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Saturday, December 17, 2011

Nationals Insider: Nats still rely on pro scouts

The Altria Group, Inc. gets needed stock bump!

That’s in stark contrast to what’s going on right now in Baltimore, where new Orioles GM Dan Duquette revealed Friday he’s dismantling nearly his entire pro scouting unit and relying almost exclusively on video and stats to evaluate players from other major-league and minor-league organizations.

The anti-scout movement has become a bit of a trend in baseball in recent years, but the Nationals continue to operate the old-fashioned way ... for the most part. The club did eliminate its advance scouting position last year, choosing to prepare for upcoming opponents off video scouting rather than having a human scout filing reports from the road the entire season.

But that’s the only area in which Rizzo has gone with video over human eyes. He still employs several pro scouts, led by director Bill Singer and bolstered by a group of special assistants to the GM that includes time-tested scouts like Kasey McKeon, Bob Schaefer, Jay Robertson and Ron Rizzi.

Hey, when you spent most of your adult life scouting ballplayers in person, you’ve gotta continue to believe in the old-fashioned method of player evaluation.

Repoz Posted: December 17, 2011 at 02:34 PM | 3 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: minor leagues, nationals, prospect reports, sabermetrics, scouting

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1. jingoist Posted: December 18, 2011 at 02:45 AM (#4018722)

That wasn't much of an article; more like a long tweet.
Anyway, the author was silent on what, if any, statistical data used by Rizzo in evaluating personnel.
I wonder, does anyone here know if Mike "kinda, sorta, maybe, sometimes: believe in sabermetrics as a way of helping him put the best team possible on the field.
Obviously the jury is still out on his abilities as a GM, but I like his drafting accumen for pitching prospects.

2. Long John McCaine Mutiny on the Bounty (scott) Posted: December 18, 2011 at 02:50 AM (#4018725)

I can understand going to a heavily video intensive approach for major leaguers, but don't you need people to collate all that data and turn it into something players can use? And for minor leaguers, isn't this kind of dumb since you have far less in terms of data to work from?

3. The District Attorney Posted: December 18, 2011 at 02:53 AM (#4018728)

new Orioles GM Dan Duquette revealed Friday he’s dismantling nearly his entire pro scouting unit and relying almost exclusively on video and stats to evaluate players from other major-league and minor-league organizations.

This calls for a roundtable...

Seriously, though, that sounds like a bad idea. And imagine if Duquette did this in Boston?? The media response would be like when they declined to name a closer in '03, if not worse. Regardless of whether this ultimately works or not, the Duke is lucky he's in Baltimore where no one gives a crap, because he likely wouldn't be able to get it off the ground somewhere else.

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Saturday, December 17, 2011

Nationals Insider: Nats still rely on pro scouts

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