Seattle Times article blasts Mariners' front office, especially Zduriencik

[Fear The Chorizo]

upside is great, but I hope for Blengino's sake his list of players he was high on to draft includes at least some guys with sustained big league success...otherwise there's plenty of room to criticize him, too.

 

5th overall pics should probably do alot more than have a cup of MLB coffee - Rogers had a huge arm but also came from a cold weather climate with a limited innings load in high school. sounds good, but there should have also been durability questions for a guy like that - obviously those weren't as big of a concern as what they should have been.

 

so much of MLB success is the ability to control the mental aspects of the grind of a season and schedule - it's one of those factors that has to be extremely difficult to gauge or quantify statistically when evaluating draft-eligible players due to vastly differing levels of competition and experience...disappointing that talented guys like Salome and Braddock didn't have the makeup to succeed longterm.

 

Ford was fast, but you can't steal first.

 

As for Jack Z, he seems like a guy who worked well running a scouting dept. for a GM that understood his strengths at identifying quality hitters at various positions. Jack Z in the role of GM seems to be in over his head.

[TheCrew07]

upside is great, but I hope for Blengino's sake his list of players he was high on to draft includes at least some guys with sustained big league success...otherwise there's plenty of room to criticize him, too.

 

Perhaps I should have been more clear, he was scouting the NE, not exactly a hotbed of talent, it's like having the upper midwest, how many everyday MLB players are you going to get out of MN, WI, MI, IA, and IL in a given year?

 

As a scout all you can really truly gauge is talent, the rest is a gut feeling. Ford made the majors as an 18th round pick... after the first couple of rounds you are basically latching onto 1 thing... power, speed, arm strength, pitchability, whatever, and then hoping the guy develops the rest.

 

Rogers did have a big arm and has very solid character, I'm not sure how you predict future injury other than mechanics, but there is no consensus on good throwing mechanics around baseball. He wasn't the best pick in that draft, but I didn't have a problem with the pick and then still don't now. You have to take shot at legitimate talent if you want impact players, and with drafting players that young you're always going to have some big misses.

 

I lament picking Jungmann and Bradley when there was better talent on the board because they were "fast trackable" college guys. When we don't have any impact pitching talent can we really afford to spend picks in the upper half of the first round on guys who profile as 3s?

 

At any rate he did really well as a scout in that area, it's not like he can create legitimate talent out of thin air. I'm not thrilled about him turning on and spilling the beans regarding Jack Z, but that is what it is at this point. I will say that if this is 100% true and not just a matter of differing perspectives it's pretty damning.

[igor67]

My recollection of 'famous' scouts is that they usually end up with one guy to there name who is actually memorable. I'd love to see some scouting WAR data. It would be interesting try to adjust for the wide disparity in areas and opportunity.

[danzig6767]

Do you want the Brewers front office to look for a slap hitter to play firstbase instead of someone with power?

 

There is something between power with nothing else and slap hitter with no power. We don't have to settle for a .220 hitter just because he can hit a home run.

 

But it is still the firstbase postion, so i fail to see how that is an indictment of the front office for supposedly overvaluing power to much as both you and RightFieldCoder implied.

 

Plus, for as much as some complain that Melvin is just to obsessed with power over all else, it's not like the rosters of late have only been filled with a bunch of slow power hitters who can't do anything else. Over the last two years the team has finished 3rd and 1st in stolen bases. The roster has multiple athletic guys on it. In fact, last season the drop in power because of injuries and the Braun suspension hurt the offense more than anything else did. They went from 4th in home runs to 16th.

 

I'm no huge fan of either Ike Davis or Logan Morrison, especially if we'd have to give up anything of real value in a trade, but unless Hunter Morris can produce on the big league level, both guys or a healthy Hart would be upgrades over the garbage at firstbase last year.

[BallFour]

Plus, for as much as some complain that Melvin is just to obsessed with power over all else, it's not like the rosters of late have only been filled with a bunch of slow power hitters who can't do anything else. Over the last two years the team has finished 3rd and 1st in stolen bases. The roster has multiple athletic guys on it. In fact, last season the drop in power because of injuries and the Braun suspension hurt the offense more than anything else did. They went from 4th in home runs to 16th.

 

You could argue that the acquisition of Segura in the Greinke trade, instead of a player such as Cowart or Olt from the Rangers proved this. Not that I have any indication those guys were available. Also the organization saying Gennett is the leader over Weeks at 2nd heading into spring is a good sign although I would want to get out of the 2015 vesting option anyway possible..hopefully a more balanced approach is in store for the future. My hope is that Counsell is changing some philosophies in the FO.

[LouisEly]

5th overall pics should probably do alot more than have a cup of MLB coffee - Rogers had a huge arm but also came from a cold weather climate with a limited innings load in high school. sounds good, but there should have also been durability questions for a guy like that - obviously those weren't as big of a concern as what they should have been.

I don't know if it is durability or how he was developed. During his first full season he pitched 98 innings at West Virginia, however those were very heavy innings - 70 BB, 109 K, 12 HBP. That's a lot of pitches for 98 innings, and I don't think it did him any favors with preventing injury. If they had limited his innings more like they did with Odorizzi... who knows.

 

But I think the injuries that DM saw during his tenure to HS pitchers - Gold, Neugebauer, Jones, Rogers - could very well have had an effect on how they drafted.

[young guns]

And now this happens. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/mariners-prospect-taijuan-walker-isn-t-thrilled-losing-081352599--mlb.html

 

Some evidence of some dysfunction going on in Seattle. If both aren't traded before spring training I would be surprised. Seems like the FO already considers Walker and Franklin gone.

[Eye Black]

AUDIO: A portion of the Tony Blengino interview on MLB Network Radio

 

Blengino was a frequent email contact of mine back when he was the Brewers' Northeast Area Scout, I remember a wonderful evening with him at the New England Collegiate Baseball League All-Star Game in Newport, RI. While higher-up crosscheckers and front office staff made the final decision, Blengino was the big proponent behind the Mark Rogers selection, along with C Angel Salome, LHP's Zach Braddock and Steve Garrison, and OF Darren Ford.

Below is another interview with Tony Blengino for those interested. Blengino also recently wrote his first article for FanGraphs on The Cano Decade.

 

AUDIO: A Conversation with Tony Blengino (FanGraphs)