Nationals Farm Authority

This morning, I had the opportunity to speak with the Nationals new Director of Player Development Doug Harris. Harris joined the Nationals on October 15 in a role overseeing the Nationals minor league affiliates.

First a little bit of background … Harris started his professional career in 1990 as a 4th round draft pick by the Kansas City Royals out of James Madison University. He spent seven years pitching in the minor leagues for the Royals, Baltimore Orioles, and Florida Marlins. Shoulder reconstructive surgery ended his playing career but set the stage for a future that has lead him to Director of Player Development.

Harris told me that Jeff Taylor, a scout who crosschecked him out of college, helped get his start as an area scout for the Texas Rangers in 1997. “In fact, I started my scouting career with my arm in a sling [from shoulder surgery],” he said.

He spent the next twelve years working first as an area scout, responsible for scouting a specific area of the country (in this case the Delaware/Maryland/West Virginia/DC areas). It was during this time that Harris signed his most notable player for the Rangers, Kevin Mench. Mench was a 1999 4th round draft pick out of the University of Delaware. He eventually moved up to the role of East Coast Crosschecker, overseeing the scouting and following up on players identified in the East Coast region for the Texas Rangers. During his time with the Rangers, he was part of a scouting department that turned the Rangers from a bottom tier system to one of the best in the majors.

After the 2008 season, he moved onto the Cleveland Indians as a Major League Scout/Advance Scout. It was role that saw him travel around both the majors and minors with stops in places like Potomac, Harrisburg, Syracuse, and Washington DC (to name a few). He mentioned that initially he also had responsibility for Hagerstown but was pulled from that role as the Indians utilized him to scout players for the Indians deals of Cliff Lee (to Philadelphia) and Victor Martinez (to Boston) during the season.

While working as a scout, Harris had some limited exposure to the oversight of a minor league system/player development and in spring training of 2009 his eyes were opened to a future in the player development side of baseball operations.

When I asked him about his philosophy of player development, specifically player promotions, Harris commented that he didn’t have one set philosophy, believing having one mindset puts you into a box, not allowing the ability to be creative as the situation may dictate. He did confirm that he believed players should earn their promotion to the next level and not simply be graduated up the chain, adding that things in player development is not necessarily black and white and that different situations may call for different decisions.

Harris comes down firmly on the fence when it comes to traditional scouting versus sabermetrics. He mentioned that the idea of looking at the numbers is not something new to him. When he pitched in the minor leagues, his teams did not have an advance scout so he would pick up the stat sheet on an upcoming opponent to see who struck out alot or who walked the most or who had the most power in order to prepare himself for an upcoming series. But at the same time, he knows the value in actually seeing a player perform in person. His feeling is that he should not close his eyes to any information, that it is all important in evaluating players.

He has made a trip to the AFL and is impressed with what he has seen from the Nationals out there. He believes that the time in the AFL has helped all of the Nationals prospects out there, from Stephen Strasburg “cutting his teeth” as a professional to the others getting some exposure to a higher level of competition. I asked him specifically about Josh Wilkie and he commented the cutter Wilkie was working  should help complement the change up he has, and that he continues to impress.

I concluded the conversation asking him about the status of the management among the affiliates. He was not able to comment on the reports about Trent Jewett heading to Syracuse or Randy Knorr headed to Harrisburg, but “it shouldn’t be long” until the official word is released.