with 26 homers, Wilson was expected to become an early Marlins mainstay. But it didn’t happen.

Wilson had a so-so 1993 Triple-A campaign with Florida’s Edmonton affiliate before going 0-for-16 as a September recall. He spent a second year in Edmonton before being claimed off waivers by Cincinnati after the labor stoppage ended in April 1995. He saw brief additional big league action for the Reds (1995) and Cleveland (1996) before heading to Japan – where he finally displayed the predicted power (three 30-plus homer campaigns).

“I remember being in the room and we started looking at each draft selection … what are you going to be able to get … what you might want to go ahead and do … if you pick this one guy up, you can go ahead and trade him to another club to get somebody else,” recalled Rene Lachemann, Florida’s first manager. “I wasn’t involved in doing the final things, but there were talks on that. Dave was constantly talking to other general managers. So those things were going on.

“The thing that amazed me out of all it: The two No. 1 draft choices didn’t last very long. That was just amazing.”

The ebb-and-flow of the draft continued. Colorado selected third baseman Charlie Hayes from the Yankees. Florida selected right-handed pitcher Jose Martinez from the Mets. At No. 5, the Rockies selected Holmes – the first step necessary in officially acquiring Bichette from the Brewers. Then at No. 9, the Rockies picked Texas’ Kevin Reimer – and the handshake over coffee was all but done; the official announcement would come later that night.

In between those selections, Florida chose Trevor Hoffman, a right-hander pitching in the Cincinnati Reds’ minor league system. Hoffman spent the first three months of the 1993 season with the Marlins before being sent to San Diego in a deal that brought Gary Sheffield to South Florida.

“I give tremendous credit to Scott Reid because he scouted the Cincinnati organization,” Dombrowski said. “I remember one guy that they had who was available in the first round that everybody talked about was Chris Hammond – who ended up having a nice big league career; we traded for him the next spring. Hammond had already showed that he could pitch at the major league level, but Scott Reid said the guy we needed to take there was Trevor Hoffman. So in an expansion draft, you ended up drafting a Hall of Famer. Now I realize we traded him quickly, but we got Gary Sheffield in return. So it just tells you about the type of work that was done by our scouts.”

– – –

“Play for the other organizations out there. You never know who’s going to be watching you.”

With the No. 11 overall selection in the first round, the Rockies plucked 5-foot-9 second baseman Eric Young from the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Young had been a 43rd-round pick out of Rutgers in 1989 – as a 22-year-old late-round senior sign. He went to Rutgers on a football scholarship, and played both football and baseball there for four years. With that background, the fact that he managed to get to the majors in his fourth year is a story of its own. And then, just like that, he was taken in the expansion draft.

“We were coming off a 99-loss season, and I knew there were going to be changes – because the Dodgers were not used to losing 99 games,” Young said. Los Angeles had other young players it chose to protect in first baseman Eric Karros, shortstop Jose Offerman and catcher Carlos Hernandez. “I didn’t want to hear my name called, so I didn’t watch the draft on TV. If I got a phone call, then I knew something was going down. And then it happened.

“I have to tell you … the man that I had the best conversation with was (Los Angeles GM) Fred Claire – when he made the phone call to tell me that I had been picked in the expansion draft. I remember one thing he said to me, ‘Just always remember you’re not leaving on bad terms, and you never know about the possibility to come back. You’ll always have a chance to return to L.A.’ So basically when he said that, he was telling me, ‘Look, my hands were tied.’ He couldn’t protect me, but he knew my history and he knew how hard I worked to get there. The conversation was very positive. Right there, that gave me the inspiration to go and make a name for myself.

“I thought about this as, ‘This is a chance for me.’ We all realized that once we got there together, we were castaways, throwaways, or whatever you wanted to call us. But we had a lot to prove.

“The expansion draft was the best move of my career – not only as a player, but as a person. I grew up fast.”

After the Young selection, the Marlins followed by picking left-hander Greg Hibbard off the White Sox’s roster. Hibbard’s stay in Florida was extremely short-lived; in fact, he never left the Windy City. He was traded after the draft to the Cubs for infielders Alex Arias – who went on to spend five years with the Marlins – and Gary Scott.

Colorado followed by drafting second baseman Jody Reed from Boston; he was subsequently traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers for reliever Rudy Seanez.

With the 18th selection, Florida chose catcher Eric Helfand from Oakland. As soon as the expansion draft was completed, Helfand was traded back to the Athletics – along with pitcher Scott Baker (selected from St. Louis in the third round) – for shortstop Walt Weiss. The 1988 A.L. Rookie of the Year was on Oakland’s original protection list.

“I had a rough ending to my time in Oakland,” Weiss said. “I had a career-threatening injury in 1991, and then I didn’t play again until the middle of ’92. I had dealt with a lot of injury problems, and to be honest with you, I was kind of looking for a fresh start.

“I knew the managers in both places. I had played with Don Baylor in Oakland, and Rene Lachemann was on our coaching staff in Oakland. So I was looking forward to moving on that expansion draft day. Obviously, I wasn’t in the draft, but I got traded in what was a pre-arranged deal.

“Believe it or not, even though I went from one of the better teams in the game to an expansion team, it was kind of what I needed at the time. I felt like I needed to re-establish myself.”

While Weiss eventually went from Florida to Colorado – and later was a Rockies manager – Joe Girardi went from Colorado to a future Marlins managerial position. Girardi was selected by the Rockies from the Chicago Cubs.

Growing up in Peoria, Ill., a town around 165 miles southwest of Chicago, Girardi always envisioned himself playing at Wrigley Field for the Cubs. The vision became reality in 1989 when he was the club’s Opening Day catcher.

After spending the 1990 season as the Cubs’ starting backstop, he was limited to just 21 games in 1991 with a lower back injury. He came back in 1992 to split catching duties with Rick Wilkins – who had a lot of left-handed power. Girardi wasn’t looking over his shoulder at the possibility of being selected in the expansion draft, but he realized he might not be protected.

“I always dreamed that I would play for the Cubs, and I don’t think there was a dream of me really playing anywhere else,” said Girardi, who is now in his 10th year at the helm of the New York Yankees. “The thought is, when you sign with a team, you’re going to be there forever. But I quickly learned that’s not necessarily the business, and what you imagine as a kid is not always true as an adult.”

Girardi sat in front of the TV that day, watching ESPN and waiting to hear if his name was called. And with the 19th overall selection, the Rockies chose Girardi to be their first starting catcher. He found that out via phone call just seconds before everyone else.

“Honestly, I thought I was going to end up in Miami,” he said. “I should have thought about it. I lived on Aspen Drive (in the northern suburbs of Chicago). It was like the writing was on the wall where I was going. So that was kind of interesting.

“It turned out to be a great experience for me. I had a wonderful time in Colorado.”

Florida then followed with the expected/unexpected selection of California Angels closer Bryan Harvey at No. 20.

It was a known that the Marlins had interest in him. The big question was: would the expansion team take a chance on a highly compensated reliever with a checkered medical history?

“Once we had the (protected) lists, we knew at that point that Bryan Harvey was going to be available,” Dombrowski said. “It gave us a chance to start digging up medical information on him and start making some phone calls to people we knew and respected that might give us the type of background that we needed to make sure that if we took him, that he would be healthy.”

“I remember the questions, ‘Why did you take Bryan Harvey?’ He was coming off an injury,” Lachemann said. “The Angels didn’t protect him; they probably figured, ‘Why would anybody take a closer?’ We took a closer thinking that anytime we’d have a really good chance to win a game, we didn’t want to blow it. We knew we might only have a chance to win 60 games – so we better have somebody at the end who could save them. He ended up saving 45 games that year.”

With their next selection (No. 22 overall), Florida selected the player who would later be known as “Mr. Marlin.”

Jeff Conine was Kansas City’s 58th-round pick out of UCLA in 1987 – where he was a pitcher. He managed to get a cup of coffee as a position player in his third pro year, then got another cup two years later. Being selected in the expansion draft completely caught him off guard.

“Frankly, at the time, it was a little disheartening,” Conine recalled. “I was drafted by the Royals and made it all the way through their system, and I kind of had planned on making a career in Kansas City. The night before the draft, a friend called me and said, ‘I heard you were unprotected for the draft tomorrow.’ And I’m like, ‘Really?’ So I went to my agent’s office to watch the draft, and sure enough, Florida took me.

“I was having a real good year in Triple-A for the Royals when I got called up at the end of ’92, and I thought I was in their plans. It really didn’t occur to me that I might not even be there a couple months later.

“After it sunk in, I immediately thought … now, I’m going to get a chance to play and probably start. And it’s going to be my job to lose, basically. It was exciting to be part of a brand new franchise from the ground floor in a new market with new fans. That disappointment really turned to excitement pretty quickly.

“Looking back, I don’t know what would have happened if I stayed with the Royals. They had Wally Joyner over at first base for a couple more years. I don’t know if I would have made the starting lineup in the outfield; it’s hard to say. Given this opportunity, I worked hard and took advantage of it – and made myself stay in that lineup. As they say, ‘It’s hard to get to the big leagues, but it’s tougher to stay.’ And I worked hard to stay there.”

As the day went on, players who later became household names continued to get selected. Colorado picked future longtime Rockies pitchers Armando Reynoso (from Atlanta), Steve Reed (from San Francisco), Curtis Leskanic (from Minnesota) and a little-known third baseman from Atlanta. “We kind of just stumbled onto Vinny Castilla,” Baylor said.

Meanwhile, Florida’s selections included outfielder Carl Everett (from the Yankees), starters Jack Armstrong (from Cleveland) and David Weathers (from Toronto), and reliever Cris Carpenter (from St. Louis).

Florida also selected reliever Tom Edens midway through the second round (from Minnesota), then sent him to Houston for pitchers Hector Carrasco and Brian Griffiths. After opening the third round with the selection of starter Danny Jackson (from Pittsburgh), the Marlins then peddled the southpaw to Philadelphia for pitchers Joel Adamson and Matt Whisenant.

On the day/night of the expansion draft, Dombrowski traded away five of his selections. By the end of 1993, an additional six members of his expansion draft class had been traded away.

Click here to read Part 1; click here to read Part 3.

– – –

Looking Back At The 1992 Expansion Draft (Part 1)

By Chuck Wasserstrom | May 11, 2017 at 11:02am CDT

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 25^th and 26^th 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.

Bob Gebhard also would get that chance – and literally was a part of both scenarios at the same time.

“I had accepted the job as the general manager of the Rockies, and one of the deals was I could stay with the Twins until the finish of their season. And that involved some advance scouting for the Twins and the rollercoaster ride through the World Series,” said Gebhard, who was named the first GM in Colorado’s history September 24, 1991, after serving as Minnesota’s assistant general manager. “We win, and (Twins GM) Andy MacPhail asked me to stay and be in the victory parade through downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul. So I did that, then got on a plane and flew to Denver to start this whole thing with the Rockies. It was an exciting few days and something that was a thrill of a lifetime – to have the opportunity to start from scratch and build what you hope is going to be a world championship team.

“I remember getting picked up at the airport in Denver. I went downtown to our temporary rented offices. I went to my office, and I looked on my desk – and there were two paper clips there. I looked at them and said, ‘What in the hell have I just done?’ I left a well-oiled world championship team, and here I am with two paper clips on my desk.

“It’s something I remember, because it was the start of putting it all together. David (Dombrowski) and I were both experiencing it. We had two different directives from our owners as to how to do this. So we both went about putting our teams together to play in 1993.”

– – –

First off, a quick history lesson.

There was a day and age when expansion clubs were expected to need a long time to cultivate and mature – since expansion was still a relatively new concept within the sport.

Major League Baseball had held firm at two eight-team leagues from 1903 through 1960. When the Dodgers and Giants moved from New York to California in 1958, though, there was talk of a rival league moving into cities that didn’t have major league teams. It forced MLB’s hand, and the decision was made to expand.

The American League went first, adding the Los Angeles Angels and the Washington Senators for the 1961 season (the original Senators became the Minnesota Twins in 1961; the newer version of the Senators became the Texas Rangers in 1972). The National League then added two clubs for the 1962 campaign – the Houston Colt .45s (now known as the Astros) and the New York Mets.

The next round of expansion took place in 1969, with two teams added to each league. The San Diego Padres and the Montreal Expos (now the Washington Nationals) entered the N.L., while the A.L’s new franchises were the Kansas City Royals and the Seattle Pilots (now the Milwaukee Brewers).

In 1977, the Blue Jays and Mariners began play. The sport remained at 26 teams until the summer of 1991, when MLB approved bids from groups in Denver and Miami to expand into those markets for the 1993 season (Arizona and Tampa Bay later were added as expansion teams in 1998).

During baseball’s earlier forays into expansion, there were no “Get Rich Quick” schemes. In the 1960s, there were no free agents who could come over and help a club. Even when the Blue Jays and Mariners set up shop, free agency was still in its infancy stages.

It was expected that new teams would need plenty of time in putting together sustained success. For instance:

The expansion Senators lost 100-plus games in each of their first four years and didn’t cross the .500 mark until 1969.
The Angels went from 70-91 in their expansion year to an impressive 86-76 mark in Year No. 2, but didn’t make the playoffs for the first time until 1979.
The Colt .45s lost 96 games in each of their first three seasons – and 97 after changing their name to the Astros in 1965. They didn’t have their first winning season until 1972.
The Mets went 40-120 as a first-year team and lost at least 100 games in five of their first six years. Of course, that meant nothing when they won the World Series in 1969.

Hopefully, you’re getting the picture. It’s one thing to put together an expansion team for year one; it’s another thing to expect immediate gratification.

– – –

When Gebhard arrived in Denver, he had already started putting together some of the front office pieces; he knew he was coming into a situation in which he’d have a lean staff. Coming from Minnesota, he was used to that approach.

“Our ownership at the time was John Antonucci – who was the president and the CEO. He just said that we didn’t have money coming in and wouldn’t until we got closer to Opening Day in 1993, so just hire people as you absolutely need them,” Gebhard said. “The first thing I did right out of the chute was hire Randy Smith and Pat Daugherty. Pat was going to be the scouting director, and Randy was going to be the assistant GM.”

Smith, the son of longtime baseball executive Tal Smith, later served as general manager of the San Diego Padres and Detroit Tigers. Daugherty came over from the Montreal Expos, where he had been a scouting supervisor. Others who joined the small front office mix early on included Paul Egins (as an assistant to Daugherty) and former Mariners GM Dick Balderson, who was hired as the Rockies’ first director of player development.

“Pat Daugherty was actually in Denver at the time I got there because I was still doing work for the Twins,” Gebhard said. “When I arrived in town, his first question to me was: ‘What’s my budget to hire scouts?’

“I, in turn, went to our owner, and Mr. Antonucci told me we had a $300,000 budget for our scouting salaries. So I told Pat, and he immediately put together a list of names of people he had run into that he knew. Some were assistant coaches. Some were bird dogs. Various people.”

Daugherty had already been in the game for 20 years with Montreal prior to the start of his Rockies career.

“I remember the day … I arrived in Denver on October 15, 1991,” said Daugherty – who never left. He retired from the Rockies after the 2014 season and still makes Denver his home. “It was an exciting time, but I always told people it was something unique and great to go through – but I wouldn’t want to go through it again. It was a little bit nerve-racking.

“It was overwhelming. Where do you start? Obviously, you have to hire some personnel. We were going to get ready for the draft in what – four months? So the first thing was trying to put a staff together. I can remember Geb telling me, ‘You have $300,000 to hire a scouting staff.’ It didn’t take long for me to figure out you weren’t going to get very many people for $300,000. We ended up with 10 full-time guys. I hired a kid named Pat Jones, who is now working for Kansas City as a special assistant to Dayton Moore. I hired him for $1,000 and expenses just to cover Florida for us. So we started out with a small group – and basically an inexperienced group. For about half of them, it was their first year as scouts. Ironically, some of those kids are still with the Rockies to this day.”

With the June amateur draft just eight months away and limited information at his fingertips, Daugherty was woefully playing catch-up. Consider this was the fall of 1991; using the internet to obtain information and data was hit-or-miss. Laptop computers were new in the scouting world. Smartphones were a thing of the future.

“We were far behind,” Daugherty said. “With the new young kids that we had who had never scouted, and they had no follow lists – a list of players they would have been following from the year before – so they were starting from scratch.

“Basically, what I told those kids was that we were going to go off the Major League Scouting Bureau reports. A lot of guys were against the Bureau, but they were a lifesaver for me. At least it gave our young guys who had never scouted a heads-up on some of the kids that were in their area. Of course, I did have some guys who had some experience and had scouted before. But trying to get coverage with 10 guys, and we basically didn’t have any cross-checkers – so it was hairy to start with.

“I was new at being a scouting director, and I think that added to the confusion. We were all kind of flying blindly.”

After Daugherty hired his 10 scouts and knew he needed more help, “he came to me and asked for some additional money,” Gebhard recalled. “He had a 24-hour window to hire Herb Hippauf away from Montreal. Herb was an older scout who would mentor our younger scouts.”

“Geb did get me the extra $55,000 over that $300,000 to hire Herb Hippauf – God bless him – who has since passed on,” Daugherty said. “He was a veteran guy, and I hired him primarily to cross-check – and more importantly – to spend some time with our young scouts. To try to get them on-board with the computers and filling out reports and all those things we take for granted when we’ve been in the game for a while.

“It was kind of ironic, as I was working for Gary Hughes as a scouting supervisor in the state of Florida while Gary was in Montreal as the scouting director. And then we ended up with the expansion clubs as scouting directors with the opposite teams.”

While there was some irony there, there also was the actuality that the Marlins had more dollars and manpower to work with than the Rockies did – and Dombrowski hired a full staff almost immediately.

– – –

Dombrowski was let go by the White Sox in 1986 and quickly went to Montreal as the Expos’ player development director. In July 1988, he was named the team’s general manager.

After three-plus years in that role with the Expos – and after an ownership change – he was recruited to serve in a similar capacity with the Marlins. He was officially named Florida’s GM on September 19, 1991 – and brought a bunch of high-ranking baseball heavyweights with him from Quebec to South Florida.

One of those heading south was veteran scouting director Gary Hughes. During his time in Montreal, Hughes’ staff was responsible for discovering, among others, Marquis Grissom, Cliff Floyd, Mark Grudzielanek, Ugueth Urbina and Delino DeShields – and the Expos were named Baseball America’s Organization of the Year in 1988 and 1990.

“We were able to get a pretty good head start on a lot of things because we were allowed to bring a lot of people over from Montreal,” Hughes said. “I think there were 12 people who were brought over before MLB said ‘Timeout. Stop.’

“After Dave left, Dan Duquette had taken over in Montreal – and he had come over from Milwaukee a couple years before that. He had his own people that he wanted to bring in, and he didn’t stop anybody from leaving who wanted to leave. Finally, MLB said ‘Wait a minute.’ Guys also left from Montreal to go to Colorado – like Pat Daugherty and (scout) Bert Holt.

“We brought a lot of guys over from Montreal, but then we picked up a lot of other very good people – like Jax Robertson, who was the scouting director in Detroit. I told him, ‘Jax, you’re going to have way more fun coming over here than you will as the scouting director there. I want you to come here to be one of our cross-checkers.’ At first, he said he couldn’t do it.

“A little later that day, I was told by Dave (Dombrowski) that Carl Barger, our president, said ‘No more scouts. We’ve got plenty.’ David asked me, ‘Are you OK with that? Do you have enough?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, we’re fine.’

“So later on that night, Jax phoned me. He said, ‘You know, I’ve been thinking about what you’ve said. I think you’re right. I’m going to come over. I’m excited.’ And I laughed and said, ‘That’s great.’ The next thing he said was, ‘I’m already starting to clean out my desk.’

“The next day we had some meetings, and I went in and told Dave, ‘You know, when I said that I was through, I lied.’ I told him the Jax story, and Dave said, ‘Oh, we gotta have him.’

“So we talked to Carl. Dave was making his pitch for Jax and said that he was the best in the business. Carl pointed at me and said, ‘I thought you told me he was.’ We got Jax. He was just one of many that we brought in.”

Dombrowski talked about the unique challenges of putting together a scouting staff from scratch – both at the amateur and the professional level. What was his thought process as he put that first scouting staff together?

“That’s a great question,” he said, “and it’s not easily answered, for the simple fact that … of course, you would say you want to get the best scouts that you possibly could. People who could evaluate talent at its best. People who were good evaluators of professional talent – not only at the major league level, but at the minor league level. That could be separate from people who were involved with scouting amateurs. But when you say that, you also have to realize that not everybody is available at that time.

“Other organizations have scouts under contract, so you have to be in a position where you go out and try to hire the best people who are available. A lot of times, it’s a situation where there were regime changes. Maybe there were people whose contracts had run out, and they were looking for new opportunities. But really getting the best personnel that would be devoted to helping you build an organization and evaluate talent for an expansion draft was really what we were looking to do.

“There were people we asked about that weren’t granted permission, which was understandable; it’s an organization’s right. But the people we did talk to … everybody was interested in joining the club and felt it was exciting to start from the very beginning. It was something … to be in a position where you can build an organization from Day One and have input into that.”

– – –

While the Marlins had a large enough staff to separately scout for the June amateur draft and the November expansion draft, the Rockies were grinding it out with their skeleton staff.

“It was a challenging time,” Daugherty admitted. “I know it was a challenging time for some of those young kids. They were all baseball-oriented, because they had all been college assistants. It wasn’t like they weren’t around the game or totally out of the loop in so far as the game goes. But it’s quite a switch from looking at a potential college kid to looking at a potential professional player. It’s an adjustment for all of us.”

During their first two years in existence, the Rockies and Marlins were slotted in the 27th and 28th spots in the first round – so both teams were missing out on the supposed premium picks at the top of the draft. In 1992, the Rockies picked 27th; the Marlins drafted out of that spot in 1993.

Despite their many limitations, the Rockies selected 10 players in the 1992 amateur draft who would go on to see major league time – including first-round right-handed pitcher John Burke, 11th-round pick Craig Counsell (1,624 big league games), 14th-round pick Juan Acevedo (367 big league mound appearances) and 25th-round selection Quinton McCracken (999 games). In addition, second-round selection Mark Thompson and seventh-round pick Jason Bates saw action for Colorado in the 1995 Division Series – as the Rockies went to the postseason in just their third season of existence.

“Most of those guys were not household names, but to get some time in the major leagues is an accomplishment in itself,” said Daugherty. “I was extremely proud when we put that first team together in Bend, Oregon, out of that ’92 draft. I can remember what a relief and what pride I had when I looked at those kids and what we had. To see all of them in a Rockies uniform was really exciting and rewarding.

“Then to follow those kids through their Northwest League schedule – although I wasn’t there all that much – and for them to go on and play in the league championship. Those were big days for a scouting director.”

While all the amateur draft work was being done, Gebhard brought in Larry Bearnarth – Montreal’s former pitching coach – to help in preparation for the expansion draft.

“During the first half, he covered the National League and I covered the American League,” Gebhard said. “I also was involved with the amateur stuff, going to see top players that Pat felt we might have a chance to draft. At the All-Star break, we switched; I went to the National League and Larry went to the American League.

“All of my reports were hand-written. All of Larry’s were hand-written. We came up with a code where we were trying to identify the players that might be helpful to our expansion club immediately and those that would be a part of the future. What role would they play? Were they a No. 1 or No. 2 starter? Were they a closer? Were they regulars? Were they utility players? We tried to put that together as best we could.

“Once the amateur draft was over, we then took those 11 scouts we had and assigned them certain organizations to scout so we would be better prepared for the expansion draft.”

When did he sleep? “Not very often.”

The Marlins, meanwhile, took a high-risk, high-reward attitude to their first amateur draft. At the end of the day, so to speak, they went 1-for-2 after a promising start.

“The feeling was that there was no way in the world that Charles Johnson would get to us – and there was no way Charles would sign with us,” Hughes said of the 28^th overall selection – who would go on to become a two-time All Star and a four-time Gold Glove Award winner. “Charles was an all-American. It was an Olympic year, too. He was on the Olympic team, which meant that he wasn’t going to sign easily – and he couldn’t sign right away.

“I remember sending Jim Hendry, who was then scouting for us, to the College World Series – which we did every year after that because of this – and told him to stay close to Johnson. ‘There’s something telling me we have some chance to get him.’ Sure enough, we got him. There was a November signing date for Olympic players only. Charles and his representative, Mr. Boras, ended up taking it down to the last second.”

It was the second time Johnson was a No. 1 pick. The Expos – and scouting director Hughes – had selected him 10th overall in the 1989 draft.

In the second round, Hughes drafted a right-handed pitcher out of Stanford named John Lynch – who went to nine NFL Pro Bowls and is now the general manager of the San Francisco 49ers.

“John Lynch was good athlete with a real good arm. He was not going to play any more football; he was going to play baseball,” Hughes said. “All that changed when Bill Walsh went back to Stanford. First, Dennis Green left Stanford to coach for the Minnesota Vikings. That left an opening for Walsh to come back – and Bill coming back was the reason John went back to football. John said to me, ‘I remember telling you I wasn’t going to play – and I wasn’t – but with the changes … I’ve always wanted to play for Bill Walsh.’ There was nothing I could do to stop him, so off he went. The rest is history.”

Hughes laughed when he talked about the way he communicated with his scouts in an era before e-mail and cell phones were in vogue.

“That whole year, the way we communicated was voicemail on an office phone line,” he recalled. “When you look back, how could we have gotten through without that? I was given a phone right after the (amateur) draft … one of those boots that you walked around with that passed for a cell phone. I carried that on me for about a month after the draft when we were signing players – so people could get ahold of me at any time. It literally looked like a shoe.

“We had rules … you had to check your voicemail at least twice a day. As the draft was getting closer, it was something like every couple hours. And it was really important to know what hotel a scout was in on the road, and his room, so you could track him down.”

– – –

While the Rockies went with the “all hands on deck” method in terms of scouting for the expansion draft, the Marlins went all out from a manpower standpoint.

Dombrowski wasn’t just planning for 1993. He was looking at it from both a short-term and long-term perspective.

“There’s a lot involved in what we did to prepare for that first season,” Dombrowski said. “Basically, we wanted to have a representative team on the field – but it really didn’t make a great deal of difference to us if we won 64 games or 68 games or 72 games or whatever it would be. We were building for the long run.

“I had started in September 1991 as the first person in Baseball Operations. I then hired people quickly after that. The reality is we started scouting winter ball at that point when people came on board. And then, in turn, we started the next spring training and all through that year.

“The type of players we were trying to identify were players who had the most upside in the long-term. It didn’t matter if it was a positional player or a pitcher or what position they played. We were really just trying to identify people that could be part of our future.”

Both the Marlins and the Rockies would be selecting 36 players in the expansion draft. All 36 would automatically be placed on each team’s 40-man major league roster. Major league rules came into play, too. For instance, did a player have options remaining?

So there was a lot of work behind the scenes in identifying players worth pursuing.

“If you took 30 prospects in the expansion draft … well, that wouldn’t do you any good,” Dombrowski said, “because everybody you drafted had to be put on your major league roster. So you were in a position where you still had to put 25 of those 40 players on your in-season roster. But you still wanted to get the best young prospects that you could.

“Of course, organizations were able to protect their 15 top players. They were in a position where they had that choice themselves. So you weren’t going to get somebody’s top prospect by any means. You also knew in your own mind you were building for the long-term. If you could take players that in turn could be traded, that would also be helpful to you at some point. All of a sudden, if someone was involved in a pennant race in the middle of a season, you might be able to trade somebody and be in a position where you can accumulate more young players to help you for the future.

“It took a lot of work from people digging up background, looking up old press clips. Just gathering information anywhere you could. Basically, we had members of the organization that were assigned clubs … for example, we had someone assigned to the National League West, or the American League East, and the individuals that were assigned there were in a position where they had the responsibility to gather information however they could. And then we had people in our front office who would read newspapers and try to gather information, looking for any background as far as injuries and off-field issues. You tried to gather information any way you could and keep a file on that.”

– – –

In retrospect, it’s hard to fathom that the timespan from when the two organizations hired their respective general managers – with no additional staff in place – to the day of the 1992 expansion draft was less than 14 months.

Before either team finalized draft plans, though, both GMs took a timeout to conduct managerial searches.

Florida concluded its pursuit first. On October 23, Rene Lachemann was named the Marlins’ first-ever manager. He interviewed with Dombrowski during the playoffs and was hired during the World Series.

Lachemann had previous managerial experience with Seattle (1981-1983) and Milwaukee (1984).

“My first year managing in Seattle, we were basically an expansion club; it was just a few years later than that, but a lot of it was a similar-type thing,” Lachemann said. “When I went in to interview with Dave Dombrowski and the rest of the people who were there, I was very impressed with the scouts that they had. They had gone out and got people like Gary Hughes, these top scouts in baseball. I felt that what they were going to go ahead and do – and they had been looking at players for a year – it was a situation I felt good about.

“It’s one thing in baseball … you can never get too hubris about it. I was there with Oakland and Boston, and in a period of five years, I had been to four World Series.

“I was able to bring my brother Marcel over there to be my pitching coach. That might have been one of the reasons I was able to get the job.”

Meanwhile, four days later, the Rockies announced the hiring of their own manager. Gebhard had taken a different route, selecting a first-time manager to run the club.

“One of my goals was to try and get a manager hired as soon as the regular season was over, because I wanted his input in our selections for the expansion draft,” he said. “So during that last month of the season, besides scouting, I was bearing down on who I might want to bring in for interviews to be the manager. I narrowed it down to about 35 names, then down to about 10, then eventually down to four. Out of that process, we hired Don Baylor.”

Baylor had spent 19 seasons as a big league player – earning A.L. Most Valuable Player honors in 1979 – and was on three World Series clubs (Boston 1986, Minnesota 1987), Oakland 1988).

At his introductory press conference with the local media, Baylor was quoted as saying: “I don’t know who wrote that rule that you have to lose 100 games if you’re an expansion team. We’re going to change the thinking of being an expansion team.”

Baylor didn’t just say it … he meant it. “I remember telling the players in spring training, ‘If I have to suit up and get out there, we’re not going to lose 100 games.’ It wasn’t going to happen,” he said.

With a manager in place, “we now were able to get everyone together to start talking about the draft,” Gebhard said. “We sat in a big conference room in downtown Denver and went through every team and every name and categorized it in about every way that you could.”

As Baylor recalled, “There were a bunch of names out there that were available. Who were we going to draft? Who were we thinking about obtaining? Being in that room, that was a history lesson as far as what players were available.

“I was looking for a different type of player. One that I thought would fit … maybe not my personality, but what I wanted for the Rockies. It was a new team coming in.

“I remember sitting in that room and just listening. These guys were so adamant about certain players that they could get. It was pretty intimidating – if you get intimidated. I had played in the World Series; that was intimidating enough. But when you’re trying to build your own team … that was a lot different than being a player. All of a sudden you have to go on the other side and evaluate players. It was different, really different.”

The Marlins, meanwhile, basically sequestered themselves in a Ft. Lauderdale hotel.

“In the fall of ’92, we all sat down together,” said Dombrowski, who then rattled off some of the scouts. “Frank Wren, Gary Hughes, Jim Hendry, Ken Kravec, Scott Reid. Cookie Rojas was there. John Young was there. Dick Egan was another one who was with us. I have to be careful, because I know I’m going to miss some people. It was an exceptional group of individuals that were put together for the organization.

“These people were prepared – they had their recommendations, they had worked hard – to start discussing players. It finally gave the scouts a chance to make their presentations. It was very similar, I would think, to an amateur scouting perspective of preparing for the draft, but you didn’t have this very often from the professional level … to be in a position where you scout all year long, you accumulate information, and you sit down and you make up your list for the draft. Well, that’s what we did for the expansion draft.

“It was really an exhilarating time. We made sure we spent plenty of time to do it. There were long days, but they were fun days. We wanted to make sure that they were fun but business-like. It was a time for people in the organization to mesh together and spend a lot of time together. In addition to that, we wanted to make sure that we put enough overall time in for this so that you didn’t tire your people out on a particular day. You were making such big decisions as you moved forward. You wanted to work and work hard, but also not get to the point where people were just out of gas – where you didn’t get their best thought processes as the day went on.”

As Hughes recalled, “David was all inclusive. We had so many people. If you come up with the right type of player for the Marlins, let’s get him. He wanted everybody to speak. He wanted everybody’s opinion. He felt we had good people in the room and they were experienced, and I don’t think anybody wanted to do anything to stop anyone from voicing an opinion. There was no preconceived notion of what type of player we should be looking for.”

– – –

Major league teams were able to protect 15 players prior to the draft. In theory, in the first round of the expansion draft, both the Marlins and the Rockies would alternate in selecting who they considered to be the 16th best player on every other team’s roster.

About a week prior to the draft, the commissioner’s office provided the two teams the confidential listing of the players that each team had protected.

“Once we had that list, we started taking names off our board,” Gebhard said. “There was a mandate from major league baseball that these lists remain confidential … agents, media, nobody was supposed to get those names. Me and John McHale Jr. (who by then had become the Rockies’ vice president of baseball operations) were the only two people who looked at those lists on our side.”

The Marlins scoured the lists to see who was obtainable – and what potential wheeling-and-dealing angles might be available for them to pursue.

“When we got the actual 15-man protection list, it was easy for us to sort of sit back and say, ‘OK, this is the top-rated guy in each organization.’ And we worked off those lists,” Dombrowski said. “We were ready to go, and we were prepared to move forward.”

Both teams loaded up boxes of information and headed to the Marriott Marquis in New York City. The 1992 expansion draft was about to become a reality.

Click here to read Part 2; click here to read Part 3.

– – –

Inside The Draft Room: The 2006 Yankees

By Chuck Wasserstrom | May 5, 2017 at 10:03am CDT

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.

– – –

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.

– – –

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.”

– – –

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.

“I know from talking to guys from other teams over the years that he was medically ruled out by some teams. So I think that’s one of the reasons he got to us when he did. You have to give our doctors credit. He held up pretty well for a number of years and provided some value for us.”

Chamberlain burst onto the major league scene 14 months after the draft, posting a 0.38 ERA in his first 19 big league games.

“He got there quick and he impacted our club out of the bullpen,” Oppenheimer said. “Things didn’t turn out the way we ultimately thought they would after watching him those first couple of years in the big leagues, but he still had a pretty nice serviceable career.”

Without a second-round selection, Oppenheimer then had to sit and wait and rearrange the draft board. When it was time to pick in the third round (No. 104 overall), he selected Zach McAllister, a Midwestern high school kid out of tiny Chillicothe, Ill. – a town of 6,000 located in the Peoria area. McAllister’s size was intriguing (he’s now listed at 6-foot-6, 240 pounds). Just as intriguing was the fact that his father, Steve, was a scout for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“We had known Steve for years, so we had seen Zach play a lot in the summer events; he was a third baseman and a pitcher,” Oppenheimer said. “We liked him. He was big, he was strong, he had a good sinker, a good slider, he threw strikes, and he was athletic. He was sitting there for us in the third round. It was a good combination of changing it up. We just picked two college pitchers. Now, it gave us an opportunity to get a high school pitcher who could be a high-end starter. We were really excited about getting Zach right there.

“You thought it was the right background, the right pedigree. Coming from a cold-weather area, we thought that once he filled out, he’d take off. He had signed to go to Nebraska, and we knew if we took him where we took him, that he was going to sign with us.”

Two rounds later, the Yankees stayed in the state of Illinois – selecting Northwestern University right-hander George Kontos. Interestingly enough, Kontos, McAllister and Chamberlain all came at the recommendation of area scout Steve Lemke.

“There are years when a scout is going to get three guys, and there are years when he’s going to get shut out,” Oppenheimer said. “It just works out like that.

“George was a guy who was pretty wild at Northwestern. He didn’t throw a ton of strikes, but Steve Lemke knew him and had seen him throw well. He thought if we could get him under control a little bit with his delivery, he’d develop into a strike thrower. We had seen it in the Cape; he threw hard. He was 93-to-95 and threw better strikes. At that point, it was like … OK, we have a chance at some power. We have a little bit of work to do, but this is a great spot for a guy that has this kind of power and this kind of stuff. We actually thought he was going to be a starter, and he’s turned into a pretty darn good reliever. He’s a guy who has contributed to a World Series team (2012 San Francisco Giants). He’s been a good pitcher.”

While the next hurler Oppenheimer drafted (University of Connecticut right-hander Tim Norton) “only” made it to Triple-A, the Yankees struck gold on back-to-back selections in the eighth and ninth rounds.

With the 254th overall pick, the team stayed close to home in selecting Dellin Betances, a prep right-hander out of Grand Street Campus High School in Brooklyn – about 12 miles south of Yankee Stadium.

“Oh yeah, he’s pretty good,” Oppenheimer said with a laugh. “Dellin was big and projectable and had a good arm. You’d see him spin a good breaking ball. But at the time, he was really young, he was growing into his body and he was growing into his mechanics.”

The New York/New Jersey region is known as a hard area to scout and a late area to scout due to wet and cold spring weather – which played into the Yankees’ hands. They were able to keep close tabs on the local kid.

“I’m not sure how many people were really able to get in there with their cross-check group. On top of that, he had committed to Vanderbilt. For some teams, I think there were some signability scares there,” Oppenheimer said. “He was in our backyard, and we did a lot of work on him. We saw him pitch quite a bit, and just thought that there was a huge impact ceiling with the guy.

“His being from New York … you think about. It’s definitely part of the equation, but you can’t let it totally blow you out – where you sit there and make a hasty decision based on the region. We did give it extra thought. It’s our fan base. It’s our people. It means something that Dellin’s from New York. It’s important, but from a scouting director standpoint, it’s not a deciding factor.”

Knowing Betances could go to Vanderbilt, Oppenheimer had to make a decision. How many rounds could he go and still lure the right-hander to the Bronx?

“It just was one of those things … you get a feel as a director, you talk to the guys in the room, you get a feel for where somebody might take a chance,” Oppenheimer said. “After the seventh round, we finally decided … it’s time to pull the trigger here; let’s do this.”

Immediately after that, the Yankees made a similar decision about a medical risk, University of Arizona pitcher Mark Melancon. The right-hander was going to need to have Tommy John surgery, so he was sliding.

“We were able to take him, knowing he had to have surgery,” Oppenheimer explained. “But with the makeup he had and the way he worked at things, you knew he was going to be a guy who would battle back from it.

“In that era, if somebody was going to have to have Tommy John surgery, there were a lot of people and teams that would say the player was a ‘medical out.’ We were fortunate that our guys thought, ‘Hey, there’s risk, but if you know the talent and you know the makeup, it’s definitely worth the risk.’

“His head coach at the University of Arizona was Andy Lopez – and Andy has been a friend of mine for years, going all the way back to when he was at Cal State-Dominguez Hills. I talked to him about Melancon, and Andy told me, ‘Damon, this guy’s a star. He’s a makeup warrior.’ He put his stamp on him, and Andy hardly ever put a stamp on a guy’s makeup. There were only a few, and the guys he put a stamp on, he was dead-on right about.”

Melancon had surgery in October 2006 and missed the entire 2007 season. In April 2009, he made his major league debut.

Oppenheimer was asked … if Melancon didn’t need surgery, when would he likely have been drafted? “Probably in the second round.” So could it be considered a steal that he was taken in the ninth round?

“It was nice that he was available there for us, let’s put it that way,” he said.

In the 13th round, New York selected University of Oklahoma pitcher Daniel McCutchen, who went on to pitch in 109 big league games for Pittsburgh and Texas – and helped land the Yankees Damaso Marte and Xavier Nady in a 2008 trade deadline deal with the Pirates.

And then in the 17th round, Oppenheimer found one of his biggest successes in one of his littlest selections – University of Alabama right-hander David Robertson.

“Robertson was a sophomore-eligible. Sometimes that scares people off, because he has two more years of eligibility; it’s tough on the signability,” Oppenheimer said. “He was a 5-foot-11 right-hander who didn’t light up the radar gun.”

Oppenheimer called landing Robertson “a combination of good scouting and paying attention to some of the analytics. You sit there and watch him … this guy comes out of the pen throwing 90-91, and he’s creating a lot of swing-and-miss. Our scouts were saying, ‘This guy’s got a sneaky fastball. It gets on hitters. They don’t see it.’ And the analytics side of it was saying, ‘They swing and miss a lot. This guy’s creating a ton of swing-and-miss.’ The statistical side of it was backing everything up.

“We took Robertson, and then he went up to play in the Cape Cod League. He was pitching for Yarmouth-Dennis, and the head coach was Scott Pickler – who coaches for Cypress (Calif.) Junior College. Scott has been a friend of mine from my years living in Southern California. About three weeks after the draft, I walk into his park in the Cape, and Scott grabs me and says, ‘This Robertson guy, he’s the real deal. You have to sign him.’ And I was like, ‘That’s the idea. That’s what we’re planning on doing.’

“Anyway, I watched him pitch a couple times in the Cape. He was dominating there. So we ended up bringing him down to Tampa and getting him signed – and he took off. His velocity has gotten a little better, but he still creates swings-and-misses with a deceptive fastball and he’s developed a real good slider. He’s one hell of a competitor.”

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Looking back, if they could have kept this pitching group together, “that would have been something,” Oppenheimer said. “But all those guys, they’ve done a great job wherever they’ve gone.”

Kennedy was involved in a three-team/seven-player trade that brought Curtis Granderson to the Yankees. McAllister went to the Indians in a trade deadline deal for Austin Kearns. Kontos went to the Giants for catcher Chris Stewart, who saw his most extensive big league action in Yankees pinstripes. Melancon was traded to the Astros for Lance Berkman. Meanwhile, Chamberlain and Robertson each spent six full years with the Yankees before electing to test free agency.

“They were assets for Brian (Cashman), and he was able to get us some players back,” Oppenheimer said. “As a scouting director, you’re trying to acquire these types of players that can help your major league club. You’re also trying to acquire assets that can get you something in return if you need to make a trade.

“This draft was definitely a great draft for a lot of parts of the Yankees. We drafted Melancon, who we knew was going to have elbow surgery, and the guys who rehabbed him did a great job. The scouts did a great job, the player development guys did a great job, and most importantly, the players themselves did a great job of developing.”

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Photos courtesy of Getty Images.

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