A little info on Laumann demotion

[MnSoxFan]

Silly season isn’t very funny for scouting directors

by Jim Callis

September 1, 2003

 

CHICAGO—In NASCAR, it’s known as the Silly Season.

 

The origins of the term are murky, but it’s used universally to describe the shuffling of drivers, team personnel and sponsors for the next racing year. Before one season is over, rumors swirl and alliances form for the next.

 

This summer, Silly Season has come to baseball—in particular to scouting directors.

 

It kicked off in July, when the White Sox demoted Doug Laumann to special-assignment scout. They’ve since given him no assignments. Five days later, the Blue Jays promoted Chris Buckley from scouting director to assistant general manager. Buckley, who made the transition from a tools/projection approach to a statistics/polish philosophy when J.P. Ricciardi became Toronto’s general manager, still will be involved with the team’s drafts.

 

Then in August the Angels fired Donny Rowland. Though Anaheim has gone from one of the most barren farm systems to one of the deepest under Rowland’s watch, GM Bill Stoneman said, “It just didn’t work out.”

 

More changes appear imminent. An American League playoff contender was expected to reassign its scouting director shortly after Baseball America went to press. A club in the National League postseason hunt was receiving inquiries about its position, though the team says it’s not open. One of the NL’s most successful directors also may soon be shown the door.

 

Maybe this should be called Open Season. Either way, scouting directors aren’t finding it too funny.

 

Laumann Made Sox Better

 

The White Sox say they made the change with Laumann, which they initially tried to spin as a promotion, for “the betterment of the organization.” Laumann has declined comment, but several other sources say his downfall came when he wanted to discipline one of his crosscheckers.

 

The scout has ties to higher-ranking people in the Sox front office, so Laumann was overruled. When he persisted, he lost his job.

 

It’s impossible to know for sure how good a draft is until five years or so afterward, but that has never stopped us from evaluating them in the short term. And the early returns on Laumann’s 2001-03 efforts look good.

 

His three first-round picks all show great promise. Kris Honel (2001) is the top righthander in the system. Lefty Royce Ring (2002) was the key player in the Roberto Alomar trade with the Mets. Multi-tooled Brian Anderson (2003) hit .388 at Rookie-level Great Falls before a wrist injury ended his summer. He’d be the club’s long-term answer in center field if Laumann’s 2002 second-round pick, Jeremy Reed, wasn’t batting .410 in Double-A in his first full season.

 

The combined total of bonuses for Honel ($1.5 million), Ring ($1.6 million), Reed ($650,000) and Anderson ($1.6 million) comes to $5.35 million—just $50,000 more than they paid for 2000 first-rounder Joe Borchard, who’s regressing as he repeats Triple-A.

 

Laumann’s drafts also produced the main prospects (Anthony Webster, Josh Rupe) in the Carl Everett deal with the Rangers. After Anderson this year, he also scored with second-rounder Ryan Sweeney, an outfielder with first-round talent, and fourth-rounder Robert Valido, who could be the best shortstop in the entire 2003 draft.

 

Granted, Laumann’s scouting staff deserves its share of the credit for all this apparent success. But how does replacing him better the organization?

[Guest JimH]

Two thoughts on this ....

 

First, is Laumanns old job going to be Ken Williams' new job after this season?

We've been reading from certain posters his reassignment will likely occur after the season.

 

Second, while Laumann deserves some significant credit, I don't see a lot of pitchers from his drafts shooting up the prospect charts. Granted, there are exceptions but it seems for all the draft choices the Sox spent on pitching, we'd see a few more being close to ready.

[MnSoxFan]

Interesting, I would doubt KW leaves the GM role. But one never knows.

 

Ring was moving very quickly, and to give Laumann a bit of support, we concentrated more on hitters than pitchers in his drafts. I just know our last 3 drafts beat the heck out of the prior 7, cept for the two years we had all the extra picks, and even in those years we made big mistakes. Dellaero as a 1st rounder, and that OF who played at Winston Salem for about 4 years from San Diego area who was supposed to be such a great HS hitter. Both of them were wasted.

[Guest JimH]

Brett Caradona, that was the OF who couldn't get past High A.

 

MnSF, yes, some of these drafts look better from the surface and also it's been obvious they've been concentrating on landing some college position players (generally cheaper to sign and closer to being ready).

 

The biggest failure of Sox scouting has been their inability to find a good SS. Their philosophy had always been to draft tons of pitching with the idea they could trade some of it for good position players.

 

They've had some bad injury luck with pitchers but I'd also question how they're moving these kids along. It seems we get quite a few guys whose arm hurts, velocity drops, etc. after being in our system for a short time.

 

Stumm, Purvis, Honel, Rauch are four who immediately come to mind.

 

I brought up the Ken Williams thing because it's been bandied about on this site that he'll step down (read: pushed out) because of his managerial skills. Whether that's true or not remains to be seen. There appears to be quite a bit of conflicting information in the media and in quotes from other GM's as you posted in another thread.

 

Either way, if a guy has authority over staff but can't discipline him due to politcal connections ... something is very wrong. If you supervise people you've got to have the authority to discipline them.

 

I don't know if the cross-checkers "connection" is Duane Shaffer, Williams, or what ... but either way, the whole thing smells bad.

[MnSoxFan]

Yes, I agree, it smells bad. I feel Laumann got hosed.

 

Another pitcher who lost MPH after we drafter him, Wyatt Allen.

[Guest JimH]

Yes, Wyatt Allen ... see, that's the type of thing that bugs me ... they knew his mechanics were all screwed up yet they thought they had the magic wand. Well, it's been two years now, the kid is 23 and he hasn't gotten past A ball.

 

Heath Phillips ... injury.

Brian Sager ... they've never been able to get him going.

Corwin Malone ... probably a case study for mishandling. They brought him along too fast and now he's had to take a big step back.

Dennis Ulacia ... same thing.

 

For certain, guys are going to get injured and it happens to all teams. But it really seems like lots of Sox pitching propects are either not too bright or they're being mishandled in some fashion. I'm not close enough to the situation to know exactly what it is, but it's frustrating to see some of these teams bring in young pitchers who actually contribute, i.e. a guy like Zambrano on the north side, vs. guys like Cotts. I mean, Cotts may turn out extremely well and here's hoping he does.

 

But geezus, you should've heard Bill Melton talk about him at the Sox season ticketholder party ... he said there was NO WAY a scout or minor league manager should've recommended him for promotion, given all the control problems he was having in AA. Melton said, and I agree with him, control problems get magnified big-time in the major leagues.

 

Ginter, Majewski ... two more high draft choices who don't appear to have what it takes. If I went through a yearbook or two, the list would be too long for one post!

[winninguglyin83]

don't forget Brian West.

 

There is another guy who has stalled. I believe Bajenaru also had arm problems.

 

The Sox positioned themselves for a great run in the early 1990s by drafting (in order) these first round picks

 

87 -- McDowell

88 -- Ventura

89 -- Thomas

90 -- Fernandez.

 

 

All college guys. All guys ready to make an impact in a year or two. All gamers.

 

Since then, the best Number One pick we've had has probably been Kip Wells -- and we all know what the GM that turned into.

 

The Eddie Pearson, Mark Johnson, Jeff Liefer and Jason Dellaero picks were all killers.

 

It is highly unusual to have a run of four picks such as the McDowell-Fernandez string.

 

But we HAVE to get more out of our first-round picks than we have for the last 10 years.

[Rex Hudler]

A lot can be said about Cotts, but I don't recall Bill Melton being here in Birmingham watching Cotts throw at all. Cotts control had indeed improved greatly before his promotion, so looking at his season stats weren't accurate of the way he was throwing when he was promoted. I know he didn't succeed in Chicago, but keep in mind after the 3rd start most people were encouraged and saw signs of progress. Then comes the Yankees debacle....

 

Malone, Phillips and Ulacia had nothing to do with mishandling. They just didn't get the job done. Some guys work hard to improve, some don't.

 

I know very little about Wyatt Allen, but I have heard from more than one person with decent baseball knowledge (and from UT at that), that they never thought he would make it. They alluded to mental make up. Not sure how accurate that is.... he did have a pretty good year, repeating High A.

[winninguglyin83]

There's no reason to give up on Cotts -- or even for Melton to be down on him.

 

Many, many pitchers struggle with control. Some figure it out. Some don't. It would be nice if the Sox could find the right formula (pitching coach) to help him turn the corner.

 

But I'm convinced he'll be back, perhaps by the middle of the 2004 season.

[Steff]

There's no reason to give up on Cotts -- or even for Melton to be down on him.

 

Many, many pitchers struggle with control. Some figure it out. Some don't. It would be nice if the Sox could find the right formula (pitching coach) to help him turn the corner.

 

But I'm convinced he'll be back, perhaps by the middle of the 2004 season.

Ahh.. Bill's just jealous that Neal's gettin all the chicks

 

 

 

On a serious note.. Laumann got the shaft on this one. IMO, there was no good reason for this to go down the way it did. The Sox have a long history of giving authority then cutting people off at the knees. Just more dirty laundry stentch in the air.

[MnSoxFan]

and do not lump Sager in this list of injured pitchers, we knew his history and took a big chance on him. I, for one, thought it was worth the chance, it did not turn out. Cannot blame the injuries on the drafting. Every team has em.

[MnSoxFan]

I just like that Laumann's drafts appear to have provided us with our best everyday players in a long time. We keep hitting them and draft lots and lots of pitchers and we will get our share to pan out. Just need to sign the kids who are unsignable or don't draft em.

[Chisoxfn]

Ginter, Majewski ... two more high draft choices who don't appear to have what it takes.  If I went through a yearbook or two, the list would be too long for one post!

I gotta disagree with you on Majewski. The guy is only 23 and has a hell of an arm and has pitched really good in Charlotte since the first month. Considering it was his first time in AAA, I'd say he had a pretty good year.

 

He routinely guns it in the mid 90's and when I saw him he looked like he had MAJOR LEAGUE stuff.

 

In regards to Ginter, I'd say he'll make it somewhere and will be productive. Not all first rounders become stars, you like them too, but getting production out of them is nice too.

 

I'm lost though, isn't Fontaine pretty involved in the drafts too? And why was Laumann canned. I haven't been around for the past couple days, had no access.

[MnSoxFan]

Laumann was demoted per the article I posted in the initial post in this thread. He wanted to discipline a scout and could not because the scout had contacts with the team in higher places (maybe Fontaine, KW, Monroe or Shaffer would be my guess). So they made Laumann a cross-scout again and have not given him one assignment. Fontaine is minor league coordinator (what KW used to do) and Laumann was scouting director, now Shaffer is scouting director again. He manned the 7 previous drafts before the last 3 that Laumann headed up. I think Laumann has done better.

[winninguglyin83]

Shaffer is the guy who really went to bat for Borchard. I'd say his future hinges on how Borchard performs the next two seasons.

 

Not sure what to think about Majewski. The Sox have traded him once and exposed him to the Rule Five Draft. That tells me they have serious doubts about his ability as a big-league pitcher.

 

But they also traded to get him back and moved him up in the system.

 

My guess is that he's a marginal prospect at best.

[MnSoxFan]

I agree Majewski is marginal, but I have a gut feeling about him, liked what Chisoxfn said about him. He has a shot.

[Chisoxfn]

I agree Majewski is marginal, but I have a gut feeling about him, liked what Chisoxfn said about him. He has a shot.

The entire inning he pitched in the game I was at he was at or around 95-97 and just had that closer mentality.

 

The people that see him everyday said he has the closers mentality and that he flat deals. His big flaw, if you call it one, is he goes right at the people.

 

MN, thanks for explaining that better on Lauman. I thought it was him in higher places and because he knew someone he got dropped. I knew that couldn't be so I figured the writer must of miswrote something or I zoned out while reading it.

 

Shaffer is a quality guy and I love Fontaine. I'm assuming Lauman kind of runs the draft and Fontaine overviews it and zeroes in on things and states the specific goals of the draft along with KW (Kind of an overhead thing; otherwise GM isn't too involved in those things).

 

I'd say Laumann has done a solid job and I'd say its pretty tick tack he got demoted because the other guy knew someone. I wonder what the other guy did.

[Guest JimH]

Majewski has the closers mentality, no doubt. His best pitch is the heavy slider. The thing I like about him best is he'll pitch inside, he's not afraid to knock batters off the plate or hit people if necessary.

 

This year, he allowed 62 hits in 72+ innings, struck out 72, walked 29.

 

29 walks in 72 innings is not bad but not great either ... one walk every 2.5 innings.

 

The issue is whether he'll be on the 40 man roster later this year or not ... I can see some other team taking a chance on a guy like him, much like Toronto did.

 

It would appear his big league future is as a setup guy, like Scott Sullivan is now.

He just doesn't appear to have the dominating stuff to be a closer ... his ERA was right at 4 (3.96 I think) and you'd like to see a lot lower than that.

 

He'll be 24 in early 2004 and you'd hope he'd be ready after 6 years in the minors.

[Jim Fainter]

One of you posters reminded me of something I had forgotten about. That is, when we traded Royce Ring for Alomar, a lot was made of the fact that the Mets are paying most of Alomar's salary for 2003. But we had just paid $1.6 large to Ring for his signing bonus a year earlier that is gone money.

[MnSoxFan]

Majewski ERA in 2nd half of season must have been outstanding, he was over 6 with quite a few innings.

[YASNY]

One of you posters reminded me of something I had forgotten about.  That is, when we traded Royce Ring for Alomar, a lot was made of the fact that the Mets are paying most of Alomar's salary for 2003.  But we had just paid $1.6 large to Ring for his signing bonus a year earlier that is gone money.

It was gone money when we gave it Ring. If he turned out to be a bust, it was still gone money.

[Rex Hudler]

Majewski ERA in 2nd half of season must have been outstanding, he was over 6 with quite a few innings.

Majewski will make the big leagues in my opinion. The question is, how long will he stay there?