With Early Success, Tartans' Scouts Provide Insight

With surprising success at the big league level and the minors churning as expected the Atlanta Tartans scouting department deserves much of the credit. Earlier this week the Tartans Insider had the pleasure of catching up with several of the Tartans' scouts and this is what we found out.

Randy Benoit (Owner)
- We went into this season with several objectives. First, we knew we needed to win atleast 64 games to stay with league rules, as we only won 61 last season. Second, we wanted to continue add young talent in the form of prospects we can develop. Third, we wanted to continue to trim our major league payroll as we felt that several players on the squad at the end of last season were dead weight. Forth, we wanted to round out or prospect depth through the drafts, international scouting, and trades.

Trace Nichols (Bench Coach)
- When Randy interviewed me during the offseason they were very upfront about their goals and objectives for this season and beyond. They asked me be for I signed did I think I could win 65-75 games with this squad. I felt very strongly that I could. Then they asked did I think could do that even if they reorganized things a bit, as in traded a few veterans. I felt that while it would make it more of a challenge, if they would make their subtractions with creative additions then I was sure I could still win.

Geraldo Izturis (International Scout)
- After the club traded veteran CF Charles Eckenstahler and was advertising SS Ernie Waltman and CL Armando Gonzalez we knew that Mr. Benoit would approach us on our thoughts of making a big promotion of one of our young prospects. While Cyrus Gibson or Max Cabeza could have filled in for either Eck or Waltman, we felt that both would greatly benefit from some time at AAA. That is when we suggested moving Juan Machado. Juan was the MVP in AA last year showing off both his power and batting IQ. We felt that while promoting him still left gaps defensively it would greatly improve our ML lineup and not divert our organization's focus towards being patient with our young hitters.

Virgil Abreu (International Scout)
- After letting Juan Rodriguez walk in the off-season, he eventually retired, we knew we needed to add a well-rounded catcher to the ML club. In addition we really needed a young guy as no one in our organization currently projects to have ML starter potential as a backstop. When preparing for the Rule 5 draft we had identified a couple of guys that we felt could make an impact on our club. In Esteban Macias we saw a mature guy (24 years old) who produced well last season in AAA. He is very sound defensively and has a very solid bat. While his durability was a concern, we knew we could count on him for 120 games or so, and could use one of our backups from last season to fill-in.

Derek Jennings (Minor League Scout)
- Last season we really struggled offensively, and one of the causes for that was our lack of a DH. When minor league DH/C Don Lawrence was on the trade block we were immediately interested. Seattle was concerned over his risk to injury, but for us we felt a move to a full-time DH role would protect his health and make him a valuable asset to our organization. Then when we had the opportunity to claim Kareem Sheldon off waivers this allowed to protect Don assign him to AA and focus on being patient with his development, which has been our strategy from the outset.

The editorial staff at Tartans Insider would also like to thank the following scouts for participation as well Ivan Cervantes, Hector Barrios, Kiki Gomez, Louie Hidalgo, Omar Moraga, and Fernando Delgado.

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Other News and Notes
Big League Club (26-21) tied for 1st
AAA Club (31-16) 1st place
AA Club (36-11) 1st place
Hi A Club (26-21) 1st place
Lo A Club (36-11) 1st place