Blue Jay scouting staff grows again

In addition to promoting three current scouts – Matt Briggs, Dan Cholowsky and Tom Burns – to regional cross-checkers, the Jays hired four more staffers from other clubs. Gary Rajsich and Brandon Mozley join the Jays as cross-checkers, while Dan Cox and Brian Parker are the club’s newest scouts.

A former scout himself, Anthopoulos says bolstering the scouting staff shrinks each scout’s coverage area, ensuring less time spent travelling and more time spent working.

“We get to see players more often – more innings pitched, more at-bats,” Anthopoulos said. “We’ve added layers we didn’t have before.”

The recent hiring surge has given the Jays what Anthopoulos believes is the largest scouting staff in the majors. Where the Jays once had 10 pro scouts, they now employ 21. And where they once had 18 amateur scouts, they now have 33.

He hopes the new emphasis pays off in a couple of ways.

First, Anthopoulos says, the more baseball knowledge he can gather in the scouting department, the better the club will function.

“It’s not about the quantity (of scouts). It’s about the quality of the people we’re hiring,” he said. “I really want this organization to be a think tank, top to bottom.”

The plan is for the impressive collection of baseball brains to wring as much talent as possible out of next June’s amateur draft.

Anthopoulos says for most teams, each draft yields one above-average major league player. He hopes improved player evaluation can increase that yield to two, allowing the Jays to develop enough stars to compete with big-budget rivals like New York and Boston, even as top draft picks demand ever larger signing bonuses.

“I don’t think it comes down to signing bonuses,” he said, citing the success of 2006 third-round pick Adam Lind. “It comes down to evaluation.”

Even though the scouting staff has grown quickly, he doesn’t think its rapid expansion undermines his other main goal, promoting clear communication.

Anthopoulos says the restructuring actually promotes communication by simplifying the flow of information.

He says the squad of amateur scouts consists of 25 area scouts, split into groups of five.

Each group reports to one of five regional cross-checkers, who in turn report to one of three national cross-checkers.

Those three men all then report to newly hired scouting director Dana Brown.

mcampbell@thestar.ca