FanPost

Interview with Deric Ladnier, Royals Scouting Director at Baseball Prospectus

I won't cut-and-paste the entire article for copyright reasons, but I'll provide some highlights.  It wasn't as interesting as I wanted it to be, but it had some interest.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=6048 (for BP subscribers)

  • Royals draft philosophy is take the best player available, regardless of organizational need.  But, you can address need to some degree in later rounds.
  • Ladnier consults with Dayton Moore on the draft, but "ultimately I run the draft process."  He makes the actual draft choices.
  • Since Dayton Moore, came, much more money has been invested into the scouting department.
  • He thinks offense must be balanced with defense for position players but in the early rounds of the draft, he values offense over defense.
  • Billy Butler was the only guy he ever drafted where every one of his scouts agreed that he was the right selection.  When they drafted Gordon, some scouts preferred Justin Upton, Ryan Zimmerman, Jeff Clement, Ryan Braun or Troy Tulowitzki.
  • He chose Jason Taylor in the second round last year because he thought that was the best player available (even though he was projected to be drafted in the 5th round).  "We think he's another guy who's going to hit, and hit big."
  • One the upcoming draft's #2 overall selection: "We're looking at about 10 guys right now, and we'll narrow that down to five and go from there. The speculation of who the most talented players are is usually pretty accurate, so it's fair to say that we'll be looking at many of the same guys that everyone else is. But you really don't know until draft day. Depending on what you hear, there are about 150 guys who think they might be first-round picks, but only 30 of them will be. When we pick near the top, the list is even shorter. My job is to try to make sure we get the best player available."
  • This FanPost was written by a member of the Royals Review community. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the editors and writers of this site.