NewsTribe plots changes in scouting
Club looking at new philosophy after disappointing yearBy Anthony Castrovince / MLB.com
11/11/09 4:21 PM EST
CLEVELAND -- Be it stateside in the scouting of amateur talent for the First-Year Player Draft or abroad in Japan and Latin America, the Indians are in the midst of some changes in personnel and philosophy in their scouting department. John Mirabelli, the Tribe's assistant general manager in charge of scouting, said the recent in-house evaluation of the organization following two drastically disappointing seasons prompted some shifts in thought. "It's something where the whole organization was under a comprehensive review," Mirabelli said. "We're not going to point fingers, but you've got to try to get better, and there's going to be changes when there's a new direction." For one, Mirabelli said the Indians will enter the 2010 Draft more willing to take sizable risks than in years past. That could involve the selection of more high school kids or players who will be looking for a big payday in the signing bonus department. "We're not going to change our personnel [in amateur scouting]," Mirabelli said, "We're extremely happy with Brad Grant and the guys on our scouting staff. But we'll look to make adjustments strategically and philosophically. Are there places in the Draft where we could take a little more risk? The answer is yes. It's a balance, but we can be a little bit less adverse to risk and take more chances than we've taken in the past." The Indians' past Drafts have been a popular target of criticism, and for good reason. The Tribe hasn't had a first-round or sandwich-round selection of major impact since CC Sabathia was taken in 1998. Jeremy Guthrie, who signed a four-year, $4 million big league contract after being taken in the first round in 2002, didn't succeed in the bigs until he went to Baltimore. Of course, the jury is still out as to whether the last three Drafts were successful on that front, and Mirabelli said he is happy with the direction the Drafts have gone in recent years. But he stressed the importance of increased risk tolerance. To most, the notion of risk in the Draft would tend to entail high school players with high upside but a longer Minor League timetable. "That's part of it," Mirabelli said. "Any 17- or 18-year-old comes with risk. You've got to have some more tolerance for that." Mirabelli said the Tribe will pay more attention to high-risk, high-upside players that might have been skimmed over in the past. The Indians, by virtue of an '09 finish in which they tied the Royals for last place in the AL Central, will have the fifth pick in next year's Draft. The signing bonus for that pick will likely cost the Tribe somewhere between $3 and $5 million, so there's inherent risk in the slot. "We're picking fifth for a reason," Mirabelli said. "We earned that pick. We owe it to everybody to take the best player with that pick [regardless of cost]." While personnel changes weren't made stateside, the Indians did make changes in Latin America and Japan. In Latin America, Ramon Pena was hired last week to replace Lino Diaz as the director of Latin American operations. Pena has been dismissed by both the Tigers and the Mets in the past three years, but he spent 21 years with Detroit and signed the likes of Francisco Cordero, Jair Jurrjens, Jose Lima, Fernando Rodney, Ramon Santiago and Juan Encarnacion. "When you can add someone with Ramon Pena's experience and track record of signing Major League players, we were just fortunate to get him," Mirabelli said. Diaz will remain in the organization working with Latin players, while Pena will be based in the Dominican Republic. The Indians feel having more of an everyday presence in that region will be helpful in the scouting and development of Latin players. "I think the overriding effect this has is we're restructuring to be in a more efficient and more effective place," Mirabelli said. "Having someone on the ground in the Dominican Republic, overseeing the day-to-day management of scouts, the people there and the operation, that was a huge factor in all of this." No scouting changes are being made in Venezuela, but the Indians will replace two scouts in the Dominican Republic. And Pena will draw up defined scouting territories, similar to the way the Indians divide up scouting regions in the States. Another personnel change was made in Japan, where the Indians were burned by the two-year, $6.25 million contract given to ineffective reliever Masa Kobayashi before the '08 season. Jason Lee, who scouted Kobayashi, will not be retained. He has been replaced by Dave DeFreitas, who will be the supervisor of Pacific Rim scouting. DeFreitas lives full-time in Japan and speaks Japanese. The Tribe will also hire two part-time scouts to cover Korea and Taiwan. "We've sort of learned our lessons a little bit on Kobayashi, and we have a better feel for what kind of stuff translates and what kind of pitchers can come over and have success," Mirabelli said. "The only way to do that correctly is to have someone who sees the guy all the time, day in and day out."Anthony Castrovince is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
