Unhappy Scouts??

[SilentJames]

That's not what he said - he said it could be done with video and stats. Maybe he does.

If you think it's this obvious that he does (because, apparently, no one in their right mind wouldn't), what will be your response if/when he doesn't? Will you criticize DD and put in your sig?

Yes, if DD fails to appoint ML scouts prior to ST then I will criticize him. AND put in my sig for all the world to see.

I mean I thought that our scouts sucked? I thought that our scouting and development was the WORST? So DD "reassigned" the ML Scouts. I honestly do not think that DD will allow the team to have NO ML scouts when ST starts. Who cares if it IS a gentile push out the door? I mean I thought that we were all in pretty much agreement that our scouting system had major flaws in it and needed a major overhaul?

[allstar1579]

1. What you guys are failing to realize is that these scouts that are being reassigned are not all Major League "advance" scouts. Rather, they are general pro scouts whose job responsibility is to cover both major league and minor league teams for potential trades and acquisitions. By re-assigning them to the amateur side, the Orioles will essentially not cover any (or very little) professional baseball from the beginning of spring training until the day that the draft is completed in June. So you may want to re-think how smart this is when you have nobody scouting major league or minor league talent for acquisitions for the first half of the year. Not a good move...plain and simple.

2. Most of these scouts have not done amateur work in a long time, if ever. Add that to being disgruntled over the demotion and you have a situation that benefits nobody. It will do more to cloud up the amateur scouting process than it will to benefit it. Really these re-assignments are a gentle push out the door for scouts who are under contract already for 2012. If you are hell bent on forcing them out, just eat the money and let them go their separate way...why screw up things on the amateur side? Procrastination in the GM and Scouting Director hiring process created this situation, as Tony mentioned.

3. The poster that mentioned that most of the decisions you guys disagree with happen at pay grades well above amateur and pro scouts is absolutely right. While you guys are free to opine, very few have relevant insight into the inner workings of a scouting department. Decision makers (GM, Scouting Director, Farm Director) are the ones that should be held most accountable and are paid as such. Scouts like the ones involved in this reassignment are not very well paid and spend the bulk of their year traveling to remote locations to cover games and writing reports day and night at their hotels. Not quite the glamour job some make it out to be...and downright difficult on your family life.

Hope this clears up the picture some. While everyone is free to approve/disapprove of this move, it is important to understand the facts.

Great post. Also, kudos for being a member since 05, and making your first post here now

I know there was a mix of advance and just regular pro scouts, I'm interested to see what the ratio was a little bit, but I kind of get the impression he was gutting the department to bring in guys that he wants later. I hope I'm right, but I've had this weird feeling all morning that maybe he is seriously thinking about scrapping the entire dept.

Completely agree in the 2nd area, I've been wondering about this all day, it feels like it was a push out the door, but why not just make the move and let them go. Better to not have them here than to have them here miserable.

Thanks. I know most people chiming in on it mean well, but they just don't understand the ins and outs of scouting and the different assignments, they just tend to lump all scouts into one area and hold them all accountable, it's really not fair to them, especially at the lower levels.

Thanks for chiming in.

[wellsk86]

1. What you guys are failing to realize is that these scouts that are being reassigned are not all Major League "advance" scouts. Rather, they are general pro scouts whose job responsibility is to cover both major league and minor league teams for potential trades and acquisitions. By re-assigning them to the amateur side, the Orioles will essentially not cover any (or very little) professional baseball from the beginning of spring training until the day that the draft is completed in June. So you may want to re-think how smart this is when you have nobody scouting major league or minor league talent for acquisitions for the first half of the year. Not a good move...plain and simple.

As I have said before, what good have these "pro" scouts done for us? Bringing in overrated talent and washed up veterans? You cant put that all on McPhail, suggestions had to be made that they would be good acquisitions. It's time to reshape our scouting, and this is the first step

[nochance]

You honestly don't think that DD will hire more pro scouts between now and Spring Training? I mean really?

I would hope that he does, but we shall see, won't we? I am all for surrounding myself with my own people when assuming a job like his, but again...why muddy the waters by re-assigning these guys to the amateur side where they will have little to no value and could really just muddy the waters? Eat the money and let them find employment elsewhere.

What worries me more is judging by some of the quotes out there, it seems as though the new regime thinks that scouts can be replaced (or at least partially replaced) with video and stats. 29 other teams would beg to differ and use qunatitative data in addition to scouts in the field. Hope this is not the case here...

[allstar1579]

I think that half the reason he does it is food related. He is quite the foodie and writes reviews of the restaurants he visits on trips.

I am too, so I kinda like that part.

[allstar1579]

I would hope that he does, but we shall see, won't we? I am all for surrounding myself with my own people when assuming a job like his, but again...why muddy the waters by re-assigning these guys to the amateur side where they will have little to no value and could really just muddy the waters? Eat the money and let them find employment elsewhere.

What worries me more is judging by some of the quotes out there, it seems as though the new regime thinks that scouts can be replaced (or at least partially replaced) with video and stats. 29 other teams would beg to differ and use qunatitative data in addition to scouts in the field. Hope this is not the case here...

Yeah, the last couple days have had an eerie J.P. Riccardi feel, it's got my spidey-sense tingling a little bit. I'm holding out hope though, because he seems to be modeling things on the Red Sox front office, and their scouting department was a favorite of mine. I'm hoping for the best, but not a fan of some of the red flags so far.

[24fps]

1. What you guys are failing to realize is that these scouts that are being reassigned are not all Major League "advance" scouts. Rather, they are general pro scouts whose job responsibility is to cover both major league and minor league teams for potential trades and acquisitions. By re-assigning them to the amateur side, the Orioles will essentially not cover any (or very little) professional baseball from the beginning of spring training until the day that the draft is completed in June. So you may want to re-think how smart this is when you have nobody scouting major league or minor league talent for acquisitions for the first half of the year. Not a good move...plain and simple.

2. Most of these scouts have not done amateur work in a long time, if ever. Add that to being disgruntled over the demotion and you have a situation that benefits nobody. It will do more to cloud up the amateur scouting process than it will to benefit it. Really these re-assignments are a gentle push out the door for scouts who are under contract already for 2012. If you are hell bent on forcing them out, just eat the money and let them go their separate way...why screw up things on the amateur side? Procrastination in the GM and Scouting Director hiring process created this situation, as Tony mentioned.

3. The poster that mentioned that most of the decisions you guys disagree with happen at pay grades well above amateur and pro scouts is absolutely right. While you guys are free to opine, very few have relevant insight into the inner workings of a scouting department. Decision makers (GM, Scouting Director, Farm Director) are the ones that should be held most accountable and are paid as such. Scouts like the ones involved in this reassignment are not very well paid and spend the bulk of their year traveling to remote locations to cover games and writing reports day and night at their hotels. Not quite the glamour job some make it out to be...and downright difficult on your family life.

Hope this clears up the picture some. While everyone is free to approve/disapprove of this move, it is important to understand the facts.

I don't necessarily agree with bolded part. I doubt there's the assumption that any of the reassigned personnel are completely without value. Some of them could conceivably blossom in a new corporate environment and you can't determine that without seeing how they adapt to their new circumstances. And anyway, DD doesn't need to take forever to make up his mind. It occurs to me that he's probably still working with an inherited budget and possibly 2012's has been determined to the point where keeping on contracted employees for the duration of their contract is a fiscal necessity.

[Frobby]

1. What you guys are failing to realize is that these scouts that are being reassigned are not all Major League "advance" scouts. Rather, they are general pro scouts whose job responsibility is to cover both major league and minor league teams for potential trades and acquisitions. By re-assigning them to the amateur side, the Orioles will essentially not cover any (or very little) professional baseball from the beginning of spring training until the day that the draft is completed in June. So you may want to re-think how smart this is when you have nobody scouting major league or minor league talent for acquisitions for the first half of the year. Not a good move...plain and simple.

2. Most of these scouts have not done amateur work in a long time, if ever. Add that to being disgruntled over the demotion and you have a situation that benefits nobody. It will do more to cloud up the amateur scouting process than it will to benefit it. Really these re-assignments are a gentle push out the door for scouts who are under contract already for 2012. If you are hell bent on forcing them out, just eat the money and let them go their separate way...why screw up things on the amateur side? Procrastination in the GM and Scouting Director hiring process created this situation, as Tony mentioned.

3. The poster that mentioned that most of the decisions you guys disagree with happen at pay grades well above amateur and pro scouts is absolutely right. While you guys are free to opine, very few have relevant insight into the inner workings of a scouting department. Decision makers (GM, Scouting Director, Farm Director) are the ones that should be held most accountable and are paid as such. Scouts like the ones involved in this reassignment are not very well paid and spend the bulk of their year traveling to remote locations to cover games and writing reports day and night at their hotels. Not quite the glamour job some make it out to be...and downright difficult on your family life.

Hope this clears up the picture some. While everyone is free to approve/disapprove of this move, it is important to understand the facts.

If you don't mind my asking, have you been a scout, or do you know some of the scouts involved here? I only ask because you are a new poster and I can't tell whether you have information that most of us don't. Your post certainly suggest that you have detailed knowledge of how this has worked in the past, and how it will work now.

[Lucky Jim]

An answer, and an okay one:

New scouting director Gary Rajsich is going to want to build his own staff, so you can expect more changes to come after next season.

In the meantime, the Orioles will rely more on video and statistical analysis while evaluating players on other teams.

http://www.masnsports.com/school_of_roch/2011/12/changes-made-to-scouting-department.html

[allstar1579]

If you don't mind my asking, have you been a scout, or do you know some of the scouts involved here? I only ask because you are a new poster and I can't tell whether you have information that most of us don't. Your post certainly suggest that you have detailed knowledge of how this has worked in the past, and how it will work now.

He's definitely connected to the scene.

[Hank Scorpio]

1. What you guys are failing to realize is that these scouts that are being reassigned are not all Major League "advance" scouts. Rather, they are general pro scouts whose job responsibility is to cover both major league and minor league teams for potential trades and acquisitions. By re-assigning them to the amateur side, the Orioles will essentially not cover any (or very little) professional baseball from the beginning of spring training until the day that the draft is completed in June. So you may want to re-think how smart this is when you have nobody scouting major league or minor league talent for acquisitions for the first half of the year. Not a good move...plain and simple.

2. Most of these scouts have not done amateur work in a long time, if ever. Add that to being disgruntled over the demotion and you have a situation that benefits nobody. It will do more to cloud up the amateur scouting process than it will to benefit it. Really these re-assignments are a gentle push out the door for scouts who are under contract already for 2012. If you are hell bent on forcing them out, just eat the money and let them go their separate way...why screw up things on the amateur side? Procrastination in the GM and Scouting Director hiring process created this situation, as Tony mentioned.

3. The poster that mentioned that most of the decisions you guys disagree with happen at pay grades well above amateur and pro scouts is absolutely right. While you guys are free to opine, very few have relevant insight into the inner workings of a scouting department. Decision makers (GM, Scouting Director, Farm Director) are the ones that should be held most accountable and are paid as such. Scouts like the ones involved in this reassignment are not very well paid and spend the bulk of their year traveling to remote locations to cover games and writing reports day and night at their hotels. Not quite the glamour job some make it out to be...and downright difficult on your family life.

Hope this clears up the picture some. While everyone is free to approve/disapprove of this move, it is important to understand the facts.

Thank you for the information and welcome to OH.

[allstar1579]

Some comments. You haven't clarified whether or not you are a scout or have been one in the past, so most of your "facts" will have to remain opinion for now, like the rest of "us guys".

I don't know who it is. But I'm willing to vouch for him. Call it scout's instinct, but I'm pretty sure he's in the know.

[Lucky Jim]

Some comments. You haven't clarified whether or not you are a scout or have been one in the past, so most of your "facts" will have to remain opinion for now, like the rest of "us guys".

Wow. Snarky.

[SrMeowMeow]

Wow. Snarky.

[Stotle]

1. What you guys are failing to realize is that these scouts that are being reassigned are not all Major League "advance" scouts. Rather, they are general pro scouts whose job responsibility is to cover both major league and minor league teams for potential trades and acquisitions. By re-assigning them to the amateur side, the Orioles will essentially not cover any (or very little) professional baseball from the beginning of spring training until the day that the draft is completed in June. So you may want to re-think how smart this is when you have nobody scouting major league or minor league talent for acquisitions for the first half of the year. Not a good move...plain and simple.

2. Most of these scouts have not done amateur work in a long time, if ever. Add that to being disgruntled over the demotion and you have a situation that benefits nobody. It will do more to cloud up the amateur scouting process than it will to benefit it. Really these re-assignments are a gentle push out the door for scouts who are under contract already for 2012. If you are hell bent on forcing them out, just eat the money and let them go their separate way...why screw up things on the amateur side? Procrastination in the GM and Scouting Director hiring process created this situation, as Tony mentioned.

3. The poster that mentioned that most of the decisions you guys disagree with happen at pay grades well above amateur and pro scouts is absolutely right. While you guys are free to opine, very few have relevant insight into the inner workings of a scouting department. Decision makers (GM, Scouting Director, Farm Director) are the ones that should be held most accountable and are paid as such. Scouts like the ones involved in this reassignment are not very well paid and spend the bulk of their year traveling to remote locations to cover games and writing reports day and night at their hotels. Not quite the glamour job some make it out to be...and downright difficult on your family life.

Hope this clears up the picture some. While everyone is free to approve/disapprove of this move, it is important to understand the facts.

I generally agree with this. Especially the bolded.

Thinning coverage of the MiLB side of pro scouting department is certainly not a good idea -- particularly for a team with a couple of tradeable assets and a need to bring more talent into their system.