http://0rz.net/291pc
Jim Bowden, The Examiner
May 24, 2006 7:00 AM
WASHINGTON - When the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft begins at
1 p.m. June 6, we’ll hold our portion of the draft via telephone conference
call in our “War Room” on the fourth floor of RFK Stadium. The room, by the
way, will be about 45 degrees in the morning and by our first selection
should be around 68 degrees; by around 7 p.m. it will be about 90 degrees.
Unfortunately, the heating-air conditioning system still hasn’t been figured
out. No worries, though, the new stadium will open in a couple of years.
Getting back to the “War Room,” the reason we call it that is because the
disagreements over who we should take in each round far surpass the peaceful
agreements. It’s actually one of my favorite times. For our amateur scouting
director and his staff, it’s the culmination of a year’s work: traveling
from high schools to junior colleges to four-year colleges, plane flights,
cheap hotels, fast food and being away from your family. Then within 72 hours
it all comes to an end and you start on next year.
Many e-mailers ask me what it’s like in the “War Room”?
There is a long oval-shaped boardroom table surrounded by 15 chairs. I sit in
the middle directly flanked by Scouting Director Dana Brown on one side and
Director of Player Personnel Bob Boone on the other. Directly across from us
will be the regional cross-checkers, including Paul Tinnell and Mike
Williams. Assistant GM Tony Siegle will be in one corner handling financial
issues, liasion with the agents and serving as lead negotiator of the
selected players. Farm Director Andy Dunn will be in another corner, placing
the selected players to the proper minor league team. T.J Barra will handle
the video of all the players in the draft, making sure we can see everyone
being discussed and drafted. Jon Niednagel will advise us on brain imaging.
Michelle Copes will take the names off the board as they are selected and key
scouting supervisors like Bob Hamelin and Alex Smith will argue for their
players while Lee MacPhail and Nick Manno will provide additional reports,
statistics and sabermetric information.
Brian Parker, the assistant scouting director, makes sure everything is run
smoothly and will be the pivot man when additional information is needed from
our area scouts or the players and families.
The War Room has magnetic boards on every wall. The boards are filled with
different lists: our organizational draft list, rankings by position, each
personnel member’s personal preference list, signability lists, agent lists,
makeup rankings, medical concern lists and system needs.
Brown will make the final call on all picks, with tremendous input. Boone
will have the most significant input in the first five rounds. I’ll have
strong input on the first round with hopes that we can all agree on who to
take with our pick, as we did last year with Ryan Zimmerman. It works much
better when we can all agree, especially on the first few rounds. But it’s
also unrealistic in most cases.
Our philosophy is to take the best player, emphasizing starting pitching and
middle-of-the-order impact hitters who also are solid defensively.
We have two first- and second-round selections. We have done our homework,
now it’s time to select the right players.
2006 MLB DRAFT
When: Tuesday, June 6
FIRST ROUND ORDER
1. Royals
2. Rockies
3. Devil Rays
4. Pirates
5. Mariners
6. Tigers
7. Dodgers
8. Reds
? 9. Orioles
10. Giants
11. D-backs
12. Rangers
13. Cubs
14. Blue Jays
? 15. Nationals
16. Brewers
17. Padres
18. Phillies
19. Marlins
20. Twins
21. Yankees
? 22. Nationals
23. Astros
24. Braves
25. Angels
26. Dodgers
27. Red Sox
28. Red Sox
29. White Sox
30. Cardinals