Blue Jays fire scouting director Parker, crosschecker Davis

[Angrioter]

SHI DAVIDI AUGUST 17, 2016, 9:42 PM

TORONTO – The latest changes to the Toronto Blue Jays front office struck the scouting department Wednesday night, as amateur scouting director Brian Parker, who’d been with the organization seven years, and national crosschecker Blake Davis were both fired.

 

Their dismissals, announced by the team in a one sentence note after Baseball America first reported the firings, come roughly two months after a draft new general manager Ross Atkins had praised. With the minor-league season nearing its end, changes on the player-development side are possible, as well.

 

No replacements were announced, but one name circulating among industry sources is Michael Holmes, the assistant scouting director for the Oakland Athletics who was Atkins’ college teammate at Wake Forest.

 

Parker joined the Blue Jays in 2009 from the Washington Nationals, where he had served as director of baseball operations after starting out in minor-league operations with the Montreal Expos. It was there he met Alex Anthopoulos, whom eventually brought him over to Toronto.

 

In July 2012, Parker took over as amateur scouting director after Andrew Tinnish was promoted to assistant general manager.

 

Over the course of four drafts, his selections included most of the club’s current top prospects, highlighted by Conner Greene, Rowdy Tellez, Max Pentecost, Sean Reid-Foley, Jon Harris and Justin Maese. Draft picks made under his watch and included in trades to augment the big-league club were: Jeff Hoffman (Troy Tulowitzki), Kendall Graveman (Josh Donaldson), Matt Boyd (David Price), Nick Wells and Jake Brentz (both for Mark Lowe), and Sean Ratcliffe (Jason Grilli).

 

Chad Girodo, who pitched in 14 games for the Blue Jays this season, was a ninth-rounder in 2013.

 

Swings and misses included not signing 2013 first-rounder Phil Bickford, and 2015 second-rounder Brady Singer, although the Blue Jays received compensatory picks in both cases.

 

Right-hander T.J. Zeuch was the club’s first-round pick this year in the first draft under Atkins and president and CEO Mark Shapiro. In a May interview with Sportsnet, Atkins praised Parker, saying: “Brian is really diligent, he is a great teammate and is passionate about players, he’s passionate about his scouts and he’s very open-minded.”

 

In an interview with Sportsnet on June 12, Atkins said the draft “went about as smooth as we could have expected. A lot of that has to do with Brian Parker and Joe Sheehan, those guys worked exceptionally well together. Mark and I were really the new pieces to the puzzle, Mike Murov was a great addition, Gil Kim was a great addition, but it was more about us combining the collective experiences of different organizations, different philosophies and deciding together what we felt would be best to give us the best process and we’ll see about the results. At first glance, we feel really good about it.”

 

Davis joined the Blue Jays after scouting for Oakland and Kansas City.

 

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/blue-jays-fire-scouting-director-parker-crosschecker-david/

[FrozenRopes]

Nice shake up. I guess.

[flafson]

What the hell does a "crosschecker" do?

[metafour]

What the hell does a "crosschecker" do?

 

Crosscheckers are high level scouts who are sent out to evaluate prospects that are recommended by area scouts. They see prospects all over the country and are tasked with comparing the prospects from the different regions that they evaluate. The national crosschecker is the one who will ultimately recommend high round caliber prospects to the Scouting Director, who will then go and evaluate those prospects in person.

[metafour]

Michael Holmes was ranked 6th by BA in a "Top 10 Future Scouting Directors" list in 2012.

[Brownie19]

I'm not sure it's good when guys like Justin Maese and Pentecost are listed under your drafting "highlights" - nor is drafting Sean Ratcliffe who now pitches in a beer league.

[Angrioter]

Crosscheckers are high level scouts who are sent out to evaluate prospects that are recommended by area scouts. They see prospects all over the country and are tasked with comparing the prospects from the different regions that they evaluate. The national crosschecker is the one who will ultimately recommend high round caliber prospects to the Scouting Director, who will then go and evaluate those prospects in person.

 

http://66.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ma9uk5lRLE1r0ufaco1_400.gif

[flafson]

I find it interesting that just recently Parker was praised about a job well done and now he's the villain of the organization.

[glory]

Ratcliffe being turned into Grilli is a positive for Parker? That's a reach, Davidi, if not completely delusional.

 

The Jays drafting was solid with Parker but not as good as it was when AA was raping the system and hoarding picks prior to that.

[Krylian]

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/blue-jays-fire-scouting-director-parker-crosschecker-david/

 

"At first glance, we feel really good about it.”

 

I guess Shatkins took a second glance and didn't like what they saw.

[Frenchsoup]

I don't like this regime at all.

[Jonn]

He gave Parker another draft. Maybe Shapiro didn't like the result or working relationship. Its his organization he can do what he wants to.

[Dick_Pole]

Interesting timing. Can we infer from this that internally the team is not all that happy with how this year's draft went?

[GreekFatAss]

Or to be devils advocate here. Maybe he sees a chance to upgrade.

 

If you already have Lawrie and you can get Donaldson, it doesn't mean you hate Lawrie.

[flafson]

They probably didn't want to interfere with a mature process that was in place, especially just before the draft. Draft is over so now is the right time to start from scratch.

[baseballsss]

They probably didn't want to interfere with a mature process that was in place, especially just before the draft. Draft is over so now is the right time to start from scratch.

 

Basically. Once the season is done you can almost gurantee Gibbons is gone. I can only assume if they win it all they will ask gibbons to leave on his own.

[Angrioter]

Basically. Once the season is done you can almost gurantee Gibbons is gone. I can only assume if they win it all they will ask gibbons to leave on his own.

 

Hello Eric Wedge

[Grant77]

Interesting timing. Can we infer from this that internally the team is not all that happy with how this year's draft went?

 

I don't know how they could make that conclusion already. Some of the picks like Bichette and Palacios already look like nice gets.

[Brownie19]

I don't like this regime at all.

 

Why's that?

[Brownie19]

Move Tinnish back into that role? What's he doing these days besides balding?

[Angrioter]

I don't know how they could make that conclusion already. Some of the picks like Bichette and Palacios already look like nice gets.

 

Are you sure that was the Parker's work?

[Grant77]

Are you sure that was the Parker's work?

 

I'm pretty sure, unless we find evidence that Shapiro interfered.

[WONDERBAT]

As long as the guys who scouted Syndergaard, Sanchez and Musgrove are still here I'm not too fussed about this.

[Grant77]

As long as the guys who scouted Syndergaard, Sanchez and Musgrove are still here I'm not too fussed about this.

 

Their opinion isn't worth anything unless the scouting director listens to them. That was Andrew Tinnish for those guys, he's now the assistant GM.

[Jonn]

Hello Eric Wedge

 

Dave Martinez and Sandy Alomar.

[glory]

As long as the guys who scouted Syndergaard, Sanchez and Musgrove are still here I'm not too fussed about this.

 

That's Tinnish, I think. Parker's drafts appear to be from 2013 onwards.

 

Syndergaard, Sanchez, Stroman, Musgrove, DeSclafani, Dyson, Pillar, etc, is from the Tinnish days. Hmmm, maybe that dude is ok with a demotion....put him back there.

[Atothe]

Shatkins folded under the pressure of keeping Sanchez in the starting rotation but will fire gibbons? lmaoooo

[GD]

This is gonna get blown up to idiotic proportions lol

 

Parker had already done a ton of work on the draft, so Shapiro let him carry it out and is now bringing in his own guys. Not that hard.

[Laika]

Interesting timing. Can we infer from this that internally the team is not all that happy with how this year's draft went?

 

No, this just tends to be the time of year that these changes happen for whatever reason.

 

Teams wait until after the draft to make big shakeups for obvious reasons, and then they like to be considerate and give the employees plenty of time to find new gigs.

[BlueRocky]

they won't do this unless they have a better person in mind for the job. It does seem curious they would give praises then fire him soon after.

 

Shapiro does seem like the type to install his own people when given the opportunity