Source: http://tinyurl.com/zljs92c Nick Piecoro, azcentral sports
Zack Greinke hasn’t thrown a pitch for the Diamondbacks yet, but he’s
already lending his expertise to the club in a unique way – scouting amateur
players.
“We’ve seen a couple of games this year already,” Diamondbacks scouting
director Deric Ladnier said.
“We were down in south Florida; he and his father came out. We were watching
two pitchers. We sat there the whole game, talked about them. Talked about
this guy and this guy and release points and, ‘This guy is tipping his
pitches.’ Those type of things.”
Ladnier said Greinke’s high baseball IQ is worth tapping into, even if the
Diamondbacks’ $206.5 million pitcher won’t be rearranging the club’s draft
board in advance of this June’s draft.
“I’m not saying he’s going to help us make decisions because he’s not,
but I do like listening to him because he brings a different perspective,”
Ladnier said. “Shame on me if I don’t.”
Greinke’s fascination with the amateur draft is nothing new. He has sat in
on organizations’ draft meetings dating back to his early days with the
Kansas City Royals.
In fact, it was Ladnier who not only drafted Greinke as the Royals’ scouting
director in 2002 but also later welcomed Greinke into the Royals’ draft
room. Greinke also sat in on scouting meetings when he was with the Milwaukee
Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers.
“He was intrigued with the process,” Ladnier said. “He’d sit in the back
and watch the process. He follows it diligently. It’s something he loves to
do. I have no problem with him coming in and peeking his head in.”