Washington Nationals rely on scouts-first approach, but take information from elsewhere too
From Adam Kilgore at The Washington Post on March 28, 2013, with mention of SABR members Adam Cromie and Samuel Mondry-Cohen:
Mike Rizzo, the general manager who grew up the son of a baseball scout and boycotts the movie version of “Moneyball,” may turn for advice to any number of voices within the Washington Nationals front office. He could ask the former big league manager, the 19-year major league catcher or one of several lifelong scouts. Or he may ask the former Allegheny College tight end and the English major from the University of Pennsylvania.
Rizzo has always trusted his experience and his eyes over numbers. But the Nationals have not ignored the statistical revolution that long overtook front offices across the sport, made clear by the spots at the table reserved for director of baseball operations Adam Cromie, 29, and baseball operations analyst Samuel Mondry-Cohen, 25, the two men who head the Nationals’ analytics department. The Nationals are a “scouting-first organization,” even in Cromie’s words. But they are not a scouts-only operation.
“Mike is very open-minded and has gone to great lengths to embrace the statistical side of it,” Cromie said. “It lends us a lot of credibility within the organization and lets us be part of conversations that I’m not sure a lot of other people who have our perspective are allowed to be a part of. While the scouts are always going to drive the decisions, it allows us to play a role where we can help to make sure other perspectives are heard.”
Read the full article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/nationals-rely-on-scouts-first-approach-but-take-information-from-elsewhere-too/2013/03/27/5681a1da-966d-11e2-8b4e-0b56f26f28de_story.html
Originally published: March 28, 2013. Last Updated: March 28, 2013.