Kansas City Royals NewsNews » Five scouts who can break through as GMs |
| Five scouts who can break through as GMs | |
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 In the wake of the so-called resignation of Jim Bowden as general manager, Washington Nationals President Stan Kasten announced that he will be "in charge," but also turned to assistant general manager Mike Rizzo to help guide the franchise through a time of uncertainty. Rizzo, who as scouting director in Arizona provided the legwork for a minor league system that has become the backbone of Diamondback success, is considered to have an edge to become the eventual replacement for Bowden. He has been with the Nationals since they moved to Washington, D.C., from Montreal, and was able to avoid having his image tarnished by the Latin America problems that were Bowden's undoing. |
After going through a period in which it was trendy to hire a non-traditional type of exec, baseball would be wise to follow the lead of the Seattle Mariners in their offseason hiring of their new general manager, Jack Zduriencik, a long-time scout who oversaw drafting and signing the plethora of talent in Milwaukee's farm system.
Face it, with the megabucks deals, general managers are middlemen. It's the owners and/or club presidents who get involved in working out the details once the general manager and his staff have convinced the money men of the value a player has.
The premium for a general manager needs to be his ability to evaluate talent. And talent evaluation is what scouting is all about, both in terms of a gut feeling and a statistical analysis.
And think about who have been the most successful general managers in the last three decades? Pat Gillick and John Schuerholz both rose to the top with a strong scouting background. And what were Billy Beane and Terry Ryan doing before they took over in Oakland and Minnesota, respectively? That's right, scouting.
Over the years there has been a slew of quality scouting types who never got their chance to run an organization, such as Paul Snyder, Sandy Johnson, Gary Hughes and Roger Jongewaard.
Those mistakes cannot be undone.
But future mistakes can be avoided.
In addition to Rizzo, here are five scouts who have general manager potential:
Mike Arbuckle, the former Philadelphia scouting director, who lost out to Ruben Amaro, Jr., when the Phillies hired Gillick's replacement. Damon Oppenheimer, who grew up in the game. His mother was the long-time assistant in the scouting and farm departments in San Diego. He caught Randy Johnson at USC. And he has risen through the scouting ranks to become the man who runs the amateur department for the Yankees. Randy Bush is a former big-league outfielder, who coached at the University of New Orleans before taking a scouting job with the Cubs, which led to an eventual promotion to a role as a special assistant to GM Jim Hendry. Logan White's father was a roper on the professional rodeo cowboy circuit. Logan, meanwhile, has made his living on the road, too, only he has been looking to tie up talent, not calves, and has been the architect of the revival of big-league talent in the Dodger system. Eddie Bane is now running the scouting department with the Angels. A former No. 1 pick of Minnesota, the little left-hander out of Arizona State has worked his way up from an area scout to a scouting director. WHO IS THIS year's Tampa Bay? Could it be the Royals? The Royals would only have to win the AL Central, where there is no overwhelming favorite. They don't have to climb over the Yankees and Red Sox in the AL East.
And the Royals do have the bullets to shock the baseball world if everyone stays healthy and they get a break or two.
There's a foundation of a solid rotation with Gil Meche, Zack Greinke and Brian Bannister, a legitimate closer with Joakim Soria, and the addition of Coco Crisp to play center field allows David DeJesus to move to left — providing the depth of having a player of Mark Teahan's caliber to backup at the four corner positions.
In the NL, don't overlook the Giants. With that rotation — Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez, Randy Johnson and Barry Zito — the Giants know they are going to be in games.
Notes
Oakland catcher Kurt Suzuki is wearing No. 8 this spring. Suzuki gave up No. 24 because the A's will retire it in honor of OF Rickey Henderson, who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this summer. Henderson also is featured on the cover of the A's media guide ...
Pat Burrell, who was the highest-paid member of the Phillies last year at $14 million, left the defending world champions as a free agent, but the Phillies still saw their payroll increase to a projected franchise-record $130,844,098 this season, an increase of $26.7 million ...
Right-hander Roy Halladay has two years remaining on his contract with Toronto — $14.25 million this year and $15.75 next year. A contract extension is possible, but "nothing will happen until the offseason," he said. Halladay indicated he would like to remain with the Blue Jays, which originally signed him as a first-round draft pick. He, however, also wants to play for a team with a chance to win. The Jays chances of winning do rest on Halladay's right arm. Since he moved into the rotation on July 7, 2001, Hallday is 118-52. Since that date, the Blue Jays are 371-498 in games in which Halladay doesn't have a decision.
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Author:Fox Sports
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Added: March 11, 2009
