Isn’t Selena Roberts’ next book going to be about Dreifort?  Anonymous sources tell me that the only reason he got that five-year, $55 million contract is because he had compromising photos of Tommy Lasorda, several co-eds, and a bathtub full of pasta.

This is hearsay, since I believe Dreifort was drafted while I was still in college, but by all accounts Dreifort was pretty freaking awesome as college arms go. He didn’t have the cleanest delivery you’ll ever see, and Wichita State had a rep at the time for working pitchers hard, but the stuff was apparently very, very good.

It is sort of instructive, though, if you think about the Harper vs. Strasburg debate; your single example would indicate Harper is the better bet.

I’ve always operated under the idea that if any draft pick turns into a productive, regular major leaguer, then the scouts did their job.  I’ve never considered the baseball draft to be like the NBA where virtually all of the top picks will become good or even great. 

So, since Dreifort was a productive player apart from his injuries (which nobody could realistically forecast), I’d say that the scout was actually pretty darn prescient in citing two quality major leaguers in his report.

Having said that, a better example of inept scouting would be the documents that were revealed of scouts critiquing Randy Johnson in high school.  The scouts were almost entirely negative and/or skeptical.  One of them wrote that his fastball was nothing special.  (When showed the scout’s notes, the Unit remarked that his fastball was the only good attribute that he possessed in high school!)

“Anonymous sources tell me that the only reason he got that five-year, $55 million contract is because he had compromising photos of Tommy Lasorda, several co-eds, and a bathtub full of pasta.”

Years later, she will insist that the real motivation behind the book was to expose the Dodger organization as a culture of hedonistic starch abuse.

Jongewaard also owns a pretty dynamite corner diner a few blocks from my house, so I give him a complete pass. The burgers are good but the pie is better!