Inside The Draft Room: The 2002-2003 Dodgers
All Logan White could do was laugh when I shared my story.
The 2008 Cubs – the winningest team in the National League that season at 97-64 – were taking on the 84-78 Dodgers in the Division Series. At the time, I was a member of the Cubs’ Baseball Operations department.
It was expected to be a quick series, and it was – for Los Angeles. Sure, Manny Ramirez had a thing or two to do with the Dodgers’ three-game sweep, but the big blow in Game 1 was a James Loney grand slam. For good measure, Russell Martin also went deep later in the contest. In Game 2, Chad Billingsley stifled Cubs bats, allowing one run in 6.2 innings while fanning seven. In Game 3, Jonathan Broxton had his third scoreless appearance of the NLDS in picking up the save and completing the sweep.
“That was a lot of fun,” said White, who is now in his third year with the Padres after spending 13 years up the coast in Los Angeles. In his first two Dodgers drafts in 2002 and 2003, White’s combined haul included Loney, Martin, Billingsley, Broxton, Matt Kemp and A.J. Ellis, along with nine others who spent time in the Majors. “What wasn’t fun is we could never get to the big dance. And you know how hard that is, obviously. It’s tough to get to the big game, and that was my only regret when I was in L.A. – never getting to the World Series.
“That’s what keeps us going. That’s what we’re trying to do in San Diego now. We’re trying to rebuild the farm and everything. Hopefully, at some point, we’ll have some young players like you saw in those Dodgers days.”
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Going back to the early years of the draft – heck, you can really go back to their Brooklyn days and Branch Rickey – the Dodgers have had a reputation for player development and scouting.
Baseball America still calls the Dodgers’ class of 1968 “the best in draft annals,” as the team selected Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Buckner, Doyle Alexander, Geoff Zahn, Joe Ferguson, Tom Paciorek and Bobby Valentine.
But after years of draft success, Los Angeles then had a dry spell. While the 1993 draft brought a couple solid longtime Dodgers in Darren Dreifort and Paul Lo Duca, there was very little cause to pat themselves on the back from 1994-2001. Granted, there were a few solid hits – Paul Konerko (1994), Ted Lilly (1996) and Shane Victorino (1999) – but those three made their biggest impact with other organizations.
In November 2001, the Dodgers turned to Logan White to return their scouting department to its glory days.
A former relief pitcher in Seattle’s farm system, White began his scouting career in 1988 as an associate scout with the Mariners. He had stints as the West Coast supervisor for San Diego (1993-1995) and Baltimore (1996-2001) en route to Los Angeles.
Upon joining the Dodgers’ organization, White brought with him a very high school-centric draft philosophy.
“I think my approach developed from watching others,” he said. “Having been around Don Welke – who was a mentor of mine and worked for Toronto for a long time, and being around Pat Gillick, and in watching the Atlanta Braves during that period of time … when you look at them, they drafted a lot of high-ceiling players and high school players. What I found out was … if you’re picking in the top 10 of the draft, there’s a lot of good scouts and evaluators out there, so teams generally will take the good college player up there.
“We were picking 19th in 2002 and 24th in 2003. My research showed that you’d better know the high school player there because the quality college players that everyone knows have already been taken. Now, there are exceptions to that rule, of course. Mike Mussina went 20th for the Orioles when I was there (in 1990), that type of thing. But there was some philosophy behind it; I didn’t look at it as analytics at the time, but I did research on it.
“The other thing … there was a dynamic that happened in 2002 and 2003. That was the beginning of the ‘Moneyball’ years where teams – it wasn’t just Oakland – were drafting heavily from college. That was their philosophy and a lot of teams did well at it. So maybe 10 or 15 of them weren’t drafting from the high school pool. It just left a bigger pool of talent for us at the high school level in those years. So it was kind of by design and by circumstance, if that makes sense.
“At the same time, we were just trying to draft the best available player who we thought had the highest ceiling. For example, let’s say there would be a college player we liked. We mixed our high school and college players together on the draft board. The college player would be pushed down a little further. Well, now you take another team and they’re only ranking college players. The college player gets ranked higher on their board. Say there’s a college player we would have liked to take in round three. But shoot, he went in round two or at the end of the first round to one of the teams selecting only from the college pool.
“It left us more high school players. It’s really how the draft fell because we liked a number of college guys. Heck, we liked Nick Swisher, but Swisher went before we picked.”
Swisher, who had attended Ohio State, was taken at No. 16 in the 2002 draft by Oakland.
“That’s kind of how those drafts unfolded,” White said. “But we did focus on the high school player. That was definitely by design.”
The 2002 and 2003 drafts were very different for the Dodgers in terms of volume of picks – in ’02, the team gained two additional selections as compensation for the loss of free agent Chan Ho Park to Texas; in ’03, the club only had one pick in the top 60 – but not in terms of a common theme. In his first year as a scouting director, White didn’t select a four-year college player until his ninth pick. In his second year, his first eight picks – and 13 of his first 15 – were high school players.Read more
Inside The Draft Studio: A Conversation With Mike Trout
The date was June 9, 2009 – the first day of the annual MLB Draft.
As we all know, while the buildup to the baseball draft gets a lot of play, the actual draft itself doesn’t have the same fanfare as its counterparts in football and basketball. So this particular date wouldn’t normally stand out – other than the fact that the draft was being televised live from the MLB Network studios in Secaucus, NJ.
But this didn’t turn out to be an ordinary draft day.
Stephen Strasburg was the surefire No. 1 overall selection; that was pretty much a universal given. What wasn’t a given was what would transpire after Strasburg’s name was called.
With TV eyes on Secaucus, only one draftable player was in attendance for the prime-time event. As has been well documented – heck, there’s even a documentary about it – Millville (NJ) Senior High School centerfielder Mike Trout and his family made the two-plus hour drive north to witness his selection.
Trout had to wait … and wait … and wait … as the draft moved from the Top 10 through the teens and past the early 20s. It wasn’t until pick No. 25 when Commissioner Bud Selig stood at the podium and announced the name Michael Trout.
Two teams had a pair of first-round picks before the Angels were on the clock. The Nationals used their selections on Strasburg and reliever Drew Storen at No. 10. The Diamondbacks picked back-to-back at 16-17; you can click here to read about their ’09 draft.
Trout kept watching other players get drafted before landing on the Los Angeles Angels’ doorstep. You can click here to read then-scouting director Eddie Bane’s account of the Angels’ draft.
So … what was it like to be Mike Trout that evening? Trout, who has homered in eight of his last 14 games, took a few minutes to share his memories of that event with MLBTR. Special thanks to Tim Mead and Eric Kay of the Angels’ communications department for their assistance in coordinating the conversation.
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Chuck Wasserstrom: Hi Mike. Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me for MLB Trade Rumors. You were the only player there the night of the 2009 draft, so I’m looking for your recollections from that evening. What was that night like for you?
Mike Trout: “It was crazy. It was unbelievable. There was a lot of stuff going through my mind. You’re anxious, you’re excited, you’re obviously nervous. You want to get picked. You know … hopefully be selected in the top three rounds. But being picked, well … if you’re up there on the first day, it obviously means something.”
You had a two-hour drive from 45 miles south of Philadelphia to the New York City area. Who was in the car with you?
“My mom and dad, my brother, my sister, my sister’s husband, and my girlfriend – who’s now my fiancée, Jessica.”
With that many people in the car, you probably didn’t have a lot of time just to be deep in your own thoughts, right?
“No, it wasn’t quiet. But it was a special moment for me, obviously, for Jess, and for my family. It was pretty special.”
At the draft itself, I’m envisioning being back on the school yard in elementary school. You know, one kid’s picked and then the next and the next. You probably weren’t used to being the one falling; you were used to being one of the first kids chosen.
“Yeah … it was different. Every pick that went by, you think you’re going to get picked there. Then 24 picks later, your name gets called. So, 25th – it was a little different. It was nerve-racking, but as soon as Angels picked me, it felt a lot better.”
Did your heart leap a little bit when you heard Commissioner Selig announce the Atlanta Braves select Mike – but it was Mike Minor – and the Cincinnati Reds select Mike, and it was Leake?
“Yeah, a lot of Mikes in that draft, so it was pretty nerve-racking. It made your heart drop a little bit and you’re anxious. You know, when the Angels had their selections, it was a little bit better when (the commissioner) said my full name.”
So you found out when the commissioner called your name? You weren’t tipped off at all that the Angels were selecting you?
“No, I didn’t know.”
Your dad played minor league ball with (former Angels scout) Greg Morhardt. I know you and your parents had dinner with (former scouting director) Eddie Bane. So now it’s the Angels’ pick at No. 24 – and the commissioner announces Randal Grichuk. What were you thinking?
“I knew the Angels were high on me, but when they picked Grichuk – an outfielder – everything was going through my head. For me, I didn’t think they were going to pick two outfielders.
“I was definitely relieved when they called my name with the next pick. It’s a feeling you can’t explain. You’re so happy, and you think about all the work you put in to get to that point. As a kid, you want to be a professional baseball player. As soon as you hear your name – obviously, you’ve still got to sign – but instantly you know you have a chance to play professional baseball, and it’s a dream come true.”
Growing up, you were a Phillies fan – and you knew the Phillies didn’t have a first-round pick. You knew that the Mets didn’t have one and that the Yankees had a real late one, so you probably weren’t going to be staying in the region. Were you curious to find out what part of the country you were going to?
“I was just happy I got picked. I didn’t care where I was going. With all the travel ball and travel tournaments I went to across the country, I liked playing everywhere. Obviously, the East Coast would have been cool with family and friends, but I love it on the West Coast – so it’s nice.”
The day of the draft, you were still in high school. What was it like going back to school the next day – now that you were a drafted baseball player?
“It was great. Everybody was coming up and congratulating me. The teachers, the principal, everybody, my friends. It was just a special feeling, you know? All the hard work you put in. Obviously, school came first, but you put a lot of time and effort into becoming a baseball player. Having that opportunity to play professionally, it means a lot to me.”
Last question … I’ve heard all the excuses about why you fell because of New Jersey, and I’m not talking about that; I’m going the other way. How important was it for you to grow up in New Jersey playing seasonal sports all the way through high school?
“I loved playing on the East Coast. When it was football season, I was playing football. Basketball season, I was playing basketball. And obviously baseball season, playing baseball. That’s how I grew up. That’s how I was raised. You know, now that I’m up here playing baseball every day, it’s great, but I wouldn’t trade anything. I had a great childhood playing in Millville and on the East Coast in Jersey. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
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Chuck Wasserstrom spent 25 years in the Chicago Cubs’ front office – 16 in Media Relations and nine in Baseball Operations. Now a freelance writer, his behind-the-scenes stories of his time in a big league front office can be found on www.chuckblogerstrom.com.
Inside The Draft Room: The 2009 Diamondbacks
When you look back at the 2009 Arizona Diamondbacks draft, there are quite a few storylines that jump off the page at you.
The Diamondbacks had eight selections over an 80-pick span from No. 16 in the first round to No. 95 in the third round – including a pair of first-round selections, a trio of supplemental picks and two second-round choices. Six of those eight – and 12 overall – reached the majors, although the team’s first overall pick peaked at Double-A. And of the 12 with big league time, six are playing significant roles in 2017.
The Diamondbacks had two opportunities to draft high school outfielder Mike Trout – he went to the Angels as part of their draft haul that same year – but opted instead to take a high school third baseman and a college outfielder.
While Trout has turned out to be the best player in that draft class, the second-best player has been Paul Goldschmidt, who the Diamondbacks did pick … in the eighth round … with their 13th pick … and as the draft’s 246th overall selection.
Before there’s any uproar – as in, “How could they have missed on Mike Trout?” – consider that if future success could have been accurately predicted for the New Jersey prep or for Goldschmidt (then a first baseman for the Texas State University Bobcats), then both would have been long gone before the Diamondbacks’ turn to pick. There are no crystal balls with the draft.
Inside The Draft Room: The 2006 Yankees
It’s unrealistic to think that 10-plus years after a draft, a large group of players from one team’s draft class would still be intact and together with their original organization.
Face the reality … it’s rare for a group of pitchers to have sustained health and sustained success, period – let alone with one club.
But in a landscape when fantasy drafts rule the baseball world, it’s OK to dream. So imagine having the following relievers in the same big league bullpen – and don’t worry about their roles; this is only a dream (statistics are for the 2016 season) …
- Mark Melancon, who had 47 saves and a 5.42 strikeout-to-walk ratio as part of an All-Star campaign in 2016.
- David Robertson, who had 37 saves and a 3.47 ERA while fanning nearly 11 batters per nine innings pitched.
- Dellin Betances, with his high-90s fastball and 85 mph curveball, who struck out 126 batters in 73 innings while recording 12 saves and 28 holds.
- Zach McAllister, who had a 3.44 ERA and averaged a strikeout per inning – and pitched in the World Series.
- George Kontos, who had a 2.53 ERA in 57 appearances.
And to think … all were members of the New York Yankees’ draft class of 2006 – AFTER the team had already selected Ian Kennedy and Joba Chamberlain.
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Every scouting director has a different story of how he arrived in a position to run a draft.
But it’s not every day when you can say a scout learned first-hand by following in his mother’s footsteps.
Growing up in San Diego, Damon Oppenheimer was a Padres fan at an early age. He lived a couple miles from San Diego Stadium (later known as Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium); he could actually ride his bicycle there if he wanted to.
Oppenheimer’s affinity for the Padres and the sport grew leaps-and-bounds when his mother, Priscilla, was hired to work as a secretary in the scouting department. Priscilla Oppenheimer went on to a long and distinguished 24-year career with the Padres, rising to director of minor league operations – a position she held at the time of her retirement in 2006.
“When my mom was afforded the opportunity to get that job, it was really nice,” said Damon Oppenheimer, who is now the Yankees’ vice president of domestic amateur scouting – and in his 25th year in that organization. “We were baseball fans, I was into it, and it was neat to be able to talk to her boss. Sandy Johnson was a heck of a scout and a productive scouting director. That was her first boss there, so I learned a lot from just listening to him.”
In what had to be interesting dinner table conversation, the son – an aspiring baseball player – was educated about the inner workings of a baseball front office from his mom.
“I think a lot of the stuff I learned from her was how competitive it was … how many kids there were in a system … how you have to constantly perform while you’re being developed,” he said. “She was always talking about the amount of kids there are – and the amount of kids who didn’t see the window of opportunity closing on them and let it get away. She talked about these talented kids out there who didn’t handle their situations right and didn’t max out their potential.
“On top of the player stuff, she was great at reminding me to make sure you were always good to everybody in the organization. It wasn’t just about the people above you; it was more about the people that were working with you or were working around the game. You know what … that made a big impression on me. I think I’ve probably taken that as a leader and used a lot of her information that she was able to give me. I believe you need to include everybody and make everybody feel like they’re an important part of the process.”
When his playing career ended, Oppenheimer began working as a part-time scout with the Padres while finishing his college degree – and was hired on a full-time basis in 1988. He joined the Yankees as a Midwest cross-checker in 1993 and has been with that organization ever since (except for a nine-month stint in Texas’ scouting department from November 1995-July 1996). In 2005, after stints as the Yankees’ farm director and as the head of pro scouting, Oppenheimer took over the reins of running the team’s amateur draft.
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Every scouting director has a different story of how he arrived in a position to run a draft.
But not every scout cut his teeth at evaluating pitching by squatting behind the plate to catch a Randy Johnson fastball.
Oppenheimer was a two-year letterwinner at USC en route to a brief professional career (he was selected by Milwaukee in the 18th round of the 1985 draft and played in 12 Class-A games before suffering a career-ending injury).
Along with earning honorable mention Pac 10 all-conference honors in 1985, he had the opportunity to catch both Johnson – the future Hall-of-Fame southpaw who was chosen in the second round of that year’s draft by Montreal – and Brad Brink, selected with the seventh overall pick by Philadelphia in the 1986 draft.
Being a catcher helped Oppenheimer in his future roles as a talent evaluator and scouting director.
“Catching is one of the jobs in baseball where, if you don’t really want to be back there, you’re going to fail,” he said. “I really wanted to catch. You had to want to be back there. You had to want to lead. You had to want to think the game through. The ‘thinking it through’ part – planning, how to read advance reports, how to figure out what you’re going to do – that was a big step in my own development as a planner for the scouting department.
“You were always critiquing pitchers as a catcher on how they were doing, where their arm was, what could be fixed, if they have their stuff that day or if they didn’t, and how they competed. I think as a catcher you were able to sit there and incorporate the mental side of a guy’s ability to pitch – along with his tools, his stuff for that day, and then his mechanical portion of pitching. For me at least, it turned me into an evaluator at a young age.”
At the same time, even though he was in uniform, he was able to learn about the way scouts performed their jobs. It put the little voice in his head that scouting might be a direction for him to consider.
“Since my mom was in the game and some of the scouts knew me, they’d seek me out and ask me questions about some of the guys on the team,” Oppenheimer recalled. “It was never about them as people or their personalities; they didn’t cross that line. But they would talk about what I thought of their stuff and what I thought about the way they pitched. So I did think about (scouting) some. To be honest, if you would have told me that Randy Johnson would have been better than Brad Brink, I would have never guessed that. Brad had great stuff, he had a great body, and he threw really good strikes. Randy was still a developing guy; he didn’t throw very many good strikes. In that way, looking at it, I gained some experience in learning more about projecting with Randy vs. Brad – and about how pitchers might develop.
“I’m sure glad it worked out for Randy the way it did. And it was too bad for Brad. The injury thing is such an epidemic in baseball. It’s so hard to figure out who that guy is going to be. Brad had great stuff.”
While Oppenheimer earned his stripes as a catcher in handling Johnson, he had to wait his turn the year before. Although he did see a fair amount of action in 1984 for USC, Oppenheimer often found himself on the bench watching Jack Del Rio work behind the plate – the same Jack Del Rio who is now the head coach of the NFL’s Oakland Raiders.
“It was pretty humbling, because he was quite a bit more athletic – and he was better,” Oppenheimer said. “Jack was really, really gifted. He probably could have been a longtime major league baseball player if that’s the route he wanted to go. But I think he was enamored with football; he liked playing in front of 60,000 to 100,000 people a lot more than he did thinking about playing in front of a couple thousand in minor league baseball to get there.
“From sitting there watching him and being around him – and now being in scouting – if he wanted to be a professional baseball player, he could have been a major league player. He was athletic. He was tough. He could hit. He could throw. He was a decent receiver … I think he’d probably agree with that. He could really run. He was really talented, and he had some kind of ability to compete. He was one of the better athletes that I’ve ever been around.”
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Looking at it in its entirety, the 2006 draft can at best be labeled as average.
There were some big-name talents selected in the upper-half of the first round (Evan Longoria, Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer, Tim Lincecum) and a fair amount of lower-round finds (Doug Fister, Chris Archer, Daniel Murphy, Chris Davis and Jarrod Dyson come to mind), but overall, this wasn’t that strong of a draft class.
The Yankees, though, did really well. Despite not picking until No. 21 and being without a second-round selection (the choice went to Atlanta as compensation for the free agent signing of Kyle Farnsworth). The Yankees, in fact, picked only twice in the top 100, and yet they still selected 10 players that reached the majors – including eight pitchers who have combined to appear in more than 2,400 big league games.
“It wasn’t a direct strategy – ‘We’re just going after pitching’ – but off of the volume of what we saw, we thought it was going to be more of a pitching-heavy draft for us,” Oppenheimer said. “There was a little bit more of that to choose from. It was at a time when the organization really needed pitching, so that made it easier to go in that direction.”
The Yankees – as was often the case – did not have their own first-round pick. That selection (No. 28) went to Boston as compensation for the free-agent signing of Johnny Damon.
However, New York lost free agent reliever Tom Gordon to Philadelphia. As a result, the Yankees received the Phillies’ first-round selection (No. 21) and a supplemental first-round pick (No. 41).
Going into the year, USC starting pitcher Ian Kennedy was highly ranked by publications and highly rated on draft boards. The Yankees liked him quite a bit as a sophomore and watched him extensively when he pitched for Team USA.
“It was one of those things … as the draft gets closer, you start to get a feel of who might get to you, and we thought there was a good chance he would get down to us,” Oppenheimer said. “We did our extra homework on him, and it turned out to be good. If he did get down to us at 21, we were prepared to take him. We had him higher on our board than his actual draft spot.”
In doing his homework on the right-hander, Oppenheimer reached out to some people at his old college campus.
“I was very close with (USC coach) Mike Gillespie, so I was able to get some pretty good information on what kind of person Ian was – and what kind of a competitor he was. That part of it was huge,” said Oppenheimer, who had played for Gillespie’s USC predecessor – the legendary Rod Dedeaux. “Watching what Ian had done for Team USA added to the comfort level of knowing what kind of a pitcher this kid was.
“I kind of had an idea that he was going to get to us. You’re always sweating it out a little bit when other teams are drafting, but with Ian … we just felt it was going to turn out our way.”
Twenty slots later, the Yankees stayed at the major-college level in selecting University of Nebraska right-hander Joba Chamberlain.
“Joba was a guy we had really close to 21,” Oppenheimer said. “A lot of teams had questionable medical on Joba, but our people were satisfied that his medical was fine, that he was going to be able to be durable, and that he’d be solid.
Inside The Draft Room: The 2009 Angels
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.
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.”
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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. 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 2005 Red Sox
Put on a scouting director hat and ask yourself this question: Do you want your team to do poorly so you can have the maximum number of opportunities to select a premium draft pick, or do you want your team to win – knowing all the supposed “top of the line” talent will already have been taken?
The question is purely rhetorical. For the person directing the draft and all the scouts out scouring for talent in the smallest of towns, the ring is the thing.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t win and have fun on the scouting side, too.
In 2004, the Boston Red Sox – down 3 games to 0 in the American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees – rallied to win their final eight postseason games in eliminating the Yankees and sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals. In the process, they won their first World Series since 1918.
On paper, if no free agents switched clubs, the Red Sox would have picked 28th overall in the ensuing 2005 amateur draft – with a second pick coming in at No. 58. But baseball isn’t played on paper. After the annual free agent signing frenzy, the world champs lost Orlando Cabrera, Derek Lowe and Pedro Martinez, and now – thanks to compensation selections and supplemental picks – found themselves with six draft choices from No. 23 to No. 57.
So … to the victors did go the spoils.
Oh, there’s just one thing. They were about to restock with a first-time scouting director.
– – –
In November 2002, Theo Epstein – just 28 years of age at the time – was named general manager of the Red Sox. Earlier that year, he had joined the organization as the assistant GM after coming over from the San Diego Padres.
During his time in San Diego, Epstein struck up a friendship with Jason McLeod, a former minor league pitcher who began his Padres career as a Community Relations intern in 1994 – before moving over to Stadium Operations that winter and to the Baseball Operations Department in the fall of 1995 (Epstein had joined the team earlier that year). McLeod’s time with the Padres later included three years as a minor league coach, a return to the front office as the assistant director of scouting and player development, and two years as an area scout in Southern California.
Epstein brought McLeod to Boston as an associate scouting director in the fall of 2003, assisting David Chadd. After the Red Sox won the 2004 Fall Classic, Chadd moved on to Detroit to become the Tigers’ vice president of amateur scouting – and McLeod was promoted into the scouting leadership position. Epstein wasn’t concerned about inserting his former Padres cohort into that role despite McLeod’s relative lack of experience in the draft room.
“Jason and I grew up together in the Padres organization,” Epstein said in an email, “so I knew he could really evaluate and was a great leader.
“It was a seamless transition because Jason had worked with us in 2004. The entire organization was focused on the draft with all the picks we had, and Jason did a great job as always leading the department. We had a lot of fun all scouting season and in the draft meetings.”
McLeod acknowledges that he didn’t have a boatload of experience from a draft-day perspective when he took over.
“In ’04, I was instilling and re-doing the processes of it,” McLeod says. “David was absolutely the scouting director; he was pounding it out on the road. But from the front office side of things, we were kind of co-directing that department that year.
“During my time in San Diego, I had sat in on many draft meetings, but I hadn’t been in the director’s seat or calling the shots or instituting processes or things like that until I got to Boston.”
The Red Sox had broken the curse. Now, just a few months later at their January scouting meetings, McLeod was presiding over the group and putting a game plan into place.
“There was a lot of excitement, obviously, coming off the World Series year,” he says. “For those of us in amateur scouting, we were just as excited knowing that we had two first-round picks and three sandwich picks. We felt that we were going to get a couple impact players with the volume of picks that we had. And coming out of the prior summer – after scouting the Cape, scouting the Team USA juniors – we knew that it was going to be a really good draft.
“We told our guys, ‘Let’s get after it and go crush it and find as much impact and upside as we can.’”
– – –
The top tier of the 2005 draft was considered to be very deep, and the results continue to speak for themselves.
Eight of the first 12 selections have appeared in the All-Star Game. Five of the first seven – Justin Upton, Alex Gordon, Ryan Zimmerman, Ryan Braun and Troy Tulowitzki – have career WAR above 25.0.
The Red Sox knew they had no chance of landing any of those five – or high school outfielders/future all-stars Andrew McCutchen and Jay Bruce, who went 11-12. But there was still a lot of talent out there to be had. Boston had the No. 23 and No. 26 selections in the first round – along with the Nos. 42, 45 and 47 slots in the supplemental round. The team’s second-round pick was No. 57 overall.
The key was to be prepared for anything and everything. Back in 2005, the draft was conducted via a conference call – and there was very little time between picks.
“At that time, we did a lot of mock drafts,” explains McLeod, who is now the Cubs’ senior vice president of scouting/player development. “We would run a mock draft where different scenarios were happening. I think at that time we maybe had 30 seconds before the next pick. So we ran a lot of simulations in the room. Theo liked to try to set up scenarios where … there were 12 of us in the room, and he’d set up scenarios and go worst case. I’m sitting there watching the board, and he’d set it up and say, ‘Now this guy and that guy are gone. Where are you going here?’ And he put you on a timeclock. We probably did that about five or six different times where we ran those simulations.
“We felt good about the information that we had. We felt good about the performance metrics we were looking at, and about how we had the board stacked. So at that point, let’s run the simulations. ‘Now, he’s gone. Now these two guys are gone.’ We also ran some where we knew there would be no way the board would fall that way, but if it all blew up, ‘Now where are you going? Why are you doing that?’ So you do those things prior to draft day. You trust the process and you trust the preparation.
“At the same time, just like every draft year … as the pick is getting close, there is some anxiety and anticipation that you feel. But again, you just trust your process. You do all the work to be prepared for every situation.”
– – –
By draft day, the Red Sox had narrowed their focus to three collegians for the No. 23 selection – Oregon State outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury, Arizona outfielder Trevor Crowe and Texas A&M shortstop Cliff Pennington.
“We spent so much time talking about those three players in particular, because we were really hopeful that one of them got to us,” McLeod said. “We spent an inordinate amount of time in the weeks leading up to the draft meetings on them. We kept stacking them and stacking them and talking about their strengths and weaknesses.
“The funny thing about Jacoby … that year, he had such a great year, and I saw four or five of his games – and he probably had his worst games when I was there. I actually took Theo to a game at the University of Washington when the Red Sox were in Seattle. Of course, Jacoby’s first two at-bats, he was 0-for-2 – and Theo was like, ‘Jason, you’re not allowed to watch his next at-bat. You’re bad luck. Please, turn around or something.’ So I literally turned around and heard the crack of the bat; I turned back and the ball was in the gap. Theo and I are standing down the third-base line, and I remember watching this kid round second turning on the afterburners as he’s coming into third. It was just something. You watch a lot of games and see a lot of fast guys, but then you see stuff that makes you say ‘Wow.’ That was one of those moments, just watching this guy fly around the bases. So I knew I wasn’t totally bad luck. I was in the ballpark. I didn’t see the contact, but at least I heard it.
“I literally saw him go 2-for-15 in a year that he hit over .400 and had an on-base of almost .500. But our scouts were so convicted on him – from the area guy (John Booher) to the regional guy (West Coast cross-checker Fred Peterson) to our national cross-checker (Dave Finley). They were all like, ‘This is our guy. This is it.’
“He was already doing the things that we were looking for … the ability to get on base … the fact that he was an outstanding athlete who was going to play in center field … he had a low K (strikeout) rate. My question was just going to be the strength. I remember seeing him in the Cape, and I was worried a little bit about how the ball was going to come off the bat.
“But there’s a really good story from that year. Oregon State was down at the University of San Diego, and it was one of the only days in the history of the University of San Diego that they actually had a rainout. San Diego’s coach, Rich Hill – who we had a really good relationship with – was gracious enough to let us work out Jacoby. So a couple of our scouts got to see him hit in the cage. Then they took him up to the Jenny Craig Pavilion, and there’s Jacoby Ellsbury throwing down gorilla dunks for our scouts – showing them his explosiveness and his athleticism. I wasn’t at that workout, but our cross-checker just called me and was blown away with the explosiveness in Jacoby’s body. He was like, ‘You will not believe what Jacoby just did.’
“If you looked at his performance, all the makeup we got on him, the fact that we felt that he was going to be ultra-disruptive on the bases … we thought he was going to be a shutdown center fielder. All of that aligned with someone that we absolutely wanted to bring into the organization. That’s why we liked Pennington. That’s why we liked Crowe. They were all these dynamic athletes that played in the middle of the field.”
Crowe went No. 14 to Cleveland. Pennington was chosen at No. 21 by Oakland. The Marlins, drafting after the Athletics and before the Red Sox, selected high school second baseman Aaron Thompson – and Ellsbury was Boston-bound.
McLeod literally had about 30 seconds to breathe. Houston was on the clock (selecting Brian Bogusevic), then came Minnesota (Matt Garza). It was now time to make another decision.
Inside The Draft Room: The 1998 White Sox
Duane Shaffer was involved in many facets of the game during his 36-year stint in the Chicago White Sox organization. He was a pitcher, coach, roving instructor, manager, area scout, supervisor and scouting director after being selected by the club in the 11th round of the 1969 draft.
While he is the answer to the trivia question of “Who was manager Tony La Russa’s first pitching coach?” – Shaffer performed those duties for LaRussa at Double-A Knoxville in 1978 – he is best known in baseball circles for overseeing 17 White Sox amateur drafts from 1991-2007.
“I was fortunate enough to work for Jerry Reinsdorf during most of my time there,” said Shaffer, who is now a pro scout with the San Diego Padres. “He afforded me the opportunity to do pretty much anything I wanted to do. He was a tremendous owner. He was a great guy to work for, and I don’t want that to go unsaid. I appreciate what he did for me when I was there.”
Shaffer’s finest hour as the scouting director – and his greatest opportunity to thank Reinsdorf – took place in 1998, when his draft netted two of the most important pieces on the White Sox’s 2005 World Series championship club.
Heading into that draft, Shaffer had plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the White Sox’s draft position. Although the team wasn’t selecting until the 16th spot, Shaffer was certain that the guy he wanted was going to be sitting there for the taking.
The White Sox also received a supplemental first-round pick (No. 35 overall) and an extra third-round pick due to losing free agent outfielder Dave Martinez – who signed with Tampa Bay.
In 1998, Chicago’s first four selections – Kip Wells, Aaron Rowand, Gary Majewski and Josh Fogg – all went on to see extensive big league action, appearing in a combined 38 major league seasons. That in itself merits attention. But it was a 38th-round draft-and-follow selection named Mark Buehrle that turned this into an outstanding draft for the White Sox.
– – –
On the day of the draft, Shaffer’s plan was to select a college pitcher at No. 16 who could get to the majors quick. The player at the top of his draft board was Kip Wells, a right-hander out of Baylor University.
“Kip Wells was the guy we knew had the best chance of being there when we picked,” Shaffer recalled. “Obviously, you had 15 other guys in front, but doing your homework, you have a good idea who they’re going to take prior to you picking. When it came down to that, he was the guy that we wanted.
“He was a guy that you watched pitch, and he was 91-to-95. Good breaking ball. Had a decent feel for pitching. I saw him pitch a few times that year, and I recollect taking Ron Schueler, the general manager, to go see him. This was at the University of Arizona, down in Tucson. We went over and sat down the third-base line and watched him pitch six or seven innings. He was very impressive. You watched the ball come out of his hand. You watched the breaking ball – and the ease in which he did it. He was a big, loose, lanky kid that just impressed you watching him go about his business. He repeated that on a regular basis. That’s who we targeted.
“As it got closer to our turn, Jeff Weaver – who we had drafted the year before (second round in 1997) – went to the Tigers at No. 14. Then Clint Johnston went right in front of us – he was a Vanderbilt kid, left-handed pitcher, who the Pirates picked. Kip was sitting there for us when we picked. Actually, it ended up being a Kip Wells/Brad Lidge discussion when we got down to it. And we ended up selecting Kip.”
It turned out to be an immediate gratification selection, as Wells was in the majors by the end of the following season. In total, he pitched 12 major league seasons – mostly as a starter – with nine different teams. Lidge, meanwhile, was a big league reliever for 11 years.
Looking back, it’s hard not to notice that four of the 10 players selected immediately before Wells did not see a day in the majors.
Looking back, it’s also hard not to notice that four picks after Wells, the Indians selected a high school left-hander by the name of CC Sabathia.
“I went up and saw Sabathia, and he was a good-looking kid,” Shaffer said. “Hindsight is 20-20, obviously, and you’d love to have him. The problem is we thought he might have trouble throwing a breaking ball. At that particular time, we didn’t want to take a guy who had one pitch in the first round. We thought about him and we talked about him – he was a big strong kid – but we weren’t convinced as a group that he was going to have a really good breaking ball. He ended up doing it, obviously. So if you want to say we missed, yeah, we missed. But I’m happy with Kip Wells and I thought he was a good pick at that time.”
As the draft moved into the supplemental round, the future heart-and-soul of the White Sox’s 2005 championship team was there for the taking. And Shaffer was more than happy to take Cal State-Fullerton outfielder Aaron Rowand at No. 35 overall.
“When he got to us with that pick, I was extremely happy to get a kid like him,” Shaffer said. “I knew the physical tools, but it was the mental side for him. He was going to make himself a big leaguer – no matter what. This kid had tremendous determination to be a good major league player.
“You might ask why I didn’t take him first, and the answer is because I didn’t have to. I knew the market. I knew what was in front of him … I knew what was behind him. When he was there for the taking as the supplemental pick, we were extremely happy – because we knew we were getting a gamer, one of those guys that loved to put the uniform on and do whatever he could do to help a ball club win. Aaron was always like that.
“I just had a really good feeling about him … the way he went about his business … the competition level he played against and excelled in at the Division I level at Fullerton. He was one of those guys … you look at him, and you know this guy is a big leaguer.”
Rowand spent five seasons with the White Sox, two with the Phillies and four with the Giants, earning a pair of World Series rings (2005 with the White Sox and 2010 with the Giants).
Shaffer’s next two selections – right-handed pitchers Gary Majewski (St. Pius X High School in Houston, No. 59 overall) and Josh Fogg (University of Florida, No. 89) – had solid but unspectacular big league careers.
Majewski was a reliever with Expos, Nationals, Reds and Astros from 2004-2010, appearing in 231 games.
“Gary was a good-arm kid. He could let it fly. That’s what we liked about him,” Shaffer said. “Good loose arm, and the ball came out of his hand extremely well. Good, live fastball. This is the separator for me when you talk about the high school kid vs. the college guy at this point. His breaking ball wasn’t great; it was OK. He’d show you flashes. At that particular time of the draft, that’s when you might take a chance on a high school kid. Do you think he’s going to get a good breaking ball? Fortunately for us, he ended up developing a decent breaking ball, and he turned out to be a solid-average major league relief pitcher.”
Fogg had a cup of coffee with the White Sox in 2001 before being traded to the Pirates – along with Wells – as part of a five-player deal in which starter Todd Ritchie was acquired by Chicago. Fogg was mostly a starter with the Pirates, Reds and Rockies from 2002-2009 – with five double-digit victory campaigns to his credit.
“Josh Fogg showed you a good idea of how to pitch,” Shaffer said. “90-to-93. Good off-speed stuff. Repeated well – and that’s the part of it I liked the most. He was a great competitor, and he would be facing the University of Miami or whoever it was – and he’d just handle it as well as he could. He knew when and how to make pitches. I really liked the way he went about his business. And I thought that translated well into a major league pitcher.
“These are the kind of guys that we emphasized as you got down into the draft – and I know the third round is not deep. But at that particular time, when you had multiple picks or supplemental picks, the third round was farther down than it might sound. I liked Josh. I thought he was a good competitor. When he was on the board when we picked right there, I thought that was a good pick. He was a college guy we thought could move fast.”
Inside The Draft Room: The 1997 Blue Jays
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. Chuck has previously contributed to MLBTR’s Draft Prospect Q&A series and spearheaded MLBTR’s College Series, in which he spoke to numbers general managers and assistant general managers around the game about their time in college and their paths to a Major League front office.
It’s early on a Wednesday morning in February, and Tim Wilken is well into the amateur scouting season.
In most parts of the country, high school and college baseball teams are still a couple weeks away from getting on the field. But at this point in the year, Wilken has already been to Puerto Rico for a showcase and to Fort Myers, Fla., for a junior college tournament – as well as multiple scouting missions to the Dominican Republic.
This is the 39th consecutive year that Wilken – a special assistant to the general manager with the Arizona Diamondbacks – has been involved in baseball’s amateur draft. In his current role, he works closely with Arizona scouting director Deric Ladnier and anticipates seeing anywhere from 150-190 players for the upcoming draft. Prior to joining the Diamondbacks, he spent 10 years with the Cubs, three with the Rays and 25 with the Blue Jays.
Major League teams started putting together their 2017 draft coverage last summer, sending scouts to watch high school showcases, high school tournaments, the Cape Cod League, Team USA, and other events. As the summer turned to autumn, there was plenty of collegiate fall ball – along with a fair share of pro scouting days. Throw in some pretty significant junior college tournaments in January, and it’s easy to see that the draft is a year-round process.
Wilken began his Blue Jays career in 1979 as an area scout and was named national crosschecker in 1989. He was promoted to scouting director in 1995, and – during his first year in charge of the Blue Jays’ draft – the club picked seven players who would reach the majors, including Billy Koch and Casey Blake. It was a precursor of things to come.
“The first draft was a wild one,” Wilken recalled. “I’d been involved in six drafts before as the national guy and had a pretty strong hand in those drafts. But when it’s your turn to make the call, it’s a little bit different.”
The first draft was a launching point. But Wilken’s second draft really stamped him as a scouting director to keep an eye on. Looking back at it 20 years later, Toronto had the best draft class of 1997 – a draft class worth praising.
The truth: “Only” four players selected by the Blue Jays in that year’s draft went on to reach the majors. Four others – who were picked by the club but returned to school – eventually reached the big leagues after being chosen in later drafts by other clubs.
The reality: “Only” is a poor word to use. Having four players from one draft reach the majors is a solid accomplishment.
The facts: Those four players – Vernon Wells, Michael Young, Orlando Hudson and Mark Hendrickson – each saw action in at least 10 major league seasons. Wells, Young and Hudson had multiple All-Star game appearances and received big league hardware (eight combined Gold Glove Awards, a Silver Slugger for Wells, a batting title and an All-Star Game MVP for Young). Hendrickson, a 6-foot-9 left-hander, pitched for five teams over 10 years – after seeing action as a power forward with four NBA teams.
When you add it all up, those four players appeared in a combined 50 seasons of major league action.
“When evaluating drafts, that has to say something for that particular draft and that particular team,” Wilken said. “You’re always grading scouting departments on performance, but when you get four guys giving you that much time in the big leagues – that should count for something. You might have a year where you put 10 guys in the big leagues, but that might be 21 total years of service. You’re paying for quality, not just for getting guys there.”
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The Blue Jays’ scouting staff was facing obstacles as the 1997 draft approached. The Labatt Brewing Company – the majority owner of the Blue Jays since their inception in 1976 – had just completed the process of selling the team, and finances were not as available to Wilken as they had been during previous drafts.
The Blue Jays – winners of back-to-back World Series in 1992-1993 – had struggled over the few years following those championships while an ownership transition was taking place. A 74-88 campaign in 1996 gave Toronto the fifth overall selection in the ensuing draft. Meanwhile, in an attempt to become relevant again at the big league level, the team made an off-season splash – signing right-hander Roger Clemens. As a result, Toronto gave up its second-round pick as compensation for the free-agent signing.
“Our budget for the draft was compromised; a lot of people thought the Blue Jays were still operating on a big budget, which we weren’t,” Wilken said. “We weren’t necessarily looking for a deal in the first round because we were picking in the five-hole, but at the same time we weren’t super-equipped to take on a monster sign if one of those style players had fallen to No. 5. We had to stay as close as we could to the budget.”
Those “monster sign-style” players – Rice pitcher Matt Anderson, Florida State outfielder J.D. Drew and UCLA third baseman Troy Glaus – were taken 1-2-3 as expected by Detroit, Philadelphia and Anaheim. If any of the first three had dropped, Wilken would not have been prepared to deviate from the plan.
“I don’t think we could have come up with the money – because those three were going to get a fair amount more than we could afford,” Wilken explained.
As the draft got closer and closer, Wilken’s plan was to select a two-sport prep star out of Bowie High School in Arlington, Texas, by the name of Vernon Wells.
There had been a lot of talk that Wells and another player who would later be selected 26th overall (outfielder Darnell McDonald, by Baltimore), would be heading to the University of Texas to play football. The more Wilken and the Blue Jays’ scouting department saw Wells play, the more they knew he was their type of guy. In the eyes of the draft prognosticators, though, Wells was not thought to be a Top 20 pick.
“We thought Vernon would be the right move for us. He was a true center fielder,” Wilken said. “He was just a natural player, and he was way ahead of himself mentally. (Toronto general manager) Gord Ash left the night before the draft and flew down to Dallas – and negotiated with Vernon and our area scout, Jim Hughes. After talking to him, Gord knew that there would be an excellent chance that we would sign him the next morning.”
Once the first three picks went as expected, only one team could prevent Wilken from selecting Wells: San Francisco.
“We didn’t know what the Giants were going to do,” he said. “I think we all knew who the first three picks would be, but no one knew what was going to happen at No. 4. The Giants were very tight-lipped, so we didn’t really know if we’d have our man.”
San Francisco selected Seton Hall pitcher Jason Grilli, and Wilken had his man.
“We took Vernon, and we paid him exactly what the slot was bonus-wise,” he said. “We thought Vernon was a true center fielder – and that he’d have a chance to hit. We thought he was mentally mature beyond his days, and that proved out – because he got to the big leagues at 20 years of age. We were honed in to him pretty good. There weren’t too many guys we would have taken over him – and definitely not the first three. Probably the only other guy you could argue that could have gone in that spot was Lance Berkman. We couldn’t have taken J.D. Drew at No. 5 with the money we had available.
“After we selected Vernon, I remember a writer saying that the Blue Jays had run away from their values and what they had done in years past – which had been taking the athlete-type guy. I thought that was a slap in the face to Vernon – since he was a pretty good athlete. As time went on, he showed that he was definitely a guy that should have been taken there.”
Wells, who made his big league debut in August 1999, developed into a three-time American League All-Star, a three-time Gold Glove Award winner and a 2003 Silver Slugger Award winner. He played in over 1,700 major league games for the Blue Jays (1999-2010), Angels (2011-2012) and Yankees (2013), batting .270/.319/.459 with 270 homers and 958 RBI.
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Somehow, Michael Young lasted until the fifth round of the draft. Somehow, despite being a kid out of Division I, it took Young four minor league seasons just to reach the Double-A level. Somehow, a late-season, two at-bat cup of coffee after a 2000 trade to the Texas Rangers’ organization proved to be the jolt that Young’s career needed.
The best way to sum up the somehows: Young was your classic late bloomer.
“It’s kind of funny … there wasn’t monster play on him,” Wilken said. “Michael was originally a center fielder and went to Bishop Amat High School in the L.A. area. He got a scholarship to go to UCSB (University of California-Santa Barbara), where he was learning how to play shortstop. He had this mentality – almost like a football player – in the sense that he’d run right through ground balls … he had a big motor. A lot of professional instructors will tell you that it’s easier to tone down a player than it is to perk him up, and he fit that mode that you want to see. He was a good baseball player. His tools did not actually punch you in the face, except that he had a tremendous arm. And I mean … tremendous. Probably a ‘7’ from short – and he threw better from center field.”
Wilken was referring to the 2-8 scouting scale, with an ‘8’ being Hall-of-Fame equivalent, ‘7’ being All-Star, and so on.
“I remember the first time I watched Michael play,” he said. “UCSB was playing against Westmont College – which was an NAIA school. Even back in 1997, you didn’t see a lot of Division I schools playing NAIA teams. He had the cycle by the fourth inning – and they won something like 26-2. In the fifth inning, he made an out, and all the players on the bench started booing him.
“Chris Buckley, one of my assistants, was with me. So was Billy Moore, who was one of our better area guys; he had gotten guys like Reed Johnson, Jay Gibbons and Chris Woodward for us in the late rounds of previous drafts. I remember Buckley leaning over and saying, ‘Geez Billy. If you don’t get this guy, I don’t think you’ll ever get a higher pick.’
“I would say if you were to ask the other 29 clubs what kind of power grades they had on Michael … at that time, it didn’t look like that swing path was going to play. I don’t know if anyone had ‘50’ power on him. But look at some of the years he had in the big leagues – with close to 70 extra-base hits. It shows you what kind of player he made himself. He learned how to close the hole in his swing.
“One thing that helped us was that UCSB was a little bit off the beaten path travel-wise. He wasn’t the easiest guy to see – especially when they played at home. Knowing he was making a position switch also helped us; I don’t think ‘raw’ is the right word for it, but not many can come into the infield from center field – which he did. We just kept watching him play, and we nonchalantly took Michael in the fifth round. You know the story from there.”
Young – who was traded to the Rangers as part of a July 2000 trade for Esteban Loaiza – didn’t become a big league regular until he was nearly 25 years old. He made an A.L. All-Star team for the first time at 27 – and went on to appear in seven Midsummer Classics, winning All-Star Game MVP honors in 2006. He won the A.L. batting title in 2005, a Gold Glove at shortstop in 2008 and went to two World Series. In 1,970 games for the Rangers (2000-2012), Phillies (2013) and Dodgers (2013), he hit .300/.346/.441 with 185 homers and 1,030 RBI.
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In Wilken’s first draft as Toronto’s scouting director in 1996, he used a 33rd-round pick to select a skinny high school kid by the name of Orlando Hudson. The Darlington (S.C.) High infielder opted to go the junior college route, spending one year at Spartanburg (S.C.) Methodist College.
Over that 1996-1997 school year, Hudson got a little bigger and a little stronger. When the baseball draft rolled around, Wilken once again chose Hudson – this time in the 43rd round.
“It shows you how smart I was, taking him in the 33rd round one year and in the 43rd the next year – and then he goes on to play 11 years in the majors,” Wilken joked. “We had a scout by the name of Mike Russell who originally drafted him his high school year, then a guy named Steve Williams joined us – and he continued the relationship with Orlando.
“Orlando was going to go to the University of South Carolina. Draft-and-follows don’t usually work out, but he had gotten a little bit bigger and a little bit stronger. We were able to put together the right combination of school and bonus. We had lost Ted Lilly a couple years earlier because we hadn’t gone a little bit further, and I said I wasn’t losing another player whose baseball ability we believed in.”
Wilken thought that if Hudson continued to get stronger, the contact would play up – which it did. The second baseman made two All-Star teams and won four Gold Gloves, seeing big league action with six teams from 2002-2012. In 1,345 games, he hit .273/.341/.412 – and the one-time skinny guy even homered 93 times.
“Orlando was a wonderfully animated guy who knew how to play the game. He was a ball yard rat,” Wilken said. “He always had good hands and a good-enough arm. He was a baseball player, but his strength hadn’t come in yet. At that point, he was a below-average runner – and that’s why he got to be where he was in the draft. As he got bigger and stronger, he started running better – and he was a good baserunner.
“He was just acutely aware baseball-wise – which is what separated him later on as he got stronger. It’s the same thing that happened with Chris Woodward a couple years earlier; he also was thin and underdeveloped at the time, but he was a really good baseball player with good hand/eye coordination. On top of that, Orlando was a switch-hitter. The foundation and the basis were there.”
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During his time in Toronto, Wilken was an important cog in the drafting of a solid core of players that included Wells, Young, Hudson, Casey Blake, Chris Carpenter, Carlos Delgado, Ryan Freel, Jay Gibbons, Shawn Green, Roy Halladay, Reed Johnson, Steve Karsay, Jimmy Key, Alex Rios, Shannon Stewart and Craig Wilson. But it was the draft class of ’97 that really put him on the map.
“Looking back, you can smile and say we did a pretty good job – but we were also fortunate at the same time, too,” Wilken said. “Vernon Wells, in the eyes of a lot of prognosticators, was considered a way-too-high pick at the time. Michael Young made himself better and became a pretty darn good player. If anyone truly believed Orlando Hudson would become as good of a baseball player as he did, then shame on us – especially me – for letting the guy get to the 43rd round. That’s kind of the purist in me.”
Throw in Mark Hendrickson’s 10 seasons on a big league mound, and “those four put 50 years in,” Wilken said. “We had great area scouts that made it all possible. I can sit back and smile and say, ‘Hey, our department did pretty good that year.’ It’s rewarding mentally to see what did happen.”
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.