The guy is a great talent evaluator, and if he’s able to work with a “stat guy” then we’ll be in business.

that blunders of the Adam Jones/Silva nature will not soon be repeated.

There’s little doubt that Zduriencik cleans out the scouting department and possibly the player development, too. The PD needs it badly and that could mean adios to the many that have been in Seattle for years.

All good things.

I think the key for Jack to be successful here is his cabinet. who does he surround himself with? Who is his No. 2? Who are his special assistants? How do he and Bob handle the draft, presuming Fontaine stays?

Jack is not of the new-age statistical analysis ilk, he’s an old-school scouting and player development type guy.

But that doesn’t mean he can’t do well here. My concerns are who his lieutenants will be and will Zduriencik learn to trust others as he’s been trusted in the past? He can’t do it all himself.

My guess is that the scouting and player development department’s get a 50% turnover in year one.

Again, I am not sure if you can directly equate a scouting directors tendencies on the tendencies of the club he works for. However, operating on the shaky assumption that Zduriencik will run the M’s pretty similar to how the Brewers have operated, defense is not likely to be a huge concern for the team going forward.

The Brewers have a pretty consistent track record for putting up with crappy D in exchange for offense. They have played Richie Weeks and Ryan Braun at infield positions and dealt with serious struggles. They drafted Matt LaPorta (a big, slow first baseman) and promptly converted him to LF, where his best case scenario is below average defense. They also haven’t moved Matt Gamel off 3B despite being absolutely brutal there. The Brewers definitely have been willing to trade defense for offense.

If Zduriencik continues this tendency, expect to see some bad defense. On the flipside, Zduriencik has been incredibly good at drafting and developing impact bats. In the short term, that is what the M’s need most.

One other thing I have noted about Zduriencik’s drafts in the past is his tendency for secrecy and controversial picks.

I really like to read scouting reports and information about the draft. One really good website for draft info is brewerfan.net. It is run by a guy who writes for Perfect Game, and, although it is focused on the Brewers, it has a ton of good generalized info on the draft.

In checking that site out a lot in the past few years, one thing thing I noticed repeatedly is how secretive the Brewers have been in their picks. They almost never release any information about what they are going to do. Then, on draft day, they often go against the consensus and make very controversial picks. Their selections of Ryan Braun, Mark Rogers, Prince Fielder, and Matt LaPorta all were pretty surprising (particularly the latter). Interestingly, all but Rogers have turned out really well.

The guys at brewerfan are really knowledgable. The main blogger there, Patrick Ebert, is a scout himself. Everyone at brewerfan speaks glowingly about Zduriencik. And their opinion on the matter is far more important than a typical fan blogger.

So, assuming that Zduriencik has a huge impact on the M’s draft philosophy (which is not at all a given), we should expect the unexpected in the next draft. Hopefully, Fontaine and Engle will stick around and they can combine the best of the new and the old guards. The club is great on the international market, and hopefully that won’t change. The M’s are also pretty good at developing athletic players and using late round picks to develop cheap, effective relievers. Hopefully that won’t change either. The Brewers, on the other hand, are excellent at developing impact power hitters, like Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, Matt LaPorta, and Matt Gamel. That is something the M’s haven’t been very successful at. Hopefully that changes.

so i’m cautiously optimistic. Yeah, it was true that there was no floor, but now things should start to change. It would be nice to see some HRs.