I'm not entirely certain I see this as a good idea, but the White Sox have brought on former Bulls GM Jerry Krause to head their Dominican scouting system. Now, don't get me wrong, being a baseball lifer is hardly necessary in order to be a solid talent evaluator - and I'm not certain he's even going to be doing much/any actual scouting - but it's not often you see individuals cross that line in the professional ranks.
However, if Krause is being brought in as more of an operational specialist, that could indeed be a very good role, as those are the kind of skills that can be deployed across nearly any field of work. Given the many complexities of international scouting that is inherent in places like the Dominican where age fraud is common place, games are secondary, and signing-bonus-skimming sleaze balls are everywhere, putting a top-flight guy like Krause in place could really improve the results the White Sox are seeing from that country.
Insofar as Krause was with the Sox for years before he went to the Bulls, he's far from a stretch for this role. (He brought Ozzie and Greg Walker to the Sox among others.)
ReplyDeletePurely speculation on my part, but I suspect his real talent in scouting is having an eerily keen insight into the psyche of a player before going after them. Same could be said throughout his tenure with the Bulls. He seems to pride himself on finding those hidden diamonds among a group of a players, and not necessarily the most hyped or "obvious" talented players.
Bringing him back to the Sox won't have immediate impact, but he's a proven man in the realm of sports talent. I can't see any downside to his presence.
1) Well that's embarrassing!
ReplyDelete2) You definitely make a good point about character in athletes as an asset that can help them to progress, however it's a bit more difficult in his specific realm simply given how far away from the Majors most of these kids are and how much less information you have to work with.
This isn't like scouting a high school kid in the US where you have their HS coaches, AAU coaches, and scouts who've seen them for years. You're often left to trust (or not trust) the word of their trainers.