I recently got done reading Scout's Honor by Bill Shanks. It is far from the most interesting book on baseball ever written, but does give some nice background on scouting and the Braves (seemed like half the players mentioned in the book has played for the Royals).
Though most of the book contains stories of players making it to the majors, will focus on some organizational quotes from people in the Royal's front office. No commentary today as I will let you digest on your own.
Mike Arbuckle:
"They [the Phillies] had been drafting polished college players; not very athletic, banking on the bat, a lot of them kinda thick-bodied kids with no projection physically. Any projection was going to be out, not up."
"I still to this day prefer getting the kid at eighteen if all things are equal because you get him three years sooner away from the aluminum bat and it doesn't matter if he's a pitcher or a hitter, the pitcher is probably pitching backwards with the aluminum bats and living with the breaking pitch instead of the challenging with a fastball."
Dayton Moore:
"I knew from the time I got into the game of baseball, just as a little kid, that I wanted to make a career out of it, my life out [of] it. It was my passion"
"Many players don't make it to the major leagues because of who they associate with or what they do off the field, or the way they respond to negative things that happen to them on the field. Let's face it, most of us perceive ourselves based on the success we have in the things that we love the most. You've got to be able to apply moral principles in your life to be successful, and you've to to be able to have that balance on and off the field. The same character traits that make a schoolteacher or a President of a company successful. It's the same story."
"Statistics have always been apart of the game and they always will be. It's a tool. They tell you something about what a player has done or hasn't done. So it's a tool that you need to use, but you've got to use it correctly. Statistics don't tell the whole story. You can manipulate statistics in any number of ways. But you evaluate tools and makeup. It's about tools, bodies, and makeup. You stay with tools and be patient. If a guy has ability, you stay with it. Hopefully, at some point in time, the performance will equal the ability."
"You have to have people that understand what the processes are that you go through to scout, sign, and develop players. They have to respect the process. It's no different than what we expect from the players. We expect the players to trust in the process, trust in the information they are given, and to go out and apply it. Well, the scouting and the player development people have to trust the process as well"
"If a player doesn't think they can be a major league player and help the Atlanta Braves win championships, they shouldn't sign. I tell players all the time that if they're 99.9% sure you want to sign with the Atlanta Braves, they don't sign with us. You've got to be 100% committed to sign with this organization. The minor leagues are not an easy environment, but it's a great environment. If you want to a baseball player, this is the environment to be in. We help guys reach their ceilings, and if they want to be a baseball player and grow as a person, this is an environment I would put my name on."