I Will Do My Best To Do My Duty

The WaPo finally writes the article I've been waiting for for the last six months: a look at the scouting department, what upgrades they've made, and why Nats fans should be so confident about the changes to the system. Read the whole thing, but here are some encouraging things:

In 1995, [Chuck Lamar] was hired as the general manager of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, a position he held until he was fired a decade later.

LaMar now considers that "a 10-year detour."...

"I am a scout," LaMar said. "I've always been a scout, and I always will be a scout."

Take that as you will, but anyone who read the SI piece claiming that Lamar was being considered as Bowden's replacement has to be breathing a sigh of relief! I know I'll be able to sleep tonight.

"The people who say the draft is a crapshoot are the people who aren't successful at it," [Ass. GM Mike] Rizzo said. "I think evaluating players is a skill. It's a talent. It takes experience. To call it a crapshoot really minimizes what successful teams do, and that's make informed, educated choices. I don't think it's luck that determines success. It's hiring the best scouts and trusting them."

My own belief is that a good scouting department can pick out more players than average who can give league average performance at below-market cost -- ie: good stopgap young players. The more you have of them, the more cash you have to spend on the truly elite players. Kids like Albert Pujols (13th round pick) or Mike Piazza (62nd round pick) ARE a crapshoot. Unless you have the #1 overall pick, you don't draft Hall of Famers. You get lucky.

Moose Stubing, who spent four decades with the Angels, came aboard last November as a special assistant to Bowden. "They gave me the title," he said at the time. "And they made it hard to resist."

Translation: They paid a more-than-competitive rate. "They just flat-out bought a lot of these people," said one source.

Damn cheap bastards.

[Scouting Director Dana] Brown said the club had little chance to do well in later rounds because its best scouts were spread too thin.

"Our depth in this draft will be way, way better than in the past," Brown said.

Brown did a good job with limited resources taking 'safe' picks, but he didn't necessarily have the resources to take the best players -- or at least the ones with the highest ceiling.

The point about depth is an excellent one, too. Those lower picks certainly can be a crapshoot, but every additional piece of data they have when making a decision, is going to increase the likelihood that they're making the right one.

It's encouraging news.

So much (OK, all) of "The PLAN!" is predicated on a strong, successful minor league system. I can still quibble with what they've done to the major-league roster this year, but it's impossible to find fault with anything in this; that's a damn good thing!